“Some publications can not be summed up (genuine literary works, poetry); some can be pressed to concerning 10 web pages; the majority to zero web pages.”–
, The Bed of Procrustes
We can discover several crucial lessons from classic literature. They are one of the most important signals which made it through after stress factors filtered out the noisy information over time. Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa and The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas are 2 of the lengthiest and most significant books I have actually checked out recently. We can learn several identical lessons from Books 1 and 2 of Musashi and Volume 1 of The Matter of Monte Cristo
In these starting volumes, both Musashi and Edmund Dantes experienced unfortunate events that forced them to start their hero’s trip. Motifs of fate, lonesome suffering, delayed satisfaction, and existentialism ran throughout both stories. Both experienced wrongful accusations of criminal activities, splitting up from love passion, solitary confinement, impending fatality, meeting of the mentor, and the start of their independent adventures. What they gained from seclusion, fatality, and their coaches were similar, yet their reactions towards love and retribution couldn’t be anymore various.
The mindsets toward love and retribution reflected the distinctions between Buddhist Japanese and Christian European society. At the beginning of Musashi, Otsu was involved to Matahachi, Musashi’s pal, and didn’t fall for Musashi till she saw him sustain unjustified suffering at the hands of Matahachi’s mother, Osugi. Osugi blamed Musashi for taking Matahachi to war and not bringing him back. She likewise believed that Musashi adjusted Matahachi to run off with an additional woman to make sure that he can obtain with Otsu. To maintain family honor, Osugi vowed to kill both Musashi and Otsu personally. While on her goal for retribution, she continuously invoked the name of bodhisattvas, family honor, and filial piety. To Osugi, her objective for retribution wasn’t personal, however an exemplary spiritual goal to slay satanic forces. Yet every single time she assaulted Musashi and Otsu, they pitied her for being an old female and felt sorry for her love for her kid, so they did not seek retribution versus her.
For Dantes, revenge was individual. At the start of The Matter of Monte Cristo , Dantes was involved to Mercedes. When he satisfied his rival Fernand, he was naive and friendly, and also invited him to the wedding event feast. He was oblivious of how Fernand and his fellow sailor Danglars conspired against him and how Villefort convicted him till years later on. The surprising discoveries came during his worst sufferings in prison, and that eventually pushed him to plotting the most detailed vengeance covertly over years. Dantes’s deceptive, individual, and experiential vengeance contrasted with Osugi’s public, familial, and ideological vengeance.
Otsu easily switched over fans initially, but continued to be dedicated to Musashi after that despite all the suffering, isolation, and risks she endured. Mercedes was already engaged to her real love Dantes originally, yet after 18 months of suffering and isolation, she broke down and settled for Fernand, whom she enjoyed like a brother. Both of them swore to die with their lovers, but inevitably Otsu had the ability to follow up for over a decade, while Mercedes was unable to sustain the solitude after 18 months. Perhaps this is since Otsu was able to occasionally obtain news regarding Musashi, while nobody had news of Dantes and presumed that he died behind bars.
Early in Musashi , Takuan the Zen monk informed Otsu, “Why, when we could endure our lives in a flower-filled paradise, do most of us favor to weep, endure, and get lost in a maelstrom of passion and fierceness, abusing ourselves in the flames of hell? I wish that you, at the very least, will not have to go through all that.”
He after that encouraged Otsu on love and marriage, “‘Marry thyself to the reality’ suggests that you shouldn’t become obsessed with a simple temporal however need to seek the everlasting.
“There is something I understood for particular. Applied to your life, wedding event sincerity suggests that you should not think about going off to the city and bring to life weak, namby-pamby children. You need to remain in the nation, where you belong, and elevate a fine, healthy brood rather.”
Passion and experiencing go hand in hand. When you ride the waves of nonduality, you need to experience the greatest highs and lowest lows. That was the course Otsu chose and devoted to when she came to be infatuated with Musashi. To Otsu, there was absolutely nothing else man that could substitute Musashi and she agreed to wait on him for life.
To Mercedes, no man might substitute Dantes … but Fernand was currently like family members and boldy sought her regularly. After Dantes was detained, Fernand went off to war, and Dantes’s daddy passed away, so Mercedes had nobody left. When Fernand returned from war, Mercedes was pleased to see a familiar face, and Fernand confiscated that chance to wed her. Yet even at her wedding event, she missed out on Dantes.
Dantes and Musashi also had very different sights on love. Dantes was openly in love with Mercedes from the actual start. He remedied his employer, “She is not my mistress, she is my betrothed.” He additionally made it clear to every person that he desired to see Mercedes immediately and the special day was the happiest day of his life till it obtained disrupted. On the other hand, Musashi stayed clear of concerns concerning Otsu, actually, it took him years to admit his love to Otsu. He would certainly often intentionally prevent Otsu, due to the fact that he felt that she would certainly tempt him off the Method of the Sword. For Musashi, it was more important to become the best swordsman than to calm down and live happily.
“Also her fantastic love for Musashi– a love for which she would have sacrificed anything– was unable of holding him. She understood what his purpose in life was, and why he was preventing her. She had recognized since that day at Hanada Bridge. Still, she might not understand why he considered her an obstacle between him and his goal. Why should his determination be damaged by her existence?”
Musashi looked for to prevent both love and vengeance to fine-tune his swordsmanship. Both were diversions. For Dantes, love and revenge were strong motivators that specified his actions. Love and vengeance should go hand in hand. Rene Girard has discussed in mimetic theory how mimetic desires lead to mimetic conflicts. The Buddhist method of quiting desires likewise enables you to prevent mimetic disputes.
“It’s not greed that drives the globe, but envy.”– Warren Buffett
Even prior to his arrest, Dantes really felt that his enthusiastic joy was also excellent to be real. He felt that happiness is undeserved prior to finishing his hero’s journey.
“The fact is,” replied Dantès, “that I am as well delighted for noisy mirth; if that is what you suggested by your monitoring, my worthy close friend, you are right; joy takes an odd effect sometimes, it appears to suppress us almost the like grief.”
Danglars looked in the direction of Fernand, whose restless nature obtained and betrayed each fresh perception.
“Why, what ails you?” asked he of Edmond. “Do you fear any kind of coming close to evil? I must claim that you were the happiest guy active at this instant.”
“Which is the very thing that startles me,” returned Dantès. “Guy does not show up to me to be meant to delight in pleasure so unmixed; happiness is like the enchanted palaces we read of in our childhood, where tough, fiery dragons protect the entryway and approach; and monsters of all shapes and kinds, calling for to be conquered ere victory is ours. I have that I am lost in wonder to locate myself advertised to an honor of which I feel myself not worthy– that of being the other half of Mercédès.”
There’s a bittersweetness at the height of your happiness, because you understand that it will certainly be all downhill from that factor. Which you never understand if somebody jealous is bent on ruin your happiness. Possibly that’s why, as Takuan said, “most of us favor to weep, experience, and obtain shed in an uproar of enthusiasm and fierceness, torturing ourselves in the fires of heck.”