While the acronym of MGTOW and its many ideas began to gain traction in the last decade, the underlying principles of cultivating individuality and masculinity can be traced to all corners of the world throughout history. I’ve sampled many texts and quotes from men in other videos, but for men who embodied the meaning of the philosophy we share I will make dedicated historical videos.

Miyamoto Musashi was one such man. Details are scarce about him, but the details we do know about him should be given considerable thought and reflection. Musashi was an undefeated dueler, a master-less samurai, and an independent teacher. He was born in Japan around 1584 during a period of turmoil as the country found itself in a civil war as the Japanese warlords fought for territory. He was born into a samurai family and trained by his father, who was an accomplished swordsman. His mother died soon after his birth, and he was raised by his step-mother. After his father divorced the step-mother, Musashi, at the age of seven, was sent to live with his uncle, who was a Buddhist monk, in a Buddhist temple. There he learned Zen Buddhism, reading and writing. The details are scarce, but at 9 or 10 his father died or completely abandoned the young Musashi. At 13 he had his first duel, killing a man seconds after the fight began with a wooden sword. Between 16 to 20 years of age, he left the temple and wandered to hone his skills and become Japan’s greatest swordsman.

His dueling exploits are fascinating and inspiring to see the raw determination manifested into his physical form, but this video will be focusing on the philosophy he developed over his lifetime and shared in his two works: the Gorin-No-Sho, or the Book of Five Rings, and the Dokkodo, or “The Way of Walking Alone”.

My translation of the Book of Five Rings is from Thomas Cleary. If you find a different translation it may differ slightly, but the overall message of the work is universal. Musashi wrote this so the common man could read and understand it, unlike other swordsmen who believed making their writings as esoteric as possible kept them in the exclusive military caste of Japanese society.

 

The patterns of human nature allow for observant minds to reliably predict how people will act. The MGTOW concepts of “All Women Are Like That” and the behaviors of white knights and blue pill men are the application of biological instincts in social situations. The majority of all people are slaves to their desires or their duties and can be controlled through these chains. The application of basic principles is a proactive measure to ensure you are always prepared for any situation. Don’t be afraid to use these principles because they exist for a reason.

 

You must strive to attain purity in your life, in all aspects. If you find yourself doing things you don’t want to do, you must work everyday to free yourself from these burdens in your life. You may have to work a job you dislike to provide for yourself, but you should be taking steps to get yourself into a better situation in the future. Even if you have a good work life balance and pursue your own goals in your free time, there is still that presence of dissatisfaction when you are forced to face what takes you from your path.

 

The MGTOW Way is Your Way. Even if your way is comparable to my way, there will always be small differences that would make it unappealing to you. MGTOW isn’t one size fits all, you have to tune and tweak the philosophy to fit your life, and that’s the first step to truly going your own way. Instead of blinding following someone else’s life path, you have to take charge and compare your own goals and desires with the knowledge you get from the MGTOW community. As Musashi says, if you have the knowledge, you can see it everywhere around you. MGTOW are everywhere, you probably met some men who live the lifestyle and haven’t found the community yet. Just because they are on different paths doesn’t mean you can’t learn from them.

 
1. “Think of what is right and true.”
Your ideals will not always line up with reality. Allowing your ideals to interfere with objective reality, what is true right before your eyes, is what blinded you before finding MGTOW. Always keep your ideals in mind, but don’t let them have power over you as they once did. Adapt and grow, but always keep the truth in front of you.

2. “Practice and cultivate the science.”
In the case of Musashi, his was military science. Whatever your craft is, practice it everyday and become an expert in it. If you are free of the burdens of marriage and children, you should put that energy and resources saved to good use.

3. “Become acquainted with the arts.”
Take your craft and become obsessed with it. Direct that energy you gave to pursuing the interests of other people and channel it into yourself. Learn the inner workings of every facet of what you truly want to do with your life, and if you haven’t found it yet, dedicate yourself to finding it.

4. “Know the principles of the crafts.”
You have to learn the ‘how’ of your craft, but to have true mastery of anything you must learn the ‘why’. Principles and ideals guide every decision, to learn these guides you must learn your own. Once you have mastered this through mediation and reflection, you can navigate your field at a level reserved only for the most dedicated of men.

