The Way of the Modern Ronin, Part 13

 

Essays and Thoughts on The Dokkodo

Part Thirteen

Be Indifferent to Where You Live

Ronin at dusk

Compared to some of the more philosophical musings in The Dokkodo, this one just seems as if its straightforward stoic advice.  But is it?  Could there actually be more to this maxim than what is on the surface?  I think the answer is yes... and no.

Many musings in The Dokkodo - this one, and the others of a similar bent - or much of the advice given in The Book of Five Rings is meant to be philosophical, while, at the same time and without distracting from the philosophical aspect of it, are also supposed to be straightforward.  You "practice" this maxim by doing exactly what Musashi says to do.  When you do this, the living philosophy of it begins to make itself known to you.  And everything appears to take on the appearance of what the Buddhists call "One Taste."  Your life - your actions and your thoughts, and all that flows forth from these - becomes of one accord, one seemless whole needed for you, as a martial practitioner, to perfect your craft.

This maxim, and several throughout The Dokkodo, is an extension of the previous one, "in all things, have no preferences."  This one could be, "have no preference to where you live."  The next musing, "do not pursue the taste of good food," could be "have no preference toward the taste of food."  And the musing after that, "do not hold onto possessions you no longer need"?  It could easily be "have no preferences toward what posessions you own."  All of The Dokkodo, in this sense, is of One Taste.

David K. Groff, in his 2012 The Five Rings: Miyamato Musashi's Art of Strategy which includes The Dokkodo within it, translates this as "Have no special wishes about your home."  I find this interesting.  It clearly shows that there is more to this musing than I had first thought upon initial reading.  You could be indifferent about where you live, but still want something for the home you happen to be living in, however temporary or however long-term of a dwelling.  But in Groff's translation it's clear that Musashi's maxim might be better read as this, "be indifferent to where you live and indifferent to what is in your dwelling."  This makes it more substantially about letting go as opposed to how I had initially read it.  As I understood it to begin with, I simply thought it was about indifference to where the ronin laid his head at night.  And this made sense to me.  After all, ronin were essentially wandering samurai due to their lack of master, which meant they had to find work wherever they could.  It would make sense that you should cultivate indifference to your living quarters, considering that you never knew where you may have to bed down.  But when you include Groff's translation, it becomes evident that Musashi means to have complete indifference when it came to one's abode, caring not the where or the what, caring not whether it is hot or cold, whether one's bedding is hard or soft, whether or not it is crowded or empty.  None of that matters, and if any of that does matter to you, then you have not learned the art of letting go.

To sum things up for this maxim, let me just add these words of Roshi Richard Collins from his book No Fear Zen: "Our surrounding do not need to be uncomfortable or homely; they should be simple and aesthetically pleasing in a way that does not interfere with their function - a functional aesthetic that makes practice (concentration, focus, attentiveness, harmonizing) more efficient.  On the other hand, like the warrior, the bodhisattva must be willing to give up both functionality and aesthetics at any time and move on when the occasion calls."