Reading the Book of Five Rings · 07
Why Does Musashi Say the Mind Should Stay Ordinary?
The Water Scroll does not begin its instruction on mental bearing by demanding a battle trance. It says that the mind used in strategy must not differ from the mind of ordinary times—then defines that continuity through a series of careful tensions.
A fresh translation
In the Way of strategy, let the bearing of the mind be no different from the ordinary mind.
In ordinary times and at the time of strategy alike, without the slightest change, keep the mind broad and straight: do not pull it tight, do not let it slacken even a little, do not let it lean to one side. Place the mind at the center, set it quietly in motion, and examine well how its motion does not cease even for an instant.
Original text
兵法の道に於て心の持様は常の心に替る事なかれ。
常にも兵法の時にも少も替らずして心を広く直にしてきつくひつぱらず少もたるまず心のかたよらぬ様に心をまん中におきて心を静にゆるがせて其ゆるぎのせつなもゆるぎやまぬ様に能々吟味すべし。
Words and concepts
- Tsune no kokoro (常の心), the ordinary mind
The mind of ordinary times. The phrase does not say “an average” or inattentive mind; it establishes continuity between daily bearing and combat. - Hiroku naoku (広く直に), broad and straight
Two qualities held together. Breadth is not vagueness, and straightness is not rigidity. - Katayoranu (かたよらぬ), not leaning to one side
Not becoming biased or fixed in one direction. - Man-naka (まん中), the center
A middle position between the tight and the slack, not a geometrical point in the body. - Yurugasu (ゆるがせて), setting in motion
The mind is quiet but not stopped. The next phrase insists that its motion must not cease for an instant.
The first instruction rejects a special battle mind
A reader may expect a sword text to demand a state unlike ordinary consciousness: heightened, fierce, emptied, or transformed. Musashi begins elsewhere. The mind used in strategy must not differ from the mind used at ordinary times.
That sentence is not a promise that combat feels ordinary. The wider section later mentions the bustle of the battlefield. The contrast concerns mental bearing. If a practitioner depends on becoming a different person at the moment of danger, the required state arrives too late and may not arrive at all.
The wording also turns practice back toward daily time. “Ordinary” is not what remains when training stops. It is the condition in which the mind’s bearing must already be cultivated. The Water Scroll therefore links instruction in the sword to continuity, not theatrical transformation.
Broad and straight are not synonyms
The second statement begins to define that continuity. The mind is to be broad and straight. These qualities correct different errors.
A broad mind can receive more than one feature of a changing situation. It is not narrowed to the opponent’s sword, one intended technique, or one desired result. A straight mind does not twist around preference or fear. It meets what is present without bending the account to protect the self.
Either term alone could mislead. Breadth without straightness might become diffusion. Straightness without breadth might become a rigid line. Musashi places them beside each other before turning to another pair: tight and slack.
Neither pulled tight nor allowed to slacken
The image is physical. A cord pulled too tightly loses suppleness and may break. A slack cord does not transmit force or direction. The instruction refuses both extremes.
This does not tell the reader to be merely relaxed. “Do not let it slacken even a little” blocks that interpretation. Nor is concentrated strain the answer. “Do not pull it tight” comes first. Mental bearing requires maintained tone without constriction.
The pairing is important for translation. If yurugasu later in the sentence is rendered simply as “relax,” the distinction collapses. Musashi is not moving from tension to ease. He is describing a mind that avoids both tightening and slackness while remaining active.
What it means to place the mind in the center
After warning against partiality, the text says to place the mind in the middle. The phrase can sound mystical if detached from its immediate neighbors. In context, it is practical grammar.
On one side stands a mind pulled tight. On the other stands a mind gone slack. A mind can also lean toward one object, one fear, or one plan. The center is the position that is not captured by either extreme or by a single direction.
Nothing here identifies an anatomical center, a breathing point, or a secret location. Other traditions may use such ideas, but these two statements do not. The safest reading stays with the contrasts Musashi supplies: broad and straight, not tight, not slack, not biased.
