Takuan Soho: having no purpose on purpose
The reason you haven't found your purpose is because you're already living it
What is Purpose?
“The reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists.”
The humor of our current societal setup lies in its adoption of the premise that the universe is meaningless while also adopting the injunction that all of us must “live our purpose.”
Without a spiritual underpinning to this universe, let alone a God, all matter is merely rearranging itself from one form into another through digestion and dissemination, also known as survival and reproduction.
If randomness is truly the position of the scientific authorities who inform the powers running things, then it’s no wonder that people go through their entire lives fretting about whether they are where they’re supposed to be.
There being no reason for our existence means that we can choose any purpose we want. The catch is that each choice is equally meaningless. What’s left is the maximization of pleasure, i.e., positioning the conglomeration of cells that identifies as an “I” in the way it finds most agreeable for the longest duration possible.
We are basically cats trapped in a house, forever seeking sunny spots and AC vents until the end of summer.
Existential angst comes from:
never quite knowing if the collection of activities that make up our day can truly constitute “our purpose.”
ORHaving set our sights on some epically lofty aim, endlessly condemning ourselves for not doing enough to fulfill so daunting a life’s task.
Lack of purpose is the new original sin, and constant doubt as to whether one is truly “living the life they’re supposed to” is the new guilt.
Similar to the old Christian drive to convert the entire world so that nobody dies without having cleansed themselves of sin through Christ, the driving mission of every educator, employer, parent, and politician is fulfilling your purpose.
To that end, self-help gurus charge hundreds of dollars to help you “find your purpose,” career training centers around “maximizing your potential,” and parents devote their life savings to their children’s tutors, tuitions, and after-school programs for fear that by missing a class, the kid won’t be equipped to fulfill their purpose when they figure out what it’s supposed to be.
“She could have been the next Serena Williams, but we started her in tennis too late…”
A fictional story about two very real people
Before Musashi was Musashi, he was Takezo, a wild and reckless youth seeking fame and glory on the wrong side of history. After losing the Battle of Sekigahara, he returns home and accidentally kills two sentries guarding his hometown from bandits and deserters.
On the run from the law, Takezo takes refuge in the woods he grew up in and knows better than anyone else. The local official sent to maintain law and order in his village is at a loss.
Enter Takuan Soho, Zen monk and advisor to the new head honcho, Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu himself.
Takuan sets off into the woods with an orphan girl, Takezo’s friend Otsu, bringing only a pot, kindling, and ingredients for a stew. After strolling deep into the forest for several hours, the monk builds a fire and begins making dinner.
After a while, Otsu notices a presence hiding in the bushes, watching hungrily. She recognizes it instantly as her childhood friend, the outlaw Takezo.
Takuan invites the starving boy to eat with them, convinces the fugitive to submit to justice, and completes the capture without further bloodshed.
Takezo would go on to become Musashi, a swordsman whose path showed the countless would-be warriors and vagabonds who followed him that the true purpose of martial excellence isn’t material or physical dominance but spiritual harmony.
What the man who sought to be indomitable ultimately wanted was peace.
None of this happened, but it is still True
Takuan Soho may not have performed this actual miracle. Perhaps the author, Yoshikawa, drew from a real story about another priest, or perhaps it is cut from whole cloth. But even “whole cloth” is based on life.
Perhaps such events did not literally come to pass on this plane, but on the literary one, they did. Ultimately, which one will we draw deeper meanings and greater lessons from? Which version of reality are we driving towards? Which one would we rather make our reality through our actions?
The real Takuan and the real Musashi carried themselves in such a way that one could easily imagine such an origin story for them. For somebody reading this and only this story, with no further knowledge of the real figures of history who became the archetypes–enlightened monk, lawless warrior, pure feminine–their entire life trajectory could change from an understanding of “might makes right” to “true strength lies in kindness.”
It would be like a starving wretch encountering the perfect stew of raw vegetables and rough ingredients.
Eiji Yoshikawa’s novel, Musashi, exemplifies the legend exceeding the facts. He took an already legendary swordsman and equally legendary contemporaries and fashioned a story that has become the definitive image Japanese people hold in their minds today.
When artists, moviemakers, mangaka, and other creators attempt to tell the story of Musashi, they must contend with Yoshikawa’s admittedly fictionalized account of Musashi’s life.
Most accounts include this story for how it summarizes the titular character's life and not the events that proceed after Musashi’s last duel. Why so little mention of the remaining 3-5 decades of his life, when he was at various times a retainer, a tutor of swordsmanship, a sculptor, a painter, a poet, a recluse, and much more?
Musashi-after-30 doesn’t fit the purpose we defined for him.
The same could also be said for Takuan, who lived for years in exile after falling out of favor with Japan’s later ruler before being accepted back into the next regime, who was as much a politician as a humble priest, and who is actually best known in Japan as the inventor of a popular pickle.
The two men, who are universally recognized for one thing, were actually complex people who lived life like the best of humans, in the moment and according to their intuition, assembling a purpose with their every action that can only be seen long after their lives were completed.
As for the rest of us, let someone else define the reason we’re made if they want and preferably long after we’re gone.
loved the novel and especially loved Takuan's character. I agree with you on that the novel has many insights on daily life and how best to conduct ourselves.
and that our own lives are infinitely more complex than we could put into words. It's a lifelong series of trade-offs and pivots and everything else.
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one of my favorite excerpts from the book: "How important and useful randomly acquired bits of knowledge could subsequently prove to be."