MIYAMOTO Mushashi, also known as Japan’s greatest ever swordsman, wrote these 21 rules two weeks before his death:
1. Acceptance: Acceptance is perhaps the biggest key to life. There is generally not much that can be changed or is in the hand of us humans. Once you make acceptance your mantra, you can conquer just about anything because you are not fighting any internal battles anymore;
2. Don’t seek pleasure for pleasure: There is no end to desires. Humans will never run out of wishes and desires, and if we keep chasing them and finally achieve something, we become dissatisfied again because we start desiring and wishing for something new. This way, we are never truly happy. The solution is to stop giving in to desire;
3. Feelings are temporary: Feelings are transient and nothing lasts forever. If we spend our lives running after something as fleeting as happiness, we will never really be happy;
4. Don’t think too highly of yourself: Once you start giving yourself too much importance, you are on your way to your own destruction. True happiness can be achieved by truly helping other people;
5. Let go off desire: Desire leads to dissatisfaction, dissatisfaction leads to more desire and this continuous loop leads to suffering. The solution is to truly let go of desire. Instead, learn how to be grateful for what you have and trust that this is the way to inner peace;
6. Don’t regret: Regret is a pointless exercise. What has been done cannot be changed and hence the most you can do is learn from your mistakes and get over it;
7. Don’t be jealous: Just like regret, jealousy is another pointless exercise. Look inside yourself and find things that you can be grateful for. Jealousy and envy is a terrible poison to your soul;
8. Don’t let separation get to you: Separation is a part of life. You have to deal with it and get over it like an adult. Focus on the people that love you and that are still in your life, not on the ones that left. Everything happens for a reason;
9. Don’t resent or complain about yourself or other people: Resentment and complaining never gets anyone anywhere and neither does it help anyone get over things. These things will just make you bitter and cause conflicts with your inner self and other people;
10. Don’t let love or lust take over: I, myself, am on crossroads about this one. Although I completely agree that one must, at any cost, not let lust take over but I do believe that love is what we live for;
11. Don’t have preferences: This is a counterpart of the desire. You must let go of this too, in order to find happiness and satisfaction;
12. Don’t focus on where you live too much: Life and feelings itself are transient so don’t go chasing permanence when it comes to where you live. Things can always change and you never know what life will bring;
13. Don’t be a glutton: Don’t chase taste, chase health;
14. Don’t hold on to things you don’t need: Get rid of things you don’t need. De-clutter your home in order to de-clutter your life;
15. Don’t follow traditional values blindly: Don’t do something just because tradition dictates that you must. Use your own common sense and find out what is the best thing to do at the moment and do that;
16. Don’t learn or use unnecessary weapons: Focus on one thing and excel at it;
17. Don’t fear death: This isn’t easy to do but with the understanding that it is unavoidable, it is possible;
18. Let go of the urge to possess things in your old age: Materials won’t be worth much when you are gone. Don’t hoard things and don’t be materialistic;
19. Pray, don’t demand: Have faith and pray. Show respect. Don’t always ask for things;
20. Preserve your honor: Don’t do something that you can’t recover from, and
21. Don’t stray from the way: Follow the good path. Be humble, show compassion and respect.