The Philosophy of Vagabond.
Vagabond is a manga (Japanese comic) written and drawn by Takehiko Inoue about the life of the most famous swordsman from Japanese history (also a philosopher, strategist, writer), inspired in true events and characters from that time (around year 1600).
Part of the reason I wrote and shared this is because of how important good stories are for me, and should be for anyone IMO.
To truly get the philosophy of Vagabond I’d suggest reading it, reading The Book of Five Rings, and perhaps also reading The Unfettered Mind.
Reading Vagabond had a big impact on me, here’s at least something I can do to share it and share some other of my insights that I hope are useful.
I’ll write some quotes and then my interpretation, and stuff I thought about (I divided the post in parts so it can be read a bit at a time).
1
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Quote:
Takuan: “There is no light for those who do not know darkness. Live on and endure the shadows Takezou! And brightness shall come your way”
Interpretation:
Not everything in life is happiness, and happiness as a goal is a bad idea because during many moments in life there will be unavoidable tragedy (earthquakes, the death of a loved one, an illness, breaking up with your partner), and we have to do stuff like working 8+ hours a day which is not usually enjoyable.
If we accept that a part of life is “suffering” or “dissatisfaction” and/or doing things we don’t like, we will have a better time in life because we won’t fight and try to avoid something unavoidable. Trying to stay away from things you must to do only leads to stress, and to becoming a good for nothing. When you have to do a bunch of work, but instead of doing it, you start checking social media or procrastinating somehow else, eventually you just feel more tired and stressed than you should be and haven’t got any work done at all, this is something that we should all try to avoid (easier said than done for sure!).
Experiencing tragedy is a natural thing, if we endure and overcome tragedy and learn from it, we will be able to appreciate more moments in life a lot more and truly enjoy the little things.
Quote:
Takuan: “Don’t be preoccupied with a single spot. See everything in its entirety, effortlessly. That is what it means to truly see.”
Interpretation:
If you focus too much on a single thing, it can be at work, at a hobby, doing whatever, you might miss the bigger picture.
Sometimes when working on solving a problem, for example, healing lower back pain, we can think our lower back is the problem, and we think we need to apply heat, rest, and then strengthen our lower back. In many cases, we need to strengthen the parts around the lower back that support it, the legs and glutes, work on having a better posture by strengthening our chest, the upper back, and the abdomen (and perhaps some stretches). This will often heal lower back pain.
Sometimes thinking that a very specific thing is the problem won’t let us see the stuff around it that could be what’s actually causing the problem.
This quote could also mean: after you practice something a lot, and learn a lot of information about it, part by part first, practicing those parts separately, then all parts together at the same time, eventually you’ll be able to “truly see”, to be really good at something, and to get the bigger picture easily, applying all those individual skills without thinking about them consciously (this can be applied to things such as work, a sport, or to the art of drawing).
This can also be applied to life in general, the more useful information we learn, and the more we practice things, all becomes easier in general.
2
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Dialogue:
Musashi: “These wicked thoughts… they’re distracting me from the way of the sword.”
Takuan: “Wicked thoughts?” “Are you suggesting that Otsu (a female character) is wicked?”
Musashi: “No, I didn’t say that! It’s just that… My thoughts about her are.”
Takuan: “Your thoughts aren’t wicked. They’re perfectly natural feelings. You think these feelings go against the way of the warrior. But they only get twisted and bent out of shape when you repress them and try to keep them contained.”
Interpretation:
Absolutely any thought that goes through your mind is natural, and it’s not a good idea to think they’re wrong, or that something’s wrong with you because of having those thoughts. Everyone will have many useless thoughts yes, and thoughts that you shouldn’t pursue. If you keep thinking about something too much, it’s likely you’ll eventually do something about it. For example, when you do something about a thought that is likely to cause trouble (like texting with your ex, like making too many plans that can lead you towards distancing and then cheating on your partner, plans such as seeing someone else you find attractive too often, or like thinking too often on things like stealing something, it’s likely you will make a plan and steal it).
