Pleasure: The Inn off the path
“The man who can abstain himself from pleasure, he will lead the greatest armies” - Genghis Khan
Wanderers need rest after exhausting their domains of Body, Mind, and Spirit(BMS) through the pursuit of fulfillment via attainment on the path to mastery.
After a wanderer has thoroughly wandered, they rest at The Inn.
Wanderers arrive at The Inn beaten and bruised across body, mind, and spirit. Staying at The Inn without sufficient wandering is the pursuit of pleasure, which cannot provide fulfillment.
A wanderer may stay at The Inn for an hour or two on weekdays, all of Friday night, and Saturday day, but not Saturday night. The allotted time a wanderer gives themselves at The Inn, whether that is a weekday, weekend, or vacation, is predicated on domain exhaustion and progress down the path.
Wanders must spend 70-90% of their time on the path.
The wanderer should pursue mastery for a minimum of six days a week, from early morning until domain exhaustion into the late evening.
More time on the path is better because more path progression provides more fulfillment. However, wanderers, and their bodies, minds, and spirits need rest from the exhausting nature of the pursuit of mastery. This is when the wanderer rests at The Inn.
The pursuit of mastery in body and mind has natural endpoints because pursuing mastery requires the expenditure of energy. The pursuit of pleasure, which is consumption, does not require energy expenditure, so it does not have natural endpoints.
The pursuit of pleasure is Hell because pleasure does not contain mastery. The path of pleasure is not a path that makes progress, but quicksand that keeps the wanderer in the same place, without progression, without fulfillment, slowly drowning the wanderer.
The lost wanderer pursues pleasure.
Musashi Dokkōdō Precept 2 | Do not seek pleasure for its own sake
The pursuit of pleasure is zero-sum self-destruction. The wanderer who travels the path of pleasure is a sense slave; enslaved to their senses.
The lie of the vice is that the pursuit of pleasure creates progress. The pursuit of pleasure cannot create progress because there is no mastery in the domain of pleasure. Without mastery, there is no progress. Without progress, there is no fulfillment.
A wanderer who exhausts Body/Mind/Spirit(BMS) must rest and recover at The Inn. But they mustn’t overstay their welcome.
They must return to the path promptly.
Stepping Off The Path to Stay at The Inn
The wanderer should consider scheduling time to stop at The Inn.
For example, on Saturday a wanderer may spend the morning and the day on their path, then at 5pm stay at The Inn, indulging in P&P(play & pleasure) that does not break their code or damage their ability to return to the path.
The Inn is a good place to spend time with friends and family in pursuit of relationship building. Having fun with allies strengthens relationships and is the pursuit of relational fulfillment, not the pursuit of pleasure.
When the wanderer stays at The Inn is up to them. They can set hours, or go by feel where some days they rest at The Inn at 10pm, and other times they check in at 11am because they earned it.
The wanderer can schedule what they want to do at The Inn while on the path. For example, a wanderer may set a reward to go out for a nice meal(drinks included), predicated on a specific victory on the path. Or, a wanderer may schedule watching a show or movie for rest once they get to The Inn after two more days of wandering down the path.
Musashi Dokkōdō Precept 13 | Do not pursue the taste of good food
A wanderer doesn’t need to stay at The Inn to rest if they do not need it—they can always sleep outside as long as they are fresh to travel the path.
Consider having a calendar entry for The Inn or a checklist you can add to throughout your wanderings of what you want to do once you reach The Inn.
This serves a purpose. The wanderer gets to look forward to their stay at The Inn once they have wandered far enough. This improves self-control by delaying gratification.
The day after staying at The Inn is a good day for your weekly setup primer. Schedule as many chores and other off-path duties here so you can spend most of your time on the path. Do your best to ignore and refrain from OFF-path tasks while on the path. Wait for your weekly setup day to concentrate all of your low-priority, low-importance chores and other tasks.
If the wanderer struggles with a vice, like alcohol, they should not indulge in it off the path. Some may call their stay at The Inn Sinful Saturday, using Saturday evening to rest at The Inn.
The sin at The Inn must not be so grave that it damages the wanderer’s ability to walk the path effectively the next day, or any time following.
Too much pleasure damages the spirit. Like how the domain of body can become obese or sickly, so can the spirit. Overindulgence in pleasure and vice damages the body, as well as the mind and spirit, the unseen domains of mankind.
The wanderer may pursue mastery all day on Saturday—given they have the bodily, mental, and spiritual energy to do so—then spend 6pm - 3am or so at The Inn off the path having a good time. Good times strengthen the spirit domain when they are earned.
