The Way of the Modern Ronin, Part 18

 Essays and Thoughts on The Dokkodo
Part Eighteen
Do Not Fear Death While Following the Way

Portrait of Zen Master Dogen (public domain), 1253, founder of the Soto school of Japanese Zen. His teachings on death impacted Zennists such as Musashi, either directly or indirectly.



"Love and Death are the great gifts given to us; mostly, they are passed on, unopened." ~Rainer Maria Rilke


This precept is the beginning of what can best be categorized as the "home stretch" of his final work. After this precept, there are 4 more. In many ways, each one of them summarizes, or perhaps seals, the preceding ones.


I read an opinion one time that this should have been used by Musashi as the final precept. I don't agree. Now, I do think that this precept, or either of the final two precepts, could have been used as the final musing, simply because all three's emphasis on the finality of things. But I also believe that Musashi was - as we should know by this point in our study of The Dokkodo - a writer who thought precisely how he wanted to say things. There is a reason that this musing is stationed here in The Dokkodo, and if we don't think it should be placed here, then we need to do our damnedest to investigate and research why Musashi did place it here.


Interestingly, this is a precept where there are not major differences in the various translations available.  Groff translates this one as, "Along the way, have no bad feelings toward death." Roshi Collins, in his book No Fear Zen, translates it as, "Do not shun death in the Way." And William Scott Wilson has it translated as, "While on the Way, do not begrudge death." Even the most "common" translation - "do not fear death" - is acceptable once you realize that the other "addendums" in the different translations are still implied in it.


"Just understand that birth-and-death is itself nirvana. There is nothing such as birth and death to be avoided; there is nothing such as nirvana to be sought. Only when you realize this are you free from birth and death." ~ Eihei Dogen, founder of the Soto sect of Zen in Japan, as quoted in his masterwork "The Shobogenzo," or "Treasury of the True Dharma Eye"

"The source of suffering is ego, the thought of self. To know this is reason. Once you know the reason for suffering, your sense of duty evokes effort to extinguish the thought of self with a genuine courageous mind. Fools can’t understand the source of misery and happiness; people without a sense of duty cannot break the bonds of life and death." ~Shuzuki Shosan (Zen monk, master samurai, and contemporary of Musashi)

Shosan was a fascinating figure. He was a contemporary of Musashi, as mentioned, born a few years before Musashi, dying a few years after. I'm unsure if the two had ever met, or knew much about the other one, but since they lived during roughly the exact same years, they were influenced by the same "spirit" of both Zen and Budo. And although they had some varying views, their views were also what they believed was an "answer" to what was occurring in and around their society. And they both practiced a form of Budo Zen that was in stark contrast to both "pacifist Zen" and many of the other forms of Buddhism and other religions their contemporary samurai partook in.  And they both believed that this Budo Zen was the spiritual practice par excellence for the samurai!

Shosan was a ferocious samurai who served under the reign of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founding shogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate.  He was also a sort of pseudo monk in that he trained under a Zen master, Daigo Sochiku, who allowed Shosan to train as a monk without ever actually receiving inka, or "ordination."  What's most notable is that he developed his own "style" of Zen, called by various names such as "Nio Zen," "Guardian King Zen," or "Fudo Zen."  His new style encouraged a mixing of what might be called "traditional" zazen instructions, combined with visualization techniques on different Japanese "deities."  Suzuki liked to tell warriors they must practice "takinokoe zazen," or "zazen in the midst of battle cries."

But what's for our interest here is Shosan's views on death.  You can see how they would easily align with Musashi's, as well.  Shosan, Buddhist that he was, believed that suffering came from an inflated sense of "self" - or what we would call ego.  And ego can only be eliminated if "life and death are transcended" - to paraphrase Shosan.  He believed, therefore, that the best way to "conquer" death was to eliminate ego, and the only way to eliminate ego was through duty.  For Shosan, that duty involved his allegiance to Ieyasu, and his duty to the Way.  This is also the reason I chose the translation "do not fear death FOLLOWING THE WAY."

It is one thing to simply "not fear death."  Fools can have NO fear over death.  Deluded suicide bombers can have no fear of death with their hope for an eternal reward.  But that is not the fear of death that is being conquered here.  If you manage to "not fear death," but you somehow do it in a manner that goes against the Way, then you have completely missed the point.

In both Musashi and Shosan - and this goes for most other Zen samurai who were their contemporaries - you find their embrace of Zen is in many ways an answer to the fear of death.  Good samurai knew that if you feared death in battle, the chances were also good that you would die in battle.  But the opposite was just as true.  The samurai who had no fear of death had a far more likely chance to actually survive a battle.

To cling to life is to invite death.  To cling to death is to invite life.

In this way, there were actually very practical purposes for a samurai to not fear death.  This allowed him to survive in battle - which often meant, as well, that he would be winning in battle.  At the time that Musashi lived, most samurai were not ronin, as he was, but were in fealty to a lord (as with Shosan).  And a dead samurai could not serve his master, nor keep his master from perishing, for it was just as important that his daimyo stayed alive as it was for him.  If a lord died in battle, it meant that his samurai were forced to be ronin until they could find another master - if they could even find another master to serve.

But, of course, Musashi is not just after the practical - the philosophical, even the mystical, is just as important for him.  It may be good to look at his philosophy as a "yin/yang" balance of the practical and the philosophical.  At the outset of the Go Rin No Sho, Musashi says the samurai must practice the dual paths of scholarship and warfare, and "must have a liking for both of these Ways." (Groff translation)  A few sentences after Musashi made that statement, he went on to write this: "the warrior must simply acquire a taste for what might be called the Way of Death."  So even at the outset of his greatest work, he wanted the warrior to keep death steadfastly in mind.

Now let's look at the entirely practical part of this musing for our sake, not that of the ancient samurai.  Modern budoka, of course, won't have to wage into battle with their lives - and the life of their daimyo - at stake.  But they should wage a battle of their own making, whether it is simply sparring with others in the dojo, or competing in some sort of tournament, or even competing in a full-contact combat art (MMA, Kyokushin, Thai boxing - it doesn't matter, as long as its a war.)  The point here is that if you want your Budo to be trans-formative, then you must challenge yourself in some way.  And it must be something that makes you a little uncomfortable, that makes you at least a little bit nervous.  "Iron is forged by iron," as the saying goes.  Musashi would have agreed wholeheartedly.