you may be wondering "WTF is heijoshin?" heijoshi is japanese, literally translated, it means: stable and constant spirit. however, that translation doesn't capture the subtle meaning of it that we can't translate into english it has a: content/ peacefull/ comfortable with ones self kind of feel to it.
if you were to die in one week, what would you do? go spend your last days in an orgy of human desires that you wish to be filled befor you die? say goodby to loved ones and be extra nice to everyone you meet? put your final wishes together and die quietly? one who attains heijoshin would do none of the above, but simply live like he had the day before and the day before that because they are ALREADY living like they would die tomorow
there was once a man named Musahi, he was an exelent samurai who had grown to be one of the most feared men in feaudal japan. he was so talented that he was able to retire from being a samurai. (only a VERY select few samurai lived that long) after his retirement he accepted an invitation by the Kumamoto daimyo to come to his castle and train an elite group of samurai to be the daimyo's personal bodyguards.
the daimyo had all of his samurai line up on either side of the road as musashi entered, there were several hundred of them. as he strode between the rows each samurai bowed revrantly as he passed, but musahi noticed that even the elite samurai averted his eyes as he inspected them, only one did not break his eye contact. after musashi had gotten up to where tha dimyo stood the daimyo asked if any of his samurai had particulaly interested musashi. musashi lead him back to the one samurai who had not averted his eyes
"this man!" musashi announced
"i don't understand" said the daimyo "this man has no rank at all!"
musashi asked the man
"how do you train that you have no fear of death?"
"i hardly train at all." the man atmitted" i simply unshieth my sword and hang it by a slender thread above my pillow every night, then gaze up at it's point untill i fall asleep"
"this is indeed you best trained samurai" said musahi with a smile "he alone among your men face death every night, knowing that it woud take very little for that slender thread to break and end his life. i shall train this man"
many would consider that to be an act of sheer stupidity, hanging a sword over your face. however, that really is the only way to attain heijoshin. realize that every day is precious, that each night could be the night that the thread snaps. i respect the samurai, not because of their willingness to die, but their understanding of just how precious life really is.
 mokuzai · Thu Apr 03, 2008 @ 11:23pm · 1 Comments |
