Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal: Samurai master: How to Train the Mind

Tuesday, January 27, 2026

Samurai master: How to Train the Mind

Miyamoto Musashi

Miyamoto Musashi (宮本武蔵, circa 1583–1645) was a Japanese Samurai swordsman, strategist, artist (who drew Hotei Watching a Cockfight shown above), and writer who became renowned through stories of his unique double-bladed swordsmanship and undefeated record in 62 duels [3][a].

Musashi is considered a kensei ("sword saint") of Japan [4]. He was the founder of the Niten Ichi-ryū (Nito Ichi-ryū) style of swordsmanship, and in his final years authored The Book of Five Rings (五輪の書, Go Rin No Sho) and Dokkōdō (獨行道, The Path of Aloneness). More

How to train the mind to obey | MM Method

(Presence & Blade) Samurai swordsman Miyamoto Musashi trained the mind to follow commands instead of emotions.

Scholar holds magnifying glass

This method comes from Japanese philosophy about life and works by reshaping the power of the subconscious mind, where resistance, excuses, and hesitation are born. Learn:

How to stop negotiating with the mind
Why most people fail at self-control despite motivation
The real strength and weakness of discipline in mental training
Simple Japanese meditation techniques that build inner authority
How this approach reflects the eight Japanese habits that can change life
A practical way to understand how to maintain discipline in life consistently.

This is not about forcing the mind. It is about training it so that obedience becomes natural.

Miyamoto Musashi 宮本無三四
Taming the Mind: Discourses of the Buddha (Wheel 51, BPS)

00:00 – The hidden reason the mind refuses to obey
00:45 – When we realize our mind is in charge (David’s awakening)
04:10 – Musashi’s core revelation: We are not our mind
07:40 – Forging obedience the Samurai way (training through resistance)
12:10 – Why big commands fail and small commands win
15:30 – Cutting off escape routes before the mind rebels
19:10 – Training immediate action (no delay, no debate)
22:30 – Ending the civil war inside our head
26:00 – What a fully obedient mind looks like in real life
28:40 – Retraining disobedience into absolute control
31:18 – The path forward: Command or be ruled.

When Buddhists Attack (Mann)

Some scholars like D.T. Suzuki see the term wu-nien (無念, "without thought," "without recollection," with nien possibly rendered as smṛti, "mindfulness," "memory") as being synonymous to wu-xin [2, 12].

Furthermore, while wunien is common in the texts of the Southern School of Zen, the texts of the Northern School prefer the term "freedom from thought" or "freedom from conceptualization" (離念) [13].

#MiyamotoMusashi #SelfDiscipline #JapanesePhilosophy #PowerOfSubconsciousMind #PresenceAndBlade

💬 COMMENT: Where does your mind disobey you the most right now?

Just do it (without paralysis by analysis)

No-mind (Mushin calligraphy/cathexis-life)

NO-MIND: The term 無心 contains the Chinese character for negation, "not" or "without" (無), along with the character for heart-mind (心).

Likewise, in Sanskrit, the term is a compound of the prefix a- (negation) and the word citta (mind, thought, consciousness, heart).

In China, the term came to mean a state in which there is no mental activity, or a mind free of all discrimination and conceptualization, making it similar to the Buddhist Sanskrit term nisprapañca [9] and the Sanskrit term nirvikalpa [10].

The Zen zero is the enso.

Another similar Sanskrit term is amanasikāra ("non-thinking," "mental non-engagement"), which is found in the works of the 11th century tantric Yogi Maitripa [11].

Some scholars also offer other Sanskrit terms as being the source of the Chinese term wunien, including: a-cintya, a-vikalpa, or a-saṃjñā [2]. More