Another wonderful excerpt from Dilip Mukerjea's new book, Unbeatable Minds, Invincible Spirits: Profiles of Soul-Smart Leadership:

MIYAMOTO MUSASHI also known as Shinmen Takezō, Miyamoto Bennosuke or, by his Buddhist name, Niten Dōraku, was a Japanese swordsman, philosopher, writer and rōnin. 1584-1645

“Truth is not what you want it to be: it is what it is, and you must bend to its power or live a lie.”

“You must understand that there is more than one path to the top of the mountain.”

“There is nothing outside of yourself that can enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter. Everything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of yourself.”

He is attributed as being one of the first to use psychological combat against his opponents as a deliberate attack, using individual personality traits of his opponents against them. One story has it that he was late to a duel, knowing full well that his opponent was a stickler for propriety. He won, and most likely because his opponent was stymied. 

The follow-on challenge came from the loser’s brother, and he was also a stickler… so Musashi was once again late. He, again, prevailed. The third challenge came from another member of that family, and Musashi responded. The family planned an ambush to take Musashi down; believing that he would once again be late to the match, the ambushers were caught by surprise when Musashi arrived early and routed them all…

HIS SOLITARY DEFEAT: The jo (Japanese short staff) has been recognised as the ultimate fighting weapon in martial arts. It was invented and used by Muso Gonnosuke, the only man to defeat Musashi Miyamoto, Japan’s greatest swordsman, in combat. In the first duel between these two antagonists, Muso fought with a rokushaku bo (Japanese long staff, literally a ‘six foot stick’). The battle that took place resulted in his first and only defeat, at the hands of Musashi, the master swords-man in the early 1600s.

Retreating to the mountains to meditate upon his defeat, Muso considered how Musashi had successfully fought him with a long and a short sword. These weapons had blocked Muso’s bo in such a way that he was unable to withdraw his weapon safely.

Muso scrutinised his bo and observed that it was most prominently scored at the two ends by Musashi’s sword cuts. These marks were roughly in the last one foot at each end of the bo. In other words, the central four feet of this six foot weapon remained largely unmarked.

HIS SOLITARY DEFEAT: The jo (Japanese short staff) has been recognised as the ultimate fighting weapon in martial arts. It was invented and used by Muso Gonnosuke, the only man to defeat Musashi Miyamoto, Japan’s greatest swordsman, in combat. In the first duel between these two antagonists, Muso fought with a rokushaku bo (Japanese long staff, literally a ‘six foot stick’). The battle that took place resulted in his first and only defeat, at the hands of Musashi, the master swords-man in the early 1600s.

Retreating to the mountains to meditate upon his defeat, Muso considered how Musashi had successfully fought him with a long and a short sword. These weapons had blocked Muso’s bo in such a way that he was unable to withdraw his weapon safely.

Muso scrutinised his bo and observed that it was most prominently scored at the two ends by Musashi’s sword cuts. These marks were roughly in the last one foot at each end of the bo. In other words, the central four feet of this six foot weapon remained largely unmarked.

Enlightened by a ‘divine insight’ Muso decided to chop off the two marked ends and thus created the jo ~ a four-foot staff. His logic was that if he could learn to fight with the shorter weapon, Musashi’s sword strokes, assuming they followed the previous pattern, would predominantly miss the jo. This would enable Muso to enter and attack Musashi with greater success.

Muso developed a new style of fighting, calling it shindo muso ryu jojutsu. In a second duel between these two combatants, Muso inflicted Musashi’s only defeat.

He too spared his opponent’s life, and entered the history books by becoming the only man to ever defeat the master swordsman. ~ I am indebted to Sensei Julio Toribio for this slice of history.

Musashi spent many years studying Buddhism and swordsmanship. He was an accomplished artist, sculptor, and calligrapher. Records show that he had architectural skills. He seems to have had a rather straightforward approach to combat, with no additional frills or aesthetic considerations. This was probably due to his real-life combat experience; although in his later life, Musashi followed the more artistic. 

