Download or read book Immovable Wisdom written by Nobuko Hirose and published by Element Books, Limited. This book was released on 1992 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Zen Master Takuan Sono (1573-1645) was a master of calligraphy, painting, gardening, martial arts, and the teacher of the Shogun Iemitsu, Yagyu Tajima-no-Kami (founder of Japan's greatest swordsmanship school) and Miyamoto Musashi (author of The Book of Five Rings).
Download or read book Sword of Zen written by Peter Haskel and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2012-10-25 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Takuan Sōho’s (1573–1645) two works on Zen and swordsmanship are among the most straightforward and lively presentations of Zen ever written and have enjoyed great popularity in both premodern and modern Japan. Although dealing ostensibly with the art of the sword, Record of Immovable Wisdom and On the Sword Taie are basic guides to Zen—“user’s manuals” for Zen mind that show one how to manifest it not only in sword play but from moment to moment in everyday life. Along with translations of Record of Immovable Wisdom and On the Sword Taie (the former, composed in all likelihood for the shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu and his fencing master, Yagyū Munenori), this book includes an introduction to Takuan’s distinctive approach to Zen, drawing on excerpts from the master’s other writings. It also offers an accessible overview of the actual role of the sword in Takuan’s day, a period that witnessed both a bloody age of civil warfare and Japan’s final unification under the Tokugawa shoguns. Takuan was arguably the most famous Zen priest of his time, and as a pivotal figure, bridging the Zen of the late medieval and early modern periods, his story (presented in the book’s biographical section) offers a rare picture of Japanese Zen in transition. For modern readers, whether practitioners of Zen or the martial arts, Takuan’s emphasis on freedom of mind as the crux of his teaching resonates as powerfully as it did with the samurai and swordsmen of Tokugawa Japan. Scholars will welcome this new, annotated translation of Takuan’s sword-related works as well as the host of detail it provides, illuminating an obscure period in Zen’s history in Japan.
Download or read book The Unfettered Mind written by Takuan Soho and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2012-06-12 with total page 131 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The classic samurai-era text that fused Japanese swordsmanship with Zen philosophy—written by the incomparable Zen master Takuan Soho Written by the seventeenth-century Zen master Takuan Soho (1573–1645), The Unfettered Mind is a book of advice on swordsmanship and the cultivation of right mind and intention. It was written as a guide for the samurai Yagyu Munenori, who was a great swordsman and rival to the legendary Miyamoto Musashi. Takuan was a giant in the history of Zen; he was also a gardener, calligrapher, poet, author, adviser to samurai and shoguns, and a pivotal figure in Zen painting. He was known for his brilliance and acerbic wit. In these succinct and pointed essays, Takuan is concerned primarily with understanding and refining the mind—both generally and when faced with conflict. The Unfettered Mind was a major influence on the classic manifestos on swordsmanship that came after it, including Miyamoto Musashi's Book of Five Rings and Yagyu Munenori's Life-Giving Sword.
Download or read book Soul of the Samurai written by Thomas Cleary and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2011-07-05 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Soul of the Samurai contains modern translations of three classic works of Zen & Bushido. In Soul of the Samurai, bestselling author and respected translator Thomas Cleary reveals the true essence of the Bushido code or Zen warrior teachings according to 17th-century Japanese samurai master Yagyu Munenori and his Zen teacher Takuan Soho. The three works of Zen & Bushido translated in Soul of the Samurai are: The Book of the Sword by Yagyu Munenori The Inscrutable Subtlety of Immovable Wisdom by Takuan Soho The Peerless Sword by Takuan Soho Yagyu was a renowned swordsman and chief of the Shogun's secret police, while Takuan was the Zen spiritual mentor to the Emperor. This samurai philosophy book contains the first English translations of their seminal writings on Bushido. Cleary not only provides clear and readable translations but comprehensive notes introducing the social, political, and organizational principles that defined samurai culture--their loyalty to family, their sense of service and duty, and their political strategies for dealing with allies and enemies. These writings introduce the reader to the authentic world of Zen culture and the secrets behind the samurai's success--being "in the moment" and freeing the mind from all distractions, allowing you to react instantaneously and instinctively without thinking. In these classic works, we learn that Zen mental control and meditational training were as important to the Samurai as swordsmanship and fighting skills.
Download or read book Fudochi Shin Myoroku written by Takuan Soho and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-08-20 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A translation of Takuan Soho's legendary work regarding Buddhism and the sword. The original pages from an Edo Era book are reproduced followed by a transliteration of the script, followed by a modern Japanese translation as well as an English translation. This version of Fudochi Shin Myoroku contains both similarites and differences to other versions.
Download or read book An Immovable Feast written by Tyler Blanski and published by Ignatius Press. This book was released on 2018-03-27 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work is a winsome and beautifully written account of a modern spiritual journey. It tells the colorful and gripping story of one man's religious path from a fundamentalist Baptist childhood to an adolescence in emergent church spirituality. He moves on through hipster years as a house painter and a musician, then marries and enters a seminary in Wisconsin. After years of wearing a black cassock and preparing to be an Anglican priest, he boldly joins the Catholic Church. An Immovable Feast is a profound love story told with humor, wisdom, and bite. A fresh breeze blows through it as Tyler Blanski reminds us that the Catholic religion is not dead because it is not mortal. It is the festival of heaven on earth.
