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 dictates of the heart. We are
Essays on Old-School Strength Training, Classic Bodybuilding, Traditional Martial Arts, and Budo Philosophy