Shido and Stoicism
Shido and Stoicism An Exploration of Commonalities in Principles and Practices Michael Barr It is not by accident that The Discourses of Epictetus, Seneca’s Letters , and the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius rest on my bookshelf next to lesser known volumes, at least in the West, by ancient Japanese authors like Miyamoto Musashi’s Gorin no sho (The Book of Five Scrolls), Issai Chozanshi’s Tengu-Geijutsuron (The Demon’s Sermon on the Martial Arts) Yagyu Munenori’s Heiho kadensho (The Life Giving Sword), Takuan’s Fudochi shinmyoroku (The Unfettered Mind) Yamamto Tsunetomo’s Hagakure (In the Shadow of Leaves), or the Budoshoshinshu (Warrior’s Primer) of Daidoji Yuzan. Over my fifty one years of as a martial practitioner I’ve come to appreciate the philosophical commonalities between Shido and Stoicism. In this essay, I ...