Musashi's Dokkodo (The Way of Walking Alone)

Teacher:
In our culture, we understand the need to have some secure income
for our retirement. We do not want to spend our entire life working
yet, at the same time, we do not wish to be a burden on our children.
Perhaps in a different culture, one where children saw the care of
their aging parents as a duty, one might be able to make the case
that there is no need to seek possessions for old age. But in our
modern time in many Western countries, there is every reason to
take these precautions.
It would also be good to remember the understanding of the
Buddhist ideas on possessions. There was the thought that the
clinging to possessions would cause a person to remain on the
wheel of life and death, constantly being reborn into a similar life
where they would again be given the chance to remove their desire
for possessions. This idea may have been at play in Musashi giving
this precept to his disciple. Another factor which would be important
to consider would be the warrior ethos. Warriors would not have
been good at their job if they were making plans for their old age.
Dying in battle was an all but foregone conclusion, especially in the
age before antibiotics. So, once again we reach a point where the
context of the advice makes it less than desirable for our modern
times.
This is a precept I must disagree with on the basis that there is a lot
more good to be done in our time and our culture in planning for and
preparing for our old age. By way of an example, my parents made
no plans for their retirement. They owned no property, had no money
invested, and were counting on Social Security to see them through.
That didn’t work out so well…

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It turned out to be just enough income to leave them with enough
money for about half of each month. They were living rent-free under
what can only be called indentured servitude to a landlord. They
repaired his other properties in exchange for not needing to pay rent.
Obviously, this was a disaster in the making. Once the original
landlord died and the properties passed on to the ownership of his
son-in-law, the entire deal changed. The new landlord sold the
property they lived in and gave them no time to make new
arrangements. My father passed away during the process of the sale
and my mother was going to be left with nowhere to live until she told
me about what had happened. Thankfully I was able to care of
everything she needed after that, but the predicament they found
themselves in was the direct result of making no real plans.
After this experience, I strongly recommend to everyone that they
make detailed plans and work to be sure they have something set
aside for a retirement. This precept was set for a different time and a
different society.
Ignore it.