Quietly moving is the hardest phrase
The mind is then set “quietly in motion.” Quiet and motion appear together. The next words remove any doubt that motion matters: even in the instant of movement, it must not stop moving.
A perfectly still mind might seem calm, but stillness can become fixation. If attention settles on one object and remains there, change elsewhere goes unanswered. A frantic mind also moves, but not quietly; it is dragged by each new stimulus.
Musashi’s sentence occupies the narrow space between them. Motion continues, but it does not become agitation. Quiet remains, but it does not harden into immobility. This is why the line cannot be reduced to “stay calm.” Calmness is only half of the demanded condition.
“Examine well” makes the passage an assignment
The section closes the quoted span with nōnō ginmi subeshi: examine this very carefully. Musashi often uses such endings when written explanation has reached its limit.
The command matters because the preceding qualities are not a checklist that can be satisfied by naming them. A person can call the mind broad while actually becoming vague. A person can call it straight while becoming stiff. The differences must be tested in practice.
“Examine” also keeps the authority of the passage within bounds. The text supplies distinctions and directions. It does not claim that reading the words produces the state. The reader receives work, not a finished possession.
The rest of the section sharpens the opening
The following sentences continue with more apparent opposites. When things are quiet, the mind must not be merely quiet. When events are fast, the mind must not become fast. Mind and body must not simply drag one another along.
Later, Musashi turns to wisdom, discernment, and the disorder of the battlefield. These continuations confirm that “ordinary mind” is not carelessness. It is a trained continuity that does not change its governing balance when circumstances become urgent.
The opening two statements therefore function as a gate. Posture, gaze, grip, footwork, and forms follow in the Water Scroll. Before those instructions, the mind is denied permission to become special merely because a contest has begun.
Ordinary time belongs inside technique
The passage changes how the boundary of training is drawn. If mental bearing must remain continuous, practice cannot concern only the moment when swords cross. Ordinary time becomes the place where the required balance is either formed or neglected.
This does not turn every daily act into combat. It makes a narrower point about preparation. A mind accustomed to tightening around one concern will not reliably become broad on command. A mind allowed to drift slack cannot be expected to acquire tone at the instant of danger. Continuity means that the habits carried into the encounter were established before it.
The Water Scroll’s later technical sections therefore do not stand apart from this opening. Gaze, grip, footwork, and striking are taught to a practitioner whose mind is already being examined. The word “ordinary” prevents mental instruction from being reserved for exceptional moments, while “examine well” prevents ordinary life from becoming an excuse for leaving the mind untrained.
What these two statements do not establish
They do not prove that Musashi was describing a universal psychology. The passage belongs to his account of strategy and to the transmitted text of the Gorin no Sho.
They do not define the ordinary mind as passive relaxation. The commands against slackness and stopped movement say otherwise.
They do not locate the mind at a physical point in the body. “The center” is explained by the surrounding contrasts, not by anatomy in this excerpt.
They also do not provide a shortcut for modern stress management or professional performance. Such applications may be proposed elsewhere, but they are not claims made by these two statements.
Ordinary does not mean unchanged by training
The paradox can now be stated clearly. Musashi tells the practitioner not to change the mind at the time of strategy, yet the ordinary mind he describes is highly disciplined. It is broad, straight, balanced, centered, quiet, and continuously moving.
The solution is not to manufacture those qualities after danger appears. They must belong to ordinary bearing. Training changes what “ordinary” is, so that the time of strategy does not require a second, improvised mind.
That reading keeps every part of the sentence in view. Continuity is the first demand. Balance gives continuity its shape. Unceasing quiet motion prevents balance from becoming stillness. The result is less dramatic than a battle trance, and far more exacting.
Source
Miyamoto Musashi, Gorin no Sho (五輪書), Water Scroll, “兵法心持の事” (“On the Bearing of the Mind in Strategy”), opening two statements, p. 17 in the 1939 Kyōzaisha edition. The National Diet Library record identifies the edition, author, contents, and persistent identifier 10.11501/1071527. A public-domain scan copy preserves page 17 of the same edition.