Mind


Mind Tenets

Mind tenets are laws contained within the domain of Mind to encourage fulfillment on the path of Mind. You must create your own tenets and renounce tenets that do not aid your path. Tenets create freedom; they do not restrict it.


Accept everything just the way it is

Accept everything the way it is, so you do not desire to change what cannot be. If something can be changed, and you believe it needs changing, change it. Otherwise, accept what is, the way it is.

Musashi Dokkōdō Precept 1 | Accept everything just the way it is

Accepting the way things are is crucial for being a wanderer on the path, both for accepting negative things as they are, as well as the positive. 

Emotions arising from what cannot be changed distract the wanderer from their paths.

Accept what is difficult as a challenge to overcome. Accept what is rewarding as a gift from the universe, or the Gods, but do not count on the help of anyone other than help from the internal relationship.

Musashi Dokkōdō Precept 19 | Respect Buddha and the gods without counting on their help

Mushin無心)mind

“if your mind is diverted in any way, your actions will falter, and this can mean that you will be cut down.”

Takuan Soho | The Unfettered Mind

Takuan Soto described the Mushin mind as fluid and unattached, like water.

The mind is a glass of water with sediment at the bottom. When the mind is calm, the sediment rests at the bottom of the glass, and the water is pure. When the mind is uncontrolled, or racing with thought, the sediment swirls chaotically, taking the entire form of the water, making the water dirty and impure.

An inherent mastery of the mind domain is pursuing purity of mind at all times. This begins when you wake up and continues until you give your mind to the void.

If you observe that your water(mind) is dirty, you must purify it. Always be here. Always be pure.

The mind is a tool to be put away

The mind is a tool that should be put away when not needed. Stay out of your thoughts unless you need to think. You can stay in your breath when you do not need your mind.

The mind plans. The breath executes.

Use the mind for strategy and the breath for execution.

Your thinking mind is not useful in all situations. Use your mind when it is advantageous and put it away when it is not. 

Thoughts before words

Think before you speak. Become comfortable with silence so you are comfortable with pausing to think. Avoid creating problems for yourself by considering action before taking action.

The mind that makes the self

The mind makes the self because the mind domain is where perception lives. You can perceive everything however you want to perceive it. 

If you choose strength and positivity, you will progress. If you default to weakness and negativity, you will regress. Alpha and omega; creation and destruction.

Musashi Dokkōdō Precept 15 | Do not act following customary beliefs

If you believe you can do great things, you will.

The unreliable mind

Don’t believe everything you think. Do not tolerate destructive, omega-oriented thoughts in the mind.

You need to control your mind in all circumstances. Do not allow your mind to control you, because it is unreliable, making the mind an ineffective leader but a useful tool.

Letting your thoughts run is letting your mind run wild. Sometimes this can be productive, like for generating ideas, but often it defaults to destructive thought, which is not allowed. Swirling the sediment of your mind can be productive if you control it, but you must control it. And when you are done, you must purify your water.

Uncontrolled thought defaults to negativity because it is more important for your mind to protect you from threats than to look for rewards, like avoiding a fruit tree because a tiger is underneath when you are hungry. You must override default programming with optimal programming.

We default to, and pay attention to the negative more than the positive—but we don’t have to.

Be aware of actors who wish to take advantage of the default to negativity to influence and control.

 The mind admits no negativity

Negativity of any kind is not allowed in the mind of the wanderer. Mind domain self-sabotaging thoughts is a virus that can infect the domains of body and spirit—it must be killed where it lives using counterpositivity medicine.

Even when bad things happen to you, you do not need to be negative. Being negative and experiencing negativity are different. Experiencing negativity is human; being negative is self-sabotage. Self-sabotage is forbidden.

Do not tolerate thoughts of self-doubt in the mind. Kill these thoughts with counterpositivity or purify the mind to the Mushin(無心) state. Let the world decide if you are ready or good enough. You do not decide. You do your best with self-belief. Doubting yourself is taking responsibility from the muse who guides your destiny. Do not take responsibility away from destiny. Focus on your responsibility to your paths.

