“Enact strategy broadly, correctly and openly. Then you will come to think of things in a wide sense and, taking the void as the Way, you will see the Way as void. In the void is virtue, and no evil. Wisdom has existence, principle has existence, the Way has existence, spirit is nothingness.”
– Miyamoto Musashi, Book of Five Rings
In 17th century Japan there lived a swordsman unequaled in martial combat by the name of Miyamoto Musashi. He lived to a ripe old age and repudately never lost a single duel in his lifetime. In his 50s he began to reflect back on his life as a warrior and came to the conclusion that he was invincible, but he was not sure why. He did not claim that he had necessarily been more skillful than all of the swordsmen he faced, yet he was able to defeat every one of them. In his 60s he described the Way in a series of letters to a student, known as The Book of Five Rings.
The book covers a small array of topics but they all share a common theme. Behind every technique, word of advice, and wisdom, there is always the underlying reminder that you must bear yourself with the intention of killing your enemy. Your spirit must stay resolved to this end, lest you fall into defensive or ineffective strategy.
Yet in the last of these five books, the Book of the Void, Musashi explains that the spirit of the true Way is the void spirit. The void, as Musashi puts it, is “bewilderment.” This is to say that it is what exists beyond things that have existence, therefore it is non-existence. It is impossible to grasp “non-existence” in thought, because a thought has existence. In this way he equates it with spirit, as spirit has no tangible existence.
The power of the Void spirit is in its unbiased nature. To cultivate the void spirit one must empty the mind and be fully present in the moment. The void spirit can take on any spirit, and actions spring from the void spirit spontaneously. It is, I think, the essential spirit of nature.
In combat, with rigorous training, the void spirit will allow a fighter to call upon all of his or her available resources as needed. By emptying the mind, all of your mental and physical faculties are made keenly aware of the present moment. Reflexes are uninhibited in the state of the void spirit, and the unbridled are man’s instincts for survival. In essence, the void spirit takes on whatever form it needs, adapting to the moment, and perceiving that which cannot be seen. As Mushashi would put it…
“You must research this.”
The Mysterious Past 