Essays and Thoughts on the "Dokkodo" Part Three Do Not Seek Pleasure for its Own Sake Miyamoto Musashi in his prime, wielding two bokken; woodblock print by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (courtesy of Wikimedia) The 2nd maxim of Musashi's Dokkodo is "do not seek pleasure for its own sake." When I first read the Dokkodo many years ago, this one struck me as a little odd, or I probably thought it was too "outdated" - a maxim from ancient Japan that didn't apply to us today in the modern world. But I couldn't have been more wrong. First off, don't try to make this maxim - or the others that follow - more or less than what they are. Most of these - as with all teachings from a Wisdom Tradition - have both the "surface" meaning, and that which is "below the surface", so to speak. On it's "surface", this maxim is fairly simple and straightforward. When you seek pleasure for the sake of pleasure alone , you WILL run in...
Essays on Old-School Strength Training, Classic Bodybuilding, Traditional Martial Arts, and Budo Philosophy