A Compass View on Miyamoto Musashi's Go Rin No Sho (The Book of Five Rings)

updated at 11:10 hr

In a previous post, we discussed how to apply the Art of War (AoW)  principles to martial arts.  Past and present field implementers who have compete in the extreme terrain, preferred the concepts of Musashi.

The Five Rings Behind Musashi's Classic
The initial chapter (The Ground book) centers on the understanding of the strategic fundamentals and the psyche of one's own profession while the Water book emphasizes on the basics for adjusting one's state of strategic awareness  to the situation

The Fire book accentuates on the importance of intensifying one's strategic state of mindful awareness to an extreme situation whereas the Wind book concentrates on the myriad of different categories of strategic systems. This category of understanding enables the serious readers to identify the basic decision management process of the chief decision makers and the elite field implementers at the field level.

The Void book emphasizes on possessing the pervasive state of awareness where one could mindfully comprehend the Big Tangible Picture of their competitive situation in terms of the following:

• knowing the fundamentals; 
• recognizing the motive and the method of their competition; 
• the adjustment points; and 
• the intensification of one's actions.

Performing all of the mentioned points in a mindful sequence is the challenge. 

Click here to read more about Miyamoto Musashi's Book of Five Rings.  If you are an advanced implementer of the Five .Rings approach, click here and here for other insights.

We will focus more on applying these tactics in specific field scenarios, in a future post,  

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Interesting Trivia on The Best Practices of World Class Strategic Thinkers and Achievers

Following is our abridged list of proven and unproven trivia that we have researched:

Beethoven

• Rewrote his music composition constantly until it was visually perfect

Bill Walsh

• Always scripted a gameplan before proceeding on anything.
• Usually implemented a starter script of plays that barely had any connections from any recent games.
• Always had the minimum of one more scripted play than the competing coach.
• Believed in the concept of the system over goals. (If one believes in the system and follows it, the score takes care of itself.)

Jiang Tai Gong  (known as the Father of Strategic Studies)

• Emphasized on the practice  of creating a situation that lures the "intended and willing" target toward the fisherman 
• Emphasized on the practice  of catching orcas and sharks not goldfishes and guppies
• Emphasized the practice of reading the situation, profiling the principals in a situation and identifying their configuration before ever deciding on the objective and the tactical approach.

John Nash (Nobel Prize Winning Economist)

• Brainstormed his ideas while cycling in a figure eight pattern and humming J.S. Bach's The Art of Fugue.

Mike Shanahan (former coach of Washington Redskins) 

• Uses a 15 Plays starter script to determine the tendencies of the competition 
• Always took proud in possessing a larger playbook than the competition

Miyamoto Musashi

• Dedicated himself to his profession by practicing the art of minimalism.
• Utilized two swords in certain combat situation while carrying a minimum of three implements.
• Utilized a wooden sword once he realized his sword skill has reached the highest level of swordmanship.

Mozart

• Was known to use a standing table when writing his music
• Visualized the content of his composition before writing his music
• Wrote his composition in one attempt.  

Steve Jobs

• Always emphasize on simplicity and quality in his products.

Sun Bin

• Emphasized on the practice of being tenacious, guile and insightful in adverse situations
• Emphasized the employment of various bait and lure tactics for the purpose of influencing the competitor into a disadvantageous situation
• Able to recite the entire text of the Art of War essay

Sunzi

• Emphasized the art of strategic efficiency in his famous essay  (Art of War)
• Believed in the approach of prevailing in a competitive situation through the exploitation of unorthodox and orthodox tactics

Wang Xu

• Taught the development of one's foundation of awareness through the various exercises for the purpose of learning strategy 
• Focused on the process of assessing, positioning and influencing one's settings while becoming mindful of the objective of being strategically effective.
• Taught Jiang Tai Gong's Six Secret Teachings to his many students (Sun Bin, Zhang Yin and others) .

