Miyamoto Musashi is regarded as the best swordsman in Japanese history, and one of the greatest warriors in history. He was also a devout strategist. Written during the week he spent preparing for his own death, a period in which he gave away most of his possessions, Dokkodo, or the Path of Aloneness, reflects Musashi’s thoughts on living a good life.
- Accept everything just the way it is.
- Do not seek pleasure for its own sake.
- Do not, under any circumstances, depend on a partial feeling.
- Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world.
- Be detached from desire your whole life long.
- Do not regret what you have done.
- Never be jealous.
- Never let yourself be saddened by a separation.
- Resentment and complaint are appropriate neither for oneself nor others.
- Do not let yourself be guided by the feeling of lust or love.
- In all things have no preferences.
- Be indifferent to where you live.
- Do not pursue the taste of good food.
- Do not hold on to possessions you no longer need.
- Do not act following customary beliefs.
- Do not collect weapons or practice with weapons beyond what is useful.
- Do not fear death.
- Do not seek to possess either goods or fiefs for your old age.
- Respect Buddha and the gods without counting on their help.
- You may abandon your own body but you must preserve your honour.
- Never stray from the Way.
It’s hard to ignore how different this advice is from what we would expect to hear from our own parents or grandparents. But it’s not surprising at all considering the duty based culture Musashi was birthed in. Musashi’s culture did not fear death. For that reason, in addition to others, there wasn’t the same emphasis on obtaining pleasure or relief during life. The most honorable life you could live was one of service. The more useful you could be to others, be it the emperor, or society at large, or simply an ideal, the more honorable and respected you became. And honor and respect was something to cultivate as much for one’s family and ancestors as it was for one’s self. Like modern parts of the Islamic world, failure to do the culturally acceptable thing brought shame to one’s family, which was often worse than death.
Now, I think history shows quite clearly whose system is better for humanity in the long run. (Western culture put a man on the moon and is on its way to curing death.) But that doesn’t mean there isn’t much to learn from a duty based way of life. Not ironically, many of the most successful men in Western culture succeeded precisely by, more or less, following these rules. Nearly half of the above list embodies the basic principal of capitalism: forgo pleasure now in order to build capital for later. Nearly a quarter of the list embodies the single most important trait for success: awareness. Great stuff.
But, number one on the list is perhaps the most backward, depressing, authoritarianism-fostering piece of advice I could even imagine building a life, let alone a society, around. So, as always, take of Musashi (and duty based culture) what you can. There is a lot to offer. But don’t become such an adherent that you lose the life that’s worth applying those principals to.
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“But, number one on the list is perhaps the most backward, depressing, authoritarianism-fostering piece of advice I could even imagine building a life, let alone a society, around. So, as always, take of Musashi (and duty based culture) what you can. There is a lot to offer. But don’t become such an adherent that you lose the life that’s worth applying those principals to.”
Accept everything just the way it is.
This may be built from my perspective, but his last words, DokkÅdÅ, were very Buddha-inspired (if #19 doesn’t give it away). Most matters are an issue of framing—”accept everything just the way it is” says to me that understanding is relevant to how you carry yourself. It’s passionate and easy to feel that there are many errors in this world; when you accept them, you come closer to understanding their nature. Call it game theory, call it a Noble Truth, I can appreciate #1 as well as the others.
P.S. The second paragraph is a little weird. History is so very malleable; I wouldn’t discount Eastern achievements. Other aspects of non-Western cultures could be viewed superior—if past the Western focus on technological science (or, even not). And, while the world is growing more connected, we haven’t shared everything, and, being Americans, we read a lot of Western stuff. Over in Bangkok, they read a lot of Thai.
Agreed, we do read almost entirely Western stuff. We’re indoctrinated at an early age with Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. We’re told to read Homer and Shakespeare and Orwell and Dostoevsky. We learn about Napoleon and Thomas Aquinas and Thomas Jefferson. The first exposure to Eastern culture most kids get is probably Marco Polo. The second is probably centered on the British opium wars. This is exactly why I bring these things up here. I think such a different way of thought can be very valuable.
But, I am discounting Eastern achievements. Before “modernization” (ie “Westernization”) the far east was losing millions of people per year to things the west had conquered over a century earlier. The standard of living in most of the far east is still a century behind the West. It’s not because we’re smarter. I think it’s pretty clear it’s because the culture that evolved in the West allowed individuals the freedom to better themselves. The freedom to try and right those errors in the world.
But that said, there’s still much we can learn from the duty-based way of life. Hence the post 🙂 Thanks for taking the time to comment.
I second the first comment as to number one on the list. I don’t think it’s about determinism or not having freewill as in communism or complying with some malicious authority; it’s more about accepting death , suffering, tragedies, and stuff like that to better position yourself in the world to act better, not ignoring or diminishing certain aspects of life and the world. You can either keep complaining about your authoritarian boss saying he shouldn’t act as he does (i.e.not accepting him) or you can first accept ,acknowledge, and even analyze the way he acts and then think about a strategy to cope with him and even influence him to change his actions in a long-term for the benefit of other colleagues as well.
I’m a bit disappointed in the modern culture where people can learn how to accept the way it is but it’s become almost synonymous as “giving up” and don’t have enough passion or patience to change or act on whatever it is for the better. In other words, at least to me, the modern way of accepting is more like telling yourself not to get stressed out because “it won’t change and you can’t change it”. This paradoxically implies people just have learnt to better comply with authority they don’t agree with, not to fight for your strong belief for other people or society.
It maybe just an indicator that the modern world in the 21 century has civilized so much (thanks to all those fought a lot for us) that many people don’t really have any detrimental issues to fight or strategize for . Or it’s just a sign of our declining survival skills and trying to not get pissed at a boss almost maxes out our capacity to exercise our free will.
A bit sidetracked, but hope the above makes some sense.
P.S. I don’t know if “curing death” would be better for humanity. We have never seen it and its consequences.
Interesting thought. I didn’t interpret it that way (and I’m guessing many others wouldn’t either?). It jumped out to me as something that would be spread by someone in power, in order to facilitate that power, rather than as a way of thinking to effect change gradually (which would actually fit quite well with a Buddhist’s view of time). Thanks.
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