Tag: Wisdom

The Book of Five Rings – the Book of the Void

The final book from the Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi may seem like a last page reading with very few paragraphs but it gives deep insight into the knowledge that is yet to be gained by the person and the knowledge which lies beyond the limits of the humanity. The Book of the Void is the most concise treaty on the extent of our knowing, our ignorance and that knowledge which we would never know due to the mortal limitations. Miyamoto Musashi’s idea of the absolute wisdom through the concept Void transcends the boundaries of human life and time.

Miyamoto Musashi’s philosophy for 21st century

After disseminating his lifelong wisdom in a very systematic way through four books named as the Ground Book, the Water Book, the Fire Book, and the Wind Book representing the philosophies to fight the battles, wars and survive through the challenges of the life, Miyamoto Musashi concludes his learnings in last book – the Book of the Void. On the scale of writing, it is not even a book. The readers will feel like they are reading the last page of the book. This shortness of the last book – the book of Void is very intentional by Miyamoto-san. Again, as his suggestions go – one has to really appreciate what he is trying to communicate – the wisdom that which cannot be expressed, conveyed through words.

 The main purpose of the Book of the Void is to make the readers aware of the things and the wisdom that they can never know. There is one danger in this process especially for those who learn only by themselves (-without a real teacher always in front of them) which Miyamoto-san was very well aware of. He tries to complete this cyclical process of gaining wisdom through self-learning in this Book of the Void.

“What is called the spirit of the void is where there is nothing. It is not included in man’s knowledge.”

First, he clarifies what this is all about. Miyamoto-san first brings out the elephant in the room that there will always be something that you could never know.

“By knowing things that exist, you can know that which does not exist. That is the Void.”

The Void thus represents the wisdom that lies beyond all that can be known by every human being. Now there is one catch in this idea. A normal person who has just started his journey on the path of wisdom will not know everything initially. So, whatever he/she does not know right now is new for him/her. Does this new wisdom which that person was unaware, which discovered during the journey represent the Void? The answer is – No. The Void is not the gap between your current understanding, current knowledge, and the knowledge you are yet to gain or understand. The Void is that which can never be known even when ‘everything that is there to know’ is known completely. And that itself is really humbling. It is about the limits of how we learn, understand the world around us. Miyamoto-san as the great teacher makes every reader aware of what the limitations of our understandings are. He wants everyone to understand that even when you know ‘everything that is there to know’, there still will be something left out because of the limitations of the ways we perceive the reality.    

“People in this world look at things mistakenly, and think that what they do not understand must be the void. This is not the true void. It is bewilderment.”

Here, Miyamoto-san very smartly makes the reader aware of what they call the Void may be and mostly will be the knowledge they are yet to gain. Again, as I explained earlier, the Void is not the gap between what you know and what all there is to be known by you. For every learner, whatever they haven’t experienced before will be new knowledge to them (which literally is the definition of ‘new’!) That will create the illusion of Void for them but the path is way long for the pursuit of true wisdom. We have this tendency of treating every new experience we come across as a very special experience and there is nothing wrong in it, but also creates an illusion of knowing the special wisdom in the person. This instigates the illusion of knowing something extraordinary, of knowing everything in the mind of that person.

Miyamoto-san thus advises the readers to recognize the confusion between the common knowledge and the real Void – the knowledge lying beyond everything that can be known.

In very simple and short words, Miyamoto-san is trying to show the expanse of the true ‘wisdom of life’ to the readers so that they will be humbled by what very small amount they know and they can know throughout their limited lifetime. Miyamoto-san idea of Void is intended to remain on the path of learning throughout the life with the awareness that there will always be something beyond our current understandings of the nature.    

Being aware of the infinite extents of that which can be never known, one creates the curiosity to know everything that is there to know; it also brings in the humility for what very little one knows.

The idea of Void by Miyamoto-san is about intellectual humility and the limitations of how we understand the world around us.

Let us keep the idea of the Void aside for now. The things that we can know, the wisdom that we can have themselves are so vast in their expanse that a single mortal life cannot be sufficient to learn and grasp each and everything that is there to know. This will easily overwhelm a new learner rather everyone on such journey. Miyamoto-san knew this hence he proceeds with the ways to clear this confusion and such overwhelming feelings. 

“To attain the Way of Strategy as a warrior you must study fully other martial arts and not deviate even a little from the Way of the warrior. With you spirit settled, accumulate practice day by day, and hour by hour. Polish the twofold spirit heart and mind, and sharpen the twofold gaze perception and sight. When your spirit is not in the least clouded, when the clouds of bewilderment clear away, there is the true void.”

In simple words, the way to get everything big is to start small and build over it, follow the truest path step by step instead of getting overwhelmed by the length of the journey. Once the person becomes aware of the process, the things built over the time will help him/her to distinguish between the that which is known, that which is yet to be known and that which can never be known.

