Nicklaus Suino has established himself as an authoritative writer about and
practitioner of the Japanese martial tradition. He writes balanced, thoughtful
works on budo, and this latest work is no exception.
Budo Mind and Body is, in fact, a modified version of his 1996 work Arts of
Strength, Arts of Serenity. The current book contains five short chapters:
Training the Body, Training the Mind, Budo Culture, Three Martial Virtues, and
Training the Spirit. In these short sections, Suino provides cogent, down to
earth analyses of the process of walking the martial path in Japan's modern
arts. Despite the breathless editorial subtitle that hints at "training
secrets," Suino does a nice job of expressing how the study of budo is a
process requiring discipline, patience, and effort. The results can be profound
and transformative, as Suino clearly believes, but his conviction that these
results are achieved through rigorous training comes as a nice corrective to
popular ideas about the martial arts and magical skill.
Excerpted from a review by John Donohue, Ph.D., Albertus Magnus College
web: www.budomindandbody.com
email: books@budomindandbody.com