The mind is like a stream. Take out the trash as it floats by so it does not pollute farther down.

If you fail, you learn. Failure is only defeat if you quit or do not learn.

If you keep a positive mental attitude, you can get through anything.

Priority chain

Respect the priority of the path and of tasks that must be completed off the path. If off-path tasks have more priority than what is on the path, step off and return promptly. Avoid making or becoming involved with problems that take you off the path.

Move forward effectively by attacking the obstacles that require the most energy first. Low-effort tasks of any domain can be completed after high-effort tasks. You need to ensure you operate with respect to the priority chain pertaining to scheduling inputs.

Hard things first. Easier things after. No effort last. So everything gets done.

Do not think too far ahead on the path or you will not move forward in the present.
 
Do not try and solve problems you perceive will exist in the future that do not pertain to challenges you are facing now. This is a form of procrastination.

Input Responsibility

You are responsible for controlling and filtering the information you let into your mind. Encourage letting information into the mind that encourages mastery down your many paths. Discourage letting information in that takes you off the path.

Before you let a piece of information into the domain of mind, consider asking yourself, how will this improve my life? How will this strengthen the sanctuary of my mind? You don’t have to consider this every time, but sometimes.

The mindless consumption of content is the pursuit of pleasure which cannot be fulfilling.

The mind is the inner sanctum of the individual. The body is the castle exterior and the spirit is the throne. You must be discerning in who you let inside. Do not let anyone or anything sit on your throne.

The content you consume should encourage mastery, not discourage it.

Input responsibility is staying in your lane, staying on your path. Avoid taking in gossip at any level—the news is impersonal gossip at a large scale and it doesn’t affect you.

Pay attention to news on your path, not the world off your path of paths(TPP).

Output responsibility

You have a responsibility to control the information you let out of your mind—AKA your communication. 

Avoid over and undersharing.

Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world

The world is the path. The self is the mind that wants to be seen in the spotlight. The mind often thrives as an audience member while letting the spirit and the body be actors on the stage.

Musashi Dokkōdō Precept 4 | Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world

By focusing on the self, you no longer focus on the path ahead of you, so you do not progress your mastery, so you do not find fulfillment; this is the root cause of many mental ailments—an over-focus on the self.

Situational awareness

Use your mind to be aware of the situation you are in at all times. Neglecting situational awareness can be fatal.

Pursuing mastery of situational awareness is how the wanderer develops a sophisticated instinct for self-preservation.

Information Assimilation 

You must find and assimilate new information during all chapters of life. 

This can be through reading, watching, listening, taking courses, any means. 

Diversifying the mediums of information you consume is recommended. Active learning must precede passive learning unless passive learning is the only option.  

Mastery is built upon development and understanding. 

The mind assimilates information more effectively when the mind is in the Mushin(無心)state.

It isn’t enough to consume new information, it must be assimilated.

A book a month

Aim to read at least one book a month. Reading is still one of the best ways to assimilate information. A book a month is 60 books read every 5 years. More is better. 

The possibilities of the mind expand when you increase the landscape of the mind through information assimilation.

Understand Your Fears

Approach life to learn and not to fear. Understanding is always more powerful than being afraid. What is understood is no longer feared.

Understand your enemies and your other difficulties, and you will no longer fear them, but become prepared to face them.

Active before passive learning

Active learning should always come before passive learning. This relates to the priority chain—active learning requires more energy than passive learning, and is more effective than passive learning, as with all things active and passive.

Passive learning is opportunistic learning, like listening to a podcast when you are driving. But you must never place passive learning before active learning if you can actively learn.

Learn Math

All wanderers benefit from an understanding of math because math is the language of nature and logic. Understanding the nature and logic of the world is crucial for the wanderer. 

No wanderer can learn a level of math where it reduces their ability to pursue mastery.

Second solving

When you find a difficult problem for your mind, and you solve it, stay in that moment and solve it again and again until it flows like mastery in your mind. Make the development of mastery concrete by solving the same problem multiple times until it sticks. Do not let something be partially understood when you can fully understand it. These opportunities for permanent growth can be uncommon.

