The Way of the Modern Ronin, Part 6

Essays and Thoughts on The Dokkodo
Part 6
Be Detached from Desire Your Entire Life

Statue of Musashi and Kojiro in battle. (public domain)

This passage seems a little odd when first we read it.  It's odd because, well, didn't Musashi desire to be a good samurai?  Isn't it desire that pushed Musashi to want to be a great swordsman in the first place?

But this saying isn't quite what it seems.  Roshi Richard Collins, author of No Fear Zen, has this to say: "The word for desire here, yokushin, suggests specifically selfish wishes, lusts, or cupidity, that greediness for physical pleasure or material accumulation that resists control."  In other words, you are to be detached from those things which prevent you from practicing budo.  Your desire should be for attaining deeper and broader martial skills, not money or fame or to even be a fighter (as opposed to a martial artist).  Of course, just because one calls himself a martial artist doesn't mean that he is one.  The number of charlatan "grandmasters" or "keyboard warriors" who have never practiced true martial arts - but write as if they have - should attest to this.

Please don't think that being "detached from yokushin" means that you shouldn't strive for perfection in your martial art, or in your lifting weights, or, well, anything that you love to do that can be a way.  By "way" here, I mean it in the sense that is used in bushido, or the "way of the warrior".  Here, way - or do - is a path that the practitioner follows.  Following it is what makes her a practitioner.  In traditional Japanese culture, you have the way of tea, the way of the bow, the way of flower arrangement, the way of writing - the list of both traditional, and perhaps non-traditional, dos is rather lengthy.  This is one of the reasons that, on my blog, I often treat lifting weights - and other forms of resistance training - as a way, because it is one!

Another point that needs to be made here is in regards to detachment.  A better word might be "non-attachment", so that this entire musing could, possibly, best be translated as: "Non-attachment to yokushin should be practiced one's entire life."  On this point, Roshi Richard Collins adds this, "In Buddhist thought 'non-attachment' is not the same as 'detachment.'  Being detached implies an attitude of indifference, and certainly Musashi would have his samurai indifferent to the tugs of desire.  But non-attachment implies a more thorough and paradoxical immunity to desire, one that would allow participation in a desire with a simultaneous uninvolvement.  There is a kind of desire that implies no sense of attachment, only a healthy striving, as in having a 'desire for world peace.'  A 'lust' or 'obsession' for world peace, however, we would agree sounds harmful.  These are forms of attachment to a specific goal, the frustrations of which can be dangerous, and this is what yokushin implies."

Non-attachment (at least, in the minds of budoka) is, therefore, an aid to action.  For instance, this sort of thinking had been in martial arts long before Musashi, or even long before the Japanese forms of do.  I have in mind the Taoist notion of "wu-wei", which is literally translated as "no action", but in practice means something more akin to "effortless action" or "spontaneous action".  Perhaps even the "action of non-attachment" might be a good definition.

When you practice the "action of non-attachment" you are also moving close to the budo concept of mushin.  Emptying your mind, and acting with wu-wei, leads to what is often described as a flow state.  The legendary Zen master Takuan Soho wrote in his book The Unfettered Mind: "The mind must always be in the state of 'flowing,' for when it stops anywhere that means the flow is interrupted and it is this interruption that is injurious to the well-being of the mind. In the case of the
swordsman, it means death. When the swordsman stands against his opponent, he is not to think of the
opponent, nor of himself, nor of his enemy's sword movements. He just stands there with his sword
which, forgetful of all technique, is ready only to follow the dictates of the subconscious. The man has effaced himself as the wielder of the sword. When he strikes, it is not the man but the sword in the hand of the man's subconscious that strikes."  If you are sparring in the gym, and you desire to strike your opponent with a particular move then that particular move won't work!  However, if one relaxes, and has a mind of mushin that is ready to act with non-attachment, it is then that one can achieve the goal of striking one's opponent.