Excerpt from Clearing Away Clouds
By Stephen Fabian
Clearing Away Clouds: Nine Lessons for Life
from the Martial Arts (Weatherhill), ISBN
0-8348-0468-9, $14.95, soft cover, 159 pages,
by Stephen Fabian
 arriors learn military science accurately and
go on to practice the techniques of martial arts
diligently. The way that is practiced by warriors
is not obscure in the least. Without any confusion
in mind, without slacking off at any time, polishing
the mind and attention, sharpening the eye that
observes and the eye that sees, one should know
real emptiness as the state where there is no
obscurity and the clouds of confusion have cleared
away.
Miyamoto Musashi: The Book of Five Rings
To be able to live and function without confusion--how
appealing in this fast-paced modern world, with its
plethora of ethical dilemmas, overwhelming flow of new
information, and emphasis on individual choice and
satisfaction. In such a world, dare we hope to possess
the clarity of vision and purpose that would allow us
to tread confidently and securely? Is such a life really
possible? How can it be achieved?
Miyamoto Musashi (1584-1645), author of the above quote
and Japan's most famous master swordsman, knew such
clarity of mind, and applied it successfully during
a life of combative self-exploration, artistic expression,
and training in his chosen vocation, which he called
"the way of strategy." Musashi lived through
the end of a turbulent feudal epoch marked by incessant
warfare and into the early and restless years of a
relatively peaceful period established by the Tokugawa
shogun, or chief military leaders, that was to last
over two centuries. For the bushi, or samurai
warriors, like Musashi, it was a time of challenges,
requiring a shift from the combat duties of obligatory
feudal service to the administration of peace.
Although verifiable historical details on Musashi are
fragmentary, he is known as Kensei, or Sword Saint,
in Japan, having survived by his own account over sixty
shinken shobu, duels to the death, and creating
his famous two-sword fighting style, Niten Ichi Ryu.
Martial artist extraordinaire, Musashi also trained
himself in such creative and peaceful arts as painting,
sculpture, and calligraphy, producing masterpieces of
international renown. As warrior, artist, and author,
Musashi led a life of rarely equaled intensity and talent,
a life in which mastery--of the arts as well as the self--was
actualized through a profound clarity of mind, one from
which all obscuring clouds had been cleared away.
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