Warrior Work Week 12

Principle: Developing the 5 Rings

Musashi applies his principles to warriorship and the use of the sword but they
have many other expansive points of view which can be applied to modern
warriorhood and the evolution of the self. The challenge for this week is to
briefly examine each of the 5 rings and start to strengthen each link and be
mindful that any chain is only as strong as it’s weakest link so build the weakest
first and then move to the ones that stable or strong.

Ground – How is your foundation? Foundations include mental, emotional and

physical centeredness. Many people get their foundations from traditions,
religions, family, culture etc. but others abandon their roots or traditions for
other philosophies and worlds. Cultivating your abilities and core beliefs can
shield you in times of sudden misfortune or disillusionment.

Water – How is your ability to flow and shift? As people we have a tendency to
be hard or soft. Water can absorb a blow by yielding or it can penetrate and
wear away even the hardest rock. It was the steady persistence of water that
carved out the grand canyon. Cultivating your ability to shift and adapt to the
changing circumstances of your life is a great art.

Fire – How is your passion and zest for life? Fire warms and nurtures but in
excess it burns and destroys. Learning to cultivate our inner fire and using it
productively versus destructively is a true warrior’s task. Developing passion
without attachment is a warrior’s paradox. The tao te ching or way of life by lao
tzu calls the ability to cultivate without possessing or domineering “mysterious
power”. Moving with enthusiasm is literally moving “in theos”, within the fire of
God.

Wind – How is your ability to be everywhere like the wind, cultivating an

expansive mindfulness of the energetics around you? The wind is likened to
intelligence gathering and being aware of other worlds that interact and intersect
with yours? Cultivating our energy to look beyond and outside our self and
listening to the voices in the wind while looking at what we hear and see with
our intuitive eyes is this challenge.

Void – Musashi uses the ideogram or kanji for “empty” or “infinity” to describe
the void. It is the expansiveness of the sky, always changing and yet never
changing. Cultivating the inner self and it’s expansiveness, becoming more
empty so we can purify our intent and follow our heart is this challenge.
Judgements lock up our muscles and our emotions to the point of impotency.
Emptying ourselves daily is an important task explains the Chinese philosopher
Wen Tzu. We can probably call it “forgiving” daily since forgiving frees up our
energy and makes us responsible for what we choose and create. Blaming others
makes us victims. In the “Fountainhead” by Ayn Rand, Toohey asks Roark what
he thinks of him after he has destroyed his career. Roark replies that he doesn’t
think of him. He is in contact with the void and moves from his heart regardless
of what anyone else does or does not do. Regardless of the ups and downs, he
follows his intent wherever it leads, even when he has no destination in sight.
How is your link to the vastness within you?