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The Book of Five Rings


ShotokanKid

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Who has read this book? I'm just curious to know what you learned from it. I got that book and Karate-Do My Way of Life by Gichin Funakoshi today.

What would you rate either (or both) of these books?

"What we do in life, echoes in eternity."


"We must all fear evil men. But there is another kind of evil which we must fear most, and that is the indifference of good men."

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A Book of Five Rings is great by itself even better if read in conjunction with The Unfettered Mind and The Life-Giving Sword.

Miyomoto Musashi, Takuan Soho and Yagyu Munenori were all alive at the same time and knew each other personally or by reputation. Five Rings by Musashi focuses mostly on sword technique with little focus on philosophy; "The Book of the Void" is only a page long. The Life-Giving Sword is actually a document given to graduates of Munenori's school and has a balance of technique and philosophy. The Unfettered Mind is a letter from Takuan to Munenori that uses swordplay as a model for explaining Zen.

The biggest concept I pulled from Five Rings was the Void and its descrition of the training process.

"The point of training is to forget your training." I can't remember where I read that but it sums it up very nicely.

O Sensei said that everyone has a defined sphere of strength and if you can get them outside that sphere then their strength will disappear. I say, EXPAND YOUR SPHERE!

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