Practice Your Philosophy

Mushin University™ Self-Knowledge the Ultimate Knowledge

"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. "Seneca 

How do we practice the philosophy of a warrior? It is simple to do this we need activities that combine the mind and body together. To make this training successful it ought to be able to be used in and out of the training hall. This requires one to live simply by seeking the yin and yang in all things. It takes a great deal of mental training to simplify, and weak minded people have a hard time with it. Yet, the cutting away of our mental crutches are difficult as they give us a feeling of insulation against the perils of life. Recognizing that you began with nothing and will end in the same manner is a first step to cutting away useless things.

So, what are the things you require to get by with on a day-to-day basis?. What if you lost them all due to fire, flood or other disaster? What would you need to survive, succeed and thrive? Contemplating these things should get you started, but you can also apply this concept to your martial art practice. What skills and tools would you need to rely on in a hand-to-hand fight? Being mentally prepared should also be at the forefront in this training. Mindfulness and self-imposed discomforts are two of the greatest keys to developing a warrior's mindset and one of the greatest martial art practices of all time is that of musha shugyō. To practice musha shugyō is to follow the footsteps of the ancient samurai warriors.

What is musha shugyō? It is a warrior quest or maybe better put as a warrior’s pilgrimage. Being on a warrior’s pilgrimage is much like the knights errant of old, but today it can be as simple as visiting another dojo or taking a seminar in another style. It can also be made to go up another level simply by applying this concept to your journey to and from these events. Such as by limiting yourself to giving up some comforts along the way. You can begin by asking yourself what can you do without, such as giving up a hotel room or fancy dinners. You might camp out on the beach if you are near the ocean or stay in the dojo if it is open to sleeping bags for guests. To practice such training is to be a shugyosha and your environment itself dictates the level of harsh training you endure. This is the life of a shugyōsha and simply going out into the world while having to rely on yourself and your skills is in fact a form of musha shugyō.

One factor to help grantee that you have a great musha shugyō is to develop a good sense for premeditatio malorum. Premeditatio malorum is the Latin name for a martial art exercise that I have taught my students and it means the premeditation of evils. It seems to me that the samurai were masters in the stoic mindset. I have followed stoicism all my life, at least from the time of first reading Sherlock Homes; he seemed to me to be stoic. Logic and stoicism go hand in hand after all, but I have had people accuse me and later on tell my wife that I had no emotion, which is far from true. Yet, anyone that lives should be aware that life is often hard and that the only easy day was yesterday. Being prepared for the worst case scenario helps buffer the pain and shock of anticipated events.