In Thomas Cleary’s translation of “The Book of Five Rings” by legendary Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi, he mentions in one of the prefaces how ideas from Zen Buddhism flowed into the writings and ideas of martial artists, and that it rarely went the other way around.
Okay.
Let’s get out of the way, immediately, the idea that spiritualities about enlightenment and transcendence are typically dependent on a mundane world to “transcend” or be “enlightened” about. Let’s understand that there can be something of an elitism by those whose professions are, one way or another, the domain of intellect rather than what Indian thinkers would call any variety of Karma Yoga (action aligned with Dharma, aiming at transcendent union).
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Let’s continue by mentioning that Zen Monks have all sorts of activity they populate their monastic life with, in the real world (even their small corner of it). They don’t just sit all day under a Bodhi tree. They have a wide variety of this-worldly activities, engaging their bodies and senses, which embody the idea that there has to be something for enlightenment to transcend in the first place. All of their satori experiences have a seed-shell made of “doing stuff” to actually blossom.
Where am I going with this?
It annoys me (not a terribly enlightened emotion, I know) when notions of spirituality drift further and further from the daily requirements of living, by those who have the privilege of looking from that sort of distance; from a professional philosopher’s and/or professional author’s tower-view.
Warriors are not only capable of spiritual profundity, but they can be exemplars of it. That is literally, exactly literally, why the Bhagavad Gita takes its metaphorical language, location, and cast of characters on the field of battle, by an ace archer who is tasked with brutal and terrible war against his own clan and beloved elders (and even his martial arts guru).
I’ll grant that Cleary goes on to mention how the actual samurais that Zen monks had to sort of “look after” didn’t exactly sound like exemplars of good behavior. The examples Cleary mentions are clear enough; absentee fathers/husbands leaving wrecked home lives in their wake, often domestically violent as well; siring illegitimate children while they were at it. But a description of a number of bad apples doesn’t characterize the whole bunch as rotten. Additionally, that does not exclude the possibility that they had authentically transcendent sensibilities and experiences, even if/when they behaved badly — for those that indeed behaved badly.
The razor’s edge of a professional warrior’s life, in a legendarily volatile milieu rife with constant memento mori moments, is a rich breeding ground for moments of profound insight and spiritually saturated experience.
And its beyond the scope of this quick journal entry of mine to belabor the point too much more than I have here, but that is one of the things I’m eventually driving at with this whole umbrella of “Dharma Knights” content. So, please stay tuned as I continue developing these thoughts; not so that I can “prove it” but so that some of the ideas can linger in more minds than my own, on the subject.
And its beyond the scope of this quick journal entry of mine to belabor the point too much more than I have here, but that is one of the things I’m eventually driving at with this whole umbrella of “Dharma Knights” content. So, please stay tuned as I continue developing these thoughts; not so that I can “prove it” but so that some of the ideas can linger in more minds than my own, on the subject.
