Bushido is defined as the Code of Honor & Morals developed by the Japanese Samurai. I have lived by a Code of Honor for as far back as I can remember. Here lately I have started to wonder where it came from & why I chose the particular Code I use to live by. Not long ago I stumbled upon a book written by Inazo Nitobe in 1899 called Bushido, the Soul of Japan. Being in the Martial Arts, if you count Boxing as a Martial Art, which I do, for 61 0f my 65 years, I had heard the word Bushido on numerous occasions, but had never really read or looked into it in any depth. After reading Nitobes very short little book I was stunned at how the Code of the Japanese Samurai was so close in comparison to the Western European/English Knights Code of Chivalry, & the Lawman/Gunfighters of the American West such as James Butler Wild Bill Hickok and a few others. If you live by a stringent Code of Honor it can be very gratifying, but it can also be very hurtful and it certainly puts you on a path of losing, in some ways, as much as you gain. However, you have to, IMO, be True To Yourself if you intend to look at yourself in the mirror & not be ashamed. Everyone makes mistakes, but if you make them trying to do the Right Thing, at least you made them going forward, not backing up. Here is a note I made while reading Nitobes book. Without going into a great deal of detail, it helped explain to me why I live the way I do. My Bushido is a combination of the Western European/English Knights of Old, the Western Gunfighter personified by James Butler Wild Bill Hickok, & the Japanese Samurai. I will be loyal to those I work for as long as that loyalty is returned. Thus enters Democracy as the Force of Power that has engulfed in me the Code of Bushido by which I live. Unlike the English/Western European Knights of Old I do not blindly follow The Church. Although I do not completely reject the idea propounded by The Church, I reject the idea that Human Representatives of The Church can make better decisions about my life then I can. By the same token, I was born free and intend to die that way. Therefore, I take more Pride in being a Ronin then I ever could in being a Samurai of Feudalistic Japan. I have no problem in serving someone in a just cause, however I have the last word in whether the cause is just and whether I will serve, not them. Even though the Code I live by is my own, it is based upon the Chivalrous Knights of Western Europe and the Mighty Samurai/Ronin of Old Japan blended with being born a Free Citizen in the United States of America!
Posted on: Sat, 12 Jul 2014 15:11:59 +0000
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