The Sixth Tenet

original posting:  26 July 2007

* do not regret things about your own personal life*

The sixth of the twenty one tenets of "The Way of Walking Alone".

Regret.  It takes so much out of life… does it not? It makes past memories shadow, it makes former pleasures seem like a waste of time, it makes a life in the past tense dull, full of pitiful indulgence and lacking in many respects. 

I think there is a lot here that can be noted. I don't believe musashi is saying so much to just plain not give a damn about what you do in life… but, as he did, live a life with purpose, to the point where you have nothing to regret. Sure, someone may have to leave you, or someone may die, or some other similar bad thing, financial, et al, but the point is to always do what you should to get closer to your inner being, to get closer to the version of you that you can be truly happy with. Reaching those later stages of your life and just having regrets only points to not being mature enough, wise enough, or any other such description early on.  But… that is the one drawback of youth, we always think we know enough, are smart enough, and are in control enough to 'forge that path.' Time shows us that we aren't. We are most often our own enemy, doing things that we simply cannot recover from.

In this way, I believe that Musashi is trying to give us direction… something that most people in America lack. Sure, they can cuss you out. Sure they can tell you what to do with YOUR life, YOUR money, YOUR everything. But they cannot seem to find the inner control, inner strength and inner calm to give their own life purpose, so that they may speak of their life in past tense, and have nothing but accomplishment, happy and sad memories, and fondness… instead of this bitter tasting regret