C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

Essays and Thoughts on The Dokkodo Part 6 Be Detached from Desire Your Entire Life Statue of Musashi and Kojiro in battle. (public domain) This passage seems a little odd when first we read it.  It's odd because, well, didn't Musashi desire  to be a good samurai?  Isn't it desire  that pushed Musashi to want  to be a great swordsman in the first place? But this saying isn't quite what it seems.  Roshi Richard Collins, author of No Fear Zen , has this to say: "The word for desire here, yokushin , suggests specifically selfish wishes, lusts, or cupidity, that greediness for physical pleasure or material accumulation that resists control."  In other words, you are to be detached from those things which prevent you from practicing budo.  Your desire  should be for attaining deeper and broader martial skills, not money or fame or to even be a fighter (as opposed to a martial artist).  Of course, just because one calls himself a martial artist...

  Essays and Thoughts on the "Dokkodo" Part Four Do Not, Under Any Circumstance, Depend on a Partial Feeling Sasaki Kojiro (right) engages Miyamoto Musashi on the shores of Ganryū Island (courtesy of Wikimedia). The 3rd maxim of Musashi's final masterwork is one of my favorites.  And, yes, I understand that in Zen you should not "pick and choose".  For instance, the 3rd patriarch of Zen is often quoted as having said, "the great Way is not difficult for those who do not pick and choose... if you wish to see the Way then do not hold opinions for - or against - anything."  That quote aside, this one is still one of my favorites. On with the commentary... We rarely make poor decisions - in life, in the dojo, in the gym - when we are decisive.  Even then, if our decisive actions do  fail, we will not regret what has been done.  For in holding nothing back, we have nothing to regret! In his book No Fear Zen: Discovering Balance in an Unbalanced World , Rosh...