A samurai at first, and then a Ronin, Miyamoto Musashi is considered to be the greatest swordsman ever in the history of Japan, in large part due to his almost surreal discipline. Indeed It is being said that he fought 60 duels, and never lost one. He fought for the first time when he was 13 against an experienced Samurai, and came out victorious.
He took down the greatest swordsman at that time, one by one, until the throne was his, and his alone. However, Miyamoto was more than that. Not only was he a master of his craft, but he was also an artist, a cerebral philosopher and a buddhist.
He sought meaning, wrote war and philosophy books, and his work became a blueprint for people who want to live a disciplined life. A week before he died in 1645, Miyamoto Musashi wrote 21 principles called “Dokkodo '' by which he expresses a stringent, honest, and ascetic or strongly self-disciplined view of life. In this video we are going to see what made Miyamoto so disciplined and how we can use this wisdom to build our own discipline.
A quality that has been cherished and revered by human beings since the dawn of time, by embodying discipline, we’re making sure that our independence is respected, and our dreams are fulfilled. If people are disciplined and have an honorable way of conduct, the country or civilization will truly thrive. So with that in mind here are 4 life teachings about discipline from the words of Miyamoto Musashi: Avoid doing things just because they feel good Miyamoto says “Do Not Seek Pleasure for Its Own Sake”.
In the late years of the 16th century, Miyamoto, who was on a mission to be the greatest swordsman, wandered around and even stayed in the darkest and scariest places. It would have been no surprise if one encountered him in the middle of a lonely forest on freezing nights, accompanied only by his swords. Miyamoto knew that greatness had a price, and he needed to pay it, no matter how expensive it was.
From a very young age, he sacrificed typical desires and the path of comfort in order to focus on what he wished to become and to stay true to the path he intended to follow. He found the pursuit of a luxurious home, fine food, and fanciful possessions distracting. Now, let’s imagine a version of Miyamoto that decides to indulge in those pleasures that do not serve his overall goals… To wake up late every day or routinely eat rich dishes that lack nutrition.
. . Do you think he would have gone far in developing his skills and becoming the greatest swordsman in the history of Feudal Japan?
Probably not. Today, in an ever-stimulating world, there’s an abundance of pleasures, which for many brings with it a lack of meaning. And according to many greats of the history of humanity, having meaning is what truly makes us happy.
In the modern world instant pleasure has never been more easily accessible, but the sad reality is that constantly indulging in pleasures does not lead to happiness, it can lead to a sense of emptiness and even addiction in extreme cases. Today, pleasure is so easily accessible, it’s almost scary. You just need to pop your phone from your pocket to get the instant dopamine hit we all crave.
In the attention-driven economy of the modern world, pleasure is one of the most valuable currencies - You’re almost never out of its sight. Whatever you’re doing there’s always someone - a product or service - lurking in the background, luring you towards false promises of happiness. The antidote of pleasure is meaning, believing in something that truly dictates your days in a way that can only move you forward, no matter the temptation, no matter the pleasures that are surrounding you.
We need to look at those who succeeded in finding meaning and fighting pleasures, like Miyamoto. Miyamoto felt that indulging in pleasure steals time from us, because time well spent is when you do something that matters, and that feeling has no equal. As far as Miyamoto was concerned, even if you compound all of the pleasures of life, it still doesn’t measure up to the feeling of achieving a major goal.
Doing what matters will always be the true source of happiness. Just imagine how proud you would feel if you succeeded in, for example, reading every single day for at least 15 minutes, for an entire year; Picture yourself with a healthy body after training hard for months and months; Just think about the day when all of your efforts to start your business finally pay off and you start seeing customers coming in numbers; How does the fleeting happiness generated from a short-term pleasure really fair next to the happiness that results from achievement? Picture that next time you feel the temptation to grab your phone instead of doing the less immediately pleasurable thing you actually want to get done.
