The Way of the Modern Ronin, Part 16

 

Essays and Thoughts on The Dokkodo
Part Sixteen
Abstain from Fasting and Other Things That Affect You Physically

Mas Oyama - modern-day heir to the Budo throne of Musashi - was a believer in Kangeiko, or "cold training" the same as the samurai at the time The Dokkodo was written.

Of all the musings/thoughts of The Dokkodo, this precept is the most widely translated - perhaps even mistranslated.  For instance, Wikipedia has it translated as, "Do not act following customary beliefs."  Roshi Richard Collins in his book No Fear Zen, translates it almost exactly the same way: "Do not follow customary beliefs."  If you have read my past posts here on The Dokkodo, you know that I love Collins's book, but I think this is the one musing where he might miss the point a little.

Compare those translations with the translation by William Scott Wilson, the preeminent scholar and translator of traditional budo and Bushido works.  Wilson translates it as "Do not fast so that it affects you physically."

Read these two translations again:

"Do not fast so that it affects you physically."

"Do not act simply from customary beliefs."

Your eyes are not deceiving you.  Those are two translations of the exact same precept.

A couple of questions now readily come to mind.  First, which translation is correct - or at least the closest to Musashi's intention?  And second - which follows from the first - why are the translations so different?  (Perhaps the conundrum of this precept will help you to not rely on just one translation of a text.  Unfortunately, some translations are done in a way that cements the translator's point of view.  The translator may do this wittingly or unwittingly, but there is usually some sort of "translator's bias."  And the more of an "expert" a translator is, then even more will her translation take on her particular "flavor" of the subject matter, and there is nothing wrong with this.  But - and here is the most important takeaway - there are translators whose only goal in the translation of the text is to make sure that it reads as proof of the translator's specific point-of-view.  They often do this so they can be "proved right" even though they are the very ones doing the "proving!")  So it's important that we do our best to find a "good" translation of a text, no matter the text, that comes closest to the original author's intention.  I think the best translators of Budo texts (but this really goes for any subject) are translators who are knowledgeable on the subject - not just the language being translated - but who also love the subject, and who try their best to really find what the author's point-of-view was/is, and present that to the reader.

So why the disparity in these various translations?  I believe it comes from the word "monoimi."  Musashi uses it, I think, to mean "fast," or he uses it to mean "abstinence," and it can be an abstinence from things other than food, such as to abstain from certain beliefs or practices that are commonly held but have no real basis in truth.  Or even to abstain from abstaining from something just because your culture tells you to that it's a "good" thing to do.  I have a feeling that Musashi had come to the conclusion that many things his culture told someone to do - for health, or for Shinto "purification" purposes - were actually deleterious to one's health.  Musashi may have come to understand that the samurai needed a certain amount of nutrition and rest in order to function at his best capacity.  And some of the "master" samurai "trainers" may have recommended a diet that (we now know) was not suitable for the rigorous budo training.  They probably did this because it was part of the samurai culture.  It was what they were taught, which was brought down from what their masters' were taught, and so on and so forth.

Many practices the samurai utilized came from the Shinto religion.  Shinto is the "native" religion of Japan, and, in all actuality, played a much bigger role in the "spiritual life" of samurai than Buddhism, Taoism, or Confucianism, although it was not uncommon for a samurai to be devoted to any one of the 4 major religions of Japan.  Sometimes a budo practitioner was drawn more to one of the schools of thought than to the others.  But it was also the case that many budoka would make an amalgam of all 4 of these religions, borrowing upon what helped him personally from a physical and psychological perspective, not just a "religious" or even a "spiritual" one.  (This is similar to prevalent ideas that are still practiced in Asia, and have been practiced throughout its history.  The "Quanzhen" or "Complete Reality" school of Taoism, for example, has been practiced in China for over 1,000 years, and it's an amalgam of Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism.)

What is of interest to me is the fact that the Samurai culture got so many things right when it comes to health.  For instance, one of the most "popular" things right now is cold therapy, primarily ice baths.  We know that ice baths - and other forms of cold therapy - help to dramatically reduce inflammation, aid in your recovery from workouts, support one's mental health, and boosts your immune system.  In Japan, this kind of training is referred to as kangeiki, literally "cold training" or, interchangeably, "winter training."  And the Japanese have been doing this form of training - and also different forms of "hot training" during the summer - for centuries.

Musashi would have, of course, kept practices, such as kangeiki, that he deemed to be beneficial for the samurai.  But he had no problem with not doing something if he knew it was bad for his health - or the health of his students.