Communication

Communication is an inherent path to mastery. All wanderers must aim to pursue mastery over how they communicate. 

Become comfortable with silence between messages of any medium. Don’t speak unless you can improve on the silence. Silence is good. Silence is still, silence is Mushin(無心).

Take longer to speak by first consulting with your mind to determine what message you want to send and how you want to deliver it.

When you are ready to speak, speak without hesitation. 

You should communicate in a way that is consciously controlled.

Be aware of your tone in all mediums of communication.

Speak respectfully to all, regardless of how they communicate or their position. Show you cannot be influenced or intimidated through your secure communications.

The body communicates more than words do. Practice reading the messages sent from the body and the face as part of the inherent path to mastery of communication. 

Practice reading and understanding emotion and you will better understand the intent and desires of those you communicate with.

Thinking before you speak is an Andreia mind domain tenet. Become comfortable with silence so you may allow yourself to think before you speak.

Laconic

Laconic comes from the region of Greece, Laconia, where ancient Sparta was. The Spartans were famous for their brief and to the point speech patterns.

Communicating laconically means you do not waste words or use more words than necessary. This does not mean you speak robotically, but speak with an overarching awareness of the utility of communication.

A laconic communication style is most natural as we have two ears and one mouth, so we should listen twice as much as we speak.

Controlling your communications is controlling your mind. We want to be in control of our minds at all times, so we want to be in control of our communication at all times.

Oversharing demonstrates the inability to control the mind. Oversharing must be avoided as it often self-sabotages the wanderer, leading to problems that the wanderer must step off the path to solve. The same goes for problems caused by not saying enough—laconic communication means communicating in a way that maximizes fulfillment and mastery for all.

Being laconic helps the wanderer remain calm. Talking is thinking, so the more you talk, the more active your mind is, and an overactive mind may be out of control; we must be in control of our minds at all times.

The more you talk, the less people listen. If a message can be effectively delivered in five minutes, do not take over an hour to deliver it. 

Being of many words encourages anxiety and demonstrates an uncontrolled mind, whereas being of few words encourages calm and demonstrates a controlled mind.

Gossip

Avoid talking about yourself and others in most regards. It does not contribute to mastery; therefore, it does not contribute to fulfillment. Encourage talking about mastery while discouraging gossip. 

Those who speak highly of themselves are trying to convince themselves and others of their achievements because they, and others, do not believe. This can only be seen as weakness.

Get news from people on your path, not from gossip dealers. Disregard news that does not relate to the path or does not affect you. 

Companies peddling news(gossip) do not care about the news; they care about using gossip to manipulate your emotions so you pay attention to them because that’s how they profit.

Do not let companies take you off your path.

Comments can be gossip in disguise. Comments can tell you what to think—the wanderer should decide what to think for themselves.

Filler language

Filler language must be avoided. Filler is the antithesis of fulfillment in all domains of the wanderer. Filler words bridge the silence between words because the speaker does not have a high tolerance for space. This is no good.

Cursing is often used as filler language.

Those who use filler language demonstrate a lack of control and mastery over the domain of mind. 

Filler language is the language of the feeble-minded.

Meditation

Having a mind without thought is Mushin(無心), the correct, default, optimal state for the mind according to the Bushido Zen philosopher Takuan Soho.

It’s okay to think and hear your thoughts, but if the thoughts are rendering uncontrolled and not in the format of an idea or another alpha construct, the wanderer must settle their mind and put it away.

The first thing a wanderer must do each day is enter the Mushin(無心) state using their morning primer. It is crucial to be in state to push forward as a wanderer.

Breath and meditation are fundamentally linked.

The uncontrolled mind is chaos. It’s a glass full of sediment, swirled, so the water is brown and messy. When the mind is calm, the sediment rests at the bottom of the glass, and the water is clear, the water is pure. Purity of mind is calmness of mind; we want pure minds at all times.

Meditation is the secondary answer to all questions when the primary answer is unknown. If you don’t know your goals, how to solve a problem, or other question, meditation will always help, whether it’s Mushin(無心) zen meditation or meditating on a question without movement with eyes closed so the theater of the mind may act out. This works because meditation takes you deeper. 