You will notice in every part of the Book of the Five Rings especially in the Wind book, Miyamoto-san suggests to learn the techniques of the other schools from a broader perspective. Even after being the greatest swordsman of his time, he was completely aware that there will always be something which can improve his existing techniques. There will always be some better ways to do the same thing. This newer, creative, and out of the box thinking is only possible for the person who understands the limitations of his mind, who is truly humble even after gaining all the wisdom in the world. Only the idea of the Void can show a complete scholar the extents of what he/she knows.

Miyamoto-san mentions the spirit of heart and mind which are emotional and intellectual aspects of personality. He further mentions the perception and sight which are the abilities to see beyond what is shown and to see the bigger picture. The journey for the true wisdom is about development of our emotions, intellect, perception, and vision. That is what life actually is! What a thought by Miyamoto-san!  

“Until you realize the true Way, whether in Buddhism or in common sense, you may think that things are correct and in order. However, if we look at the things objectively, from the viewpoint of the laws of the world, we see various doctrines departing from the true Way. Know well this spirit, and with forthrightness as the foundation and the true spirit as the Way. Enact strategy broadly, correctly, and openly.”

Miyamoto Musashi holds the last but the most important (and the secret trick) in the journey for the wisdom of the life. Actually, he already hinted this secret in the early part of the Book of the Five Rings. Miyamoto-san explains that when the person on the journey for the wisdom will reach the ultimate spot (and not the end of the journey- the journey has no end – it continues in the Void) then he/she will realize that the vast expanse of knowledge that they were getting overwhelmed in the early part of their journey are actually created from the main true path of the absolute wisdom. The vast expanse of the knowledge was created due to many deviations from the ultimate path. The absolute wisdom will have that clarity as Miyamoto-san explains. That is the exact reason why he already said

“If you know the way broadly, you will see it in everything”

Once you get the absolute clarity of what you know then you will never feel the need to know each and everything. You are zero and infinity at the same time, you are nothing and everything at the same time. You will try to understand everything based on the absolute wisdom you already have as all the remaining knowledge is just a deviation from that absolute wisdom.

“In the void is virtue and no evil.”

The acceptance of that which can be never known will actually make the person humble. Many will think that the idea of not knowing everything will actually create maniacs due to that unsettling urge to know everything but the exactly opposite will happen. When one accepts that the journey for the wisdom is a never-ending, then the smartest choice is to embark on this journey with minimum possible baggage. The true scholar will get rid off every deviated knowledge from the path of the true wisdom to reduce their load in this journey, they will use their limited but ultimate wisdom in every possible and new way to understand the new knowledge and the knowledge which cannot be known.

You must appreciate how great thought Miyamoto-san put forward many years ago with close to zero resources. That is what is great about the Book of the Five Rings and especially the Book of the Void.

The Book of Void actually speaks about everything through the idea of nothing. This can be put down into some words only by the scholars like Miyamoto Musashi. That also the reason why the Book of Five Rings is not just a guide for war strategy and the ways of the warriors. The Book of Five Rings is more than that, it is about the ways to live a life full of true wisdom. True wisdom holds everything in the idea of the awareness of nothing.  

The Spirit of the Void for the modern world

“Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance”

Confucius

The initial realizations of the idea of the Void are presented to make the readers aware of what small they actually know and what vast they are yet to know. When one accepts that there is still more to know and learn many things and even after knowing/learning everything, there will be something which can never be known due to the limitations of human life, at that exact moment the person becomes the container to the ultimate wisdom.

Void and the Incompleteness of the Mathematics

Modern mathematics and the development of completely new mathematical concepts are based on the world-famous Gödel’s incompleteness theorem. In simple worlds, certain truths in a system must be accepted true without a proof (and there are no contradictions to them till now) to prove all the remaining truths of the system. If in such system a new fact arises which cannot be proven by any existing truths and is never contradicted then such non-contradicted and unprovable truth will create bigger system of newer truths. (you can read in detail about this in my older post). The new uncontradicted, unprovable truth in the system lies out side the existing system of truths. It can be only understood by the person who is open to new possibilities outside the existing system.

