The Unfettered Mind: Writings of the Zen Master to the Sword Master
by Takuan Soho
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Book Summary Information
Author: Takuan SohoEdition: Paperback
Audio: Japanese (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1988-03-15
ISBN: 087011851X
Number of pages: 104
Publisher: Kodansha International
Book Reviews of The Unfettered Mind: Writings of the Zen Master to the Sword Master
Book Review: Interesting, but not illuminating.
Summary: 3 Stars
Takuan Soho has a book made of 3 parts, the first is a letter he wrote to a sword master about not "stopping the mind" and "the right mind" which basically amounts to "practice makes perfect" to the modern marital artist. I can't say that it went any further than that. The next section reminded me very strongly of Plato's republic, as Takuan Soho went into the nature of the world as it is, which is very much seen through the lense of his understanding (16th century Japanese science I guess) which is sometimes ridiculous, and of limited use.
The third section is interesting, as he takes writing of various martial artists and interprets them or critiques them. This is useful for a modern martial artist, as we lack much of the historical and cultural context to interpret these directly from the translation. This section, along with the first are what makes the book worth reading. Still, I think that there are many more useful books out there for the martial artist to read before this one. Try Frederick Lovret's "Way and the Power", or Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" or Musashi's "A Book of Five Rings". All of these are much more useful.
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