Download or read book Secret Tactics written by Kazumi Tabata and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2024-05-14 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This invaluable martial arts philosophy handbook presents ancient wisdom for contemporary readers. Secrete Tactics contains brilliant new interpretations of fundamental works of strategy and martial arts tactics by Miyamoto Musashi, Gichin Funakoshi, Yamamoto Tsunetomo, and various martial arts tomes. It distills the important teachings on leadership, character and values found in those books. Readers will unlock the secrets of their art and of themselves. These and a dozen other essays on strategy, combat tactics, psychology, leadership, good character, and the exercise of power, make Secret Tactics an indispensable resource for students of Asian culture, martial artists, and corporate executives.
Download or read book Immovable Wisdom the Art of Zen Strategy written by Nobuko Hirose and published by . This book was released on 2014-01-07 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Immovable Wisdom includes an account of Takuan s life and translations of his most important writings.
Download or read book The Way of the Living Sword written by Yagyu Munenori and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2003-08 with total page 66 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Way of the Living Sword is the final installment in D.E. Tarver's popular Warrior Series. It stands beside The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi as one of the greatest writings of the warrior mind. In The Way of the Living Sword, Munenori gives an in-depth explanation of the connection between physical martial arts and the mental process of Zen. While Munenori and Musashi were both avid students of Zen, Munenori was more fascinated by the academic aspects of the philosophy. Munenori stretches the consciousness of even the most enlightened martial artist. Martial arts devotees will experience many flashes of revelation as Tarver explores the various aspects of Munenori's approach. Read and grow!
Download or read book written by 柳生宗矩 and published by Kodansha International. This book was released on 2003 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a translation of an important classic on Zen swordfighting. Yagyu's Buddhist spirituality is reflected in his central idea of the life-giving sword' - the notion of controlling an opponent by the spiritual readiness to fight, rather than during the fight. This is a translation of an important classic on Zen swordfighting. Yagyu Munenori was so widely renowned that he was appointed official sword instructor to two Tokugawa shoguns. (The position was always coveted by Miyamoto Musashi, but he never succeeded in gaining the post). Yagyu's'
Download or read book Sand Talk written by Tyson Yunkaporta and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2020-05-12 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A paradigm-shifting book in the vein of Sapiens that brings a crucial Indigenous perspective to historical and cultural issues of history, education, money, power, and sustainability—and offers a new template for living. As an indigenous person, Tyson Yunkaporta looks at global systems from a unique perspective, one tied to the natural and spiritual world. In considering how contemporary life diverges from the pattern of creation, he raises important questions. How does this affect us? How can we do things differently? In this thoughtful, culturally rich, mind-expanding book, he provides answers. Yunkaporta’s writing process begins with images. Honoring indigenous traditions, he makes carvings of what he wants to say, channeling his thoughts through symbols and diagrams rather than words. He yarns with people, looking for ways to connect images and stories with place and relationship to create a coherent world view, and he uses sand talk, the Aboriginal custom of drawing images on the ground to convey knowledge. In Sand Talk, he provides a new model for our everyday lives. Rich in ideas and inspiration, it explains how lines and symbols and shapes can help us make sense of the world. It’s about how we learn and how we remember. It’s about talking to everyone and listening carefully. It’s about finding different ways to look at things. Most of all it’s about a very special way of thinking, of learning to see from a native perspective, one that is spiritually and physically tied to the earth around us, and how it can save our world. Sand Talk include 22 black-and-white illustrations that add depth to the text.
Download or read book The Lone Samurai written by William Scott Wilson and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2013-03-12 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An expert on samurai history paints a vivid, multi-faceted portrait of feudal Japan and Miyamoto Musashi—the legendary swordsman who wrote the classic martial arts treatise, The Book of Five Rings Born in 1584, Miyamoto Musashi was the legendary samurai known throughout the world as a master swordsman, spiritual seeker, and author of the classic book on strategy, The Book of Five Rings. Over 350 years after his death, Musashi and his legacy still fascinate readers worldwide, inspiring artists, authors, and filmmakers. In The Lone Samurai, respected translator and expert on samurai culture William Scott Wilson presents both a vivid account of a fascinating period in feudal Japan and a portrait of the courageous, iconoclastic samurai who wrestled with philosophical and spiritual ideas that are as relevant today as they were in his time. For Musashi, the way of the martial arts was about mastery of the mind rather than simply technical prowess—and it is this path to mastery that is the core teaching in his Book of Five Rings. This special volume includes supplemental material on Musashi’s legacy as a martial arts icon, his impact on literature and film, and the influence of his Book of Five Rings.