Wuzi (The writer of Wuzi's Art of War)

• Believed in dedicating oneself to the grand cause of his employer.
• Specialized in strategic efficiency

Zhang Liang

• Strategize on being positionally ahead of the situation through the implementation of a "complete" strategy.
• Famous for 
• Preferred to operate from a remote site. 
• Buried with his copy of "Six Secret Teachings."  It was  rumored that a copy of "The Three Strategies of Huang Shek Gong" was included in the process.

Zhuge Liang

• Understood many subject matters (agriculture, engineering, meteorology, geology, etc.).
• Relied greatly on certain circumstances before acting. 

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An Unique Suggestion on How to Succeed in the Info. Economy (The Adviser's View)

Updated on 10.31.2013 @ 13:31.31 hrs

In terms of tactics, Miyamoto Musashi's The Book of Five Rings  is one of our associates favorite books.   Some of the explained tactics in this book are great for close quarter conflict especially from the field.  ... It is perfect for those who have operated in various  chaotic situations.

We noticed that some of the devotees of The Five Rings essay, are usually superb tacticians with a minimum regard for long term thinking.  Because of the commitment to their cause and their tendency to "will themselves to win", they frequently live for the moment of the action.  ... 

The Dao of the Strategic Adviser
During the Tokugawa dynasty,  Yagyu Munenori was considered to be the technical equal of Miyamoto Musashi. While being great swordsmen and forerunners of their school of sword play, they have never fought against each other.

Yagyu Munenori became the advisor to the Shogun while Musashi was just a ronin- a samurai with no tangible employer.  He finally secured tangible employment with Lord Hosokawa Tadatoshi at the age of 46.

History has shown that the achievers with extraordinary field-level skill typically get the limited fortune and finite glory.  The grander honor usually goes to those few people who could convince others to act. Some experienced field expediters might find that viewpoint to be insulting.  ... After a few moments of deep contemplation about how our global society operate, they would then realized that it is the consummate truth.  ... 

Other Notes on the Strategic Advisor
In terms of Chinese military history, some of our favorite strategic advisers are: Jiang Tai Gong, Sun Bin, Zhuge Liang, Zhang Liang and Li Jing.  

The origin of their grand achievements begins from the convincing of people to commit to the proposed mission.

In the game of western chess, the bishop pieces  have always stood next to the king and the queen.  Interestingly, the adviser pieces are also positioned next to the general in the Chinese chessboard.  The symbolic meaning behind this positioning should be obvious

Within the grand scheme of our complex setting,  the smart backroom strategic advisers and the field operators who could motivate the masses, are always relevant to those who are in power.  

To thrive in our clan-driven society, the strategic adviser must contemplate on the following points: 

• the importance of joining the right clan; 
• the possibility of joining the right clan; 
• the risk benefits of being a member of that clan; 
• the risk challenges of being a member of that clan; and 
• the risk drawbacks of being a member of that clan. 

The answers is not found in your copy of the Art of  War,


Comments From The Compass Desk
In the information economy, a professional is usually viewed as a specialist or a  jack of all trades. 

To advise people, one must have more than the knowledge of a specific domain. Recognizing the motive and the method of the targeted person or group of people requires a certain mindset of patience and control.  ... The first step is the mastering of the art of centering oneself.  This act enables one to practice the art and the science of listening.  

/* note: Sometime in the future, we will post our view on why the advice of the over-hyped self help gurus does not always work. */

For those who are interested in the strategic consulting business, we highly recommended the reading of "Jiang Tai Gong's Six Secret Teachings" and "The Conversations Between the Tang's Emperor and Li Jing."  (You can find those essays in the Seven Military Classics of Ancient China.)  ...  Study the approach of how the writer (the chief strategists) suggested their perspectives to their employers.  ... Always remember that the message is the medium.

