I have lately become quite fascinated with the samurai way, bushido code and such. I find the culture lovely and I’m planning to read more about it.
So I’ve been thinking and I believe there are three types of people. I don’t know if the following classification is good or not. It’s just my way of seeing things.
The three types are chaotic, normal and samurai.
Normal people do stuff they don’t really want to do (like taking on responsibilities) for most of the week and then they go ahead and inject their pleasure drugs (like whatever’s pleasurable – not necessarily drugs, but not TOO pleasurable) during the evenings and weekends. Therefore they combine pleasure with discipline.
Chaotic people are the opposite of samurai. They try to “inject” as much pleasure as they can. They’d do anything to get out of any sort of responsibility and are most likely to spend their lives trying to achieve pleasure in anyway and as often as possible.
Samurai people are, obviously, the opposite to chaotic. They have discovered detachment from everything and have (or mostly have) expelled pleasure and pain from their lives. The things they live for may be internal peace and contentment with themselves.
Don’t know if I expressed it well, but that’s how I see it, in general terms. I’m thinking about becoming a samurai. That would be a major change and would require great deals of discipline, hard work and meditation.
However I just don’t seem at peace with the idea of giving up satisfaction, because that’s how I see this process going. I mean, what reason would I have to become excellent in a field (whichever that might be) if it wasn’t for satisfaction/pleasure? And is it the best way to achieve excellence?
And last but not least, why would we give up satisfaction and pain, if it’s obvious that our body is into them. After all, our body is that object we use to get by in this world and if the experience was all about achieving peace, then we wouldn’t have so many obstacles. Would we? Hmmm.
Pleasure naturally comes with pain. They’re opposites and, as a friend of mine would say, they contour each other. Regardless of how much pleasure you get, there’ll always be some pain just around the corner, mostly because nothing good lasts forever.
So when you deny pain, you also deny pleasure.
You deny most chemistry = samurai (as far as I see it, need to read some more though).
I find the samurai very beautiful. I guess discovering which way suits you best depends solely on your vision on life and how disciplined you are willing to be.
Anywho, this is not done… I’ll be back on the samurai. Also wrote it a while ago and willn’t check on it again. So do tell if there’s something weird about it. 
so i have two orders of business for you lizzy *puts on business suit and gets really serious like*
First off, I really enjoyed this piece, your thoughts are wonderful and relating to the samurai is very nicely put… from this perspective, the samurai does not seem much different than the alchemist, the one who transmutes poison into the remedy.
I agree that pleasure and pain are opposite but looking from it another way is that they are practically the same, two sides of the same coin. You have said that, “if there is pleasure, at some time there will be pain.” This is easily observable with anything pleasurable that one would take part in.
the detachment part, took me a bit to realize when I was looking at detachment… with the materials that i read (as you probably know by now would be considered rather spiritual) that detachment does not have to do with actually resisting “good” or “bad” but to fully understand them both that, they are again… two sides of the same coin, there is no difference. On the surface level, yes they are, but the further you go inside, the more you see that they are just there for the balance of the one thing that you are, they are unity just like there would be no darkness without light, no waves without the sea, etc.
Surely why give up the outer things, especially since they are part of your totality, there is no need to.. I think the samurai mind set isn’t so much about giving up, as much as they are at a point (through inner clarity) that those things no longer serve to benefit either way, so there is just no interest in trying to “gain” something. That is the personalities game, they just realized it was a game and stepped out of it. Its not to say that they don’t enjoy the pleasures, and feel no pain (and some do train themselves to feel less pain) but even through the storm, there will always be a sense of well being within them.
There are tons of symbols I can see that are like this besides the Samurai and Alchemist, like the Mystic, the Zen Master, the Sage, even the Fool or a Madman…
Hopefully some of that may help the discussion, I really do enjoy your posts, thank you for posting this, it was definitely a pleasantry for a monday for me.
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and heres the last order of business *opens up briefcase*
I wanted to invite you to take part in a meme called, “The Beginning, The End.”
Its about the interpretation of the beginning and the end without using words to express it. You can read more about it here.
http://blogwithoutaname.com/a-silent-post/
I tagged you on my page with which I interpreted it as on my blog! <3 So if you think this might be something you would enjoy, join the celebration!
Very interesting. Thanks for answering this. Lots of interesting ideas, as usual.
As I said I haven’t read much about samurais (don’t know if it’s got a plural, but hey). However, from my knowledge, one of the reasons for which they were using detachment was to gain excellence in what they were doing. Better yet, in the very art of living.
Speaking of which, one of my favourite quotes on the thing is “Live like you’ve already died.”
Anyway… Technically there’d be an interest in “gaining”. Just wouldn’t be an interest in controlling it. I don’t know if it’s the right way to put it, but I’m still not with the “detachment” thing. LOL From my point of view, if you manage to detach, you are whole. You practically need nothing else. So if you’re whole, then why would you do anything else. It’s done. You have achieved the final goal. No? Maybe not. Very confusing, I’m tellin ya.
And if you blend in, then where is uniqueness? I know we’re unique, just like everyone else, but still. We are unique.
Don’t know…
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As for the tagging. Thank you for tagging me, but I don’t think I’ll take part. I think it’s unfair to replace words with images of any sort. After all, both of them are, what do you call them, indicators? Surely that’s not the term in English. As the song says… “More than words”. And as the quote goes… “A picture is worth a thousand words.”
So what else is left online? What could you replace words with, but images/videos and sounds (which you can’t use)? Anything?
Although… You know what… I will post something, but I don’t think I’ll be tagging anyone else. 
p.s. I have received the visual. I’ll try and send you to Japan. LOL
lol, I think you may be on to something there, with the “live like you’ve already died.” It goes hand and hand with the Christ that says to some extent (this won’t be exact i don’t think but the exact thought isn’t there.) “To gain your life, you must lose your life.” This doesn’t specifically mean the body dies, but something must die, this i couldn’t tell you, whether its what we’ve been falsely pointing to ourselves as being this whole time. Maybe its that falsity that dies which allows what we truly are to live in totality.
Where would the “gaining” be if there was no interest in gaining. Here is not to say that there may be the appearance of gaining, but the gaining is not on your side, so who is gaining? Everything just seems to gain… but is it gaining? Haha, I too am mystified by this to say that I don’t know. It is an interesting road to look down though nonetheless!
There definitely is uniqueness in the world, nothing says that wholeness means no uniqueness and that’s what i get from what you’re saying, that you can still be whole but still exhibit uniqueness. <3 I think the word detachment doesn't do the visual or feeling justice but we only have words mostly to deal with on the net. =(
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words are pointers (or indicators) as you pointed out, but images, symbols and other kinds of visuals are often used more often then written words to evoke something to the heart. for me words like you said are pointers, but in the same token kind of meaningless, because unless you can truly take them past the mind and take them with an earnest heart, they can't transform. images however, while being receptive can show you a lot more then what the intellect can do with a word. So i think they are both meaningless but meaningful in their own little right. Here i go rambling again, so i'll stop! =P
Finally, sorry if you don't like what you see on facebook, i know how you dislike beards greatly but hopefully its only for november! (no shave november)
Yes… Words mostly to deal with on the net and bodies and actions to deal with outside. LOL
Tha’s about it.
The facebook is good