The Musician’s Book of Five Rings
Samurai Strategies of Miyamoto Musashi for Excellence and Ascension of Performance
Nine Fundamental Strategic Precepts to Enhance Performance
There are nine fundamental precepts essential for the evolution and perfection of anyone wanting to accomplish anything of merit and long lasting worth. Know that practice and study are never completed. It is foolhardy to think in terms of having fulfilled all the requirements of study and no longer take into consideration the need for additional work and devotion. The “spirit of the thing itself” will do the same, and the artist will suffer. When warriors think they have learned all there is to learn about their particular weaponry, they, too, will find that the spirit of the tools they use has also departed. If you will to devote yourself to a specific discipline, then that discipline must be the totality of your life. If it is not, then you are merely a pretender, and although you may retain proficiency on certain levels, you cannot consider yourself to be worthy of attention to be derived from a muse.
1 – Always be sincere in your dealings with everyone and be aware of the need for the same with devotion to your art.
2 – The only way to ascend to greatness and to maintain it is with constant devotion and practice.
3 – Become familiar with every art you encounter. You will learn more about music when you examine the reality of other arts.
4 – Understand the “way” of other forms of expression to see more fully into your own, without prejudice.
5 – Know the difference between right and wrong, with all people. Do not succumb to seemingly false advantage by lack of discipline.
6 – Strive for inner judgment and understanding of all things.
7 – See what cannot be seen; hear what cannot be heard.
8 – Overlook nothing, regardless of seeming meaninglessness.
9 – Do not waste time idling with inconsequential trivialities, other than for relaxation
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