Читать книгу Musashi's Book of Five Rings - Stephen F. Kaufman - Страница 8

ABOUT THE TRANSLATION

This is not another book about Japanese business strategy. There is a significant difference between not getting a deal signed and having your head cut off. Business is mental. War is mental and physical. The true warrior has no difficulty understanding this difference regardless of all the hype suggesting that “business is war.” It absolutely is not.

This is a book for “martialists.” Not martial artists. The concept of “art” can lead to a misunderstanding of the warrior’s purpose and preclude a subjective relationship to form and function. For, paradoxically, the warrior is all passion although he shows none and “kills” without hesitation. The reality is one of neither subjectivity nor objectivity.

Development of technique is essential to understanding of purpose. Once a specific technique has been understood, the warrior stops using it on a conscious level because in combat having a conscious identity imposes limitations. Knowing how to do something and actually doing it are not at all the same thing. Taking a life is not the same as taking money. This fundamental premise is the reason why samurai despised the merchant class even while understanding the need for the merchant mentality. Cold-blooded businessmen, however, do not understand the true Way of the warrior.

The majority of translations of Musashi’s work available on the market are little more than intellectual exercises in translating Japanese to English. They do not adequately express the feeling required to study life and death confrontations and therefore fall short of the mark. The present work has been done with the purpose of clearing up the misconceptions of naive Westerners and Easterners as to the “real” purpose of the Five Rings. It explains in depth, with additional definition, the truths that must be comprehended before it is possible to come to terms with the teachings of Musashi. It is therefore to be studied as a “universal” explanation.

With deep reverence and profound homage to the master, I take full responsibility for the interpretation of all concepts presented herein.

Steve Kaufman, Hanshi, 10th Dan