5. “Understand the harm and benefit in everything.”
Going MGTOW without fully understanding the power of it can do more harm than good. If you find yourself in the red pill rage phase, you can put yourself in a dark place. Every situation you find yourself in with women or blue pill men can be harmful or beneficial. You may need more experience with women to fully understand and accept the ideas you have learned about, which can be beneficial to you by finally letting go of what you were raised to believe, or harmful in that you put yourself at risk in this time of mass moral panic.

6. “Learn to see everything accurately.”
Looking at life with the MGTOW perspective in mind can be difficult at first, but it is necessary to apply it equally to everything so that you are always looking at things honestly and accurately.

7. “Become aware of what is not obvious.”
There is truth hidden from you in every corner of the world, and it’s up to you to find it. Lies are easy to produce and profitable for the schemer.

8. “Be careful even in small matters.”
If you know the principles but fail to apply them in everyday life, you really didn’t know the principles at all. It’s the small matters that matter the most, they prepare you for those momentous occasions where everything you’ve learned will be applied.

9. “Do not do anything useless.”
A life of hedonism does not bring fulfillment. Mastery and creation bring peace and satisfaction. Pursue goals that can be worked on over long periods of time and avoid instant gratification. Let the mindless hordes numb themselves and rot their brains while you build your reality instead of having it given to you.

Your mind governs your actions. Before you can get your body and your craft in order, you must calm your mind. This is why men become addicted to consuming MGTOW, their minds are being reshaped and they cannot find a place to settle mentally. This inner turmoil is as necessary as the chaotic shaping of the Earth, but it can’t last forever. Practice meditation and get yourself into a productive and positive state of mind or you will be crippled as your mind stretches into all directions.

There is no reason to rush anymore now that you are on your own path. You have freed yourself from the rat race, now you can take the time to do what you want to do and to do it right, with all of your effort. Now you can stop to smell the flowers and enjoy the brief amount of time we are given. As long as you keep improving and avoid stagnating with the freedom you’ve taken for yourself, you can master your path.

 

After he fell ill, Musashi retreated to a cave and wrote The Book of Five Rings, which is considered his greatest work, but his final work is more applicable to MGTOW. This short guide for his lifestyle was meant to teach future generations the self-disciple required to achieve greatness. He completed the Dokkodo, or “The Way of Walking Alone” in the cave a week before his death in 1645.

Read the 21 precepts of Dokkodo:

1. “Accept everything just the way it is.”
As I said in the second part of my video series Quest for Freedom, anger and frustration comes from the desire to change things. Once you accept human nature, you can begin to let go of the disappointment you feel at the underwhelming efforts of the majority and begin to create the image of what you want to see from the world in yourself.

2. “Do not seek pleasure for its own sake.”
Hedonism leads nowhere. A hedonistic population is a reliable indictator for a soon-to-be extinct population, as evidenced in ancient China, the Roman Empire, and now modern Western society. Hedonism can never be completed, it is an endless pit like depression and lust that will consume you if you let it.

3. “Do not, under any circumstances, depend on a partial feeling.”
Always follow your gut instinct no matter what. You were biologically hardwired with instincts that can only be overridden with artificial ideas supplanted on to you by your surroundings. If you act on feelings that aren’t what you truly desire, then you will act from a position of weakness. Always operate from a position of strength.

4. “Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world.”
Your ego is as much an obstacle to your path as women are. Humble yourself so that you can learn from your mistakes and grow. The world and all its offerings have been here long before you and will be here long after you. You are merely a visitor, so learn as much as you can while you are passing through.

5. “Be detached from desire your whole life long.”
You can pursue things of interest, but you must do so from a position of being independent from the outcome. If you were to put all your metaphorical eggs in one basket, it would lead to disappointment and even ruin. Remain free from desires by having an abundance mentality. Set your goals and work towards them, but realize that you may not achieve them or that you may succeed and find yourself lacking a purpose.

6. “Do not regret what you have done.”
Whatever mistakes you made that led you to MGTOW were simply educational lessons on your unique path to freedom. If you relapse and make a mistake even after learning and listening, don’t beat yourself up or you’ll just repeat it again. Learn from the experience and move forward.

7. “Never be jealous.”
Once you have enjoyed the freedom and peace of mind from external validation, its hard to feel jealousy for the men still on the plantation. You may, however, feel jealousy for the easy life women appear to have. Never be jealous of women, because they live a tortured existence of hatred and jealousy, there’s no reason to step into that arena.