Focus on one thing, and broaden your horizons in it In the words of Miyamoto ‘Practice and understand the realization that by knowing one way, you know a thousand’. Miyamoto dedicated his life to mastering the sword. When he was younger, he trained from dusk till dawn recklessly and pushed his boundaries further and further.
In fact, he left his home village when he was 15 or 16, to travel the country and learn from the best masters, and to challenge any fighter that had a reputation for dueling. A quest that would amazingly never see him fall short and lose. Miyamoto feared none, his aspirations were comparable to none, and thanks to his irreproachable reckless training, his skills became second to none.
His method would be recognized and feared, and even though Miyamoto learned just one art, he knew how to express it in thousands of ways. We currently live in a world in which we are showered by countless possibilities and opportunities. Something that we should value and acknowledge.
And so, one might think that sooner or later, everyone finds the right opportunity that is aligned with one’s own aspirations, and that eventually, everyone becomes fulfilled. But reality is rarely so straightforward. Indeed, those many possibilities can often give birth to even bigger anxieties, so often in fact that there is even a term for it - Decision Paralysis.
It’s like when you enter a self-service buffet, you have the right to put whatever you want on your plate, and at the beginning your enthusiasm is immeasurable. But the more you consider what’s in the buffet, the more anxious you become. Indeed, many delicious dishes might be laid out for you, but the human stomach is only so big.
. . So you serve yourself a bit of this, and you take a little bit of that, all to have one big messy plate at the end that you can’t even finish, let alone taste it properly with it all mixing together as you eat.
In your attempt not to miss out on anything, everything becomes a confusing, unpalatable mess and you’re left staring at an empty plate. And that is exactly what’s happening in the world right now; people are often disoriented in the face of the many opportunities they encounter, unable to filter them and focus on just one. Many people also think they can be good at everything, so they jump from one skill to the next, but since they lack the patience and focus to reach a level of deep understanding, they end up abandoning that opportunity altogether.
And so they get depressed, wondering why they never reached the level they intended, decide that’s just the way of things, move on to the next activity, and so the cycle begins again. So what we can learn from this is that when you try different fields, and different opportunities without really getting deep into them and giving yourself the time to grasp them, you can never truly gain the full benefit from them. Your mission to find the path where you’ll feel fulfilled will always be in restart mode.
Like Miyamoto, we need to give ourselves time to truly grasp what’s in our hands and filter any noise that’s outside of it, regardless of how tempting it can be. Like Miyamoto, we should not feel content by knowing just the superficial aspect of a discipline when the beauty of it is ingrained inside. Like Miyamoto, we should dedicate our time to one skill, and make thousands of ways out of it.
Of course, you can then move to another skill, like Miyamoto did when he moved to writing and philosophizing, but not before fully grasping the skill at-hand first. Stay focused To quote Miyamoto “Never stray from the way” Unlike many people of high status in society, Miyamoto didn’t pursue enjoying the perks of a good life. Born into a respected family, he could have stayed there, eaten well, and slept in comfort, but he left at a very young age to face the unknown, in order to fulfill his dreams.
Miyamoto saw things differently, and perhaps that’s why he was who he was, and achieved what he achieved. Even after fulfilling his mission and gaining huge notoriety, he still didn’t pursue luxury. Indeed, when he was invited to stay at the fanciest places, he only did so for a short time before he took off to another place, to learn new things, and conquer new skills.
Miyamoto was a man of almost surreal amounts of self-control, determination, and discipline, fulfilling his dreams by staying focused and prioritizing what was useful. Sure he enjoyed luxuries like good food when he encountered it, but what matters is that it did not dictate his actions. That’s how Miyamoto lived, and that’s how he’ll always be remembered.
Core to Miyamoto’s philosophy was that in life, you have two roads. One that is eye-pleasing, filled with cravings, good food, and enjoyment, and it is pretty stacked with people, so is clearly the popular choice. The other is shrouded in an impenetrable fog with no definable detail.