Whenever there’s a thought that is a bad idea, or “useless”, the best thing is to just keep doing something else and see that thought from a distance, it will go away eventually. To achieve this, it’s useful to have things to do (like hobbies, or work), and engaging in those activities with minimal distractions. Meditation is also a useful practice to improve concentration and stop thinking about so many things at once.
Even if thoughts are outside of our control, we can bias ourselves into having better and more useful thoughts (or, worse ones). When we engage in a certain activity for a long time, it will be natural to have ideas related to that activity, and less ideas about something we’re spending less time doing. We actually have a huge amount of control when it comes to influencing ourselves in a positive or negative way.
To give an example, spending a lot of time on social media will worsen every aspect of daily life because it will increase our negative thoughts, such as thinking the world is awful, thinking people are stupid (because people mostly post impulsive things online), thinking we need something that others have. It will increase our anxiety (because we will want to keep looking at our phones) and it will make us feel unsatisfied because of all these thoughts, and because it messes up with our dopamine (reward) system, we will feel uninterested in life in general.
Quote:
Takuan: “Once your heart is preoccupied, your sword will not be true. Then you will die.”
Interpretation:
Engage in what you’re doing, try not to get distracted, and try to enter the “state of flow” often.
When we’re doing a task, such as work, reading, or playing videogames, if we keep looking at our cellphone for whatever reason, usually our productivity decreases more than 60%, we take a lot longer to finish what we’re doing, we don’t learn as well what we’re doing, and we get a lot more tired.
If you don’t believe me, watch yourself carefully next time this happens, and then try to put your phone in a drawer in silence, at least for 1-hour periods (also avoid checking any social media early before doing other things, leave that for the afternoon, or just don’t), if you do this often, you’ll see what I mean.
*To explain myself here, since social media and cellphones in general are an addiction, seeing them in the morning will only cause us to want to keep watching it more and more, it’s like an alcoholic, they can’t stop drinking once they start.
When we’re too distracted and don’t practice doing things with no interruptions, we won’t get good at doing anything, such as work, a sport, a board game, anything.
This skill is like a muscle, the more we practice doing activities with no distractions, we will be a lot better at it, we will make less mistakes. “Being in the zone” like many sport athletes while doing anything feels great and is great to work this skill, I highly suggest activities you like that get you into this state.
*Being in the zone, or flow state, is a state of mind in which a person becomes fully immersed in an activity. It usually takes about 20 minutes before you can access this state. I’ve felt it many times while practicing sports, working on character animations, and playing certain video games, games like Tetris or “Bullet Hell” games are really good for practicing this skill. This can be achieved at work if you’re not being interrupted every 10 minutes.
3
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Quote:
Sekishusai Yagyu: “There is no limit to technique. There is always room for improvement.”
Interpretation:
Whatever you do, you can always get better at it if you keep working on it in a smart way.
Sometimes simply practicing the way one’s used to, won’t help improve much. Different approaches, learning different information, and learning skills about different subjects will increase one’s general knowledge, and will help become better at everything in general.
Even people who are “not talented” at something can work hard and get good at it (by not talented, I really mean people who didn’t develop certain skill at a young age). I noticed growing up that I could surpass people in many areas or skillsets because they were probably pretty good at it when younger but then they got lazy and didn’t continue to work those skills.
As a side note here. Specialization is good, but overspecialization is a bad idea, someone overspecialized will have a very narrow understanding of the world, perhaps the best would be to get really good at 2 different skills that can overlap often. An example of someone overspecialized can be a medic who’s great at doing surgeries, but doesn’t know much about anything else at all, who wants to heal everyone’s injuries by making a surgery even if it’s not necessary.
Quote:
Inei Hozoin: “Swimming in the middle of an ocean, one can never realize how vast it truly is.”
Interpretation:
2 Ways to see this quote with no context:
- Paying too much attention to one detail, and we’ll miss the bigger picture.
2. We usually try to achieve things by doing whatever our body and mind dictate at that moment. Especially when feeling overwhelmed, we can distance ourselves from the issue at hand and take a break, then investigating, thinking it through, and then acting. It’s most likely this will bring better results.