He made various Zen brush paintings, calligraphy, and sculpted wood and metal. Even in The Book of Five Rings he emphasises that samurai should understand other professions as well. It should be understood that Musashi’s writings were somewhat ambiguous, and translating them into English makes them even more so; that is why so many different translations of The Book of Five Rings can be found. To gain further insight into Musashi’s principles and personality, one could read his other works, such as Dokkōdō and Hyoho Shiji ni Kajo.

Musashi died in Reigandō cave around June 13, 1645 (Shōhō 3, 30th day of the 4th month). The Hyoho Senshi Denki described his passing:

At the moment of his death, he had himself raised up. He had his belt tightened and his wakizashi put in it. He seated himself with one knee vertically raised, holding the sword with his left hand and a cane in his right hand. He died in this posture, at the age of sixty-two. The principal vassals of Lord Hosokawa and the other officers gathered, and they painstakingly carried out the ceremony. Then they set up a tomb on Mount Iwato on the order of the lord.

Miyamoto Musashi was not killed in combat, he died of what is believed to be thoracic cancer. He died peacefully after finishing the text Dokkōdō (“The Way of Walking Alone”, or “The Way of Self-Reliance”), 21 precepts on self-discipline to guide future generations. 

NOTE: 

“Today’s business people will find Thomas Cleary’s new translation of The Book of Five Rings—Miyamoto Musashi’s 350-year-old martial arts classic—compelling and tantalisingly relevant. Perseverance, insight, self-understanding, inward calm even in the midst of chaos, the importance of swift but unhurried action: Musashi’s teachings read like lessons from the latest business management gurus. Who couldn’t succeed in business by applying Musashi’s insights on conflict and strategy!”

—Jeffrey Seglin, Editor, Inc. magazine

A key principle of strategy: know the terrain you’ll be doing battle upon. 

No swordsman in Japanese history is so revered and celebrated as Miyamoto Musashi.

SOURCES: 

The Book of Five Rings: A Classic Text on the Japanese Way of the Sword © 2005 by Miyamoto Musashi and Thomas Cleary

The Book of Five Rings © 2012 by Miyamoto Musashi Go Rin No Sho: The Book of Five Rings © 2015 by Miyamoto Musashi

The Book of Five Rings by Musashi Miyamoto Unabridged 1644 Original Version Paperback – © 2017

The Samurai Way, Bushido: The Soul of Japan and the Book of Five Rings © 2008 by Inazo Nitob and Musashi Miyamoto

An Essay on a Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi © 2015 by John Robert Mortimer

Musashi: An Epic Novel of the Samurai Era © 2012 by Eiji Yoshikawa and Charles Terry

Homage for Miyamoto Musashi: One Hundred Twenty-Two Haiku © 2014 by Stephen F. Kaufman

These are interesting excerpts from the new Megha-Lions book, dedicated to Politics and Statesmanship in the Indian state of Meghalaya, by Dilip Mukerjea:

WARRIORSHIP: CREATING AN UNBEATABLE MIND!

Perceive that which cannot be seen with the eye. 

Do nothing which is of no use. 

Study strategy over the years and achieve the spirit of the warrior. 

Today is victory over yourself of yesterday; tomorrow is your victory over lesser men. 

~ Miyamoto Musashi (1584-1645) Japanese swordsman, philosopher, strategist, writer and rōnin

Fortifying 5 Key Attributes of Your Character to Develop Uncommon Resolve

1. DESIRE: 

It relates to ‘passion’ , where you must desire the winning outcome as if your hair were on fire! 

2. BELIEF: 

Starting with belief in yourself, you must extend it to having belief in your Vision, Mission, and Purpose in Life. 

3. ATTITUDE: 

You must possess and exhibit a positive “can be” and “can do” attitude, and have the skills to inspire and mobilise others with this ‘mindstate’. [NO soul-grinding negativity is permitted!] 

