{"id":61475,"date":"2022-03-01T15:19:09","date_gmt":"2022-03-01T19:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=61475"},"modified":"2022-03-06T16:23:31","modified_gmt":"2022-03-06T20:23:31","slug":"the-book-of-the-void","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-book-of-the-void\/","title":{"rendered":"The Book of the Void: The True Way of the Warrior"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What does Miyamoto Musashi mean by the &#8220;Void&#8221;? How can a samurai warrior discover the Void?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The Book of Five Rings,<\/em> written by legendary samurai Miyamoto Musashi, is split into five different chapters. The final chapter is called The Book of the Void where Musashi teaches how to reach the &#8220;Void&#8221;\u2014a state of spiritual enlightenment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s how to access the Void, according to Musashi. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-achieving-perfect-harmony\"><strong>Achieving Perfect Harmony<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The final book, the Book of the Void, is the briefest and most abstract in <em>The Book of Five Rings<\/em>, and it is best treated as a sort of addendum to the first four books. Musashi suggests that <strong>the \u201cVoid\u201d is a state of spiritual enlightenment, in which you find the virtue and wisdom that make up the true Way of the warrior.<\/strong> To discover the Void and access it at will during combat, you must do two things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Seek knowledge of all things. <\/strong>It is only through deep knowledge that you can learn to distinguish between being and nothingness, virtue and vice, and the true from the false. You must therefore be a perpetual student, always seeking to broaden and deepen your understanding on all matters.<\/li><li><strong>Train and put the principles into practice every day. <\/strong>As Musashi has repeatedly stressed throughout the prior four books, anyone wishing to be a successful warrior must train <em>constantly<\/em>. In the Book of the Void, Musashi says that you must train your heart, your mind, and your powers of perception to achieve a calm spirit.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Zen Buddhism and \u201cthe Void\u201d<\/strong><br><br>In speaking of \u201cthe Void\u201d and its importance for the warrior, Musashi draws upon a key concept in Zen Buddhism known as \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/sunyata\">sunyata<\/a>.\u201d <em>Sunyata<\/em> is the state in which your sense of self becomes immersed in<a href=\"https:\/\/www.learnreligions.com\/the-skandhas-450192\"> the five <em>skandhas<\/em>, or elements, of existence<\/a>:<br><br><strong>Form. <\/strong>Material matter, including natural elements and the five senses of taste, sight, sound, touch, and smell.<br><br><strong>Sensation. <\/strong>The feelings of pleasure or pain induced in you as a reaction to different types of material matter and circumstances.<br><br><strong>Perception. <\/strong>The thinking process, in which you recognize and process the objects and circumstances around you.<br><br><strong>Mental Formations. <\/strong>The thoughts that lead you to behave in a good way or in a bad way, affecting your <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/karmic-law\/\">karma<\/a><\/em> in the process. Buddhism teaches that thought and action are always directly linked.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br><br><strong>Consciousness. <\/strong>Awareness, which allows us to experience the other four <em>skandhas <\/em>above.<br><br>Achieving <em>sunyata<\/em> leads to mental and physical harmony through the abandonment of an egotistical, individualistic notion of \u201cself.\u201d Instead, the warrior who achieves <em>sunyata <\/em>understands the nature and ephemerality of the <em>skandhas<\/em>,<em> <\/em>and can exist harmoniously amongst them without clinging to his former notion of \u201cself.\u201d<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What does Miyamoto Musashi mean by the &#8220;Void&#8221;? How can a samurai warrior discover the Void? The Book of Five Rings, written by legendary samurai Miyamoto Musashi, is split into five different chapters. The final chapter is called The Book of the Void where Musashi teaches how to reach the &#8220;Void&#8221;\u2014a state of spiritual enlightenment. Here&#8217;s how to access the Void, according to Musashi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":61528,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,39,21],"tags":[583],"class_list":["post-61475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-history","category-philosophy","tag-the-book-of-five-rings","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Book of the Void: The True Way of the Warrior - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In The Book of the Void, Musashi teaches how to reach a state of spiritual enlightenment. 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