Do not replace meditation with technology; nor do you need technology for meditation.

Meditation is a solution to suffering. The place of no mind means no suffering because suffering is created in the mind and passed to the body and spirit.

Your mind must be controlled at all times, and you must keep the water of your glass pure. This is a mind domain tenet. If you observe the sediment of your mind unsettled, you must settle it in that moment. A settled mind has focused potential, where an unsettled mind is chaos.

Where one puts the mind

If a wanderer does not put their mind away, it can run wild. The mind, like a tool, should be put away unless it is being used.

The mind has a focus point, like an eye. The eye of the mind can be moved with meditation, and like any path to mastery, the more you meditate, the more control you exhibit over your mind’s eye.

Takuan Soho recommended placing the mind below the navel area, known as the Hara(丹田, Tanden), considered the body’s center of gravity and a focus point of balance and power, making it an ideal location to put the mind. He did not recommend putting your mind on your opponent, stating that is how you are taken by your opponent.

The Mind’s eye is like a key for the mind to think. If you do not have the key inside your head, you will not generate thought. If you put the mind’s eye in the muscle while training, the muscle will train properly because the mind’s focus is in the muscle.

This is true across many things.

Boredom

A solution to boredom is meditation. Boredom is the mind looking for land in all the places but where it is standing.

The bored mind wants pleasure but needs fulfillment. Pleasure will not fulfill boredom; it will only bury it in the short term. So is the nature of pleasure.

Boredom can be the body domain telling you it needs to be worked.

When you’re bored, meditate, engage the body domain, or use a breathing method.

Primer Routines(Template)

Primers are routines that “prime” or prepare you for effectiveness in your pursuits of fulfillment, conducted at different time intervals.

Morning Primer

The wanderer performs their morning primer every morning to prime them for their pursuit of mastery on their path of paths.

 The morning primer creates the initial path momentum by starting the day with small steps forward right when you wake up. 

It is crucial for wanderers to start their days properly, even when they are off path. The morning primer should prime each domain of BMS. It should be short and effective so you can get on the path quickly but effectively.

Example/Recommended morning primer components:

Morning primer:

Night Primer

The Night primer ends the wanderer's journey for the day. It allows the wanderer to lay down their burdens so they may rest, so they are prepared to walk the path the following day. The “off switch” for the wanderer. It should be short and effective so you can get off the path quickly but effectively.

The wanderer must settle their Body, Mind, and Spirit(BMS) with the night primer and let go of all attachments. 

Example/Recommended night primer components:

Night primer:

Weekly Primer

The weekly primer is done once a week to encourage the pursuit of mastery on the path of paths. 

The Weekly primer is where the majority of the wanderer’s off-path tasks should be done. This allows the wanderer to spend more time on the path.

Weekly primer tasks include things like chores, grooming, paying bills, etc. The weekly primer is a good day to schedule after staying at The Inn, as all pleasure creates hangovers, which can make returning to the path difficult. 

Weekly primer tasks are usually routine tasks that do not aggressively drain energy from any domain. This makes the weekly primer a good day to schedule after staying at The Inn when domains need re-awakening after The Inn. 

The weekly primer gets you back on the path.

Sunday is a popular day for the weekly primer. Some call it Setup Sunday.

Example/Recommended weekly primer components:

Weekly primer:

Monthly Primer

The monthly primer should include an analysis of your progress down the path. Like the weekly primer, the wanderer uses the monthly primer for off-path tasks that occur at a monthly cadence.

Example/Recommended morning primer components:

Monthly primer:

Annual Primer

The annual primer is done once a year. It may include annual tasks, as well as an annual self-review. The annual review can be painful if the wanderer has not been loyal to the path—feeling this pain is important. The annual primer can be conducted on any day, but should be consistent; New Year's and birthdays are good selections.

Example/Recommended annual primer components:

Annual primer:

Remember to remove example primer information(as well as any other info) when you no longer need it.

Thoughts

Thought is using the mind as a tool, no different than a rake or a pen. The mind should be used when it is needed and put away when it is not needed.

