Musashi’s Principles for Strategic Living: Personal Training Vancouver

Here is an extension of our Words of the Week from our Dojo for Personal Training Vancouver

Miyamoto Musashi’s Nine Principles for Strategic Living

Miyamoto Musashi: the master swordsman, the incomparable strategist, and the ultimate loner, aronin or masterless samurai, who roamed Japan, spending  many of his years living off the land.

Through rigorous training he made his body as hard as the steel of his blade and his mind as sharp as its edge. Yet, he knew the value of soft words, and as an artist, he could wield a gentle brush.

His Way was Heiho, the Way of Strategy, which he explained in The Book of Five Rings, a book on strategy, tactics, and philosophy still studied today, not only by martial artists, but throughout the business community, as it is considered a classic text on Japanese management.

To Musashi, strategy was the path to awakening. He said, “Having awakened to the the principles of strategy, I apply it to various arts and skills.”

These principles were crafted for warriors. We are all warriors and the battle we are engaged in is the battle to win over ourselves.

1. Do not think dishonestly.

2. The Way is in training.

3. Become acquainted with every art.

4. Know the ways of all professions.

5. Distinguish between gain and loss in worldly matters.

6. Develop the ability to see the truth in all matters.

7. Learn to perceive those things which are not obvious.

8. Pay attention to even small things.

9. Do nothing which is of no use.

Here is a description and instruction on the Way of Strategy:

The Way of Strategy

Like a soldier, the carpenter sharpens his own tools. He carries his equipment in his tool box, and works under the direction of his foreman. He makes columns and girders with an axe, shapes floorboards and shelves with a plane, cuts fine openwork and bas reliefs accurately, giving as excellent a finish as his skill will allow. This is the craft of the carpenters. When the carpenter becomes skilled, he works efficiently and according to correct measures. When he has developed practical knowledge of all the skills of the craft, he can become a master carpenter himself.

The carpenter will make it a habit of maintaining his tools sharp so they will cut well. Using these sharp tools masterfully, he can make miniature shrines, writing shelves, tables, paper lanterns, chopping boards and pot-lids. These are the specialties of the carpenter. Things are similar for the soldier. You ought to think deeply about this.

The attainment of the carpenter is that his work is not warped, that the joints are not misaligned, and that the work is truly planed so that it meets well together and is not merely finished in disjoint sections. This is essential.

If you want to learn this Way, deeply consider all the things written in this book one at a time. You must do sufficient research.

** I hope you find this useful and keep studying, training and progressing. I have enjoyed studying the principles for many years. Feel free to bring up questions, as that would be interesting and provide benefit.

Here is our Personal Training website: www.UltimatePersonalTrainingVancouver.com