"Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world." - Miyamoto Musashi
He who sees all beings in his Self and his Self in all beings, he never suffers; because when he sees all creatures within his true Self, then jealousy, grief and hatred vanish.
This resonates with me. I think this means consider how your thoughts, words, deeds, and desires impact others and how what you do is not just about yourself. As it applies to us, as entrepreneurs, it meant giving 110%, not taking vacations for 20 years, and developing our business plan to think lightly of ourselves and deeply of others, by not taking the easy way out, and making business decisions for the benefit of those most vulnerable and in need. I believe we have received benefits from the Universe as a result.
The greatest samurai ever lived. Assume you have read ‘The Book of Five Rings’
Just because something sounds profound doesn’t make it profound… be careful not to follow a neat sounding phrase without analysis. ‘Think lightly of yourself’ might mean ‘don’t take yourself too seriously’, but it might also mean ‘don’t care too much about the impact you have on the world’, which is clearly wrong. I’d caution against automatically assuming oriental wisdom is to be taken without question. Words matter… and especially those words we tell ourselves.
Your job is to ask yourself questions about how you can be a good product for the audience waiting for you. Stop thinking about yourself. Focus how you can build and enjoy a product you frame and how it can add value to the life of others in the world.
I would add: think with self-love of yourself. Many years of life are spent chasing one's own self-esteem. You create it based on stories about yourself. Stories about your own achievements. And the higher you rise, the less strength you have to face life's blows with grace and ease, because suddenly you have something to lose. But what if instead of self-esteem, there was simply self-love? Love for your own vulnerability doesn't make you invincible, but it gives you immense flexibility and resilience. You become ordinary. And then you just do extraordinary things.
Book of five rings is full of wisdom
So simple and so true
When I was in high school, I first read the novel "Miyamoto Musashi". I knew that this novel's philosophy is "禪" Buddhism called Seon, Chan, and Zen in East Asia, deeply related to existentialism. Furthermore, I knew the philosophy of "慧能", Huineng of the founder of the Chan school of Buddhism which is deeply related to the movie, "Matrix". About 12 years ago, I viewed the youtube video about the debate about the mind, physics, quantum information/computing between Dalai Lama and Anton Zeilinger where Dalai Lama's points are about madhyamika and yogacara, and Anton Zeilinger's points are about quantum information in the viewpoint of consciousness. Finally, I can approach quantum computing based technology development for non-hierarchial society. It is a long journey to not attach selves including myself, yourself, ourselves, themselves. Thank you for your insightful interviews.
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5moSuch selfless quotes belong to the times when individualism wasn’t so heavily promoted… Now, condemned anomaly considered to be a new normal: “you’re the world - unique snowflake”. Being samurai, he embraced collective ethics. System crisis will bring humanity back to humbleness and its core values.