4. DISCIPLINE: 

With relentless dedication, you must be able to sacrifice all distractions and unnecessary attachments and commitments so that you can invest the required daily effort towards your goal. 

5. DETERMINATION: 

You must strive to cultivate an unwavering commitment to never quit: to meet the challenge, to stay the course, and to fnish the job! This is driven by an attitude of “will do” versus “I’ll try”

DISCERNMENT 

This refers to the acuteness of judgement and understanding , and requires you to be conversant with all five modes of thinking (see hereunder). 

In due course, you need to exhibit a sanguine disposition [cheerfully optimistic, hopeful, or confident] when using discernment. 

There’s no such thing as ‘perfect thinking’ and there’s no perfection in ‘mastery’ either. 

To attain a high level of discernment, you must master your ability to recognise things like mind traps, and faulty logic so that you can bypass them and arrive at right thinking. 

This is The Warrior’s Spirit ~ you take nothing for granted , not even your own thoughts and behaviours. 

5 Primary Ways the Mind Thinks

1. DIRECT PERCEPTION:

The induction of schema, data, and information into the mammalian brain and directly perceiving it in a ‘present’-’power of NOW’ mindstate. 

2. ACCESSING MEMORY:

Tapping into the various areas of the brain to retrieve (recall) stored (remembered) information. 

3. ANALYSIS: 

Applying deductive reasoning to arrive at rational conclusions. [Note: Deductive Reasoning is a logical process in which a conclusion is based on the concordance of multiple premises that are generally assumed to be true. Deductive reasoning is sometimes referred to as top-down logic. Its counterpart, Inductive Reasoning, is sometimes referred to as bottom-up logic]. 

4. APPLIED IMAGINATION & CREATING: 

Deliberately activating the imagination for new idea generation, using visual thinking, to create new designs in thought and imagery, formerly not a part of your mental repertoire. Creative Imagining comes alive when you access stored memory and its equations with possible external sources of previously unknown (or unaware) knowledge. This involves a DESIGN MINDSTATE: A design mindstate is not problem-focused, it is solution- focused and action oriented towards creating a preferred future. 

5. DREAMING: 

A series of images, ideas, emotions, sensations, and events occurring involuntarily, often in ‘illogical’ combinations, in the mind during certain stages of sleep.

THE POWER OF SOFT FOCUS

If you have enjoyed watching the legendary Bruce Lee, whose fists shook the world during the 70's, in the movies, you would probably recall one of his last movies, 'Enter the Dragon' - the one just before the 'Game of Death'.

In the opening segment of the movie, Bruce Lee was seen working with a young martial arts student, who just didn't seem to get the essence of a particular move, when asked repeatedly to kick our hero.

Bruce instructed him to do it with "feeling" or rather "emotional content", but the student still had trouble getting beyond the technique to the spirit of the move.

So, Bruce provided him with what I thought was a very beautiful illustration:

"It's like a finger pointing away to the moon", while stretching out his arm & pointing towards the sky."

At the same time, the student began to stare at Bruce's finger, & Bruce gave a quick smack on top of the seemingly bewildered student's head, saying:

"Don't look at the finger, or you'll miss all of that heavenly glory."

[Amusingly, if you had paid attention to the movie: After the lesson, the student bowed, but Bruce smacked him again, & warned him that he should not take his eyes off his opponent, even when bowing.

The student bowed one last time, but this time he kept his eyes on Bruce. Bruce said: "That's better." The student then walked away with a grin.]

What Bruce Lee had demonstrated in the movie was essentially the power of soft focus.

'Soft focus' comes about when we are gazing at what's around us, or what's ahead of us, in the far horizon, rather than staring at what's directly in front of us.

That's to say, one is totally aware of what's happening around oneself, immediate as well as beyond, when in 'soft focus'.

I would even add that, with 'soft focus', one even has this gut-feel/intuitive sense of one's surroundings, immediate as well as beyond.

