As many of you know, I have a serious hard-on for this document. It’s short, clear, to the point, and basically explains everything you need to know about how to live. On trawling the internut however, I have noted some fallacious, pathetic, instagram thot-tier pop-psychology interpretations of some of the statements Musashi made. Nothing irks me more than those that seek to water wash the messaging of superior specimens with modern pieties. They just never want to go all the way with it. They stop just before they get to the juicy part.
This is not just a document for nerds who do kendo or that weird guy down at the local kung-fu academy. No - it is a profound document. A pro-life document.
Over many years I’ve thought about these things, and have made notes for myself at various times. So, I’d like to offer here a very short analysis on some of the statements he makes.
1. Accept everything just the way it is.
There is no other choice, even if you seek to change something. And even then, upon receiving results that are indeed not in line with what you thought would occur - you will have no choice but to accept everything just the way it is.
2. Do not seek pleasure for it's own sake.
Pleasure should come from great actions, from a great path and vision. Pleasure is secondary to great aims and tasks. Your biology demands it.
3. Do not, under any circumstances, depend on a partial feeling.
Half doing things? This is the scourge of our world, passionless, without discipline. Partiality is a feature of normalcy. Something being crystal clear is a feature of a clear, distilled mind with focus and vision. Partiality implies competing biological drives and confusion. Look to refine your body and mind. Learn to be still. And observe.
4. Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world.
What are you? Are you a self? What is the world? I contend that a stultified, hardened conception of self, yourself, detaches you from the world and opportunity. The lighter we experience ourselves, the more we see the world as it is. And perhaps if we experience the non-duality of the polarities - at this point - being under the illusion of the separateness of the self disappears. Since it was never there anyway. We are the world and experience; we are not separate from this.
5. Be detached from desire your whole lifelong.
Many analyses get this wrong. This does not say "don't have desire". Desire is what we are in the deepest wellsprings of our being. However, you choose to handle it - this is OK.
In an ultimate context, even with action, a degree of detachment is very much possible. However you, as an individual, choose to live with your desire.
"Ultimately, it is the desire, not the desired, that we love."
- Nietzsche
To not be attached to desire means we can act lightly, with joy, since we exercise control about how we view desire and what it is.
To not understand desire and our desire to desire: in this case, we will be lived by it.
We must learn to ride it as a mighty steed and not be trampled under its hoof.
6. Do not regret what you have done.
Regret is pointless. What's done is done. It could not have been any other way. Embrace your fate. Learn and move on. Apologise if you want or can. Move on and make better choices. Whatever you think happened probably didn't happen like you think, anyway.
7. Never be jealous.
"To bewail one's loss is always despicable: It is always the outcome of weakness."
- Nietzsche
Desire, anger, and jealousy, like all other bodily impulses and states, are all emotions that rule you when you give into thinking too deeply about yourself.
Yet, most likely, they will never disappear entirely for most of us. They are things that arise in the experience of all humanoids. So how shall we handle them?
The only utility of such emotions is to use them as motivation to recreate ourselves or the world in better forms. This axiom should read: never get lived by jealousy. Use it to live harder, should it arise within you! And if it's worthless, ignore it along with all your baser components.
8. Never let yourself be saddened by a separation.
Everything is impermanent. Nothing lasts. No one is yours. You are not even yours. The harder you grip the sand, the faster it sifts from your palm. Be open to the eternal renewal of this world, embrace it, allow it to inspire you, and invigorate you. Separation is simply the process of renewal and should inspire gratefulness. How sickening it would be to live in fibrotic stability. In fact, this should be everything we rail against.
9. Resentment and complaint are appropriate neither for oneself nor others.
I don't need to elaborate on resentfulness other than to quote the prophet:
"The overman...Who has organised the chaos of his passions, given style to his character, and become creative. Aware of life's terrors, he affirms life without resentment."
People are not worth complaining about if you're busy. Mockery is nobler if required. Incessant complaints, whinging, whining, and holding on to grudges like a psychotic are areas of expertise for women and children. Never a trait of self-respecting, powerful males seeking to overcome themselves.