The default for the mind should be the Mushin(無心) state, where the mind is settled and calm, like a glass of water with sediment at the bottom. The sediment should be settled at the bottom of the glass, not swirling through the water, making the water impure. 

When the sediment is at the bottom of the glass, the water is pure. When the sediment is chaotic, when the mind is chaotic, the water is dirty and impure.

The settled mind is the Mushin(無心) mind.

Do not believe everything you think. The mind is chaotic unless you lead it. The mind is an effective follower of the spirit and an ineffective leader to the body and the spirit. 

It is up to the wanderer to make their mind orderly, which makes their thoughts and emotions orderly.

Where one puts the mind

The mind is a tool that should be put away when not used. The mind plans, the spirit executes. When the spirit is executing, focus on your breath. 

Use breathwork and meditation to "charge" your spirit and settle the sediment of the mind. This must occur anytime the mind is chaotic and impure.

The Zen philosopher Takuan Soho, who wrote The Unfettered Mind recommended placing the mind below the navel. The lower abdominal area is known as the Hara (丹田, Tanden), considered the body’s center of gravity and a focus point of balance and power, making it an ideal location to put the mind.

The wanderer must pursue purity of mind at all times.

Negative Thought

Thinking negatively about yourself is using the mind as a tool to hurt yourself, no different than hitting yourself in the head with a shovel or purposely stepping on a rake. If you wouldn’t use the domain of body to hurt yourself, you shouldn't hurt yourself with the domain of mind.

When you think, you program your mind. When you think positively, you program your mind for success on the path. When you think negatively, you program your mind for failure or fear of the path, leading to a life without fulfillment.

Destroy negative thought by using your mind to give your body, mind, and spirit counsel. Then put the mind away when you are done.

Emotional Management(EM)

Wanderers must aim to be emotionally stable. Calm, meditated, and without emotion while pursuing fulfillment on their path of paths(TPP).

Low volume emotions include sadness, depression, loneliness, despair, laziness, sloth, nostalgia, shame, comfort timidity, etc.

High volume emotions include anger, Excitement, anxiety, mania, obsession, jealousy, lust, ecstasy, etc.

Low and high volume emotions both distract from the pursuit of fulfillment on the path of paths. A wanderer must use meditation and other practices to keep their emotional volume at a level where it does not distract.

Low & High volume emotions aren’t always destructive(omega) against the wanderer. Emotions can be creative(alpha), but even these must be managed.

Emotions come from the mind. A mind without thought will not have high or low volume emotions. The Mushin(無心) Mind is detached—free from emotions, free to pursue fulfillment through attainment(FTA).

Musashi Dokkōdō Precept 3 | Do not, under any circumstances, depend on a partial feeling

Animals are led by their emotions. Wanderers lead their emotions as much as they are able to. Mankind must choose to rise above the default primitivity to create a better individual and shared experience for all.

Emotional management(EM) is being in control of the mind domain and choosing what you allow inside. To care about your path, not what people are thinking about you.

It is your responsibility to destroy omega emotions that want to damage you. Emotions like guilt, ego, shame, and anger must be managed, sorted, solved, and discarded by wanderers.

Musashi Dokkōdō Precept 9 | Resentment and complaint are appropriate for neither oneself nor others

If you control your emotions, you can let constructive(alpha) ones in while keeping destructive(omega) ones out. Lock the door to your mind and look through the peephole before you open the door. If you don’t control your emotions, the omega, destructive emotions will cast a shadow on the constructive, alpha emotions, hiding them from you, and you will live in darkness, preventing you from seeing your paths, keeping you from fulfillment.

To let another person affect you emotionally is to give them control over your mind domain.

To hate another is to focus on their path instead of your own. They continue to make progress while you do not, while they may not even know you exist.

Emotional Outbursts

Emotional outbursts, which are most frequently through high-volume emotion, are tantrums that are understandable but undesirable in children, and disgraceful, pathetic, and shameful in adults.

You can understand a child, lacking mastery over the self, to have a tantrum. They lack the time lived to gain experience to control themselves. 