Especially as a martial artist, 'soft focus' is critical to personal success.

In fact, legendary Japanese combat strategist of the 16th century, Miyamoto Musashi, excelled in it too.

In today's rapidly-changing world at accelerating pace & with increasing complexity, I believe that 'soft focus' is a prerequisite for personal as well as professional success.

It's akin to wide-angle vision, as illustrated beautifully by innovation strategist Wayne Burkan in his now classic book bearing the same name, which I had already reviewed in an earlier post.

He calls it 'splatter vision'.

He explains, from the business world perspective:

"In reality, you are unfocusing your eyes, maximising your peripheral vision, sustaining a soft focus, increasing your view of the landscape with an almost 180 degree-field-of-vision, in order to avoid becoming so focused that you expect your challenge to come from a specific direction!"

I fully agree with Wayne Burkan that 'soft focus' is a useful & powerful anticipation tool, with which you can apply to constantly scan the entire business landscape in sweeping motions in order to avoid missing "unexpected gaps", which could be potential threats &/or hidden opportunities.

THE FLUIDITY OF PERCEPTION: PERSONAL MUSINGS

I am a perpetual student of the working mechanism of our daily thinking processes, irrespective of whether it has to do with critical, creative or strategic thinking as applied to business.

Whenever I come across interesting stuff in my reading that touches on thinking processes, I am always fascinated.

For example, I read this wonderful observation from Japan's legendary combat strategist during the 16th century, Miyamoto Musashi:

". . . In strategy, it is important to see distant things as if they were close, & to take a distanced view of close things."

What does it mean? As far as I understand it, our sensei was essentially pointing out the importance of the fluidity of perception.

Mental flexibility, in a nut shell, at least from the tactical perspective.

I always hold the view that the fluidity of perception or mental flexibility is very important in our personal lives, as well as in the workplace.

In the early years of my exploration into personal mastery & peak performance, one of the most productive learning experiences is the understanding of the basic functions of the human mind.

Despite its intricacies & idiosyncasies, the human mind has five basic functions:

1) Perception;

2) Thought;

3) Emotion;

4) Memory;

5) Communication;

Actually, there is a sixth function: Intuition.

So, as you can see, in order to change your communication, where one's thoughts are eventually put to work, true change can only take place in your perception.

As I recall, Stephen Covey hits the nail with this insight:

"The way you see the problem is the problem."

I reckon creativity guru Edward de bono says it best:

"Creativity starts at the perceptual stage of thinking. This is where our perceptions & concepts are formed, & this is where they have to be changed. Most of the mistakes in thinking are inadequacies of perception rather than mistakes of logic."

In fact, he goes further to say:

"The reasons that many opportunities pass us by is a perceptual one - we do not recognise an opportunity for what it is. An opportunity exists only when we see it."

"Everyone is surrounded by opportunities. But they only exist once they have been seen. And they will only be seen if they are looked for."

If one scans through every success literature in print, one can quickly realise that one of the primary hallmarks of peak performance or success achievement is always the perception habit.

Interestingly, the HeartMath people, well-recognised in their pioneering research work on energy engineering & stress management, has concluded that stress, a phenomenon of our prevailing hard-pressed world, is essentially an issue of:

- problem with perception;

- problem with communication;

I like to elaborate on the first one.

For me, I often like to interpret it as an inability on our part to see the world in "grey areas", that's to say, we are stucked in only "black & white".

As a result, we just can't let go of that overwhelming single perspective, & learn to explore & accept another perspective of the issue.

I also reckon that this issue has also got to do with the fact that we often waste our time thinking about certain stuff that we cannot change, rather than spending our thinking time about some stuff that we can change.

Just think about it, as a good example, we are all born without our permission, explicit or implicit, which is a certainty that we cannot change at all, & yet some of us like to blame our parents &/or the home environment, instead of exploring ways to attain a better life with who we are & what we have at our immediate disposal.

