C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

 Essays and Thoughts on The Dokkodo Part 21 You May Abandon Your Body But Preserve Your Honor "Hotei watches a cockfight."  Painting by Miyamato Musashi (courtesy Wikimedia) "All things have an inner divine essence and an outer marvelous function.  The essence of a tree is manifested in its wonderful blossoms and abundant foliage.  The essence of tree could not be perceived if there were no blossoms and leaves.  Human beings have an inner divine essence that cannot be seen but is manifested as the marvelous techniques of budo."      ~Heiho Jikansho (of the Kajima Shinto School)  We are nearing the end of Musashi's final master-work, and Musashi is going to make sure that he leaves no stone unturned.  Knowing that he will die soon, his Dokkodo  takes on the sense of urgency he feels one needs in order to practice the way . Most translations of this precept are essentially the same.  William Scott Wilson, who you can typically co...

  Essays and Thoughts on The Dokkodo Part 20 Respect Buddha and the Gods Without Relying on Their Help Statue of Fudo Myoo - deity of Shingon Buddhism - at To-Ji Monastary in Kyoto (courtesy Wikimedia) I have a small confession before we begin this particular maxim of the great sword-saint Musashi: this is my favorite by far of all of his precepts in The Dokkodo .  I "confess" this, of course, because - as you should well know if this isn't your first piece in the series - the Budo Zen  of Musashi means that we must learn to "not pick and choose" and that the key to the success of the warrior is to "have no preferences."  All that aside, it's still my favorite.  But I hope you understand why  exactly that is so as you continue to read, for there is so much to "mine" from this, especially when you consider the number of "religious" people that may be offended by this maxim.  But I'm sure Musashi offended more than his fair ...

 Essays and Thoughts on The Dokkodo Part Nineteen Do Not Seek to be Rich in Your Old Age Bodhidharma sits facing the wall (Reigen Eto, 18th century) Bodhidharma is considered the founder of Zen Buddhism, and his "style" of meditation may be something that "helps" us with what we REALLY need for old age. Although Musashi died at the "ripe old age" of 60 or 61 - there is some disagreement as to the date of his birth - he lived to be surprisingly old considering both his occupation and the number of duels that he participated in.  Most samurai - especially  those who lived before the Tokugawa era - would have died at a significantly younger age.  Interestingly, it is only because  Musashi lived to be so old (for a samurai) that he understood the wisdom of this musing.  With age does  come wisdom in many cases, and so you can look at the whole of The Dokkodo  in this same vein.  He knows the wisdom of these "precepts" because he has lived t...

 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 o...

   Essays and Thoughts on  The Dokkodo Part Fourteen DO Not Pursue the Taste of Good Food Apparently not everyone agrees with Musashi, as the Netflix tv show "Samurai Gourmet" is all about tasty food! As with the previous maxim, here we have another seemingly  straightforward maxim that must be - yet again - an example of how ascetic  Musashi was, and (of course!) asceticism is not something that we can abide by in our modern world.  So that must mean that Musashi was a little off , right?  And since he lived such a long time ago, it must mean that we should only "take what we find useful, but reject the rest" (to paraphrase Bruce Lee)? I think the criticism of Musashi's ideas, because they are seen as both (a) ascetic and (b) "ancient," misses a couple of key points. First, let's tackle his "asceticism."  I don't  think there is any reason to NOT follow an ascetic life in the modern world.  In fact, the reason you may want to follow ...

Essays and Thoughts on  The Dokkodo Part Twelve In All Things, Have No Preferences Picture of the 3rd Patriarch of Zen, Seng T'san, whose famous work, Hsin Hsin Ming ("Inscription of Faith in Mind," S hinjinmei  in Japanese), is strikingly similar to some of the musings of the Dokkodo .  Musashi was clearly influenced by Seng T'san's work, wittingly or not. ( Picture is in the Public Domain ) Here, at the midpoint of the work, Musashi seems to return to a musing that is very close to his first one, to accept everything as it is .  In order to accept life and reality as it truly is, you must also "have no preferences."  I believe Musashi did this in order for the reader (which would have been Terao Maganojo at first, but Musashi knew it would be passed on to students under Maganojo, and to future generations), to stay focused on the overall  meaning of the text, and of following the Way  in general. Although the samurais at Musashi's time - and throug...

  Essays and Thoughts on  The Dokkodo Part Eleven Do Not Allow Yourself to be Guided by Feelings of Lust or Love The Dokkodo in its original handwriting. (Courtesy of Wikimedia) The further along we get in the Dokkodo, and the more we realize how different  was the view of the ancient budoka compared with the mind and thought of the modern martial practitioner.  Here, we find a maxim that seems more harsh than all the others that came before it, cold even.  In our society (or I should write "societies" - for this goes for the East as well as the West), we are taught that romantic love is to be prized.  In fact, there are many whose entire life revolves around acquiring romantic love. But love is fickle.  And fickleness is not a feeling that the serious martial practitioner can rely upon.  Upon this very subject, Roshi Richard Collins has this to say, " We have all perhaps made unwise decisions in our lives based on what we thought were the dictate...

  Essays and Thoughts on  The Dokkodo Part Eight Never Be Jealous Musashi using two swords (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons) O, beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-ey’d monster, which doth mock The meat it feeds on.   -Shakespeare (from Othello) If you have done Zen practice for any lengthy period of time, then you are probably aware of many of the negative emotions that you  struggle with - or ones that you don't.  These emotions can come upon you when you are sitting on the cushion meditating.  They can come upon you when you are in the dojo (or dojang) training.  And, of course, they can even come upon you in the most mundane times, such as when you are in the checkout line at the grocery store, or when you are stuck in heavy traffic, or when you are busy cleaning your home.  In other words, negative emotions seem to always  be there, lurking just beneath the surface no matter the situation.  Of course, you can also have ...