Show Notes
Fall asleep to the story of Miyamoto Musashi, the undefeated swordsman who laid down his blade to write.
Born into the last years of Japan's long civil wars, a rough, motherless boy killed his first opponent in a duel at the age of thirteen and walked out onto the open road to test himself against the finest swordsmen in the land. This is the story of what he was really looking for. We follow him through the two duels that made him a legend, a broken dynasty of sword teachers in the old capital and a single stroke on a windswept island, and then through the stranger second half of a life spent turning away from killing toward painting, teaching, and a search for something the sword could only point at. In a cave at the end of his days he gathered all of it into one short, austere book about strategy, mastery, and the clear, empty mind that waits on the far side of any discipline pursued to its depth. A life, and a way of seeing, for the quiet hours.
Please listen only in safe, restful contexts.
Chapters: 0:00:00 Chapter 1: The Life 0:10:41 Chapter 2: The Two Swords 0:18:08 Chapter 3: The House in Kyoto 0:29:50 Chapter 4: The Island 0:36:12 Chapter 5: The Wooden Sword 0:44:28 Chapter 6: The Years Without a Master 0:50:36 Chapter 7: The Brush and the Sword 0:59:09 Chapter 8: The Cave 1:04:35 Chapter 9: The Ground of the Way 1:12:38 Chapter 10: The Mind Like Water 1:24:22 Chapter 11: The Heat of Battle 1:33:25 Chapter 12: The Ways of Others 1:39:42 Chapter 13: The Great Emptiness 1:51:49 Chapter 14: The Way of Walking Alone 1:57:16 Chapter 15: The Myth and the Man
If this helped you rest, follow Sleepy Philosophy Radio on Spotify, and become a member to unlock member only episodes and help keep the show going. Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Tracks used: Anguish, Blue Feather, Evening Fall (Harp), Gregorian Chant, Heartbreaking, Lightless Dawn, Lone Harvest, Magic Forest, Mesmerize, Mourning Song, Oppressive Gloom, Promising Relationship, Quinn's Song: A New Man, Relent, Smoother Move, Sunset at Glengorm, Trio for Piano Cello and Clarinet, Wounded
More from Sleepy Philosophy Radio
Fall asleep to the life and ideas of Alan Watts, the philosopher who taught the West how to let go.
Fall asleep to Sigmund Freud, from a room full of buried gods to a chosen death in exile.
Fall asleep to Plotinus, the mystic who taught that all things flow from a single source and long to return.
Thank you for listening, whether this is your first episode or your fiftieth.
Fall asleep to the story of Mainländer, the philosopher who taught that God has died and death is our redemption.