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...
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