The Way of the Modern Ronin, Part 17

 Essays and Thoughts on The Dokkodo

Part Seventeen

Do Not Collect Weapons, Nor Practice with Them, Beyond What is Useful

Samurai wields two swords - a katana and a wakizashi - the hallmark of Musashi's "two heavens as one" style.
 

Here is another precept where there are often subtle differences in how it is translated.  But these subtle differences in translation can lead to subtly different outcomes.  So let's see if we can figure out the meaning of Musashi's words, then we'll see if we can apply it to our day-to-day lives.

Roshi Richard Collins's translation is similar to the one I used: "Do not seek especially either to collect or practice arms beyond what is useful."  William Scott Wilson - who typically has the most "accurate" translations - has this one as: "While it's different with military equipment, do not be fond of material things."  Lastly, David K. Groff translates this as: "Do not concern yourself with an unnecessary variety of tools, especially weapons."

No matter the translation, the emphasis is on not owning what one doesn't need, and not practicing what one doesn't need to practice!  It is one more way that Musashi is extolling his reader to let go.  And with The Dokkodo, he hammers this point home again and again throughout the work.

One of the reasons, I believe, that Musashi constantly pushed the need for letting go is because he knew that his own life would soon end.  We know that he wrote this final piece right before his death, but it wasn't the only thing that he wrote so late in life.  He also wrote the Go Rin No Sho ("Book of Five Rings") shortly before this one.  And it too has constant reminders to let go throughout it.

"Empty-handed I entered this world.
Barefoot I leave it.
My coming, my going -
Two simple happenings
That got entangled." ~Zen monk Kozan Ichikyo's "death poem", 1360

This sentiment of letting go at the end of life was echoed throughout the rest of Japan.  Don't get me wrong.  I'm not saying that the "average" person in Japan, throughout its history, were - what we might call - stoic.  People were as scared of death as many people are today.  But the "common folk" appreciated the preciousness of human life, and its fleeting impermanence.  And they cherished poems such as the one above.  (For centuries, Japanese poets had been writing these "death poems."  Ichikyo's poem was written on the morning he passed away, where it was said that he wrote the poem, laid down his brush, and then died while sitting upright - probably seated "zazen.")

This outlook of letting go was embraced by farmers, merchants, traders, fishermen - the common folk - as well as by monks and other Buddhists; men and women who knew just how harsh and fleeting the world was.  They knew it because they lived it.  But samurai were not commoners or monks, and many of them weren't even Buddhist.  Despite common misunderstanding, most samurai were not Zennists, in fact, and at times in the country's history, there were even daimyo that openly waged war against various Buddhist institutions!  (For the actual connection that exists between Zen and the martial arts, read my post "The REAL Connection Between Zen and the Martial Arts.")

Musashi knew all of this. And he was a Zen Buddhist, one who believed that the path of Zen was the most appropriate path for the warrior who must NOT fear death.  And he absolutely knew that someone - even a skilled samurai - was more likely to not want to die if he owned possessions.  Or, rather, owned possessions that he was fond of.  Musashi wanted students of his Niten Ichi-ryū (二天一流) school to have a mind of Zen, whether they were Buddhists or not.  And this mind did not cling to possessions, or to anything that kept one's mind from practicing the Way.

This precept is as important today for modern budoka as it was when Musashi wrote it.  In fact, it might be more important.  Why?  Because it is much easier to accumulate possessions in the modern world.  Let's say that I want a new bo staff, or a new pair of tonfas, or any of the traditional weapons of Okinawan Karate-Do that I enjoy to train with.  Well, all I have to do is get online, and I will find several marketplaces selling an assortment of, not just different weapons, but different versions of the same weapon.  It would be quite feasible for me to be able to collect a dozen different varieties of just one weapon, and I could do this with every kind of weapon I own.

But to what point? What is the "goal" of the collecting? The goal - for most people - is to simply collect.  If you are a fan of the Budo, for example, then you collect in order to possess.  For the budoka, however, one's "possessions" must be of a different sort.  You must possess a mind of discipline.  You must possess a body that can handle the rigorous demands of hard training, which will in turn lead to the possession of an armored body.  And you must possess the spirit that illumines true budo!