Writer’s Bushido, Day 4
“The Body and the Spirit of Stone” from Miyamoto Musashi
“When you truly understand the Way, you can take any form that you want to. It is almost as if you had developed miraculous powers. You can become as light as a feather, as fluid as water, or as stiff as a board. Regardless of the form you take, once you have understood my strategy you can not be beaten by one man or ten thousand. Your ‘attitude/no-attitude’ cannot be stirred except from within. Once you have understood my strategy you will be a warrior to be reckoned with.” — Miyamoto Musashi, Book of Five Rings: The Book of Fire
An advantage of the writings of a teacher like Musashi is he is a goal-oriented thinker. He had to be. He couldn’t afford to just be a philosopher, because for better or worse he lived “by the sword”. He was an active samurai, constantly being sought out by other samurai who wanted to prove themselves against him. And he won for most of his life, and lived into his sixties, so he knew how to do his job.
