This is the right book that came at the right time in my life.
It’s hard to explain all the reasons why without revealing too much personal information, but I think that this is a book that would be good for anyone who feels overwhelmed, backed into a corner, and who needs to make some hard decisions about how they want to live.
The Hagakure, as the title suggests, is a “pile of leaves”, offering to us the transitory nature of existence, the image of a season having come yet to be so easily scattered in a strong wind. And within the pile of leaves we find human fortitude and a spirit that will not die, or if it must die will not go too gently into that good night.
This book has been a repeated read for me over the years, and helps me focus my mind and urges me to move forward when it seems I am hopeless stuck. If you are in the “self-help” part of the bookstore in your country, I urge you to take two steps back and find the Japanese culture or Japanese literature section and buy this one instead.
Bushido. The way. The unflinching moving ahead in life.