The Tenth Tenet

original posting:  30 July 2007

* have no heart for approaching the path of love*

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

Ok. Go ahead. Make your jokes that this is my favorite. Make your snide, although funny and quite accurate asides about how I was waiting just to get to this one. You done, no? need more time? Its ok. Go ahead. I will wait. What? You are done now? Ok. Can I continue.

It is true that it is very easy for someone who spent his entire life unaccompanied and preferring to be alone as opposed to having a wife, or mistress or even a plaything, Musashi is definitely one to be able to say this with some authority.

What does it mean to approach the path of love. I would say the world spends the greater part of their life, if it doesn't happen early enough, trying to find someone to spend the rest of it with. I am not talking marriage, I am talking having that constant companion to share the wiles, struggles, pain and joys of this life.

It would seem that Musashi is strongly cautioning against trying to find love. Why? What does he have against love and what does he know that we should follow such a tenet?

Wasted time. Wasted energy. A venture that, in the end, has very few real rewards. If you spend five hours every day pursuing doing more of this exercise, or doing these courses, you will have a tangible, palapable and sure evidence of your efforts. If you approach the path of love… what do you get for your efforts? What was that? Something insubstantial and fickly, fleeting and that fades with memory? Oh, that is what I thought you said. Exactly. Outside of a few highs with most terrible lows, most people will remember only a few highlights of their love life, capped by either a marriage or the day they decided to never date again. And for what? Nothing that can be capitalized or used later in life. Just wasted time. Wasted energy. And most likely, a whole slew of psychological problems that in essence lessen you as a person and make you less enjoyable to be around.

In this way, I believe that Musashi is trying to keep us from this one pursuit that so many take up, yet has let so many down a path of hurt, pain, waste and torture. Save yourself the trouble, Musashi says. Just plain, 'have no heart' for trying