let's talk about Miyamoto Musashi. Now, Musashi was a samurai, a traveling Ronin of ancient Japan, and he was arguably the best swordsman of all time. I mean, he really was the GOAT. He won 60 to 69 duels to the death in single combat and against multiple opponents at the same time. Musashi walked the way of self-discipline and self-mastery his entire life, and one day, at the end of it, he got tired of kicking so much ass. So he retreated to a cave on the mountain, and on that mountain, he wrote the book of five rings. Today, we're going to investigate some of the most pertinent quotes to the martial arts. He says, The martial way practiced by Warriors is based on excelling others in anything and everything. This is a very interesting quote because it echoes of warrior Traditions across the globe, and one of the chief concerns, one of the chief Virtues Of The Warrior, is excellence, impeccability, and how you are and how you act. You see, to the Warrior, one

Moment of sloppiness or lack of focus leads to death. One moment you know, like if you're practicing out of integrity, out of perfection, you're gonna perform out of excellence. So, excellence, this idea of excellence is so ingrained into the martial arts and the Warrior's Way, and you see it excellence in how you breathe and how you place your feet, in how you move, in your awareness and your attention of all things. It is a key component. And he says, excelling others in anything and everything. To Musashi, martial arts was not confined to swordplay or moving the body. Martial arts was a way. And many times throughout this book, the Book of Five Rings, he says, once you can see the way deeply in martial arts, you can see the way in all things. He encourages us to learn arts, to learn the crafts, to, you know, learn how to paint, to do these things, because he sees the way imbued in all things. And this is actually kind of, you know, related to the greater Japanese and

Samurai culture, as a whole, the way they serve tea, the way they fight and train, the way they, you know, harvest the wheat, whatever it is, there's a way, there's a level of perfection and dedication to duty, to a dedication to discipline and perfection in the craft that extends to all things. From the moment they wake, they devote themselves to the perfection of whatever they pursue. [Music] I have never seen such discipline, and when he says excelling others, I really think, you know, this is in the 1600s, it's also relevant to excelling yourself. It's like, are you doing your best, you know, in martial arts class, my teachers always come around and act and asking us, are you practicing in excellence, are you doing the best you can do, and what is your best even look like, you know, it maybe it starts at your attitude, maybe it starts at relaxing your body and mind a little bit more and finding a bit more flow, maybe it starts with, you know, focusing your attention and letting it burn in the present.

moment like bringing all the full force of your being to bear on the task before you excelling yourself requires a level of self-overcoming and this kind of goes into the second quote here. Is the true science of martial arts means practicing them in such a way that they will be useful at any time and to teach them in such a way that they will be useful in all things. Again, the way is not just confined to swinging a sword. The way in which that sword becomes an extension of you is the way the world and your actions and your movement in it should be an extension of your soul. You know, it's like the teach them in such a way that they will be useful in all things to me martial arts in the Warrior's Way is the science of how you are, how you are in this moment, your attitude, your attention, your breath, your your PO, your posture, your composure, your effort, right. The third main takeaway that I got from this book is he speaks of training and refining day and night repeatedly over and over it's

honestly, the main takeaway, the main thing you see, is like train, refine, constant, like practice constantly, and it's interesting. You have to think of the mindset of a warrior in ancient Japan where literally to error, to not be impeccable, is to die immediately. Death was seriously honored in ancient Japan. It didn't just, you know, wasn't confined to the swordplay in duels and martial arts, and the warrior death was a universal symbol. Like think of the cherry blossom, one of the most famous Japanese symbols. We see it in their poems, their literature, their movies, all of it. The cherry blossom is Ultimate Beauty, but also it only lasts for a week. This idea of death was honored in ancient Japan almost as much as we honored the idea of love and life and freedom, because death is what made life beautiful and worth living to them, and worth living fully invested in this moment, because you could die in the next day, the next breath, you know, the next month, you could die at any moment. Suicide and like, you know, uh, was really

prevalent especially among Warriors who failed there was great tsunamis there is great earthquakes entire Villages could just be erased and because of this because of this honoring of death there was this this deep love for life and wanting to perfect and and excel in life. I come to this place so my ancestors and I remember like these brothers we are dying to know life in every breath every cup of tea every life we take the way of the warrior life. So I'm getting off on a side note here but the idea that to err is to die puts you in a certain mindset where you have to like train until you can't get it wrong. Here's the thing is like most train until they get it right but a true warrior trains until you can't get it wrong until impeccability and strength of character and you know the martial way is imbued into every breath of his life that's the level of Excellence these old Warriors shot for and it's a level it's hard to attain today because we don't

have the dire consequences of upright like we can mess up all the time, and it's fine, you know, we don't have the pressure, the sense of urgency of an impending duel to the death, you know, really think about how much of a fire that would light under your ass, um, so most practice until they get it right. The Marshall way is truly mastered into when you practice until you can't get it wrong. The quote is, a thousand days of practice for training and ten thousand days of practice for refinement. Wow, 10,000 days of practice for refinement, says Musashi, and the Thousand Days of practice for training to get the technique, to get the strategy, that's three or four years just to get the basics, and then you have to refine the basics over ten thousand days, wow. Another quote that speaks to training is, he says, training and refining day and night with the determination to eventually consummate it or consummate his knowledge, the martial way after having perfected it, one gains a unique freedom, he spontaneously attains wonders and is.

endowed with the inconceivable powers of penetration. The inconceivable powers of penetration, to me, that means like once you fully feel and grasp and master the way. Let's say in Swinging The Sword, it gives you this inconceivable power of penetration to see and embody the way. In other things, it's like for instance gaining Mastery in a martial art translates to every other form of movement, right? Gaining Mastery like if you become a serious master of business or of writing or of martial arts or if anything your craft. If you really bring it to the point of training and refining day and night ten thousand hours, you're gonna see how the way, the laws of life and success and the universe are imbued into that craft and also are imbued into every other part of life, my friends. Everything is a reflection, right, especially once you go deep enough. And that's what he's saying is like the person who trains day and night and consummates and perfects the knowledge, he spontaneously attains wonders, right? And he's endowed with the inconceivable.

power of penetration beautiful quotes by Musashi. This may be the first video. If you enjoyed this, definitely let me know. Hit that subscribe button, hit that like. Let me know your thoughts on Miyamoto Musashi. And if you want to see more videos like this, thanks for being here. I'll see you at the next video on Wisdom Warriors. Peace.

Why excellence is the primary virtue - Miyamoto Musashi

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