Full name: The Life-Giving Sword: The Secret Teachings From the House of the Shogun

Author: Yagyu Munenori Year: 1632 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Philosophy, Martial arts, Non Fiction, History Purchase/reserch links: LibraryThing Goodreads Amazon ISBNs: 9784770029553 9781590309902 4770029551 1590309901

This is a translation of an important classic on Zen swordfighting. Yagyu Munenori was so widely renowned that he was appointed official sword instructor to two Tokugawa shoguns. (The position was always coveted by Miyamoto Musashi, but he never succeeded in gaining the post). Yagyu's style is known as the Shinkage-ryu style, for centuries the official style of the Tokugawa dynasty. His spiritual mentor was Zen priest Takuan. Here, Yagyu's Buddhist spirituality is clearly reflected in his central idea of the "life-giving sword" - the notion of controlling an opponent by the spiritual readiness to fight, rather than during the fight. His mastery of restraint and diplomacy made him a trusted political and military advisor to the shoguns. This book is a look into a master swordsman's thoughts on nonattachment and even non-violence. Similar books: Living the Martial Way by Forrest E. Morgan The Philosophy of Schopenhauer by Bryan Magee The Dominion of the Dead by Robert Pogue Harrison The Unity of Philosophical Experience by Etienne Gilson The Writing of the Disaster by Maurice Blanchot The Dialectics of Seeing by Susan Buck-Morss Stoicism by John Sellars The Birth of the Clinic by Michel Foucault American Nietzsche by Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen The American Evasion of Philosophy by Cornel West What Nietzsche Really Said by Robert C. Solomon The Portable Enlightenment Reader by Isaac Kramnick The Greek Philosophers by W. K. C. Guthrie Foucault by Gary Gutting The Rise of Modern Philosophy by Anthony Kenny Being Good by Simon Blackburn Plato, Socrates, and the Dialogues by Michael Sugrue Medieval Philosophy by Anthony Kenny Foucault For Beginners by Lydia Alix Fillingham Introducing Philosophy by Dave Robinson