Why MIYAMOTO MUSASHI Was Right: How your Posture impacts your Mind

The Pen and Sword Journal - Vol 75

I was re-reading (for the hundredth time) a passage from Miyamoto Musashi’s The Book of Five Rings where he obsesses over how to stand.

It was this one:

Physical Bearing in Martial Arts

As for physical appearance, your face should not be tilted downward, upward, or to the side. Your gaze should be steady.

Do not wrinkle your forehead, but make a furrow between your eyebrows.

Keep your eyes unmoving, and try not to blink.

Narrow your eyes slightly. The idea is to keep a serene expression on your face, nose straight, chin slightly forward.

The back of the neck should be straight, with strength focused on the nape.

Feeling the whole body from the shoulders down as one, lower the shoulders, keep the spine straight, and do not let the buttocks stick out.

Concentrate power in the lower legs, from the knees down through the tips of the feet.

Tense the abdomen so that the waist does not bend.

There is a teaching called “tightening the wedge,” which means that the abdomen is braced by the scabbard of…