 

The Void and The Dunning-Kruger Effect

Miyamoto-san even in his days was aware of this world-famous psychological effect now that we have a proper name for it. Miyamoto Musashi knew how half-knowledge – limited knowledge creates the illusion of knowing everything and can even blind the master of masters personality. He wanted the new learners to remain humble not get overconfident during the start of the long journey and he knew that the one who has traveled enough through this journey will have the humility for what great they have achieved. (see my older post to know more about the Dunning Kruger effect)

“The opposite of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge”

Stephen Hawking
The Void and Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Modern Scholar

Miyamoto-san’s idea of the Void also highlights how we are only able to learn what we are able to grasp. This actually creates a biased learning process, which is dominant in those who learn things on their own. Even for people who are masters of their fields and have proper guidance available externally, it is impossible to learn something new and groundbreaking unless they are receptive towards it. Ralph Waldo Emerson in his world-famous speech The American Scholar explained how exactly this learning works. (read in detail about the American scholar in my older post1, post 2, post 3)

The Void and Einstein

Einstein’s idea of relativity was rejected by many scholar scientists in the early stages because they were unable to accept and understand the ideas of higher dimensions in the fabric of the space-time. (That is exactly why Einstein is known as a peerless genius!) So, you can only learn what you are able to perceive and grasp. Miyamoto-san’s philosophy of Void encourages to become open to that which cannot be known which lies beyond our grasp.

The Void and The Quantum Mechanics

While we are on the cusp on the quantum mechanical revolution in modern world, it was Max Planck in quantum mechanics’ early emergence when he quoted about the nature of the reality we live in and our inability to understand such quantum mechanical reality. Upon understanding the mind-boggling nature of the quantum mechanics Max Planck maybe got a peek into the Void – that which can never be known due to our physical limitations. For a swordsman as Miyamoto Musashi, the philosophy of the Void stood the test of the time.

It also shows how absolute wisdom remains consistent throughout the times, branches of knowledge and generations. (find more about how we have realized the existence of Void through one interesting concept in QM in my older post)

Conclusion

Thus, the Book of Void by Miyamoto Musashi is about remaining humble about the extents of the knowledge we have right now, the knowledge that is yet to be known and the knowledge that is beyond the limits of our understanding which is the real Void.

The concept of Void clarifies three main points:

– 1 –

What you know is very small compared to what all there is which can be known.

– 2 –

You can know everything that is there to know and when you will know everything that can be known you will understand that everything that can be known is just the result of the many deviations from the absolute knowledge.

Knowing everything is not about understanding everything individually like a memory bank, rather it is knowing a thing in its entirety and every perspective

This clears one fundamental doubt which everyone has in their own learning journey. We think that if we know many things then we will have knowledge of everything. For the same reason we think that a wise man has many tools in his bag to deal with every problem.

But it is exactly opposite when it comes to the concept of wisdom through Void.

A wise man knows single concept which touches all that is there to know, this single concept brings in the clarity. A true wise man never carries a bag full of different tools to solve different problems, he carries the distilled understanding of how to develop the tools according to the problem.

Thus, once you are able to know everything that is there to know you will find a single thread connecting to all such fields of knowledge. You will never get overwhelmed by the amount of information and expanse of the various fields of the knowledge. That single thread of your wisdom will bring clarity, will bring in virtue in your life, will calm down your mind

– 3 –

When you will succeed in knowing everything then you will truly understand the boundaries of how you understand the universe. This will be the moment when you will accept the existence of the true Void. This acceptance will make you humble and even after knowing everything that is there to know you will embark on the new journey of that which can never be known. That will be your transcendence.

One has to very deeply think and understand and appreciate how Miyamoto Musashi in his very short but important “Book of the Void” distilled the fundamental wisdom of humanity. No wonder this concept of Void is always peeking its head out in different events, different lives, different breakthroughs, and different eras of the humanity. The truest wisdom always remains consistent throughout and it never fears to upgrade itself based on the new learnings. The Book of Void is about what small amount we actually know, what vast ocean that is there to know and what massive expanse lies beyond that ocean as the Void – the world beyond our understandings.   

Links for further reading:

  1. The Book of Five Rings – The Ground Book
  2. The Book of Five Rings – The Water Book
  3. The Book of Five Rings – The Fire Book
  4. The Book of Five Rings – The Wind Book
  5. The Book of Five Rings – The Book of the Void
  6. Understanding the true nature of Mathematics- Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem
  7. Noticing Our Ignorance
  8. The American Scholar – The Scholar, the Nature, the Origins and the Legacy of Knowledge
  9. The American Scholar – The Books, The Actions, Intellectual Humility and The Dictionary of Life
  10. The American Scholar – Man as a University
  11. Chasing The Hidden Nature of Reality

The Book of Five Rings – The Ground Book

The Ground book is the foundation of living a life of focus to its full effectiveness, full potential. When Miyamoto Musashi is saying that the Ground Book is like road mapped on ground, one has to appreciate and understand that it is actually the roadmap to our whole life. It is not just about sword fighting and war strategies. The whole purpose of writing such a distilled and rather a short book is just to make the readers aware of the extreme and rewarding possibilities life provides.