8. “Never let yourself be saddened by a separation.”
In the first part of my video series Quest for Freedom, I spoke of the story of the monk and the tea cup. If you cherish every interaction with someone and look at it from an honest perspective, you won’t mourn its absence in the future. Being attached to things or people can only bring sadness because nothing is eternal. That doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy their company, but it does mean that you should remain pragmatic.

9. “Resentment and complaint are appropriate neither for oneself or others.”
I struggled with this when I was a teen, and found myself complaining all the time about everything. Doing this automatically puts you in a negative state of mind and prevents you from seeing and accepting the truths in your environment. We can complain about women or the state of gender relations as much as we want, it won’t change it and it will only put you in a bad mood.

10. “Do not let yourself be guided by the feeling of lust or love.”
An obvious tip to us now, but imagine how world shattering this single sentence is to a man on the plantation. If you give women the means to control you, why are you surprised when they utilize the tools at their disposal? Give them no power over you and you will be untouchable.

11. “In all things have no preferences.”
Men are creatures of adaptation, and learning to go with the flow and roll with the punches is a trait that will help you on your path. If you are unable to operate without your desired preferences in a situation, you were not prepared for that situation. Be prepared for all situations.

12. “Be indifferent to where you live.”
I touched on this briefly in my tips for young MGTOW video, but you should learn to live with less so that you can become mobile. If a place as an internet connection and a desk for my computer, I am happy. If it doesn’t, I can make do without it and survive until I can find a place that does have it. As the world continues in its decline, younger MGTOW may also have to move out of their native countries to thrive or to avoid a draft for a future war.

13. “Do not pursue the taste of good food.”
I’ve struggled with this rule this year because a bunch of fast food chains have opened right outside of my house, and usually I don’t partake in fast food that often. I realized it was a problem early on and I’m cutting it off and returning to my original concept of food. I always saw food as a means to an end, a form of energy to vitalize me throughout the day. Meat, bread, fish, water, fruits and vegetables. Sure, it may get bland over time but its just a way to give me energy, nothing more.

14. “Do not hold on to possessions you no longer need.”
Sentimentality for possessions is a natural response, a transference of emotion to an inanimate object. This is for the hardcore monks out there, but for MGTOW this can relate to those of you still holding on to possessions from an ex girlfriend or an ex wife. Let it go and move on, you don’t need it anymore. Your memories may fade and the image of her in your head may become distorted, but the pain you felt will always be remembered, you don’t need possessions to remind you of that.

15. “Do not act following customary beliefs.”
If you did what society expected of you, you would be slaving away at a job you hate for a woman that doesn’t love you. If you followed the sheep, you would be unable to see the cliff the herd is approaching. Customs and beliefs are designed to guide large groups of people. They are incompatible with your individual path.

16. “Do not collect weapons or practice with weapons beyond what is useful.”
Becoming attached to ideas that aren’t practical can’t help you on your path. Removing women’s rights is a possible solution to saving the West, but it is in no way shape or form practical and will probably never happen. Entertaining the idea is a good mental exercise, but it won’t help you reach peace or fulfillment.

17. “Do not fear death.”
You are a dead man walking. The sooner you come to terms with this the sooner you can get to work and make something of yourself. Meaning is not given to you, you have to create it for yourself.

18. “Do not seek to possess either goods or fiefs for your old age.”
You can’t take wealth with you after death and you don’t know when death will visit you. It’s good to plan for retirement, but it shouldn’t be your main motivator like the rest of the people slaving away and giving away their best years so they can watch television in a nursing home.

19. “Respect Buddha and the gods without counting on their help.”
I’m not religious and the universe doesn’t owe me anything, but if you are religious, wouldn’t you want to succeed on your own merit, without the aid of your religion? To become fully independent is to walk your path with your own two feet, with your own will guiding you.

20. “You may abandon your own body but you must preserve your honor.”
Once you have become detached from results, desires, people, and life itself, you can prioritize your ideals from a position of clarity, instead of blind allegiance to them. Your definition of honor is not what society’s definition of honor is. Whatever your definition is, safeguard it from those who would see it corrupted.

21. “Never stray from the Way.”
Once you have defined your path, be honest to yourself and pursue it with the effort it deserves. Your path may shift and change as time progresses, but its core principles should remain the same. Most people never find the path and stumble through life in darkness, but you are one of the lucky ones who have found it and can articulate it. To discover the path and walk away from it is the greatest insult you could make against yourself.