Comments on: 21 Rules to Live Your Life – Dokkodo

By: pasv

pasv — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 21:54:00 +0000

Hi Glen, love this commentary on the Dokkodo but I have one bone to pick: #10: for us it is perhaps impossible to be chaste but for Musashi it was absolutely essential nothing else got in the way of his path to martial perfection. A partner is also a great liability and he had more than a few enemies. If you’re thinking of your loved ones while you’re in battle it is taking away from your concentration just that much more. Also it should go to note that the Dokkodo kanji is written with the characters ‘alone’, ‘go/travel’, and ‘way/path’, this gives us a little more idea of his internal state. In his place and time it seems applicable but I agree with you completely for a modern usage of it. I personally make a mental note to take this one more lightly than the literal meaning when I’m meditating on it too.

By: Josh

Josh — Sat, 14 May 2011 09:20:43 +0000

It’s important not to be envious, but you’ve fallen into the same trap that everyone else falls into when approached with the word “jealousy.”

Please learn what this word does and doesn’t mean — it’s translated from specific Japanese, so if Musashi had meant to say “Don’t be envious,” he’d use the word for envy, not for jealousy.

By: Catherine

Catherine — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 15:38:33 +0000

Thank you Glen, I suppose #13, on the Food you could take it two ways:

1. means that “Food should not be wasted”, as in, it’s food, a valuable resource and even if you’re a picky eater, it all counts in the end, that you’ve taken energy and nutrients, whether or not it looks or tastes the same, it should not be wasted.

2. Also, junk food… don’t pursue the taste of good food, meaning, you should take out the life of food instead of eating for pleasure (eg. if you are addicted to chocolate you will undoubtedly get fat/be unhealthy)

This was a great find, and I am an independent teenager living on my own, who needed this. I didn’t fit into any cliques or stereotypes at school, and I was my own person. I didn’t know who to talk to, because I felt like I was the only person not influenced by the media. I didn’t know what lifestyle to live, because I didn’t want to commit my life to something silly and unreliable.

I was confused by life, I tried out Christianity to find a place where I could belong, but it didn’t work. Turns out I’m an athiest whom goes to church to find friends.

I also had very much trouble letting go of regret, and I was unhappy all the time, and recently I’ve been getting better, and your article just sums up some of the things I’ve been through, and has given me more. I’m sure, as you know, just saved my life by more than a couple of years. Thanks again.

By: Rell

Rell — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 04:53:32 +0000

I think it means to accept what you cannot change Adam.
There comes a time in everyone’s life where they face hardships like yours, and acceptance is not forgetting, lying to yourself, or lying to others.
You cannot change the fact that your son is dead. nor can i change the fact that some of my loved ones are dead either. i’ll miss them for sure, but my life does not revolve around them being gone.
And I for one think that remembering what they were like before they died is far better for everyone than dwelling on the fact that they died.
i will miss the ones who died, but i won’t dwell on them because i know that they would’ve wanted me to go on with my life, instead of dwelling on them being gone…

It’s not your fault Adam.

Time does not heal pain, you just get so used to it being there that you forget about it. Time does not heal emotional things, I’m a living example of that.

Adam I hope you will remember your boy as he was when he was alive. Not as he was when he died.

“Hope cannot be given, taken, destroyed, or killed. Hope it’s self is always with you, you just can’t see it sometimes.”

“It is in our memories that our loved ones live on. It is when we forget that we really lose our loved ones.
When we die, others will remember us, whether it’s a stranger or a friend, we live on in other people’s memories.
So when someone we’ve met or knew dies, a legacy of who and what they were is passed on to us. And when we die, our legacy and theirs are passed on to those still living.”
I don’t remember who told me that. But I hope it helped.

The next part can be even harder Adam. You can’t do anything about what happened to your son. That was Chance and Fate.

“Fate and Destiny are two very different things. Fate you can change because Fate relies on Chance. Destiny is a force unto it’s self.
Fate becomes Destiny only when there is no Chance that Fate can take ahold of.
So take hold of Fate, so when it becomes Destiny, that Destiny will be what you Created.
But remember, Fate cannot be controlled. Because Chance is something that is always in the Present.”

We have the Past to learn from. The Future to hope for. And the Present to Create.

By: Nancy Porter

Nancy Porter — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 04:55:11 +0000

This is a wonderful list. One that at 60 I can easily believe and even strive for….At 20 or 30 or even 40 I am afraid I would have found it very limiting and bothersome. What once seemed a terrible confinement now seemed to offer solace. Isn’t life grand . And thankyou for putting it out there.

By: XekeXung

XekeXung — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 18:26:51 +0000

On number 13 … “Do not pursue the taste of good food…” I would explain it thus:

“a) Taste is a sense, and as such eating is an act of sensuality … To avoid it becoming a lust, plain food is best.”

By: William Croom

William Croom — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 08:12:18 +0000

Epictetus speaks to this. I think it has to do with acquisitiveness and on a concrete plane, gluttony. John Thorne says that if you only like “good” wine or coffee, you don’t like wine or coffee at all. A true afficianno would drink anything, not just the good stuff.

Musashi may be speaking to the seduction of the senses. “Watch out,” he may say, “lest we become too focused of the transient, no matter how much we think we like it.” Look at 18.

By: Rod

Rod — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 20:24:11 +0000

Who is damning who to hell?

By: Neufusion

Neufusion — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 07:56:22 +0000

I can’t believe you are damning people to hell. What a horrible thought to cast out to others.

By: Rod

Rod — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 10:55:09 +0000

It is amazing how many people miss #13 in all its simple beauty – you eat to live not live to eat. This is how people become overweight which is bad for oneself mentally and emotionally. This has nothing to do with what you eat as it is why you eat. Whether you eat couscous, stirfry, steak, escargots in white truffle sauce – is it because you are hungry, or you think you are hungry, or you should eat because of your location? If you live an active life you are going to eat differently to someone who lives a sedentary lifestyle. As for #16, it is more a case of why you practise and what your understanding of it is. Is there any point to practising the art of sword fighting if you are not going to fight with it? Unless it is to exercise.
As for #1, #3 and #4 it is simply saying don’t be a little man. If you lose a son to a drink driver, or a partner to cancer don’t be a well of angry emotion. Do something positive like launch an awareness campaign with the media and do something positive. If you dwell on it you are destroying yourself and will end up with few friends. No one has the right to ruin somebody else’s day because they feel bad. And two wrongs don’t make a right.
And for going on about Iraq and the like – read #15. Everyone has their conspiracy theories and it often generated by the media. They cash in on people who live by their customary beliefs. Have you ever considered what America does to its prisoners? Do they get beheaded with a sword in front of a camera?
Musashi is my favourite, I like his philosophy and wish people would actually read his writings with more maturity.