10. Do not let yourself be guided by the feeling of lust or love.
What is love? It is an impermanent feeling, albeit an extremely strong one, that, in this day and age, will nip you in the bud if you're not careful. Embrace it, enjoy it, but never be guided by it. Why end up as a masturbating chimp, caught in a cage due to your lust for bananas?
Again this is the theme, isn't it?
We have a choice - we get lived by emotions or are mindful of them. We use them as powerful life energies, riding on them, reaching greater heights. We do not let them guide us; they are treacherous, like the sea. One minute all is calm. The next, a raging maelstrom grips and threatens to sink us, and we wonder, "where did this come from?"
Don't be lived by lust or love.
11. In all things have no preferences.
JUST GO WITH IT, MANG
12. Be indifferent to where you live.
I've lived in nice houses, box apartments, a cave, bush. Experience at a high enough level - is experience. If you can view the world in such a way, you've reached a very high level of development. I bow to you.
In a greater sense, we do not control what life throws at us. It is powerful to be OK with all things that occur.
13. Do not pursue the taste of good food.
Don't be a fat cunt. I think everyone in our spheres gets this, given the current fighting in the "Great Pawg Wars of October 22".
14. Do not hold on to possessions you no longer need.
"The things you own end up owning you. It's only after you lose everything that you're free to do anything."
― Chuck Palahniuk
This whole grindset/CEO/money NEED MUHSELFS ALL DIS STUFF faggotry distracts potentially powerful males from great works. Mild poverty is a requirement for greatness; even if you have money, you should self-enforce it. This kind of slave-animal decadence deeply revolts me on a limbic level.
'He who possesseth little is so much the less possessed. Blessed be moderate poverty!'
-Friedrich Nietzsche
15. Do not act following customary beliefs.
Customs can become quickly outdated, and more often than not, in today's world, custom can't possibly carry the weight of the future on its narrow shoulders. To free yourself from illusions of custom is a great work in itself, and discarding customary beliefs is an act of power. Custom is almost always stultifying nonsense for those on the path of aloneness. Let those with a lust for custom have it. Going through the motions is almost always a waste of your limited life and will hold you back from self-akshualisations.
16. Do not collect weapons or practice with weapons beyond what is useful.
I must admit I don't have a crossbow or samurai sword, but you can only carry so much shit around, right? Might as well have a few things and use them well.
17. Do not fear death.
The moment we realise, and accept, we will return to nothing, just as we came from nothing we are free. Fear of death has driven some of humanities greatest tragedies and delusions. And it’s the same with individuals. Maniacally hurrying, scurrying, doing what they must do. And yet their precious life falls away at every moment, whilst they indulge themselves like swine at the trough of repellent commonality. Common, trite obsessions and customs for their own sake, designed for one thing - to make them forget about their demises.
To acknowledge death, to imagine death, your body disintegrating lends your experience and immediacy the masses who are sound asleep, will never truly understand. Fear is truly the mindkiller.
Either way, you're fucked.
18. Do not seek to possess either goods or fiefs for your old age.
Has anyone seen a boomer handing his friends out awards and handing one back? Feverishly checking PROPARDEE investments? I, too, feel revulsion at these pathetic self-indulgences whilst they have one foot with a swollen, comfort seeking, alcoholic foot in the grave.
This is your time to go to the jungle, seek truth, and expire in a forest.
19. Respect Buddha and the Gods without counting on their help.
Respect the gods, and accept your fate. But whatever happens, it's on you. Don't blame them or anyone else. It's your karma.
20. You may abandon your own body, but you must preserve your honour.
Always with honour.
21. Never stray from The Way.
Your way, the way of personal power. We rise by increments, by consistency. Self-destruct lowly simian habits at all times. The way is your path, and upon it, you will be dragged to your untimely death kicking and screaming. A maybe contribute to a great work, or leave an important lasting legacy. Embrace it.