The Neglected Samurai: A Zen Guide For Desk Warriors

If you are pained by external things, it is not they that disturb you, but your own judgement of them. And it is in your power to wipe out that judgement immediately.

Marcus Aurelius 121 - 180

Jurcell Virginia was riding high. A gift for numbers had earned him a top job in private equity. He had a salary like a telephone number, a gorgeous apartment in the swishest part of Amsterdam, he travelled every month to the worlds most exotic locations then one cold day in April, he lost his job. His world came crashing down. After some painful introspection, he realized that his whole self-worth was based on status and money. He had lost touch with his core values, and had forgotten how to draw on his own inner strength. Even worse, he had been sending the wrong signals to his kids. His sensei, Hideo Muramatsu, reminded him that the answers he was searching for lay within himself.

 He saw the need for a fundamental change. Starting with ki training in a sweaty little dojo in Amsterdam, his journey took him to wintry Poland, where he climbed mountains in a pair of shorts and stood beneath icy waterfalls to qualify as a Wim Hof instructor, under the guidance of the man himself.

 Muramatsu-san urged Jurcell to write this book as an expression of gratitude for the lessons he had learned. This was harder than it sounded. He reached out to his long-time friend Cathy Evans for help. His story resonated strongly with her, as she had also lost her job while on maternity leave.

 So began a unique collaboration, where both learned how to reconnect with their own inner warrior, without having to rely on external validation. The original plan was to write about Martial Arts, and the way in which it changed Jurcells life, but the book has grown far beyond that. It examines physical and mental strength, creativity and how to foster it, epigenetics, the Wim Hof Method, breathing, yoga, mindfulness, meditation and overcoming prejudice and racism. Its about dealing with lifes harsh realities, like rejection, illness and death. Above all, it examines what it means to live in harmony, to live with integrity, and how to face any conflict with honour and compassion. Reading it is like propping up a bar with a funny but well-informed samurai.