Musashi's Dokkodo (The Way of Walking Alone)

Teacher:
In the West, people tend to think only of things of a sexual nature
when the word desire is used, however Musashi was a Buddhist.
However devout he was or was not I cannot say, but he was raised
in that culture and as such was undoubtedly influenced by the
Buddhist tenets. In Buddhism, desire is more-or-less a want of
anything, not just sex. The basic idea is that desire leads to suffering
when we start to feel sorry for ourselves over what we do not have.
In this sense, the suffering is the product of our own desire for things
we are unable to attain, and as such, it is our own action of desire
that brought about our suffering. There is also the factor of the way
we can seem to be owned by the things that we are attached to.
That said, I still have to disagree with this precept.
It was a desire for flight that brought about the airplane. If everyone
were content with what is, then the airplane would not have come to
be. Automobiles, same thing. You name it: internet, smartphones,
satellite televisions, home computers, videogames, touch-screens,
typewriters, mechanical pencils, toothbrushes with those little
tongue-scraper thingies on the back, the Hubble Space Telescope,
microwave ovens, microwave popcorn, toaster ovens, fire
extinguishers, sliced bread, pressure cookers, MP3 players—
everything you see around you is the result of the desire someone or
some group of people had to make it happen.
Additionally, in the martial arts, a person has to want. That is, they
have to desire to reach that next rank, or learn that kata, perform the
next technique, or they will never be successful. I tell students all of
the time that I can teach them applications until I fall over dead, but
they have to supply the heart. They have to have that will, that
desire, that inner spark that drives them to be the best that they can
be.
The people who lack desire tend to be a lot less successful in the
things that they attempt. Those who have that desire are very often

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the leaders of their field. You don’t have to wonder if they are
successful, because even people outside of their chosen field know
the names of these people. You do not have to be a fan of boxing to
have heard of Muhammad Ali, or a fan of martial arts or action
movies to know who Chuck Norris is. It isn’t necessary to follow
basketball to know of Michael Jordan. Without anything above a
superficial knowledge of their field, I bet you know about Bill Gates,
Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg.
These people are seen as specially gifted. But in reality they had two
things that set them apart in each case—work ethic and a desire to
be the best. They wanted to do what they did, but they were also
willing to put in more time and to work harder to be better than their
competition.
Desire is that spark that sets these people apart.
Uncontrolled lust, sure, that is a bad thing. But desire, properly
defined, is not. In the proper sense, desire is the very motivation that
drives successful people to do what they do.
And even though it seems that only a few are gifted with this, the
truth is that anyone can do what these people have done. We tell
ourselves we cannot, and that becomes a limitation. It is self-
imposed, but it is a limitation nonetheless. We also let others tell us
that we are not good enough, not smart enough, not good-looking
enough, and we start to believe it.
But if we shut out the negative voices, we can start to see progress
and move ahead toward what we desire. And if we are being honest
here, no one really wants to be mediocre. It is quite natural for
people to want to be the best at whatever it is that they do. It is
rather uncommon that they follow through on this want, but the
desire still exists, waiting to be used.
When desire is understood to be more than something sexual, and
when it is understood to be the very spark that ignites the fire of
ingenuity and innovation, it can be seen as a very good thing and
something that we really depend on.

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