Miyamoto Musashi’s philosophy for 21st century

Wisdom of the elders

Here is a short story. A young man heard some cracking noise in his car which was unexpected for him as he had taken good care of this car. After doing everything possible, visiting many of his mechanic friends, running tests, the problem was not getting solved completely. The noise would again start after some time. One of his friends suggested a senior mechanic to solve this problem. The senior mechanic came, asked the young man to start the car, listened to the noise for some time and tightened just a single screw on the drive mechanism and the noise disappeared. The problem was solved within few minutes and senior mechanic made sure that it will not happen again by revving to the extremes of the car with a test drive. The young man was happy seeing that the problem was solved instantly.

He asked, “How much for the job?”

The senior mechanic said, “that will be $200”.

The young man was shocked, “Who pays $200 for tightening single screw?”

Senior Mechanic, “$200 are for knowing exactly which screw to tighten which required the whole experience of my profession, tightening any screw is still free!”

The young man realized the value of the service from the senior mechanic, paid him accordingly and apologized for questioning his intent.

The story is contrived, but no one will disagree that we have faced such similar moments in our lives, especially in the times of youth. Some problems become unsolvable at a given moment. People try to implement the most modern of modern techniques to tackle this challenge but the efforts are futile, worthless. Then one “seasoned” senior and (obviously) old person enters the discussion and solves problem within few steps, rendering all the young and modern efforts useless. When the solution becomes visible to everyone, it becomes apparent that the answer was filled with such a common sense that any fool would have guessed that and still nobody could solve it.

The point of all this is that, wisdom of elders although remains less relevant with the current flows and fields of knowledge, they become of ultimate importance when any unconventional problem emerges. Because this wisdom is born out of many tests of such senior person’s knowledge in his/her life where every unnecessary part of the knowledge is stripped off to reach that point of true knowledge- the wisdom.

Today we will explore the ancient philosophy of one such seasoned person which has stood the test of the times, especially the modern times where the skill he worked with is on the brink of extinction. As the wisdom goes, it is still relevant and helpful for today’s generation and the generations to come.   

 Miyamoto Musashi and The Book of Five Rings 

Miyamoto Musashi was the greatest Japanese swordsman that the history of humanity has ever witnessed. Miyamoto Musashi was known for his swordsmanship and remaining undefeated in 61 duels. He was so great and influential in his art that people call him Kensei, a sword-saint of Japan. Along with the greatest swordsman, Miyamoto Musashi was also a great penman. His writings, philosophies, strategies remained of great value in the respective times and are still important today.

Miyamoto Musashi

Miyamoto Musashi wrote two books in the later years of his life – The Book of Five Rings (五輪の書, Go Rin No Sho) and The Path of Aloneness (獨行道, Dokkōdō). 

Miyamoto Musashi put all his wisdom of a warrior’s life into this “Book of Five Rings”. The five rings namely Ground, Water, Fire, Wind and Void represent the five aspects of his philosophy of a warrior.  The books are a collection of very limited paragraphs and believe me it is intentional. They are supposed to concise reflecting the focused intention of the writer Miyamoto-san.

The Ground Book

The book starts with the philosophy of the Ground. The book seems exclusively written for warriors and martial arts practitioners.

“Each man practices as he feels inclined”

Miyamoto Musashi establishes that there are many fields of knowledge, ways of living life. Anyone can learn any way he fancies.

“The Way of the warrior is resolute acceptance of death“

Even though every person has to face death in the end, for a warrior the acceptance of death as the ultimate truth creates that urgency for discipline, virtue and intent. Miyamoto-san intends a person to realize the limitedness of the life and the urgency to overcome the ways in which a common life lives the same life. He wants the reader, the warrior to have something that many commoners don’t have that is the victory at personal level and victory at a group level, in teams. And believe me it is not just about victory in sword-fight or a huge battle.

Even though Miyamoto-san clearly discusses the techniques of sword fight one must understand that they are the techniques of living the life, handling the situations in life, creating a fighter warrior’s attitude towards the challenges in life.

The Way of strategy

In simple words, it discusses the discipline to live a warrior’s life. For that Miyamoto-san starts with the function of major professions in the society – the gentlemen a.k.a. the warrior, the farmers, the artisans, the merchants. He clearly points out that these are just people extending themselves through some objects for living the life with some benefits and thereby their survival.    

“If we look at the world, we see arts for sale. Men use equipment to sell their own selves.”

Musashi’s view towards life and world is still relevant and unchanged. Our jobs, professions, occupations are extensions of our personality. Some are doing it willingly; some are doing it unwillingly. Even when some people are hating their jobs that is still representing who they are.  

Miyamoto-san also explains how some masters, so called “Gurus”, trainers brag that their technique is the best and try to mislead people with that to gain profits. He highlights that how techniques, the strategies to live better life are being traded objectively for profits. In this chaos of trade of knowledge Miyamoto-san establishes how the value of true knowledge always remains superior irrespective of the show off of the immature people using it for their profit.

