Transcription
Certain mods in this cave, Redondo Cave, by candlelight, he wrote the Book of Five Rings. Why is that so significant? Right, the Book of Five Rings is broken down into the elements of life: water, wind, fire, ground, and void.
As I reflected, I looked at these monks, hundreds of thousands of these statues, each one surviving. Today, I want to share my favorite conversation I had with Tulam in his war room. We went over to his book collection, where we spent a good hour with Tulam telling us the stories of how he was motivated and inspired by his books.
But this book in particular, this one book, was Tulam's favorite. It was his most influential book and had the biggest impact on his life. He explains all those lessons that are held within these pages.
Today's video was sponsored by mulliganers.com, the best motivational clothing brand in the world, where you can now get the hoodies and the t-shirts with the link in the description. All the profits go back into making this content possible.
Are you rolling? Yep, yep, ready when you are. This is my war room. The war room encompasses all my travels, my studies in warfare. My studies in warfare stem back to the samurai and the way of the combat side of being a samurai.
But it goes off of a code, Bushido. What I like about Bushido, this book right here, Bushido, it talks about Bushido as a path, the way. Right means to stop, to intercept, to go to war. She is the one who's strong enough to walk this path, endure, to take your life and to give back for the sake of humanity, which is tied and grounded in Confucianism.
Confucius talks about how we're all flawed as human beings, and through life, we must refine ourselves. We must better ourselves, and that's what Bushido is—the path.
One of the books that stand out to me is Hakakira. Hakikira is a book that was actually written by two samurais. The samurais had a conversation for seven years. They would sit there and talk about what it meant to be a samurai.
You see, this book was written during peacetime in Japan when Tokugawa Ieyasu brought peace after 250 years of civil war. So, samurais who used to serve their daimyo now had no battles, no wars. Tokugawa brought peace.
These two samurais, during peacetime in Japan, reflected on what it means to be a samurai. What's unique about this book is that it was written a hundred years after the warring states period. That was the first time in history that the word Bushido was ever written in literature.
During the warring states period, it was simply known as "the way." The Book of Five Rings has multiple translations, right? Multiple translations of the book.
Musashi Miyamoto was born in the late 1500s and was a renowned swordsman. He was very skilled in the art of Ishiryu, which he wielded, the Heaven and Earth, which are the long sword and short sword, the washita and nakatana. He was so unconventional for his time in his sword methodology.
He dueled in 67 duels and won every single one. It was said that when Musashi reached the age of 35, after he killed so many men, he reflected on his life and walked the path of Dō, which was now humanity.
So, what he did was become a poet, an artist, a gardener. In his final days, he was a master swordsman who taught his skills in Ishiryu. It is said that in his final years, he retreated to the mountains of Kyomoto, where he lived with monks in these sacred grounds.
He fell ill with stomach cancer and was dying. For three years, he worked in these sacred grounds, and he said that’s where he found his peace. It was said that at a certain hour and month in this cave, Redondo Cave, by candlelight, he wrote the Book of Five Rings.
Why is that so significant? The Book of Five Rings is broken down into the elements of life: water, wind, fire, ground, and void. He broke it down into each one of these elements, void being the last.
Musashi taught me the teachings of each element and in the Bushido code, in my palatable shield of the way of the warrior, I was able to experience life and the lesson of each chapter.
When to know one's enemy, to gather intelligence, right? To understand the enemy and the environment. Only by understanding the enemy and the environment can you effectively defeat your enemy.
Fire is to meet your enemy without fear. That comes with a mindset: fight like you already died, to have no fear of death. Ground yourself, right? Another teaching is to ground yourself in the teachings of education in the way of the warrior.
Wind, you know, and then void. I tell you, void was the hardest for me because Musashi says that in order to perceive what is actual truth, you must die to everything of yesterday.
I was suffering, you know, after my time at war, and I was very lost. I read that book, void. I never understood what that meant. How can you die to everything of yesterday to perceive what is?
Well, it actually goes back into Taoism and Confucianism, where in life we create a narrative. We live in this dream of what is absolute.
So, what is absolute? The universe, the mountains, stars, moon, God—that's absolute truth. But what we place on these absolutes is a narrative. A tree is only a tree, but we look at this tree and say, "Wow, what a small tree."
We look at this tree and say, "Oh, the tree's not perfect." The tree is perfect. Life is perfect, right? But we throw it as a narrative.
In life, we come with a narrative. When we travel through this world with our own narratives, you face a struggle. Either you learn from it or you repeat it. When you learn from it, is it really failure?
So, Musashi in the Book of Five Rings is just that: you must die to your truth in order to see what is actual. And that comes with a lot of practice, right?
For many years, I practiced this, and now I understand. During my travels, I started teaching a lot. After my time in Japan, to close off my warriors, I visited Miyamoto Musashi.
