“Do not think about your death too much, it’s too depressing to keep this in your mind and it’s not a healthy way to develop yourself. But always keep your death in front of you like a true samurai warrior and you will never waste even one minute of your life again! Please understand this well and think about this seriously.” Rev. Kensho Furuya
The samurai believed in mujo (無常) or “The transience of life.” Given their profession, a samurai knew that at any moment they could be cut down. Rather than become fearful, angry or pessimistic, they learned to value their lives because they knew they were going to die. The word mujo actually directly translates as “nothing extraordinary.” In the west, when things are “nothing extraordinary” then we tend to devalue them. However, the Japanese see “nothing extraordinary” as being the highest level of aesthetic expression because it’s so hard to just be normal and when things are not extraordinary then they are overlooked and can be easily thrown away and there’s a beautiful sadness to this fact. Trying to teach us to not waste our time, Furuya Sensei used to say, “There is no time left.” His death, like Kobe’s, Chadwick Boseman’s and now Eddie Van Halen’s, teaches us all that no matter how wealthy, accomplished or boringly normal we are, death stalks us all. Each day, somewhere around 150,000 people die worldwide. How many of those people lived the samurai ethos of living each moment to its fullest? The samurai understood death because they believed that the only thing of value that they truly possessed was their lives. Sensei admonishes us to “keep our death’s in front of us” to remind us to live our lives to the fullest and to the best we can. Likewise, people pass away to remind us to live and value what little life we have left. I am sad to hear that Eddie Van Halen passed away, I am a fan. May he rest in peace.
Today’s goal: Live your life because there may not be a tomorrow.