Musashi's Dokkodo (The Way of Walking Alone): Half Crazy, Half Genius - Finding Modern Meaning in the Sword Saint's Last Words Paperback – November 8, 2015

Musashi’s Book of Five Rings is a classic and read throughout the world. The Dokkodo is not as well known and is but a list of Musashi’s codes that he lived by. Musashi is not known for going into great detail. Often he would end a chapter with “you must research this”. The experts enlisted in this endeavor bring a fresh perspective on Musashi’s code and a new line of thinking on the man himself. Was Musashi a sociopath? Maybe. You can make that case…But it’s hard to measure a man who lived 500 years ago in a land full of razor sharp swords by applying today’s standards. I enjoyed this book immensely and recommend it, especially to those interested in Musashi.

Full Disclosure: I received a free, autographed copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. And yes, with these authors honest is a very real part of the requirement. It's part of why I follow them and devour their publications when I find them.This is an interpretation of the original precepts from Miyamoto Musashi. The precepts are taken one by one and interpreted from several viewpoints, that of a monk, a businessman, an insurance adjuster, a warrior, and a teacher, though not actually in that order. The combination of perspectives is very illuminating and triggered my brain into deep thought for each of the precepts. Which also meant that once I read a chapter I had to put the book down and ruminate upon it for a while before moving to the next precept. How long varied by precept. I learned new things from each precept and each of the interpretations of them. Musashi was, by modern sensibilities, very much a functional psychopath. That doesn't mean, as is alarmingly the assumption these days, that everything about him should be wiped from history. Quite the opposite, as we can learn from him, who he was, and what he did. That doesn't mean we aim to become pyschos or even remotely risk becoming pyschos. It means we can use what he did and what he taught to make ourselves better, and the immediate comparisons offered up by the combinations of perspectives in this book are extremely useful for doing that.

This was a very good book to read and the different perspectives really help to understand it.

When I first communicated with Mr. Wider via e-mail (before I bought the book) he cautioned me to reserve judgment until I had read it. So, I did.Everything he asserts in this book seems plausible and probable...it is well written and well researched. Although there is a bit of conjecture in reading between the lines; I find Kris' judgments to be very likely. It is a very good read and will make you look at other assumptions in a different light...Not all histories are written objectively...in fact, none of them are....We can only approximate the truth when looking backwards. chufeng

I dig how this is formatted. Each of Musashi's rules is analyzed from five different points of view; each perspective has it's unique list of pros and cons. The debate is not so much tempered as it is informative. It's a very enlightening way to discuss any philosophy I think, and I got a lot from reading this.

The 21 precepts below are the ONLY words actually written by Musashi in this 220+ page book. The rest is five people giving their opinion on each precept. Save yourself the time and the money.precept 1. Accept everything just the way it is.precept 2. Do not seek pleasure for it's own sake.precept 3. Do not, under any circumstances, depend on a partial feelingprecept 4. Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the worldprecept 5. Be detached from desire your whole lifeprecept 6. Do not regret what you have doneprecept 7. Never be jealousprecept 8. Never let yourself be saddened by a seperationprecept 9. Resentment and complain are appropriate neither for oneself or othersprecept 10. Dont let yourself be guided by the feeling of love or lustprecept 11. In all things, have no preferenceprecept 12. Be indifferent to where you liveprecept 13. Do not pursue the taste of good foodprecept 14. Do not hold on to possessions you no longer needprecept 15. Do not act following customary beliefsprecept 16. Do not collect weapons or practice with weapons beyond what is usefulprecept 17. Do not fear deathprecept 18. Do not seek to possess either goods or fiefs for your old ageprecept 19. Respect Buddha and the gods without counting on their helpprecept 20.You may abandon your own body but you must preserve your honorprecept 21. Never stray from the way