Musashi's Dokkodo (The Way of Walking Alone)

Warrior:
I think I might understand where Musashi was coming from when he
wrote this precept, but on face value I think it is absurd. Actually, it’s
worse than that… To say, “In all things, have no preferences” is
asinine. A warrior must have preferences, because a warrior must
stand for something. It’s like the old saying, “If you don’t stand for
something, you’ll fall for anything.” I’m not sure who said it first, but it
is absolutely correct. If a warrior doesn’t know why he or she is doing
something, in the face of great personal risk, it will be easier to falter
or be derailed. The warrior must stand for something in order to
stand fast to the end.
One of my favorite military leaders, General George S. Patton, Jr.
(1885 – 1945), certainly understood the concept of standing for
something as he was known for telling his troops that it was better to
fight for something in life than to die for nothing. In the book General
Patton’s Principles for Life and Leadership, Porter B. Williamson
shared part of one of General Patton’s talks to the troops:
“We are in war! We have a chance to fight and die for
something. A lot of people never get that chance. Think of
all of the poor people you know that have lived and died
for nothing. Total lives spent doing nothing but eating,
sleeping, and going to work until the retirement watch is
received. Nothing to live or die for.
“We are lucky that we are fighting a war that will change
the history of the world. If we live, we can put our
grandchildren on our knees and tell them how we won the

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war. If we die, our friends will tell how we died to make life
better for them. If you are going to die, might as well die a
hero. If you kill enough people before you die, they might
name a street after you.”
The more I think about this precept, the more I disagree with
Musashi and wonder how someone who was so familiar with life and
death that he included in these twenty-one precepts, “Do not fear
death,” that he would also write “Have no preferences.” When you
face your own mortality, as Musashi did on numerous occasions, you
become very clear about what’s important and what is not. This
clarity should lead one toward preferring certain things over others.
This clarity should lead one toward taking a stand.
Once a warrior has a preference and takes a stand, he or she can
accept being killed for being true to that purpose and stand. That
would be an honorable death, and acceptable in all warrior cultures I
can think of. But I’m having difficulty understanding how a warrior
can take a stand, one that he or she is willing to die for, without first
having preferences. And at the very least, on a general level, the
warrior must prefer right over wrong and good over evil.