Minor Jottings
To competitively climb the food chain of the information economy, the western mind have always believed that "the pen is mightier than the sword.  ... "  There are some amateur desktop strategic advisers who regularly implement "the pen is mightier than the sword" concept in all of their strategic situations, without ever understanding the possible chaotic state that lies in the field level.  They also do not possess any understanding of the negative after-effect if or when their plan does or does not work. 

History has repeatedly shown that the practice of the pen is quite applicable in convincing the masses of people to join a specific cause.  But the practice of the sword works quite well in those special close quarters situations that are occasionally laced with a singular flavor of chaos. 

In our virtual operations room, some of our group preferred to follow the following Japanese Bushido saying- "the pen and sword in accord."  Conceptually, it is similar to the Chinese concept of Wen Wu. (We will elucidate more on this concept in a later post.)  

With the pen, one could always brainstorm and script their scheme of plays through the process of visual, audio and tactile means before ever implementing the intent.

As mentioned in previous posts, we have always consistently practiced the principle of assessing any strategic situation before ever deciding on the objective and the approach (the pen or the sword). ... While it prevents us from operating from the seat of our pants, this pragmatic practice focuses us to complete our objective with emotional detachment.   ... Could you calmly do that in a Silicon Valley minute?

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Applying the AoW Principles to the Martial Arts

Someone recently asked us if we can apply the Art of War principles to the martial arts

Without getting into a situation of espousing "fortune cookie" like quotes, we prefer to focus our effort on explaining the essence of Sunzi's strategy classic. Fundamentally, this book greatly emphasize on the act of prevailing over the competition by finding the path of least resistance and pursuing it.

One of our favorite examples of world class martial arts experts is: Miyamoto Musashi.

Miyamoto Musashi (c. 1584–June 13 (Japanese calendar: May 19), 1645), also known as Shinmen Takezo-, Miyamoto Bennosuke, or by his Buddhist name Niten Do-raku,[1] was a Japanese swordsman and samurai famed for his duels and distinctive style. Musashi, as he was often simply known, became renowned through stories of his excellent swordsmanship in numerous duels, even from a very young age. He was the founder of the Hyo-ho- Niten Ichi-ryu- or Niten-ryu- style of swordsmanship and the author ofThe Book of Five Rings (Go Rin No Sho?), a book on strategy, tactics, and philosophy that is still studied today. He is considered as one of the greatest samurai warriors of all time. from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miyamoto_Musashi

After numerous duels and battles, Musashi developed the Nito sword method. This technique was based on the concept of using two swords simultaneously as an complete offensive, defensive or counter-offensive movement.

While the focus of the first sword is to "control" the opposition's time and space, the second sword is used for extreme neutralization or as an add-on move to the first sword move (i.e., trapping, disarming, striking, etc.).

Symbolically, the use of both swords was his representation of the fullest use of one's weaponry. Mastering this method requires one to possesses a deep understanding of practicing each sword separately before beginning the process of utilizing them as one entity.

In summary, this method was based on Musashi's experience and his interpretation of his profession. His complete comprehension of the strengths and the weaknesses of his own process and his opposition is what enabled him to prevail.

Methods come and go. The mastery of the method is what counts. The timing and the targeting of the method is what is vital to the victory.

Conclusion

How does it connects to the art and science of decision-making?

One should always make decisions that are based on their understanding of the big tangible picture.

What is the "Big Tangible Picture?" It is the total understanding of the following attributes: the competitive terrain; the competitors within it; the situations; the grand process of logistics and procedures; and economies.

By understanding the Big Tangible Picture, the strategist makes various decision points based on whether to cooperate or compete. In the case of Musashi, he made the decision of evolving as a swordsman-strategist due to his belief of being the consummate warrior.

The pinnacle of any professional strategist is to prevail over the situation (or the competition) in minimum time, with limited usage of resources and the least amount of effort. Idealistically, the avoidance of direct confrontation is the focal point. He/she can only achieve that through one's understanding of the big picture.