I went to Redondo Cave and climbed that cave. It was a unique morning because my wife knew that this journey to Kyomoto needed to happen. We were traveling all through Japan and had this journalist attached to me.
So that morning, we caught a private flight to Kyomoto with one of my close friends. We had a private driver pick us up at the airport. The older gentleman was so happy to be driving to see Musashi.
I asked him, "Why are you excited?" He said, "I've never been here before." He drove me for hours. As I looked at the train while we were driving through this misty environment, it was kind of rainy that morning.
I was just driving through, looking at the navigation system, and I could see why Musashi retreated to this area. It was cloudy, in the mountains, so beautiful.
As we pulled into the parking lot, there was a huge statue, like four stories high, of Musashi meditating, and there were Bushido writings all around him. I was so happy. I got out and started taking pictures, and instantly my camera stopped working.
I was pondering on it because I just bought this camera, and it worked everywhere else. I started to get upset, and my wife came up to me and said, "Just let it go, enjoy this moment."
When she said that, if I was a Ronin of the past and I was to teach that Ronin of the future, one lesson would be just that: to be mindful, to stop worrying about the externals.
So, I walked through the Buddhist grounds, a lot of warrior statues, and finally made it to the Shinto shrine. Shinto is tying away the old. There was a Buddhist monk there, and he gave me this bracelet and this book.
Then I made my way into this cave where they had a glass exhibit of all Musashi's personal stuff. He was an artist, a gardener, a warrior, and he had Heaven and Earth there, the dual swords.
As I walked out, I saw thousands of these Buddhist monuments scattered throughout the landscape, ridge line to ridge line. I reflected as I looked. These survived earthquakes, wars—hundreds of thousands of these statues, each one with a different face.
When I walked through, I finally came to the entryway to Musashi's cave. There was this pagoda, a Japanese stone statue, and it had Bushido writings, warrior writings, written from top to bottom.
Then I climbed the cave and entered. I saw the rock where Musashi wrote the Book of Five Rings. It was said that Musashi, in these sacred grounds, back when he was dying of stomach cancer, had a torch.
He was walking through very slippery grounds because Japan's islands used to be underwater and had a coastline, so it was very coral reef, very slippery terrain.
It is said that Musashi found this cave, and there was a boat that washed into this cave. That's where he entered, and that's where the Book of Five Rings was written.
Here I am in this cave, you know, and I took off my shoes, climbed up the rock, and sat there in a meditation style. What was really unique about that meditation style was that this cave entrance was like a canvas, and it overlooked these sacred grounds.
You could almost see the treetops. It was misty that morning. As I sat there, I started meditating. I remember going into that meditation process because I was there for a reason.
I close off my warriors with forgiveness. During that time in the cave, in the spirit of things, that's when I forgave the world and worked on myself.
What was really unique was that an hour away was Musashi's grave site. It was said that his loyal retainers, in his final moments, when he felt death setting in, asked his loyal retainers, his loyal students, to help him to his knees.
It is said that Musashi died with sword in hand because he said in his final moments, "Life and death are all one and the same. Without life, there's no death; without death, there's no life."
A warrior walks into the afterlife with no fear. He said that he died in a kneeling position as a warrior. They said that they buried his body roughly about an hour away by drive, in these high grounds, at the entrance of a castle.
This Daniel warlord was said to have buried Musashi there to wave at the future samurais, the warriors, as they walked past, watching over them.
When I went to his final resting place, I sat down and looked at the error message on my camera. I took out the battery, put it back in, did it at least 100 times. At Musashi's cave, the camera fired up, no errors.
You can take that as you want. I just take it as a lesson to be present. Don't be mindful of the things that are outside your control.
That was outside my control, but yet I was trying to control an element that I had no control over. The only thing I had control over was me and how I looked at that narrative.
What I did was remind myself that it was a beautiful morning.
So, the lessons from Musashi. Thank you so much for watching the video. The link for Tulam's stuff is linked down below. We'll also put a link for the book as well, so you can read it yourself and absorb these lessons he is teaching.
I would say a massive thank you to Tulam and his family. We have a lot more content coming out through this process. We shot over 50 hours with Tulam over the week, so there's a lot of stuff there that we need to get our teeth into.
What would you guys like to see? Let us know. We are doing more interviews at the moment, so comment down below, tag some people in this, let people know that we're out there doing interviews, and we want to hear who you want to hear from.
As always, today's video was sponsored by mollywoods.com, the best motivational clothing brand in the world, where you can now get the hoodie, the t-shirts, and the book with the link in the description. All the profits go back into making this content possible.
Have a blast and a productive day. Go follow me on Instagram, and I'll see you in the next one. Peace.