And as mentioned, most of the "things that affect you physically" that Musashi is referring to would have come from Shinto practices that were very prevalent at the time.  This will also, maybe, help to explain the discrepancies in the different translations of this precept.  For instance, here is the definition of "Shinto fasting," or "saikai," from Jinja Honcho, the largest association of Shinto shrines in the world: "During fasting (saikai), purify and clean the body, change clothing, dwell in a separate room, be modest in food and drink, correct your thoughts, words, and conduct, and avoid unclean things."  We can see that fasting, for the people of today and for the Shinto of medieval Japan, was about more than just abstaining from food; it meant abstaining from certain items of clothing, and from other people, as well as abstaining from thoughts that are impure.  This is still important to Shinto practitioners to this day, particularly their priests, but these practices were more extreme in the days of Musashi.  Priests, and sometimes even lay practitioners, would fast for as long as a week - without food, only water - leading up to a major Shinto festival.  Assuming that Musashi and his students were exposed to these ideas, which I assume they undoubtedly were, and may have even participated in these extreme fasts on occasion, you can understand why Musashi would have included this among his most important precepts to be handed down for posterity.

As modern budoka, we need to also abstain from things our culture tells us is good for us, but may not be.  These things can be eating too much, or too much of the wrong things, or eating too little/fasting for too long.  Here you have instances where the advice is probably well intended, such as when a really skinny martial artist wants to put on some muscle mass, or when a martial artist wants to fast because of all the "health benefits" that he has been hearing about.  There is a good way for the martial artist to gain muscle mass, and there are times when one should eat more meals per day.  Conversely, fasting is an utterly fantastic tool you can use to lose body fat fast, as well as a great tool for detoxifying your body, which your body needs, by the way (especially if you're one of those bodybuilders that has been eating 5 to 6 meals per day).  But, as with all good things, they have their limits.  Musashi had to be aware that very strict fasts - of more than several days - were not good for his students.  He also knew that samurai, if they were going to be able to do enough daily training in their budo arts, as well as study sutras and warrior texts, meditate, practice the way of calligraphy, or the way of tea, etc., needed a good, "hearty" diet that supplied enough calories in the form of (mainly) rice, but also plenty of vegetables and fish.  He knew samurai that fasted for too long would not be able to do all of the daily activities like the ones I listed above, much less go into battle when called upon.  And we can use this wisdom to make sure we supply our bodies what they need based upon the kind of training that we are currently doing, as well as our current goals.  Do NOT give your body what you want - as we learned from our precept on "not pursuing the taste of good food," we need to supply our body with plenty of good nutrients, not plenty of tasty dishes.  It is nutrients that will allow us to train long, to meditate long into the night, or to win the championship bout of a day-long tournament when you are completely tired and exhausted.  In this instance, we should be focused on fasting from "unhealthy" foods.  (I realize that "unhealthy" is broad, and often doesn't mean anything.  Here, it means the foods that WON'T allow you to perform at your highest in your martial art or your chosen sport.  This can be different depending upon the individual, which is why I chose the very generic "unhealthy.")

What about fasting our mind from certain thoughts?  While you may see the benefit in fasting from "bad" food, you also understand how to do it. But you may struggle with what to do when "fasting from thoughts."  Does this mean that we should try to not have any thoughts, that we should try to just make our minds a "blank"?  No, I don't think that's what Musashi had in mind, either.  Now, don't get me wrong.  I'm pretty sure that he engaged in some intense zazen where the goal was to attempt to eliminate all thoughts during meditation.  But I don't think that's what he's referring to in this precept.  I think "fasting from thoughts" meant, for the most part, to "fast" from thoughts that have nothing to do with the Way.  This means to not think about things such as gossip, or things that you have no control over.  With regard to just this, the great Stoic philosopher Epictetus said we should only think about things we have control over.  And just what do we have control over and what do we not have control over?  Here is Epictetus in his own words:

Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever are our own actions. Things not in our control are body, property, reputation, command, and, in one word, whatever are not our own actions.

If Stoic philosophy would have been known among samurai, I have a feeling it would have been well-loved.  Samurai picked philosophical and religious schools of thought not for "salvation" or "enlightenment," but simply to make them better warriors.  And Stoicism would have fit the bill nicely.

Even though Musashi wasn't aware of Stoicism, he would have agreed with the above quote.  It was the goal of the Stoics, but it was the goal of the samurai, as well.  The Samurai had no business thinking or worrying about what was not his own actions.  It's a philosophy we can apply, too.  And, as with many of the other musings of The Dokkodo, just because it's simple, doesn't mean that it will be easy.  "Simple but hard" should be a mantra we all learn to live by.