Appology to all

[katanakid]

If i offended anybody with my remarks(A Model Samurai) i am truly sorry i have not been told to do this i just genuinely feel bad about the things ii said even if they were in jest i am new to this forum and the last thing i want to do is make enemies on my posts if anybody has read my noob attempt at blogging i am trying to embody bushido and sometimes the things i am trying to change about myself have a way of getting out.

Thank you for talking the time to read this

[Kenzan]

i am trying to embody bushido and sometimes the things i am trying to change about myself have a way of getting out.

Thank you for talking the time to read this

According to the rules of Bushido, you must now commit testicle seppuku with a spork.
:D

But seriously,
While the aims of trying to be noble and honorable are in themselves virtuous, I recommend learning as much as you can about the concept of Bushido, as you may find that it is not what you think it is.

[katanakid]

thanx for the advice

[Neil Gendzwill]

I recommend learning as much as you can about the concept of Bushido, as you may find that it is not what you think it is.You might start here (http://www.koryu.com/library/kfriday2.html).

[ben]

I read somewhere that one of the secret kuden (oral transmissions) of bushido involved something about respecting the rules of punctuation.

b

[nonamehandle]

You might start here (http://www.koryu.com/library/kfriday2.html).

hah~ had read it before, but always worth reading again, to bring a bit of sanity into all of this and to lay some sort of reality check on all those who blindly believe.

thanks Neil.

[dohrt]

A desire to improve one's self through finding and faithfully adhering to an ideal can make great things of a person, but it can also poison someone.

Humankind has, throughout history, tried to codify virtue, right action, the paths to success and happiness, and all that, but invariably, there are two problems (as I see it) that stand in the way of ideals ever really working completely (or at least the way we sometimes wish they would).

1) Human nature. Humans aren't perfect. They have good and bad parts. Selfish and selfless parts. And no matter how much one fools oneself, there is always a selfishness that is working against the selfess. Even if you don't honestly realize in your conscious mind you are being selfish, still, the very act of believing you know the best way is itself selfish. Much of the time, people that shape the social perceptions of things like ideals and such are accomplished enough in life that what they contribute which is good outweighs that which isn't so good, but even at the top there are flaws. And, far more applicable to you and me, as things trickle down from the best among humanity to the rest of the dregs, even more is lost from the original ideal.

2) There is no perfect transmission of understanding. Language can't do it. Radical translation is a true thing even among native language speakers, if you really examine it. The *only* real teacher in life that can teach you 100% of things is experience, but noone lives long enough to get that far, and the ones who get farther than most find themselves alienated because noone else is out there with them. "Teachers", "Sensei", whatever they are called; these people surely can guide you to learning whatever it is they are teaching, but ultimately your deepest and best understanding comes not from their lessons, but by your own experience confirming their lessons. In other words, being able to repeat the words they said isn't the same as truly understanding the meaning. Being able to hit somebody with a sword just like your sensei isn't the same as truly understanding how/why it is done by your sensei. Even among sensei who have spent more years studying than I've spent breathing air, they still are refining and reaching deeper into that understanding. I think it's clear that no matter what an ideal is, no matter how many generations have understood it, each new person who takes up the study of something is starting at square one and must move along the path, albeit with direction from those farther along, but ultimate taking each step on their own.

Both of these things (if you take my word for it, hah!) may suggest that the most dangerous thing is commitment to an ideal that isn't yet fully understood. Naivety and passion are often a disastrous combination. This is because when you put your heart into something and misunderstand what it is that you are putting your heart into, well, it's not a happy thing when you learn the truth later. People in this situation tend to deal with it in various ways, including becoming demoralized and losing faith completely, all the way to becoming a tyrant of radical change and upheaval in an attempt to reforge what they see as broken into their own image of how it "should be".

I think the healthiest are the ones who come to terms with the fact that (1) and (2) are true, and if that is the case, then the ideal as it manifests in the world and the ideal as it is inside one's head don't ever *need* to fully match up. Understanding that the value of a dream and a belief in something "good" (to keep this abstract) is that much more special precisely because it is a dream is a great stride.

I hope that your desire to better yourself, to understand Bushido, and to do whatever it really is that you want to do don't get destroyed or corrupted by the dissapointment you (just like everyone else) encounter as you discover the difference between the world and your ideals. But I think if you can continue to keep an open mind and stay humble, you can manage to keep your fiery inner passion alive and strong, but tempered and able to serve you instead of scald you.

On the other hand, I'm a bag of wind sometimes, so who knows ;)

[Gessho]

Apologies are often more painful than the insult. And with that, please allow me to apologise for that remark. :alien:

[katanakid]

I hope that your desire to better yourself, to understand Bushido, and to do whatever it really is that you want to do don't get destroyed or corrupted by the dissapointment you (just like everyone else) encounter as you discover the difference between the world and your ideals. But I think if you can continue to keep an open mind and stay humble, you can manage to keep your fiery inner passion alive and strong, but tempered and able to serve you instead of scald you.

On the other hand, I'm a bag of wind sometimes, so who knows ;)

Thanks for the words of wisdom :ponder:

[Gessho]

You might start here (http://www.koryu.com/library/kfriday2.html).

Good stuff. Makes me think of the romanticization [sp?] of Medieval Western chivalric values versus the actual behavior of the times. A good read on that, btw, is Barbara Tuchman's book, A Distant Mirror.