Budo Secrets: Teachings of the Martial Arts Masters

Just wonderful. Just wonderful.

Nice book, nothing amazing in it however. Just wisdom complied from manu sources, loosely string together.

Best Budo secrets book out there. This book will realy hold your interest if you are interested in learning the martial arts.

Thank you very much!

Everything O.K., thank you.

John Stevens has given us some great books over the years. While my favorite is The Sword of No Sword by Tesshu and I have also enjoyed some of his Ueshiba books, Budo Secrets is really a nice book. Too often these collections include an excerpt from some larger work. Not really the case here.One of my favorites comes from the Bukyo Shigen Goden Ryu and describes the true rununciate master:1) Experience cold, heat, and rain by scaling high mountains and crossing deep valleys.2) Rest in open fields, and sleep in the mountians.3) Never store money or food,and never wear warm clothes.4) Travel everywhere to engage in contests.5) Reside in graveyards, haunted houses, or among wild beasts.6) Associate with dangerous criminals.7) Live off the land among peasants.That was one hard-core crew (ryu) that rolled like that. Try spending a summer living outdoors away from people training. See what it does to you.This is really a must have book that requires multiple reads and deep meditation. It's brought me a lot of pleasure. Enjoy!

This small hardcover edition has become one of my favorite books in my personal collection. I have had the pleasure of reading this book numerous times. I do not know one book where you can find summaries of so many basic budo masters and their guiding principles. This volume contains three parts. Part one deals with the principles of budo. In this section you will find Ki-ichi-Hogen's secrets of technique, Musashi's self-precepts and nine articles, seven hardships for martial training, eight essentials for novice swordsmen, Gichin Funakoshi's twenty principles of karate, twenty rules for lifelong training and numerous other educational principles. Part two of this great book covers the philosophy of budo through various stories like the marvelous techniques of the old cat and Tesshu Yamaoka's secret art of the carpenter's plane. This section also has the teachings of Morihei Ueshiba. The final part covers the tales of the masters.In conclusion, this book should be in every martial artist's personal library to read and enjoy over and over. This is a book that is a pleasure to read. I give this book my highest rating (five stars). Joseph J. Truncale (Author: Predator Hunter: A Warrior's Memoir)

I enjoyed this book, but at the same time was a little disappointed with it because of the amount of information it contain. There are many gems which can be found in this small book, but I found it to be a little light, meaning that it is only 109 pages long and of those pages, there are many blank pages, empty space, and pictures. So the information that it does contain has merit, but I found myself wishing that it contained more.Stevens' states that the Budo texts are meant to be cryptic and that they aren't for "idiots." This is a way of saying that you do have to spend some time thinking about some of the tales, principles, and philosophies which are found in this book. Some are obvious and some are in fact a bit cryptic. Overall, I found this book enjoyable and did find it useful for those seeking the warrior lifestyle. My only problem with it was the amount of information that it contained.Bohdi Sanders, author of  Warrior Wisdom: Ageless Wisdom for the Modern Warrior

An excellent addition to any Martial Artist's book shelf who is looking to deepen their knowledge of not only Budo but Martial Arts philosophy in general. The book introduces the reader to the concept of Budo, but does much more than provide a basic starting point. Includes many references to other texts and includes stories of various masters which provokes the reader to find out more. An excellent read.

Very nice to read, I only wish it had more of the same content.a relaxing book to read, rather than staunchly technical stuff.