Even in today’s times the situation is not drastically different. The mainstream education is already destroyed by the backdated education system, degrees and diplomas are still less relevant for the actual professions, unnecessary and highly profit driven coaching add more to that. You will find every possible type of motivational trainer in every direction you throw the stone. Very few of them are actually doing the job of delivering true wisdom.

“The teacher is as a needle, the disciple is as thread”

So, Miyamoto-san tells here that a true teacher only directs to the goal, the direction a needy disciple, true student follows that with proper faith and diligence.

The Carpenter and the Warrior

Miyamoto Musashi tries to establish that the basic ideas of wisdom are consistent everywhere. As every type and size of wood has its own characteristics, it makes sense to use those types and sizes of wood where they prove the most effective. It’s a common sense! Utilize things and manage people according to their type, size, skills and abilities. Not everything is supposed to fit everywhere, actually that withdraws the specialty of that object or that person. And thus Miyamoto-san delivers one of the most important management lessons, that is still relevant today.  

“The foreman carpenter allots his men work according to their ability. The foreman should take into account the abilities and limitations of his men, circulating among them and asking nothing unreasonable. He should know their morale and spirit, and encourage them when necessary. This is the same a s the principle of the strategy.“

If we try to force the object to fit in, the people to do the jobs they hate we won’t be able to utilize them to their fullest potential thereby lowering the purpose of their existence and even failing in the pursuit of our goals. A good leadership advice!

Body of the strategy

Note that Miyamoto-san uses words “the Way of Strategy” everywhere to highlight his philosophy of living an effective life.

“It is difficult to realize the true way just through sword-fencing.“

This should again make clear that the book not just about sword-fighting. The ways Miyamoto-san refers to are to understood in bigger aspects of life which is limitless.

“Know the smallest thing and the biggest things, the shallowest things and the deepest things.“

The inclusive and impartial perspective to look at life is the true way of gaining true wisdom. Only by knowing the extremes of the life one can have a grasp over what is actually happening. Only then one can bring that objectivity in their thoughts, otherwise people become followers of one side, blind worshipers of some great books and great people. The real and true way in in appreciating and understanding the whole spectrum of life. Only then one can live the life to its fullest.

“This is a truth: when you sacrifice your life, you must make fullest use of your weaponry. It is false not to do so, and to die with a weapon yet undrawn.“

One must make every possible attempt in the challenging situations in life to overcome them. In today’s world we call it as living life without any regrets of not making any attempt to achieve goals. If you are going for pass the last punch in your fight, make sure that you punch real hard, with all your focused intent!

“It will seem difficult at first, but everything is difficult at first.“

Miyamoto-san again is discussing about how to avoid wrong choices of weapons at wrong places. How you cannot use long sword in narrow places, how short sword is swift, the practicality of handling multiple weapons, the practicality of using the swords of different length based on the confinement, time and location. It becomes very detailed, confusing and overwhelming at a moment, but please know that it is not just about sword-fighting. It is about the common sense of knowing your tools, your behavior, your intent and using them to your full potential according top the situations, places and events.

“If you know the Way broadly you will see it in everything“

This single sentence is the gist of the whole books of the five rings (But that should not restrict us from exploring the remaining books and philosophies further and it will be an injustice with Miyamoto Musashi philosophy) This sentence is the only reason why one can say that it is not just about sword fighting. There are many ways to live a life. Even though there are infinite possibilities to our lives they make sense only when we have a broader view, a wide intent to make sense out of this chaos of possibilities. Its like changing your perspective of life opens new possibilities and new learnings, new insights from the same thing which earlier made less or no sense.

Why is the strategy only about swords even when there are some other good weapons like halberd, bow, spear and guns? Swords are extension of the warrior’s spirit both theoretically and practically. He explains that further in detail to prove why sword is the ultimate weapon.

“Weapons should be hardy rather than decorative“

The intent of tool is to get utilized effectively rest is just unnecessary baggage. Robustness of the weapon, your tool is more important than its appearance. In simple words, things, techniques should be designed for the function expected from them (I know it is common sense, but we many times we unnecessarily over-complicate our lives with many things thereby hiding the solution which was in plain sight) It is also about having only those resources which are actually required otherwise you will be spending unnecessary time, capital for managing that extra drag, which itself is a good management lesson.

“You should not have a favorite weapon. To become over-familiar with one weapon is as much a fault as not knowing it sufficiently well. You should not copy others, but use weapons which you can handle properly.“

In two words – John Wick and in single word – agility. Miyamoto expect the true life to be full of possibilities not some preferences. For that one themselves should be open to experience instead of having a narrow-minded attitude. This agility grants that specialty to the person which justifies his existence and also enables him to handle situation in novel and effective ways.  

Emphasis on originality – when one copies the other and by the chance of time if they face each other the one who has copied his opponent’s technique will not have any type of advantage of creativity. 

