Miyamoto Musashi is one of the most legendarysamurai and famed as Japan’s greatest swordsman- undefeated in more than sixty duels.After he escaped death during the Battle ofSekigahara, Musashi became a ronin.Aside from being a swordsman, he was alsoa philosopher, artist, and well-learned Buddhist.Before he died, Musashi left us with twenty-oneprinciples named Dokkōdō.These are timeless rules that can inspireus today to live well.The majority, if not all, of these rules,help us to establish one thing: ‘focus’.Focus is the quality of having a concentratedinterest or activity on something.Needless to say, ‘focus’ was a crucialcomponent in Musashi’s life, or, what hecalled ‘the way’, which is a life of ongoingpractice.His writings reveal that his lifestyle revolvedaround restraint, sacrifice, discipline, andnot being swayed by pleasure.These virtues were all established by or insupport of being able to ‘focus’.Especially when he spent time apart from society,Musashi was only concerned with perfectinghis skill, while aiming for enlightenmentby the Way of the sword.This three-part series elaborates on the twenty-oneprinciples from Musashi’s Dokkōdō.The first part explored the first seven principles.This second part will explore how to livea life of ultimate focus, based on the nextseven principles.Please note, the elaborations in this videoare based on existing philosophies, the author’sinterpretations, and reasoning, and are intendedto be an inspiration for present-day life.8) Never let yourself be saddened by a separation.Separation can take place in several ways.We can be separated from someone temporarilybecause of traveling, relocation, or permanentlybecause of death.We can also become separated from certainobjects, like personal items or money.For most of us, the separation from what welove leads to suffering.As we’re attached to the object or personwe’re separated from, we experience an intensefeeling of lack, as we believe that what’staken away from us belongs to us, and is partof us.In Buddhism this idea of possession is delusional.Many Buddhists would agree that we don’ttruly own anything outside of our mental faculties;even our bodies aren’t our own as we don’tfully control them.Musashi being a ronin and a Buddhist was probablyaware of this delusion of possession, as wellas the burden of attachment to objects andpeople.His way was one of solitude and practice,and therefore he couldn’t afford to be saddenedby separations, because life is full of separations:all things come and go, whether it’s people,stuff, or wealth - especially for a roninwho’s traveling from place to place.Attachment to the people he met and the placeshe visited would have led to continuous grief.Instead, as a ronin, he had to embrace thetemporary nature of things, including theinevitable conclusion of life, which is death.In his Book of Five Rings, Musashi wrote thatthe way of the warrior is the resolute acceptanceof death.For a warrior, life is surrounded by death;the death of the people he slays, of the peoplethat fight by his side, of the people he failedto protect, and, of course, the risk of beingkilled himself.Like no other, Musashi must have realizedthat death awaits us all.By being aware of this, and accepting theimpermanence of life, we'll have an easiertime when we encounter it.9) Resentment and complaint are appropriateneither for oneself or others.It’s very common for people to spend insaneamounts of time resenting and complainingabout the world.The traps of resentment and complaint arevery easy to fall into.For one with a critical eye and strong opinionson how life should be, there’s always somethingto complain about.But when we find ourselves in a continuousstate of resentment about the world, it meansthat we’re focused on others and not onourselves.For someone who’s dedicated to a life ofongoing practice, spending time resentingand complaining about the world, or one’sown life, is detrimental.The world is beyond our control.People will act in ways that don’t complywith our ethics and values all the time.People will behave foolishly, rudely, ungratefully.People will dislike us, try to interfere withour lives, treat us unjustly, try to takeadvantage of us.Furthermore, life isn’t fair.We don’t get equal shares of the pie.We aren’t equally gifted, equally handsome,equally healthy.Trying to change this is a sincere ideal createdby the human mind, but it’s almost impossibleto achieve, as we’ll find nature workingagainst us all the time.From a Buddhist point of view, we shouldn’tspend too much time trying to change the world,and we should especially refrain from resentingwhat is.Instead, it’s much wiser to focus on ourselves,live the best life we can, while being acceptingof those who don’t.Or as Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius putit: “be tolerant with others and strictwith yourself.”10) Do not let yourself be guided by the feelingof lust or love.In a previous video, I’ve explored the differenttypes of love with selfless love called ‘agape’by the ancient Greeks on one end, and selfishlove called ‘eros’ on the other end.Musashi seems to point to eros in this case,which is a form of love motivated by lustfuldesire, also known among Buddhists as ‘romanticlove’.In many of today’s cultures, we see thatromantic love is elevated to the status ofultimate concern.This human experience is almost seen as divineand, thus, worthy of our pursuit and sacrifice.Musashi clearly wouldn’t have endorsed theway we treat romantic love today.This probably wasn’t just because lust andlove are so distracting, and would have beenharmful to his progress as a swordsman, butalso