Two weeks ago, I was using the few minutes before I went to sleep to read. I picked up Musashi’s Book of Five Rings (the Martial Artist’s edition by Stephen Kaufman) and noticed an excerpt in The Book of Earth that I never seemed to encounter in my past readings:
The warrior, however, understands that the end result of any study is a kind of death (sublime, not necessarily physical) before the attainment of perfection. Many different types of people have been known to die for either the right reasons or the wrong reasons. The only shame in dying incorrectly is to die a stupid and meaningless death. To die as a warrior means to have crossed swords and either won or lost without any consideration for winning or losing.
That suprised me since I didn’t hear about this dying part before. So last week (or was it two weeks ago?), I scribbled a few thoughts (they are not necessarily coherent) down in AP Biology when there was a substitute:
Musashi wrote that one must die along the way. But what kind of death? It’s definitely not a physical death unless he’s referring to a coma or a similar vegitative state. Perhaps he means a spiritual death. Even so, he was a Shintoist, and it didn’t seem like he abandoned his beliefs. Rather, his theory embraces it. Perhaps he means trancending beyond the spirit–hence the death.
Come to think of it, Musashi never said he reached the way. He wrote about it, but what is to say that he was enlightened? Perhaps no one ever reaches that state. Maybe Musashi means that by dying it is a mental state where we don’t care anymore–in a state of mu–not caring but caring. Why must one use paradoxes like this? I guess one seeks a middle way between caring, but the actual feeling is a bit different. I think I have expreienced this idea of “caring but not caring” before, but I don’t know how to describe it to you.
Or, he could have meant that one meets physical death but doesn’t actually die. For instance, one could be in a life and death situation where one is a hair’s width away from being sliced by a sword or shot by a gun. It’s said that one’s life passes before one’s eyes in such a situation so that may be some kind of reflection mechanism that enables one to be enlightened.
7 Comments
hahahha…I got you to watch Naruto…and you can’t stop lolz!! well it’s k…I am glad to hear that you like it….and did you get your DVD to work??
Miss you online…come online and chat!!
Alas, my drive reads DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD-RAM, but not DVD+R!
I was on AIM a little bit today, but I have this big AP English assignment that I’ve been meaning to work on… I’ll see if I can sign on AIM from time to time.
I think Musashi means that in order to truly understand something, you have to immerse yourself in it enough to die for it, and the only way to ever test whether you are willing to die for it is to go through a situation where you could potentially lose your life, but you go through it anyway because you wish for enlightenment.
It seems that the not caring aspect comes from not caring for oneself, but for enlightenment instead.
Interesting points. I shall ponder those for a bit.
I was really upset that you did not let me see your drawing in detailed!! Sniff!! you know I won’t make fun of it!! I am actually jealous…cause I can’t even draw hehehe!
Haha and we find out when theres only a few days left of school in the 4 years we’ve been here.. by the way Mike, that talent show performance was AWESOME! nice t-shirt too.. it seems like it was dissing caltech, not sure haha, couldn’t read it too well from far way.
P.S. - I was the one that caused the standing ovation…… j/k it was well deserved! Congrats!
P.S.S. (or is it P.P.S) - If they were judging, I bet you woulda won!
Hey Felix,
Thanks for the comment. I wanted to play something people would enjoy, and I guess that worked! Actually, my t-shirt was supposed to diss MIT. The front says: MIT; The back says: “Because not everyone can get into Caltech.” Thanks for the standing ovation too :). I’m afraid I was a bit “shell” shocked from playing so I didn’t notice a lot of the audience. But thanks for the applause and everything. You’re a great person.
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Hey MyNa,
I didn’t let you see my drawing in detail since I stink at drawing! If you looked at it any longer, you would have noticed that it was horrible! Kakashi’s the only person I can draw since he’s fairly easy with half of his face covered. I’m pretty sure you can draw better than I can….
-mX