Samurai Wisdom by Cleary Thomas;

Author:Cleary, Thomas;
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 729290
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing

Footnotes

1 Sima Guang: A famous scholar and information officer of the central government of Song dynasty China during the latter half of the 11th century.

23. Circumspection in Daily Activities: General Discussion of Everyday Affairs

In the Book of Changes it says, “The people use it everyday without knowing.” In The Mean it says, “The Way is not to be left for a moment. If it can be left, it is not the Way.” People’s every action in the world is not beyond this. I call this the Way. While I don’t know, heaven and earth gave me a physical form, equipped with reason enabling it to function. In ancient times sages systematized ethics, defining inevitable rules. Even though there are no sages here, in age after age thenceforth people observed these of their own accord, so the Way exists in their everyday usages. The fact that the Way has degenerated gradually over the ages, and people and things have changed, is because of departing from this Way.

Even so, no incident can take place independent of the Way. Speaking from this perspective, from peace and war, flourishing and decline on a large scale, down to changes and movements in one event or one thing, there is no departing from the laws of heaven and earth. Noble men of mettle can only talk about the Way when they have actually experienced what this means.

Considering this body, then, it has ears, eyes, nose, mouth, four limbs, and hundreds of parts. Inside, there are distinctions of nature, mind, emotion, will, and temper. On employing this body there are functions of walking, standing, sitting, reclining, looking, listening, speech and action. To support this body there are clothing, housing, utensils, and necessary objects. There is a distinction between appetite and sexual desire. There are interactions of lord and subject, father and son, husband and wife, old and young, colleague and friend. In that context there come to be rituals for good times and bad, for war, hospitality, and celebration.

When we consider this body of ours, all of these things are inseparable. Although there are individual differences of status and wealth, none of the aforementioned items is dispensable. With this body and this mind, to depart from these things is only possible in death. In the meanwhile, thoroughly studying their principles, harmonizing with the Way that cannot be departed from, keeping the rules of heaven and earth in everything you do, in everything you arrange, with everyone you meet, even when sitting alone, organizing everything with heaven and earth as the embodiment of humaneness may be called the everyday practice of a noble man.

The principles I explain are not remote, but inescapable. In their everyday activities, everyone refers to what makes them happy as the Way, and what is offensive they call human greed. With only these two alternatives, can everyday activities be taken lightly?

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