Quote:
Sekishusai Yagyu: “Invincible. It’s merely a word. To be “invincible”. The more you think about it. The more you squint your eyes in desperation to see, the more obscured the answer becomes.”
Interpretation:
Sometimes we get way too fixated to some ideas or goals.
It’s usually hard to distance ourselves from some ideas because of our culture, our environment, and our biology. I’ve found it very useful to learn basic psychology, philosophy, and biology to better understand myself, other people, and the world. Learning science basic stuff from books or podcasts is also hugely important if we want to better understand everything in general.
Words are a huge simplification of objects and concepts that we probably don’t understand fully. For example, the word “tree”, we use it to refer to a zillion amounts of trees, small trees, big trees, cherry blossoms, oak trees, etc. We can be very biased due to these big simplifications our language does, and because of how each one of us uses language differently.
Taking a distance from our own ideas, our dreams or goals, our usual activities, and learning about random facts, reading a good novel, all these will give us a lot of new insights and will help to avoid being so fixated with the same stuff that can cloud our judgment a lot. What we do daily or often causes us to think or behave in a certain way or to have a specific ideology or tendency, doing something different can have a huge positive impact and help us better understand many things.
Quote:
Musashi: “The “me” in your mind. The story in your mind. That story reflects your own self, your true self. It reflects you as you are now.”
Interpretation:
Be careful about what you think about others, do your best to not thinking dishonestly, try to understand what truly is and isn’t.
Sometimes we believe that other people are just like us, and that their situation is like ours (or better), this is not the case. Talking with people, being honest with them, really listening to what they say, having deep conversations can provide a lot of insights about other people’s lives, feelings, and beliefs. Some stories (novels, series, etc.) do the same, but you must pay close attention and ponder on it to really get it. For Watching some youtubers analyzing characters and events from different series turns out to be a great place to learn this.
By understanding that every person is in a different environment and have different biology from ours, we can truly get that others are experiencing a life that’s completely different from ours. To provide an example, I’ve had people tell me how easy my life must’ve been because I’m a man, tall, and (when I was a kid) my family had some money, they have no clue how many problems I had as a teenager and for example, how I’m having a huge amount of trouble now getting any sort of rest at night. It’s not so bad though, I’ve met people who really have had a hard time through all of their lives.
Being stressed, angry, or tired won’t leave you with any resources to have empathy for people, if you’re feeling like this often, you won’t really be able to understand others. I’ve found out I’m really tired and unfriendly right after work. Also, if I use my cellphone (or social networks) a lot during the day, I end up being more moody and tired than I should (it consumes a huge amount of energy and time if you analyze and experience it objectively). What I do about this is exercising right after work and avoid seeing other people, also putting my cellphone in a drawer while I work or do other activities to avoid unnecessary fatigue.
We all have different biases, there’s no such thing as an “unbiased” person or thought, but we can try to better understand everything and have a less extreme judgment.
4
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Dialogue:
Inei Hozoin: “Young one, you hold such aggression in you. I thought you were going to kill me.”
Musashi: “You’ll have to excuse me, but, you have it all wrong. I felt like you were going to strike me with that hoe. Or was I just imagining things?”
Ine Hozoin: “Bah, you’re still wet behind the ears… It’s that clumsy bloodthirst of yours… Me as well as others — we are only mirrors reflecting your own bloodthirst… Your own bloodthirst turns everyone you encounter against you.”
Interpretation:
The way we behave (usually unconsciously) can cause others to be uncomfortable, or even aggressive to us. I try to remember being more aware of the way I look at other people, what I say, and sometimes even about my body language. I can remember times when other people, women and men have seemed to be troubled by me being there with them (ha). It’s usually a 50/50 thing, it’s not only about you, other people have upsetting behaviors. But being more aware of the way we behave around other people can help everyone have a better time, simply by staring at someone for a couple of seconds at the wrong time and place, we can make them feel very uncomfortable (at the gym or at work for example).
We can all have a better time by trying to be a bit more easy going. This is hard, it will take a lot of practice. Learning more about people and having more empathy takes time.