Download or read book Protectors and Predators written by Bernard Faure and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2015-12-31 with total page 514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written by one of the leading scholars of Japanese religion, Protectors and Predators is the second installment of a multivolume project that promises to be a milestone in our understanding of the mythico-ritual system of esoteric Buddhism—specifically the nature and roles of deities in the religious world of medieval Japan and beyond. Bernard Faure introduces readers to medieval Japanese religiosity and shows the centrality of the gods in religious discourse and ritual. Throughout he engages theoretical insights drawn from structuralism, post-structuralism, and Actor-Network Theory to retrieve the “implicit pantheon” (as opposed to the “explicit orthodox pantheon”) of esoteric Japanese Buddhism (Mikkyō). His work is particularly significant given its focus on the deities’ multiple and shifting representations, overlappings, and modes of actions rather than on individual characters and functions. In Protectors and Predators Faure argues that the “wild” gods of Japan were at the center of the medieval religious landscape and came together in complex webs of association not divisible into the categories of “Buddhist,” “indigenous,” or “Shinto.” Furthermore, among the most important medieval gods, certain ones had roots in Hinduism, others in Daoism and Yin-Yang thought. He displays vast knowledge of his subject and presents his research—much of it in largely unstudied material—with theoretical sophistication. His arguments and analyses assume the centrality of the iconographic record as a complement to the textual record, and so he has brought together a rich and rare collection of more than 170 color and black-and-white images. This emphasis on iconography and the ways in which it complements, supplements, or deconstructs textual orthodoxy is critical to a fuller comprehension of a set of medieval Japanese beliefs and practices and offers a corrective to the traditional division of the field into religious studies, which typically ignores the images, and art history, which oftentimes overlooks their ritual and religious meaning. Protectors and Predators and its companion volumes should persuade readers that the gods constituted a central part of medieval Japanese religion and that the latter cannot be reduced to a simplistic confrontation, parallelism, or complementarity between some monolithic teachings known as “Buddhism” and “Shinto.” Once these reductionist labels and categories are discarded, a new and fascinating religious landscape begins to unfold.
Download or read book Sam dhi written by Mike Sayama and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 1985-10-01 with total page 636 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The key to self-development, says Mike Sayama, is the experience of Samadhi, a state of relaxed concentration in which the individual neither freezes out of fear nor clings due to desire. Simply stated, samadhi is the free flow of vital energy within the body and between the body and the universe. Moving effortlessly across traditions and techniques, Sayama discovers that sages throughout history—Greek philosophers, German mystics, Indian seers, and our own Albert Einstein among others—have taught that this experience of transcendental oneness lies at the heart of full self-realization. The first part of the book studies self-realization in Zen Buddhism. The author pinpoints its essence in Buddha's enlightenment. The development of Zen is then traced, continuing down to living masters who in very recent times have transplanted their lineages from Japan to the United States. Sayama notes that we must choose as masters those to whom the authentic teaching has been transmitted through generations, and he examines in loving detail the sometimes strange and astonishing behaviors of those whose very presence communicates the state of samadhi. The second part of the book presents Zen therapy, a way of self-development emphasizing the cultivation of samadhi through psychophysical training. Sayama compares the effects of Rolfing, Feldenkrais, and Zen therapy on the human body and mind. He includes easy-to-follow directions for creating the inner state he describes. He tells vivid stories of extraordinary cases treated from the point of view that the best therapy is nothing less than the removal of all dualism. Four main practices are presented: zazen (meditation), hara development, circulation of the vital energy, and communication.
Download or read book The Sword and the Mind written by Yagyu Muenori and published by Harry N. Abrams. This book was released on 1988-06-06 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Three Japanese swordsmen recorded their philosophy, experiences and ideas during their lifetime in the 16th and 17th centuries. Hiroaki Sato's translation of their work is an illuminating and revealing book on the basic elements of strategy.
Download or read book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind written by Julian Jaynes and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2000-08-15 with total page 580 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: National Book Award Finalist: “This man’s ideas may be the most influential, not to say controversial, of the second half of the twentieth century.”—Columbus Dispatch At the heart of this classic, seminal book is Julian Jaynes's still-controversial thesis that human consciousness did not begin far back in animal evolution but instead is a learned process that came about only three thousand years ago and is still developing. The implications of this revolutionary scientific paradigm extend into virtually every aspect of our psychology, our history and culture, our religion—and indeed our future. “Don’t be put off by the academic title of Julian Jaynes’s The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. Its prose is always lucid and often lyrical…he unfolds his case with the utmost intellectual rigor.”—The New York Times “When Julian Jaynes . . . speculates that until late in the twentieth millennium BC men had no consciousness but were automatically obeying the voices of the gods, we are astounded but compelled to follow this remarkable thesis.”—John Updike, The New Yorker “He is as startling as Freud was in The Interpretation of Dreams, and Jaynes is equally as adept at forcing a new view of known human behavior.”—American Journal of Psychiatry
Download or read book His Word in My Heart written by Janet Pope and published by Moody Publishers. This book was released on 2002-06-01 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Janet Pope has memorized an amazing 90 chapters of the Bible, including 11 New Testament books. In His Word in My Heart, she enthusiastically shares with readers why memorizing Scripture is so important to the walk of the believer.
