Notes on *The Sword and Zen*

Memorable lines

• To become a true human being, cherish your life above all else—accept every trial life brings—and do not throw your life away until that work is finished.
• Perhaps the Buddhist “red lotus hell” feels like this: extreme heat is extreme cold; half sea, half flame.
• Whenever he found a flaw in himself he wrote it down for reflection—but writing alone was useless; he had to memorize it like scripture, so he turned each line into rhyming verse.
• Sometimes folly is stronger than wisdom, because the foolish can ignore everything about the other person—so someone only slightly wiser often has no answer to the brazenly ignorant.
• To reach the state where self and world dissolve, you must first remove the urge to compete from your mind.
• Defeating an outer enemy is easy; defeating the enemy within is hard.

Code of conduct

1. Do not stray from the way of the world.
2. Do not pursue pleasure for your body alone.
3. Do not rely on luck or dependence on others.
4. Value the world more than yourself.
5. Have no regret over your own choices.
6. Regardless of good or evil, harbor no envy of others.
7. Do not grieve excessively at parting.
8. Do not be lost in romantic love.
9. Do nothing that harms yourself.
10. Do not seek luxury in your home.
11. Do not dwell on desire through life.
12. Never leave the path of strategy.
13. The body may die; a warrior’s honor must not.
14. Revere gods and buddhas without begging favors from them.