Miyamoto Musashi’s last written words were penned 7 days before his death.
He called his last message to the world, Dokkodo: The Way of Walking Alone (独行道)
This is often translated as the *Path of Walking Alone - however, that translation misses Musashi’s double-meaning. He is not simply referring to a “Path” of walking alone. By use of double-meaning, he is categorizing The Way Of Walking Alone as a full-fledged Way to be studied.
For another example of a Musashi double-meaning, note that the Book Of Five Rings has a “Wind” chapter, and that chapter discusses other martial arts schools and their styles, because 風 means Style as well as Wind.
One could perhaps become a student in The Way Of Martial Arts without being, or needing to be, a student of The Way Of Walking Alone. This way is in many respects the Way of becoming a fully-realized Ronin, walking alone but with honor to ones self, to higher spiritual beings/truths, and to society, especially interesting as Ronins were traditionally one of the most dishonored members of society. Musashi must have felt like he had something to teach dishonored Ronins about this Way Of Walking Alone as he was a Ronin like them, yet near the very top of respectable society in his day.
From The Book Of Five Rings, other ways he names are:
- Carpentry: The Way Of Building
- The Way Of Two Heavens, One Style - the name of his Martial Arts Style
- Buddhism: The Way Of Salvation For Man
- The Way Of Dying - something that all humans must pass through, skilled or unskilled
- The 4 different ways people generally fall into in their life: The way of the… (Artisan, Merchant, Warrior, Farmer)
- The Ways Of The Archer, The Poet, The Blacksmith, The Way Of The Tea Ceremony (other individual arts/skills/lifestyles)
He emphasized a life dedicated to living in constant skill acquisition. His definition of a Way was some combination of a lifestyle, an art, and a skill, and by example of his own life we can see he thought that art/skills/lifestyles were interchangable and that he lived his life as one big artistic expression, personally quite accomplished in art, calligraphy, statue-making, dueling, poetry, and even carpentry.
Rather than this image we have of Musashi as socially isolated, separate from society, we should see him as a man that was fully integrated into society while remaining deeply connected to his semi-monastic life, staying completely and utterly celibate for most of his life, engaging socially engaged yet never becoming attached to anything - following his Way Of Walking Alone while simultaneously living in harmony with social requirements and Mastery in various domains… and even when he wanted sons to carry on his legacy, adopting his sons instead of finding a wife to bear them for him directly.
His 21 principles describing how to live the life of the Warrior-Monk, the Honored Ronin, The Master Of All Ways, are as follows:
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Accept The Eternal Truth rather than fight it (The Tao, The Dharma, The Way Of All Things, or the many names that eastern philosophy gave to spiritual realizations)
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Do not scheme for physical pleasure
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Do not intend to rely on anything
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Consider yourself lightly; consider the world deeply
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Do not ever think in acquisitive terms
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Do not regret things about your own personal life
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Do not envy another’s good or evil
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Do not regret parting from people or places
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Do not complain or feel bitterly about yourself or others
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Have no heart for approaching the path of love
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Do not have preferences
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Do not harbor hopes for your own personal home (it’s location, quality, etc.)
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Do not have a liking for delicious food for yourself
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Do not carry antiques handed down from generation to generation
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Do not fast so that it affects you physically
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Do not be fond of material things (but select and care for your necessary military weapons as if they were an extension of yourself)
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Do not fear death
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Do not intend to carry riches into your old age
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Respect Buddha & The Gods without depending on them
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Though you give up your life, do not give up your honor
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Never depart from The Way (Of Martial Arts)
For those who don’t know, @Jouissance is a name that I chose because of this exact obsession with Buddhist thinking. Jouissance means the point of such extremity that pleasure becomes painful, and the flip side of the coin, finding the hints of pleasure even in extreme pain.
To me, several of these points, in the way of walking alone, arise naturally from the practice of buddhist meditation. Whereas points like “Have no heart for love” and “have no special liking for delicious food” are conscious decisions that one needs to generate the decisiveness and conviction to make, in order to continue to ascend in buddhist accomplishments.
Musashi is someone that I’ve been studying for a very long time. He’s at the essence of what I call “The Dopamine Dojo” which could perhaps be considered “The Way Of Mental Mastery” - a personal project of mine spanning years and years, deeply thinking on psychology, neuroscience, buddhism, tech addiction, eastern philosophy, jungian psychology, and Miyamoto Musashi’s teachings as the central force behind optimizing all of them… for those who are brave and extreme enough.
I have never been brave enough or extreme enough, until now.
In my last journal I was running Emperor Reforged and GLM, but everything shifted the moment I started running Emperor Black.
A desire I was struggling with before listening to Emperor Black became an immediate YES after listening to Emperor Black for just one loop. Literal Monk Mode.
To dive more deeply into meditation and exploration of the mind/self, including becoming sexually abstinent and start practicing retention/transmutation. All thigns that I was wishing I could just easily decide to do, until I ran EB, and then it became actually easy to decide to do.
Practically speaking, I’ll start by running Emperor Black alongside Art Of War.
I would LOVE to keep in Reforged, but, @SaintSovereign mentioned that it got a “massive increase” in social (or was it sexual!?) scripting, and I need more clarity on what that entails and if it would align with Emperor Black before deciding to reintroduce it to the stack. I’ve been feeling this pull to be alone ever since I got back from Latin America, namely, wanting to feel totally at peace with being alone (romantically) unless it’s with a genuine soulmate/relationship.
Maybe that’s a difficult experience to try and reconcile while on a sub that has social/sexual scripting - i fell into what I considered to be a nearly sex-addicted level of obsession with talking to women and angling for proper relationships. It all just turned sexual anyways, and I realized I was just putting a different name and different conditions on to the exact same mental pattern of sexual addiction I’ve always had.
I’ve NEVER been willingly single/sexless my whole life.
Now it’s time to have a season of fully embracing Dokkodo, The Way Of Walking Alone.
Very curious about running HERO: TLTB Stage 3 in the future. Maybe ST2… Definitely Khan Black, possibly even HERO: Origins which is obviously the most Musashi related title, but to be honest, I don’t feel like I have enough of a craft that my life is dedicated towards mastering that I could fully utilize everything H:O has to offer - Emperor: Art Of War seems equivalent to H:O in many ways, yet much more fitting to my current needs.