Timing

“You win battles with timing in Void born of the timing of cunning by knowing the enemies’ timing, and thus using a timing which the enemy does not expect.“

Importance of surprise attack or surprise move can be only highlighted once the person has overall understandings of the distance timing and the background timing. Distance timing is the awareness of what is happening with you and background timing means what is happening around you. By distance timing you can only handle yourselves, your moves but in order to anticipate your opponent’s attack you have to understand what is happening around you.

This may seem far stretched but Miyamoto-san is actually referring to different perceptions of times for you and your opponent- it’s always relative and there is a rhythm to it. (here, goes Albert Einstein) In today’s competitive world, it is more important to understand and anticipate the competitors moves and ways of working to defeat him. Excelling yourself won’t always work in non-zero-sum games (and here goes Game theory)

The roadmap to an effective and focused life   

The Ground book is about the outline of the discipline, philosophy and the path to follow it. These are the minimum basic requirements for any warrior seeking accomplishment and wisdom. Miyamoto-san is very specific here. This set of nine strategies/rules is the most discussed portion of the Book of Five Rings. (And yes, it is still relevant today)

  • Do not think dishonestly

Dishonesty removes the objectivity in the learning process. If you remove the objectivity from the learning then the comparison of the facts, object and the observations vary disproportionately with them. This creates wrong and biased observations and learnings thereby. So, if you are ready to call yourself fool when mistakes happen only then you can achieve good objectivity and real wisdom in the learning process.

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.

Richard P Feynman
  • The Way is in training

Training builds the feedback loop in the learning process. Reinforcement of this feedback loop creates extraordinary outcomes

I hated every minute of training but I said don’t quit suffer now and leave the rest of your life as a champion

Muhammad Ali
  • Become acquainted with every art

Don’t have preferences because in order to extract synergy from even a single skill, single tool you must know how it works with every other skill or other tool. When you will understand the rules of their working with everything possible you will be able to create something truly new and original. (And trust me it is very difficult to create some really unique and original. That internet post you thought is really personal to you has been already liked and shared by millions of people)

Learn the rules like pro so you can break them like an artist

Pablo Picasso
  • Know the Ways of all professions

In order to become a true leader, one must understand the ways of working of different people and allot the resources to them accordingly to extract the highest possible extraordinary outcome.  

Management is about persuading people to do things they do not want to do while leadership is about inspiring people to do things, they never thought

Steve jobs

If you pick the right people and give them the opportunity to spread their wings and put compensation as a carrier behind it you don’t have to manage them

Jack Welch
  • Distinguish between gain and loss in worldly matters

Have a sustainable decision-making attitude. A true leader considers the consequences of even a small decision based on the broad outcome it will generate. This leader understands that even a small decision can affect the system in a big way.

It is the smallest decision that can change your life forever

Gary Goodridge
  • Develop intuitive judgement and understanding for everything

Have your own perspective about the world, that is what justifies your existence in these infinite possibilities. Have an intent to connect he multiple and distant dots in your life, that is what will make you special and invincible.

Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it

Albert Einstein
  • Perceive those things which cannot be seen

Understand that things are not what they always seem from their outside. This develops the sense of anticipation thereby an attitude to handle anything that is possible. It will also grant you the intellectual humility.

There are things known and there are things unknown and in between are the doors of perception

Aldous Huxley
  • Pay attention even to trifles

The secret to do things differently is to understanding every detail associated with them. Seasoned artists are best examples of this. They make things look really simple but when a commoner attempt to replicate that, people instantly notice something off in that performance. The secret is that the mastery is about understanding every nitty-gritty of your skill.

The difference between something good and something great is attention to detail

Charles R Swindoll
  • Do nothing which is of no use

Have absolute focus, clear intent in your efforts. (Even when you are having fun have complete fun) Learn to say No when it is of no use or value for you. It removes the drifts and deviations in your experiences.

It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential

Bruce Lee

One has to understand what Miyamoto Musashi intends while writing the Ground Book. You will notice each and every important moment in his writing he suggests reader to use their own sense and experiences, he wants the reader to appreciate what he is trying to convey and not just read and follow it literally.

You will see sentences like this scattered throughout all five books

…You ought to think deeply about this.

…You must do sufficient research.

…I cannot write in detail how this is done.

…The essence of this book is that you must train day and night in order to make quick decisions.

…You must appreciate this.

So, the Ground book is not just about the plans and ideas to handle the weapons, their timings or some management lessons for a warlord or a strategist or some sword fighter. And believe me it is not a plan or roadmap to clarify his remaining four books. Actually, any superficial reader rather a fool will have the knowledge of things mentioned here.