To ride on what Edward de bono has taught me, changing our perception & having multiple perceptions as well as maintaining the fluidity of perception, give us tremendous power to come up with more & better solutions.

Come to think of it, what I am talking about is quite akin to the following observation from novelist & poet F Scott Fitzgerald:

"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function."

I also like to take this opportunity to bring up a great example closer to home.

The way I see it, our beloved Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, often recognised by other world leaders for his strategic geo-political insights as well as foresights, has often personally demonstrated what all the above-mentioned gurus have exhorted.

I reckon one of the most profound demonstrations was his all-encompassing selection criteria - stretching to both cognitive extremes - for ministers to serve in the government, which resulted in what all Singaporeans are very proud to call Our Home today:

- helicoper ability: the ability to rise above the immediate scene & see it from a total & overall perspective;

- analytical ability;

- imagination;

- realism: having one's feet firmly placed on the ground;

A WAY OF STRATEGY (NI TEN ICHI RYU)

1. Do not think dishonestly.

2. The way is in the training.

3. Become acquainted with every art.

4. Know the ways of all professions.

5. Distinguish between gain & loss in worldly matters.

6. Develop intuitive judgement & understanding in everything.

7. Perceive those things which cannot be seen.

8. Pay attention even to trifles.

9. Do nothing which is of no use.

[Source: 'A Book of Five Rings' (Go Rin No Sho), a strategy guide, from the spiritual perspective, by Japan's legendary combat strategist Miyamoto Musashi (1584AD-1645AD).]

THE ULTIMATE FIGHTING WEAPON

The jo (Japanese short staff) has been recognised as the ultimate fighting weapon in martial arts. It was invented and used by Muso Gonnosuke, the only man to defeat Musashi Miyamoto, Japan’s greatest swordsman, in combat.

In the first duel between these two antagonists, Muso fought with a rokushaku bo (Japanese long staff, literally a ‘six foot stick’).

The battle that took place resulted in his first and only defeat at the hands of Musashi, the master swords-man in the early 1600s.

Retreating to the mountains to meditate upon his defeat, Muso considered how Musashi had successfully fought him with a long and a short sword. These weapons had blocked Muso’s bo in such a way that he was unable to withdraw his weapon safely.

Muso scrutinised his bo and observed that it was most prominently scored at the two ends by Musashi’s sword cuts. These marks were roughly in the last one foot at each end of the bo. In other words, the central four feet of this six foot weapon remained largely unmarked.

Enlightened by a ‘divine insight’ Muso decided to chop off the two marked ends and thus created the jo ~ a four-foot staff. His logic was that if he could learn how to fight with the shorter weapon, Musashi’s sword strokes, assuming they followed the previous pattern, would predominantly miss the jo. This would enable Muso to enter and attack Musashi with greater success.

Muso developed a new style of fighting, calling it shindo muso ryu jojutsu. In a second duel between these two combatants, Muso inflicted Musashi’s only defeat. He too spared his opponent’s life, and entered the history books by becoming the only man to ever beat the master swordsman.

Muso applied the ‘Measles Chart’ in his thinking by noticing the sword cuts on his bo, and using his ‘divine insight’ to eliminate these disadvantageous areas.

~ I am indebted to Sensei Julio Toribio for this slice of history.

[Excerpted from the book, 'Surfing the Intellect: Building Intellectual Capital for a Knowledge Economy', by Dilip Mukerjea. All the images in this post are the intellectual property of Dilip Mukerjea.]

Say Keng's personal comments:

Please stay tuned for a forthcoming blog post on the 'Measles Chart' from Dilip Mukerjea's itinerant toolbox.

Miyamoto Musashi is Japan's most revered combat strategist from the 16th century. His work as embodied in the 'Book of Five Rings' is well-read by Japanese businessmen as a strategy guide, just like Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu's 'Art of War' by the world at large.

To me, one of the greatest lessons I have picked up from the sword saint is that you must train daily in the way of strategy: "Practice, Practice, Practice".