From a distance, you might think that the first road is clearly the best one to follow, but unbeknownst to you, the second road leads to freedom, meaning and inner peace. This road is not joyful, it requires determination, discipline, often even sacrifices, but sooner or later, those that decided to take that road and prioritized what would be useful to them, even if it’s against the odds, will taste life in a much deeper way than those who gave in to pursuing immediate cravings and pleasures. For example, if you don't like the way you look and decide to set some health goals for yourself, each day you will be faced with two choices - the choice of eating unhealthy and skipping your workout, or eating healthily and sticking to your routine.
The second road requires you to sacrifice short-term pleasures at the altar of an uncertain goal, so it’s alright if you get scared or anxious while thinking about it. In fact, if you aren’t feeling at least some anxiety or fear then chances are you’re not pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone at all, so some fear is a good thing - it’s a sign your eyes are fully open. It’s like going on exploration in the desert: Yes, you’ll be thirsty, you’ll feel the unbearable sun over your head and it will feel as relentless as it does fruitless, but with time and discipline, you’ll discover the most amazing lost treasures, right in front of you.
That will make up for all your sacrifices, put a smile on your face, create an opening in your heart, and an understanding in your mind that you will carry forever. Live with integrity and preserve your honor In our final quote from Miyamoto for this video, he says “You May Abandon Your Own Body but You Must Preserve Your Honor” Miyamoto Musashi's philosophy, the Bushido, is a cornerstone of a necessary code of conduct followed by the Samurais. The Bushido is a set of virtues that one might follow in order to live a moral and noble life.
This philosophy has 7 main virtues: Integrity, Respect, Heroic courage, Honor, Compassion, Honesty, and Loyalty. While this code requires a whole episode of its own, it is fair to say that the image we have of Samurais; their heroic behaviors, honorable deaths, and noble demeanors were all powered by the Bushido. While honor is specifically cited as just one of the seven virtues, when you consider it, Bushido is all about honor.
Honor is the glue between all other virtues in the code of conduct. Honor is self-respect, and when you respect yourself, you carry yourself with honesty and integrity. Honor is defending what's right, so when you're in such situations, you don't shy away and instead, act with courage.
Honor means not stomping over weak or vulnerable people, that when you're in a position of power, you're compassionate. And finally, honor is being ready to risk everything to preserve the dignity of those you care about; in other words, it is to be loyal to the bone. Honor and discipline are both cut from the same cloth and developing one often leads directly to improving the other.
For example, imagine you work a typical desk-job and you’ve been in the same position for a couple of years. By now everything is routine and you barely have to think about your day to day processes and you’re getting bored, so you find shortcuts and workarounds, start arriving late and taking longer breaks, trying to minimize the amount of consideration you’re giving your work to avoid feeling bored. Meanwhile, your colleague is in the same position, hired at the same time has been doing the exact same shortcuts but then using that extra time to develop new ideas and strategies and now you’re getting looked over for that promotion.
When you ask why, you’re told that you lack discipline. In your misery, you decide to get proactive and take the Musashian approach - You decide to be on time, to do your best to deliver quality work, spend time trying to find ways to improve your work, and to generally behave in an honorable way, with no cheating or underhanded behavior. And here’s the interesting thing - by behaving in an honorable way like this, you’re actually becoming disciplined!
In our example, there are some keywords and they are being on time, delivering quality work, and behaving well… Don’t these virtues all fall under the banner of consistency? And isn’t consistency a cornerstone of discipline? And once that is done, you’re living an honorable life.
It’s important to make sure that one doesn’t stray from the path, and stays disciplined, but it’s just as important not to punish yourself when it doesn’t work out. Acknowledge this is how things are and work towards improving things instead of beating yourself up. Wasting time and energy on punishing yourself is no different to distracting oneself with immediate pleasures - They are both ways of avoiding doing the honorable thing.
And living honorably and living with discipline is the remedy to our greed, covetousness, and selfishness. And as always if you enjoyed this video, please make sure to check out our full philosophies for life playlist, and for more videos to help you find success and happiness using ancient philosophical wisdom, don’t forget to subscribe. Thanks so much for watching.
