If you’re new around here, every week I share wisdom from history’s greatest minds.
This is my seventh year training and teaching Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ). Time flies! BJJ has its roots in Japanese JuJutsu.
The Samurai developed Japanese JuJutsu for when all their weapons were lost in battle and they had to fight hand-to-hand.
I still remember my first day of training, the feeling of total helplessness as one of my now friends manipulated my body such that I couldn’t move, and I was on the verge of having my arm snap off (the faithful armbar)!
Seven years later, besides the practical usefulness of knowing how to subdue a resisting person, training BJJ has instilled in me the importance of integrating knowledge into my life; a stark contrast to my days in academia, where acquiring knowledge was the sole goal.
To me, there’s no better example than the Samurai as individuals who embodied their philosophy right until death. The Samurai followed bushido, which literally means ‘Military-Knight-Ways.’ These precepts from bushido were infused into every aspect of their lives. This meant no compartmentalization of life. So, you couldn’t be truthful at home but dishonest at work; or benevolent to strangers but evil to your family.
A great book on bushido is Inzao Nitobe’s “Bushido: The Soul of Japan”. It became a bestseller after the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05
Nitobe wrote this book after a conversation with his friend, M. de Laveleye, when de Laveleye learned that Japanese ethics derived from its culture vs. a single religion. Upon learning this de Laveleye in disbelief asked Nitobe, “Do you mean to say that you have no religious instruction in your schools?”
Listen to the full episode breakdown of the book:
Lessons from the Samurai’s bushido
The samurai only respected those who continually integrated knowledge into their lives. A common proverb ridicules one who has only an intellectual knowledge of Confucius, as a man ever studious but ignorant of Analects. A typical samurai calls a literary savant a book-smelling sot. Another compares learning to an ill-smelling vegetable that must be boiled and boiled before it is fit for use.
Knowledge should lead to action. Action could take the form of courage, patience, benevolence, and contemplation. Bushido made light of knowledge as such. It was not pursued as an end in itself, but as a means to the attainment of wisdom. Hence, he who stopped short of this end was regarded no higher than a convenient machine, which could turn out poems and maxims at bidding.
Make your word your bond. Lying or equivocation were deemed equally cowardly. The bushi (samurai) held that his high social position demanded a loftier standard of veracity than that of the tradesman and peasant. Bushi no ichi-gon—the word of a samurai—was sufficient guarantee of the truthfulness of an assertion
Knowledge without character formation is like a rotting vegetable, useless. Philosophy and literature formed the chief part of his intellectual training; but even in the pursuit of these, it was not objective truth that he strove after—literature was pursued mainly as a pastime, and philosophy as a practical aid in the formation of character, if not for the exposition of some military or political problem.
Cultivate emotional composure and resilience. It was considered unmanly for a samurai to betray his emotions on his face… calmness of behavior, composure of mind, should not be disturbed by passion of any kind.
Even though Samurais were some of the best warriors, they strove for benevolence in their lives. Bushi no nasaki—the tenderness of a warrior.
Till next week,
Peace