Code of the Samurai

The Triumph of Mastery over Ego

A warrior considers it his foremost concern to keep death in mind at all times, every day and every night. . .  As long as you keep death in mind at all times, you will fulfill the ways of loyalty, avoid myriad evils and calamities, be physically sound and healthy, and live a long life. What is more, your character will improve and your virtue will grow.

--Taira Shigesuka, written four hundred years ago in a guide for young samurai

In Chapter 1 we discussed the trap of a materialistic society and how it deceptively distances us from our true selves. In Chapter 2 we looked at the root cause of fear, which is self-centeredness, the myopic lens through which we view the world. Chapter 3 presented the solution to self-centeredness, which is having love, wisdom, and courage. Now we'll see how a group of people lived by a code encapsulating those three virtues and how that enabled them to be fearless.

In our youth and beauty-oriented culture, our lives are a constant battle against death, fighting it every step of the way. In doing so, we give up a lot. We lose a bit of ourselves each day as we give in to instant gratification and pacify the desires of the ego, burying our deep need to be our true selves. The ego latches onto anything that will give us some sort of quantifiable identity, and then it takes over our lives as we become enslaved to our goals and lose our freedom.

The real sin of the ego is not self-centeredness per se. The sin is in what it leads to: carelessness, limited vision, arrogance to cover up our feelings of lack, indifference (because of our ignorance), self-consciousness, and attachment—all of which fuel our doubt and fear.

The path toward Zoë lies in removing what's not you—the doubts, the fear, and the affluenza virus to which they cling—and finding the power inherent in love, wisdom, and courage that leads to a fearless life.

 

The Paradox of the Samurai

In feudal Japan, samurai warriors ruled the land. (Although they were the ruling class, most samurai were servants to higher-ranking samurai.) They were legendary for their loyalty, self-discipline, and commitment to honor. The samurai lived by an unwritten code of ethics known as Bushido, which means "Way of the warrior." Their way was to place virtue and character above all else.

The code, as with this book, was based largely on three values: love, wisdom, and courage. In love, they served; in wisdom, they saw the impermanence of life; in courage, they put honor and integrity over material rewards. The framework for their training was to prepare each day to fight to the death. In order to be fearless in battle, the warrior had to be prepared to die.

This is not an easy picture to imagine in our pampered North American lives. While most of the world lives in poverty, we eat at fast-food restaurants, get movies delivered to our homes, play golf on the weekends, and are constantly looking to be entertained. Entertainment is a multibillion-dollar industry that capitalizes on our ever-increasing needs for pleasure.

The samurai, on the other hand, found pleasure in improvement, freedom in discipline, and love in service to others. While North America's professional athletes may be known as much for cheating as for performing, the samurai had no need for the money, status, or possessions that cheating may bring. In their preparation to die each day, the samurai focused daily on that which was most important: their spirit.

The Spirit of Mastery

The path toward mastery lies within the three pillars of love (lead with your heart), wisdom (expand your vision), and courage (be fully present). Self-mastery is developing awareness of how to live true to yourself, seeking to expand your vision in order to grow, and gaining the discipline to live in the present.

Mastery increases confidence in yourself and decreases concern for yourself, both of which help you to be fully engaged in the moment. With a strong sense of self, we are not enslaved by our performance; we are opened up to beauty, wisdom, and sacred moments...