The Ground book is the foundation of living a life of focus to its full effectiveness, full potential. When Miyamoto Musashi is saying that the Ground Book is like road mapped on ground, one has to appreciate and understand that it is actually the roadmap to our whole life. Again, it is not just about sword fighting and war strategies. The whole purpose of writing such a distilled and rather a short book is just to make the readers aware of the extreme and rewarding possibilities life provides. Exploring and experimenting them with focus and intent is all up to them and that is actually the beauty of an elder’s wisdom. One really has to try it on their own, experiment on their own, practice diligently on their own to appreciate what is actually getting conveyed by the wisdom of the elders.      

There is more to such wisdom which will follow in the philosophies of the Water book, the Fire book, the Wind book, the Void book in upcoming posts.

Links for further reading:

  1. The Book of Five Rings – The Ground Book
  2. The Book of Five Rings – The Water Book
  3. The Book of Five Rings – The Fire Book
  4. The Book of Five Rings – The Wind Book
  5. The Book of Five Rings – The Book of the Void

“If-” A Stoic Poetry by Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling is famously known for the creation of ‘The Jungle Book’. He is the youngest British Nobel Laureate (at the age of 41) till date.

Rudyard Kipling

Today we will be deep diving into Rudyard Kipling’s all time famous and many people’s favorite poem ‘If-‘. This poem written in 1895 was published in his famous historical fantasy book called ‘Rewards and Fairies’ in 1910.

This poem is all about a set of recommendations from poet to the reader (or his son) to become a person of greater values, virtues in order to handle every situation in life irrespective of its outcomes. The only motivation to act on something must be our intent of welfare of ourselves and the society around us as a human being and only thing we can control is our perception of things is the core idea of this poem.

If you can keep your head when all about you   
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;  
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
    But make allowance for their doubting too:

 This is about believing in ourselves and freeing ourselves from self-doubt. It is also about remaining content when everyone is against you. It focused on not losing sanity when everything around you seems to have lost the meaning, when everyone behaves like they have lost their minds, when chaos has surrounded you. This is the time which will demand you to remain confident of your intentions. 

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

This is more about remaining calm, balanced and unaffected. There might be several times where the results won’t be immediate, one should deal it with patience. It is about the moving away from instant gratification and not doing things for immediate pleasures. Especially, in the times of Social-media instant gratification has become a very innate thing in the human behavior.

When you will be lied to or when you will be hated, a person’s behavior must not favor the idea of ‘tit for tat’ or ‘an eye for an eye’ indicating reactive behavior, retaliating behavior. Rather not dealing in lies, abiding to the truth even when lied to and not hating even when hated are the virtues poet wishes to have in the reader. The balanced behavior of humility in smart person and simplicity in good looking person will make him a desirable person. Otherwise, who values a smart but arrogant person anyways!

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   
    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim,   
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
    And treat those two impostors just the same:

This is about the what you do with your life and how you do it. It is about finding the purpose of your being in the life and envisioning yourself to fulfill that purpose. You should not be consumed by the dreams solely- thereby causing in-actions; the poet expects the reader to have actions for achieving these dreams and visions. Winning and losing are called imposters here because of the nature of our perception about them; one is desirable and the another one is not. The mere possibility of loss leads to inaction causes us to go deeper into the negative feeling of not achieving anything. The poet wants reader to not care about the consequences which are not in the hands of doer rather do the immediate things to get the consequences (whatever they may) which are always in the hands of doer.

The best way to come out of indecision is to act on things which are in our immediate control.

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools;

This is about remaining committed and honest to your words, keeping your promises. This will demand a person to face the truth, make others aware of the truth when they are being fooled by some dishonest people and this requires courage. It is about remaining committed to the purpose even when things will fall down and you will feel that the virtues you are living with have worn-out and are of no value as they didn’t yield immediate favorable effects. This is some sort of test that you should go through to reach your ultimate pure desires.

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
    And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

Here, our poet wants the reader to have a really great goal in life whose purpose must be to leave an example or a legacy for others to follow as a light house. The greatness of this purpose will make him to sacrifice any great achievement, great possession for the greatness of purpose is the only thing that will not perish. All the great possessions or the biggest of big losses are valueless in front of a great purpose or a great legacy.  These can be the sacrifices in the great journey.

The loss of hard earned possessions, achievements may force a person to lose his interest in the journey; but the person’s resilience and the will to hold on to the greater purpose will define what is inside him, what he is made of !  

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   
    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
    If all men count with you, but none too much:

The poet talks here about doing what you are saying, being aware of the reality and being humble and dependable yet remain unaffected by too much expectations of people around you- friends or enemies. It is about not getting flattered by the good opinions from the people loving you and not getting despised of the bad opinions of your haters or enemies. It is about being free from the opinions, projections of the people around you.