An adult at any age having a tantrum displays a useless childlike nature that requires others to manage them, because they cannot or do not manage themselves.

If you cannot manage yourself, others have to manage you. It reduces their ability to pursue and find mastery because the tantrum-thrower decided they will be a chore for their family or the public to deal with. This can occur at any societal scale from a couple, to a household, to the Earth as a whole.

Putting the burden of emotional outbursts on others is as disgraceful as it is destructive.

 

 

Scheduling

Schedule your time so you do not waste your time. Wanderers should spend the majority of their time pursuing mastery on the path. The path is where you find fulfillment. 

Unscheduled time easily defaults to leisure time off the path. This is because the unregulated spirit naturally chooses the path of least resistance. Pleasure has no resistance, therefore, no fulfillment.

Wanderers should adhere to the mind domain priority chain tenet: hard things first. Easy things after. No effort last. So everything gets done.

Scheduling time

Wanderers should set the times they are on and off the path at the micro and macro levels. The wanderer should aim to keep these times consistent.

You should set your on and off path hours each day. Example: 8am - 9pm, you are inclined to pursue mastery. 

You should set the days and times you are on the path, the days and times you are at The Inn—which should be minimal—and the preparation day weekly primer after a stay at The Inn, where you can get all of your affairs in order, in order to pursue mastery effectively. 

You can follow this until the end.

The Eisenhower Matrix


“What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.” Dwight D. Eisenhower

The Eisenhower Matrix was inspired by Dwight D. Eisenhower, who prioritized tasks during World War 2 based on urgency and importance. Stephen Covey listed the matrix in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

The four quadrants:

This philosophy is effective for organizing your actions on the path in wartime and peacetime. The Eisenhower matrix follows the mind domain priority chain tenet. By following this philosophy, you will get everything you need done in the proper order.

The path lives in Quadrants 1 & 2. You want to spend the majority of your time doing things that are urgent & important, and important but not urgent. We create our own urgency on the path.

Tasks that are off the path, even if important or urgent, should be done in bulk during the weekly primer so the wanderer has more time on the path. Fragmenting your time on the path disrupts your ability to walk down the path. It is crucial to get everything off the path done in bulk so nothing pulls your Body, Mind, or Spirit(BMS) away from the path.

Some view quadrant 4 as leisure activities, or the pursuit of pleasure, but we do not. We view all quadrants as how they pertain to the path, as well as stepping off the path to handle affairs, not activities that happen at The Inn. This follows the philosophy of adjusting philosophies to serve the wanderer’s pursuit of fulfillment on the path of paths(TPP). 

Quadrant 4 contains chores like cleaning that, effectively, are not urgent or important pertaining to the path, but when done, help the wanderer progress down the path. Quadrant 4 tasks should be completed along with the weekly primer when the Wanderer is preparing to leave The Inn for the path.

Make a to-do list with sections that follow this structure using whatever technology works best for you. Paper and pen is technology.

We recommend the app TickTick, available on all devices, for your quadrant lists. Create lists based on the quadrants above.

Reading Lists

Below are some recommended books by category. You are encouraged to make your own reading list categories and edit the categories below.

All wanderers must find and assimilate new information at all chapters in life. A diversity of information mediums is recommended. This is the information assimilation tenet.

The links give us a small commission that allows us to further support the Andreia Philosophy. If this bothers you, remove them.

How to get books

You can buy books through Amazon, although it is better to buy books from a local business to support your community. Used books are just as valuable, if not more, than new books.

You can get books from the library. If you don’t have the money for books, the library is the best place to go. If your library does not have the book you want, you can request an interlibrary loan from your local librarian.

You can always reach out to the author/publisher directly to request a low-cost or complimentary copy.

Sponsored book offers:

Add books you want to read into their proper categories. You can also add your favorite books to your reading list.

Aim to assimilate a minimum of one book a month, a tenet of the mind domain. That’s 60 books every 5 years. This is okay; more learning is better.

Reading Lists
 

Bushido Philosophy
Stoic Philosophy
Body
Sexuality
Mind
Finance
Business
History
Spirit
Fiction