The heart of Emptiness is in the absence of anything with form and the inability to have knowledge thereof

This is the most profound but by far shortest chapter of the Book of Five Rings. It’s the least literal and the most philosophical. There are paradoxes in the martial arts. You must be highly skilled, practiced, and trained. Yet, you must not think about your training in deciding what to do consciously in every moment. You must know the fundamentals of fire and be practiced in all, but, upon launching rounds you must forget these details and only think of striking. Let yourself do what you know, be what you are. Once you are heavily practiced and trained you let it all go, stop thinking about everything in such detail, and be. You release yourself to do what you know. Only in this do you become a true warrior and become yourself.

The other schools get along with this as a performance art, as a method of making a living, as a colorful decoration, or as a means of forcing flowers to bloom. Yet, can it be the true Way if it has been made into a saleable item?

Wind is about other martial arts schools and a critique of them. To know The Way you must know others in contrast. Musashi calls out McDojos, and trainers generally, in thinking the martial arts are about weapon handling, techniques, moves. The true Way is about understanding, strategy, tactics, disposition. He believes you cannot learn to win by learning technique alone.

This chapter is a critique of the other styles and why Musashi believes his is the unfailing Way. I believe we’ll find those criticisms analogous to the modern training industry, YouTubers, and gun-world fads. We’re warned to avoid convolution in technique as superior to something simple and effective. Wisdom is in heeding Musashi’s warnings.

First of all, everyone in this world fancies the insignificant principles of the martial arts, whether knowing how to give the wrist a three- to five-inch advantage with the fingertips, or in understanding how to gain victory by extending the forearm by handling a fan.

Fire is the chapter where Musashi describes to us his view and approach to combat and battle itself. He starts with basically telling us it is necessary to spar, it is necessary to do force on force, it is necessary to put yourself at risk. To Musashi a warrior must go to war. You cannot learn The Way without danger.

Musashi went so far to start fights and initiated combat in order to further practice his art in situations he could not outright control at the start. That is why Musashi’s actions through his life keep him from heroism, but yet what he wrote to better the warrior class on Earth forever would have been impossible to learn otherwise. You may learn from his experience, you may believe he was with great merit and awesome, without emulating him. That alone might be a lesson in that we can look up to someone, we can celebrate their accomplishments and life, without working to be like them.

This chapter is the most literal and useful to our purposes as warriors. I’m mostly going to summarize what Musashi discusses, a cliff’s note if you will as less interpretation is needed here.

Think that what is written down here was done just for you, and do not consider simply looking at it, familiarizing yourself with it, or trying to imitate it.

Integrate what Musashi has to say into your very being. If it is necessary to think to yourself what Musashi teaches such that you know to do that, rather than it being your thoughts, you are doing it wrong. I often explain to others something is a Musashi thing that I am demonstrating, however, it is mine. I do that thing because it is natural and right to me now. Unfortunately others do not care about effectiveness but credentials, so, I shortcut the argument by pointing to Musashi. Probably lazy, but I’m tired of having to sell these things when the merits are not recognized because the person cares more about where it is from than what it does. They wish to imitate and collect rather than integrate.

Yet there are no warriors who clearly understand the Way of the Martial Arts in the world today.

Musashi starts the Book of Five Rings with a brief recounting of his life and winning 60+ duels. Almost as if it were too easy for him. There’s a suggestion that something was lacking in his opponents that allowed him to win so easily. Something that he knew, and they did not, but yet neither did he. He writes the Book of Five Rings to convey to his disciples what these unknown things might be.

What he means by Ways is described. Way of Medicine, Way of Poetry, Way of the Martial Arts. Musashi means Way as in a discipline or field, but does not wish to evoke School or Teaching. He sees Ways as something you do, practice, and live. Not as something that is given to you or passed along and stamped onto you by someone else.

Something that strikes me in this reading is the extreme density of information in this work. Every sentence, every paragraph has something to comment on; something profound being shared or explained. Everything is important, everything is necessary either for clarity or to convey the idea.

Earth is the longest chapter taking up about the first quarter to third of the book so this is a long one.

I’m writing this as I re-read the Book of Five Rings. The first time I read this book it was absolutely life changing. Musashi primed me for Jordan Peterson years later. Book of Five Rings made my interest and knowledge in the martial and destructive productive and okay. I think this is a work for the Novice about ready to become an Intermediate, and the Advanced to re-visit time to time. Truths of individual combat and the art of war shine through this work constantly and will apply no matter your discipline. It will read differently each time you approach it as wisdom that was beyond you is now apparent as other lessons have been integrated. My belief is the Book of Five Rings is unlike The Prince and the Art of War in that it is not very useful to the non-martial. The weak, the meek, the serf will not extract much wisdom from this work. It is for dangerous people.