because he was a Buddhist.And Buddhists don’t buy this sacralizationof romantic love.In fact, they are aware of the dangers ofbeing guided by it.Like any other feeling, love and lust canovercome us.But we have the choice whether or not we engagewith these feelings.Instead of letting ourselves be blindly guidedby romance, it’d be wiser not to forsakeour ability to think rationally so we staygrounded and focused on our path.People tend to make very unwise decisionswhile enchanted by lust and love; from choicesthat affect their work or violate personalboundaries, to violence and even murder.11) In all things have no preferences.The problem with preferences is that we createa dependency when it comes to the state ofthe outside world.When we come across something that we prefer,we’re happy.But we incur what we don’t prefer or evendislike, we’re disappointed.As we don’t have anything to say about whatthe environment presents to us, by havingpreferences we’ll give outside circumstancesthe power over our mood.Our equanimity will depend on whether or notthe circumstances are preferable.This is kind of an inferior way to go aboutlife.Musashi encountered many different people,objects, and situations, but had to keep atranquil mind so he wouldn’t stray fromhis path.Strong preferences would have been harmfulto his practice.So, it’s wise to keep our preferences incheck, and instead embrace whatever fate overcomesus and make the best out of it.This way, we can never go wrong, and thusthe quality of our focus remains independentof the result.12) Be indifferent to where you live.As a ronin, Musashi wandered over Japan, stayingin many different places, from castles to caves.But regardless of where he lived, his wayremained the center of his life.People nowadays put great emphasis on theirliving environment.They care a lot about their homes,the neighborhood they live in, the kind offurniture they possess.But when we’re too attached to having certainliving conditions, we’ll get anxious whenthese conditions are threatened.When our living situation is truly unsafe,it’s, of course, no luxury to abandon that place.But, oftentimes, it’s simple dissatisfactionwith current circumstances that makes peoplelook for another home.Some people are quickly bored and unhappywith their current home and believe that movingwill take away this dissatisfaction.Unfortunately, the sense of fulfillment thatfollows after moving into a new place is only temporary.Because wherever we go, we always take ourselveswith us.Satisfaction and dissatisfaction happen within,not outside.At the end of the day, it doesn’t matterwhere we live if we’re content within ourselves.By being content with our homes, no matterhow simple and small, we’ll have one lessthing to worry about, and are more likelyto stay focused on our purpose.13) Do not pursue the taste of good food.Many if not most people indulge in the pleasureof the tongue by enjoying a good meal.Some spend long evenings wining and dining,consuming drink after drink and course aftercourse.But foodies, beware: this behavior has itsdownsides.Miyamoto Musashi discourages the pursuit ofgood food.His exact reasons for this aren’t known,but when we look at what other philosophershad to say about this, we might get an idea.The ancient Stoics for example were also concernedabout food.They encouraged people to eat simply.Founder of Stoicism Zeno of Citium observedthat when people get used to eating fancy,expensive meals, they stop appreciating thesimple foods.When our appetites become oversaturated, we’llonly crave more extravagant and stimulatingways to satisfy the pleasure of eating.Immoderate eating habits could very well turninto gluttony, which leads to health problems.We’d say that a glutton enjoys and appreciatesfood, while the opposite may be the case.Voracious eaters and drinkers usually don’ttake time to eat mindfully, and with an appreciationfor the dish in front of them.Instead, they compulsively consume as muchas possible, to be temporarily relieved fromthe pain of food cravings.What we could do instead is eat ‘mindfully’and in limited amounts, and train ourselvesto not give in to cravings.By doing so, we’ll be less attached to taste,and our cravings for food will weaken, sowe’re less likely to overeat.At the end of the day, the purpose of eatingis nutrition, as we need fuel to live and thrive.14) Do not hold on to possessions you no longerneed.It seems like Musashi already knew the benefitsof a minimalist lifestyle.His life as a ronin didn’t lend itself tohaving possessions.Traveling Japan, staying in different places,fighting duels, perfecting his skill, possessionswould only have been a burden.Besides his two swords, he only needed thebasics to survive and practice.Some people tend to collect possessions asif the accumulation of material goods increasestheir happiness.This could be the case for a while but, mostly,it only creates a hunger for more.Eventually, the more we own, the more weightwe carry on our shoulders until we becomeservants of our possessions instead of theother way around.Clinging to our belongings as well the pursuitfor more creates anxiety; the fear of losingwhat we have, and the fear of not gettingwhat we want.But when we have a higher purpose and areable to achieve higher levels of happiness,there’s no point in chasing all these materialpossessions anymore.In Buddhism, when one finds contentment instillness, without needing entertainment liketelevision or music, chasing possessions doesn’tmake much sense.What it all comes down to is the ability totravel light, like a ronin, so we can focuson what matters.Thank you for watching.
