3 Unexpected Lessons From My Favorite Book
Hagakure by Yamamoto Tsunetomo is one of the most influential texts of Japanese samurai philosophy. It’s also one of my favorite books of all time.
It falls into the category of what I previously called "a book to live with." You never finish it once and for all. You keep coming back to it. Just like Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, it is a book that you can open at any random page, read a short paragraph, and gain valuable insight from.
Most scholars consider Hagakure to be the most radical and romantic of the samurai texts. Yamamoto was living and writing in the Edo period, a peaceful and prosperous period in Japanese history that came after the chaotic and violent Sengoku period. However, throughout his text, Yamamoto reflects on those violent times, wishing that things were more like they used to be. You know that saying, "Hard times create strong men; strong men create good times; good times create weak men; weak men create hard times"? Well, Yamamoto believed that he was living in times created by strong men, or strong people, but that meant that he was surrounded by weak people. This led to a lot of his text romanticizing violence, or at least being seen as doing so.
This somewhat contraversial historical background of the book didn’t prevent me from reading it many times over and considering it as one of my absolute favorite books. As I have stated multiple times throughout my writing, we are all warriors on the battlefield of life. That’s why I think that we can learn a lot from someone who talks about what it means to be a true warrior, even if we don’t intend to have sword duels to the death.
However, as much as I appreciate the violent nature of Hagakure, this time I want to share with you 3 of my favorite non-violent and unexpected lessons from this great book.
Learning from others
Tsunetomo said how most people go through life "settling for their own opinions" and therefore never grow. They are not open to receiving opinions or criticism from those who are ahead of them in a particular skill or area of knowledge.
However, as he says, having a constructive discussion with someone who knows more than you is "one step toward excelling them."
In Hagakure, he talks about having a discussion and listening to someone who was better than him at writing and researching.
Since he eventually wrote one of the most important books on samurai philosophy, it would be fair to say that discussing things with others worked out for him and helped him excel.
"Intelligence is nothing more than discussing things with others. Limitless wisdom comes from this."
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