21 Thoughts For A More Fulfilling Life: The Way Of Walking Alone.

Timeless Rules From Over 400 Years Ago

Aaryan Harshith
10 min readApr 12, 2021
Source: Bogdan Kupriets, Unsplash

Miyamoto Musashi was a 14th century Japanese warrior that is widely seen as the greatest swordsman who ever lived. At 16, Musashi fought on the losing side of a war. At this time in Japan, it was tradition for any survivors of a lost conflict to commit suicide to preserve their respect. Musashi rejected.

His decision ripped him from society, forcing him to wander from town to town as a disgrace.

In a new world, without anyone or anything to rely on, the young Musashi chose to rely on his skill in martial arts to survive. With the goal of perfecting his craft, he went on to participate in over 60 sword duels against the nation’s best samurai — many being to the death. He won all of them.

Musashi later retired to an abandoned cave, where he would record the lessons he learned along his journey. He died shortly after completing his work. Today, we know these cave-manuscripts as the Dōkkodo, or the way of walking alone.

What you will be reading is this exact philosophy — the path Musashi made after wandering his entire life, where his thoughts and his swords were the only things that kept him company.

1. Accept Life Just The Way It Is.

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