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Miyamoto Musashi was a samurai who went undefeated in 61 duels, making him an expert on the subject of self-discipline.
And a week before he passed away he wrote a short work called Dokudo, which roughly translates to The Way of Walking Alone.
And in it, Musashi laid out 21 principles for living a life of discipline.
In episode 2 of this series, we'll go over principles 6 through 10 in Musashi's dokuro.
Musashi's sixth principle states, Once you have done something, it's done.
The past is unchangeable, so there's no point in dwelling on the past, because nothing fruitful will come from it.
What matters is what you do going forward.
Even if you believe that you did something wrong in the past, that wrong can only be made right by how you act, going forward.
A wrong action can't be made right simply through regret and endless thinking about it.
A disciplined mind does not regret what it's done.
It doesn't dwell on the unchangeable past, but rather it looks towards the future and towards what it can still do.
Musashi's seventh principle states, Never be jealous.
Jealousy is a destructive emotion.
Jealousy puts you in a competitive state of mind as opposed to a cooperative state of mind, and competition is a zero-sum game.
In competitions, there always has to be a winner and a loser.
That's why jealousy is destructive and divisive.
It gets in the way of building strong relationships and communities by replacing them with hierarchies and destructive competition.
A disciplined mind does not get jealous, and thus it can build strong relationships and communities around it, communities where everyone wins.
Musashi's Eighth Principle states, Never let yourself be saddened by a separation.
If you are saddened by a separation, it means you are attached to that thing from which you are separated.
And as the Buddha said, attachment is the source of suffering.
All things that come together must eventually separate.
Separation is natural.
So to be saddened by separation is unnatural and to not understand the essence of the universe.
A disciplined mind understands that change, impermanence, and flux is the nature of the universe.
Musashi's ninth principle states In life, the most productive way to spend your time is by focusing on the things you can actually control.
When you are resentful and whiny, it is usually a sign that you are looking for someone to blame.
And by looking for someone to blame, you are giving up your own internal power and control over the situation at hand.
A disciplined mind is not resentful, and it does not complain.
It accepts the way the world is and focuses on what's in its power to control.
And by doing this, it is productive.
Musashi's tenth principle states, do not let yourself be guided by the feeling of lust or love.
A mind guided by lust will be led to degeneration and division.
Lust leads to degeneration, because it will cause you to see others purely in terms of the pleasure that they can provide you.
Lust is self-centered and blinding.
It doesn't allow you to clearly see others and what's best for them, but rather it makes you think primarily of what's best for you.
And when you see others this way, it will inevitably lead to division between you and that other, especially once they realize that you deal with them from a self-centered perspective.
And a mind guided by the feeling of love is different from a mind that truly loves.
A mind that truly loves is willing to say what is true, even if it might cause a little bit of pain to the one that they truly love.
On the other hand, a mind guided by the feeling of love will avoid conflict, even if that means lying instead of telling the truth in order to preserve that feeling of love.
A disciplined mind therefore, is not guided by feelings of lust or love, and therefore they are able to see clearly.
They live and speak the truth, and so they can truly do what is right.
So these are the five principles we went over today from Musashi's dokuro.
1.
Do not regret what you have done.
2.
Never be jealous.
3.
Never let yourself be saddened by a separation.
4.
Resentment and complaint are appropriate neither for oneself nor others.
5.
Do not let yourself be guided by the feeling of lust or love.
And by following these principles, you can build up your self-discipline.
This was just my interpretation of Musashi's principles, and if you're interested in hearing more of my interpretations of his work, check out episode 3 of this series when it's released.
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As always, thanks for watching and I'll see you next time.