Some people may use vices to attempt to prevent shame when participating in activities a sober mind would look down upon. This is the impossible task of trying to blind the spirit to its own behavior. The spirit may balk at the idea of eating gallons of ice cream, where the stoned spirit may prevent the shame, but only for a little while. Pain from a lack of progress down the path to mastery cannot be outrun. It will follow you beyond the pale.
Pleasure is short-term and unfulfilling.
The pursuit of mastery is long-term and fulfilling.
Pleasure can only satisfy you in the moment. When you pursue pleasure, you demand that pleasure fulfill you, which it cannot do.
Procrastination is the pursuit of pleasure; the non-walking of your path.
Pleasure disguised as progress
Be cautious of pleasure disguised as progress. This most often comes in the form of consumption with the idea of increased path progression—preparing without ever doing.
Reading books, listening to podcasts, or looking for motivation or preparedness for the path without walking the path is the pursuit of pleasure. Overstaying at The Inn is the pursuit of pleasure.
A wanderer should study a path when they are not able to walk it, because of exhaustion or the lack of ability, like when you are stuck flying on a plane.
Do not spend a lifetime preparing for the path without taking steps down it.
Walk the path, then prepare for the path at The Inn when depleted from the path.
Play & Pleasure(P&P) as a reward for path progression
The pursuit of fulfillment on the path makes you good at something. When you step off the path and rest at The Inn to indulge in play & pleasure, you do not move forward, and you do not find fulfillment. Good for rest, but bad for fulfillment.
The Inn is only satisfying when rest is earned through path progression. This is the difference between celebrating at the bar or living at the bar as a regular.
Treat pleasure as respite and reward for the spirit when you cannot pursue mastery effectively in the domains of body and mind.
Fulfillment is the objective of life. Fulfillment is guaranteed through the loyal pursuit of mastery on the path. Fulfillment is impossible when pursuing pleasure because pleasure cannot be fulfilled.
Responsible indulgence in vices like drinking can have a benefit for relationship mastery. A single cigarette can be useful at the end of the day, but a pack a day may not. It is up to the wanderer to manage their relationship with pleasure. No matter what you do, you are going to die so—
Prepare for your death every day.
Pleasure will only make you happy for so long because pleasure cannot be fulfilled. It is crucial for the wanderer to leave The Inn for the path when body and mind domains have the energy to pursue mastery on the path.
Those who never leave the Inn, who pursue pleasure for fulfillment, damn themselves to an unfulfilling existence.
Musashi Dokkōdō Precept 21 | Never stray from the way
Live a fulfilling life while enjoying the journey. Find fulfillment and enjoyment on the path. step off the path to enjoy life when you do not have the capacity to pursue fulfillment.
Vice & Vice Breaking
Pleasures are vices. Wanderers must control and quarantine pleasure to off the path because pleasure cannot be mastered so it cannot provide fulfillment.
A vice is any path of action that does not have contain mastery. Vice is often a form of consumption, as creation always requires a path to mastery.
God(s) create. Live closer to God(s) by pursuing mastery.
Vices can include drugs, alcohol, money, the indulgence of food; wanderers can turn anything into a vice. Video games, social media, television, or the celebritization of others can be vices.
The wanderer should strongly consider taking vice breaks to ensure they do not begin to pursue their vices.
Do not use vices while on the path or you may begin to pursue them instead. The vice-path is always easier than the path of mastery, but only one fulfills.
Vice break examples:
- Last week of the month off
- Multiple days off per week
- A month or two off each year
If the wanderer cannot pursue fulfillment with a particular vice used off the path, the wanderer must eliminate the vice.
Money is a false path
The pursuit of mastery will make money, while the pursuit of money makes nothing. Money is pleasure; it cannot be fulfilled, nor mastered. You can master a skill that is valuable enough to produce money, but you cannot master money, so you mustn't pursue it.
Be wary of those who pursue money, which cannot be fulfilled. Be wary of anyone who pursues what cannot be fulfilled; their hubris has no limit. The pursuit of money is no different than the pursuit of other vices, like drugs or the taste of good food.
Those who pursue pleasure, who pursue money, would burn the universe and erase the stars if it meant acquiring ‘one more’ of what cannot be fulfilled.
A child’s relationship with pleasure
Children pursue pleasure because they do not have the capacity to pursue mastery. If children mature, they pursue mastery.
Some live their entire lives as children. Their lack of fulfillment hides in their mind like a hostile in the shadows. The hostile does not go away until they pursue fulfillment.
When adults pursue pleasure, they display their underdeveloped, childlike nature.
Adults should avoid having preferences while on the path because preference is the path to desire and desire is the path to pleasure, which takes the wanderer off the path and away from fulfillment.
Musashi Dokkōdō Precept 11 | In all things, have no preference
Accept what your path provides and use it to your advantage.