Adage 2: Do not scheme for physical pleasure.

In the Way of the Martial Arts, do not let your frame of mind be any different from your everyday mind. In both everyday and military events, your mind should not change in the least, but should be broad and straightforward, neither drawn too tight nor allowed to slacken even a little. Keep the mind in the exact center, not allowing it to become sidetracked… (Musashi, 64)

The second of Musashi’s adages, “Do not scheme for physical pleasure” – or as an alternative translation suggests, “Do not seek pleasure for its own sake” – is perhaps the one that is least followed in today’s American society. Incidentally, it might also be the one of the most important to the Way of Walking Alone.

Adage 1: Do not turn your back on the various Ways of this world.

“Sharpen your wisdom, distinguish principle and its opposite in the world, learn the good and bad of all things, experience all the arts and accomplishments and their various Ways, and act in a way so that you will not be taken in by anyone. This is the heart of the wisdom of the martial arts” (Musashi 65).

The Way of Walking Alone is one of the most interesting philosophical documents I have ever read and I believe Musashi certainly starts it off with a bang. This first adage, is perhaps the cornerstone of this entire philosophy of self-reliance, and certainly bears careful examination.

Introduction to “The Way of Walking Alone”

“In the first week or so of the Tenth Month in the Twentieth Year of Kan’ei [1643], I climbed Mount Iwato in the province of Higo on the island of Kyushu, bowed in veneration to Heaven, worshipped Kannon and stood before the Buddha. Born in the province of Harima, I am the warrior Shinmen Musashi no kami Fujiwara no Genshin. I have now reached the age of sixty…

“Taking up my brush at one revolution past the Hour of the Tiger [4:30 a.m.], on the night of the tenth day of the Tenth Month, I begin this book” (Musashi 37).

These are the opening words to the Book of Five Rings, a book on tactics, style, and philosophy, a book that is written by one of the greatest warriors of all time, and is still widely read and examined to this very day, nearly four centuries after Musashi first wrote it.

The Necessity of Death and Rebirth (Part I of II)

“In a word: the first work of the hero is to retreat from the world scene of secondary effects to those causal zones of the psyche where the difficulties really reside, and there to clarify the difficulties, eradicate them in his own case (i.e., give battle to the nursery demons of his local culture) and break through to the undistorted, direct experience and assimilation of what C.F. Jung has called the archetypal images. This is the process known to Hindu and Buddhist philosophy as viveka, ‘discrimination.’” (Campbell 12)

As we rapidly come to the conclusion of the 2010 midterm elections today, I suspect the majority of our thoughts are turned towards the faults and wrongs in our present government. For it should be readily evident to anyone with eyes to see, regardless of political affiliation or moral or religious viewpoint, that there certainly are things wrong with it.