There’s a book named The Definitive Book of Body Language by Allan and Barbara Pease that helped me understand a bunch of stuff after reading it and then putting what I had learned into practice a little at a time. I noticed I did a bunch of stuff that was very obvious and that could upset other people. It’s a lot of fun seeing what other people do, and how some are very obvious with their body language, some aren’t, and some are really hard to figure out.
Quote:
Takuan: “Musashi, you’ve become kinder. You’re getting stronger I see. All truly strong people are kind.”
Interpretation:
Self-confidence is a result from learning information and technique (or empirical experience) through time, and also a result from being honest with yourself, with others, and from doing things right. There’s no need to worry about things like your reputation or about results when you’re doing a good job and are not lying to other people.
Being kind to others and being calmer should come out of those good practices as a result.
Some people confuse being kind with naivety, which is not the case at all, someone self-confident will know how to deal with people that try to take advantage of them by setting limits and stopping them immediately. Besides, being nice to others usually results into them being nicer too (there will always be exceptions).
To further clarify my idea. The “self-confidence” classes or coaches that teach to for example, seduce someone by being dishonest is not real self-confidence, it’s just a pretending game that will only cause a bunch of problems in the long term. On the other hand, assertiveness training is a different thing not to be confused with crappy pretending training, it’s something that’s useful to many people in many contexts.
5
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Quote:
“There are always crossroads inside the mind. The middle path is the best.”
Interpretation:
When we tend too much towards something, we become extremely biased and don’t consider other options that could be best. Social networks (and internet in general) are a good example, they have an incredibly advanced algorithm that throw at you all information that you want to see that’s related to things you like, things you can like, and also things that will make you upset, even if it’s fake information. The algorithm is pointing people in a very specific direction and pushing us more to be in an extreme end of certain ideas, values, ideologies (making conservatives more conservative, and making liberals more liberals). Besides, they are mind boggling, exhausting, and don’t leave us with anything useful (maybe with a couple of funny memes).
Before eliminating choices we can make, it’s ideal to have input from other sources (even listening to ideas from people we don’t like and trying to make sense of them), and try not to always listen so much to our own biases like we usually do.
We should try to find a balance between order and chaos in life, not limiting ourselves too much so we can keep learning, growing, changing (for the best).
I tend to have too much order in my life, when this happens, I get bored, tired, angry, and think about doing crazy things to find some chaos (bad idea). Some other people’s lives are 99% chaos, they sleep under 6 hours daily, never get a bunch of important things done, and have eating disorders because their lives don’t have any kind of logical structure or order. They could use more structure in their daily lives so they don’t end up just wasting a bunch of time daily and feeling tired, or end up doing a lot of random things that lead to nothing.
It’s great to find your weekly activities where you have order, even writing down a daily schedule if necessary, and finding other activities on some weekdays and weekends that will get you “chaos”, this doesn’t mean you have to go out, get drunk, puke, sleep at 6 am, and feel like your brain is going to blow up the next day. It can be small things like going out with friends for a couple hours, doing something different from the usual with your partner, taking a hike, trying to learn something new, taking a class, traveling somewhere, etc. (things you don’t usually do and don’t know what to expect of them).
Quote:
Musashi: “What is the meaning of “strength”? It’s to have a mind that doesn’t sway, while continuing to move and change.”
Interpretation:
In order to achieve anything, we need to continuously work on it, progressively (this is probably the most important thing many people don’t get, everything must be worked on starting with baby steps), and not giving up if it’s something important and realistically achievable.
This is a hard process, learning new information, practicing, making mistakes, learning from them, making more mistakes, moving on. Becoming our better selves by embracing new information instead of rejecting anything new on the spot and just keeping our old ideas, learning to distinguish from useful and not useful information, lies from truth.
All this needs to be done to have “strength”, this is what you’d need to do to learn a language at an advanced level, to get good at coding, to continuously work on and improve the relationship you have with your partner, to get good at your job, etc.
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I’ll finish by paraphrasing Miyamoto Musashi from The Book of Five Rings:
-Training morning and evening will give you what will seem to be miraculous skill.