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,

Unforgiving nature of time indicates interaction of time with we as a humans. Time waits for no one. It is the most neutral entity in our life which is not affected by anything rather everything is under the influences of the time. The poet wants reader to fill a minute with sixty second means being aware of every moment we are going through and doing justice with it, investing it in doing good things.

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   
    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

Yep, after all of these conditions, all these ifs- one can achieve and enjoy everything that makes his/her life complete.

Stoicism in ‘If-‘

The poem is considered as one of the best depictions of the principles of Stoicism, the ‘Stoic’ philosophy. According to stoicism, a stoic person is one who remains unaffected by the things happening around him/her (It also does not mean that remaining dumb or numb) The Wikipedia definition is “someone who is indifferent to pain, pleasure, grief, or joy”.

Stoicism is based on the idea that all of the things happening around us are made up of cause and effect. Sometimes, we know the cause behind anything but it is practically impossible to know cause behind everything and after knowing that cause – change its effect to our desired results. There will always be something which will not be in our control. This idea of having rational structure of universe made up of cause and effect is called as ‘Logos’ in Stoicism.

The stoicism tries to establish that we cannot always know or remain aware of the logic behind everything happening with us and around us. ‘We’ – a person not being aware of ‘the cause’ of happening this ‘thing’ will not prevent the ‘thing’ from happening. It means that some things will always remain out of our control and our expectations. Hence the best you can do is to establish the control on things which are in immediate influence of you.

Hence,

Rather than expecting the world to be ‘ideal’ to anyone’s expectations – the stoic accepts the world ‘as it is’. In order to grow through this world, a stoic controls that thing which is in his/her immediate control. The poem ‘If-‘ by Rudyard Kipling does the excellent job of describing the virtues if a Stoic and what can be done and controlled to achieve greatness.

There are two pillars of Stoicism: Four cardinal Virtues and the dichotomy of control.

Pillar I- Four cardinal Virtues

Wisdom– the idea good and bad

Temperance– no overdoing and under doing things, doing the optimum, doing what is necessary

Justice– the awareness of what is right for given situation of a person or a society

Courage– the knowledge of justice and to standing for it

Pillar II-The dichotomy of control

This is the most important and the most famous idea in the stoicism. The dichotomy simply separates the things which are in our control and things which are not in our control.

The best way to deal with the things which are not in our control is to accept them as they are and the best thing to deal with the things that are in our control is to act on them immediately so as to eventually shape the reality we expect.

The best thing about the stoicism is that it was developed by people representing different levels of society. “Zeno of Cyprus” known as a father of Stoicism was a wealthy merchant in Athens who turned to the development of stoicism when he had lost all his possession in a shipwreck. With nothing in hand, he turned to a book shop and got influenced by the ideas of Socrates. Epictetus, the person who was a slave also contributed to the stoicism in a great way. Actually, the meaning of Greek word Epictetus (ἐπίκτητος) is “gained” or “acquired”. The real name of this slave is not known to anyone and there are no known writings by Epictetus available. All his knowledge was transcribed by his pupil Arrian and published as “Disclosures” and “Enchiridion“

"Men are disturbed not by the things which happen, 
but by the opinions about the things." 
- Epictetus, Enchiridion

The same idea Rudyard expresses in the poem when he asks reader to remain sane and confident when peoples are doubting him/her.

Marcus Aurelius who was a Roman Emperor and one of the greatest philosophers was also a stoic. Marcus Aurelius and emperor was influenced by the ideas of Epictetus- a slave. He wrote all his ideas in his famous book called Meditations. Nelson Mandela’s colleagues smuggled this book while he was in jail. This same book influenced Mandela to move away from the idea of revenge and think for the betterment of the society while he was in jail.

“It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.” 
- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Rudyard indicates the same philosophy about just getting consumed by the thoughts of the consequences and not acting on achieving something. Fear of failures is the real death, understanding that there is no such thing as success or failure will immediately lead to action which is in person’s hand.

“If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will happily change, for I seek the truth, by which no one was ever truly harmed. It is the person who continues in his self-deception and ignorance who is harmed.” 
- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Rudyard Kipling discusses the same idea of remaining honest to your words, keeping you r promises for it is the only way to differentiate the right and wrong. If you understand that you were right- you will embrace it and if you understand and accept that you were wrong you will learn from it because seeking truth has never truly harmed anyone.  

Seneca, one of the famous and important contributors to stoicism was dramatist and satirist.

“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality” 
-Seneca

Kipling has also recommended to come out of indecision by doing the things in our immediate control.

In a whole way, when one understands the real meaning behind the poem, the expectations of poet and the philosophy of Stoicism, this gives a great moments of understanding rather enlightenment about the way of life.

‘If-‘ by Rudyard Kipling possibly one of the most important poem in the history of humanity. 

Zeno, Epictetus, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius - The four important Stoics

Image references:

  1. Zeno of Cyprus, Epictetus, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius