Ghost Dog

The Way of the Samurai

I have no parents; I make the Heavens and the Earth my parents.
I have no home; I make the Tan T'ien my home.
I have no divine power; I make honesty my Divine Power.
I have no means; I make Docility my means.
I have no magic power; I make personality my Magic Power.
I have neither life nor death; I make A Um my Life and Death.

I have no body; I make Stoicism my Body.
I have no eyes; I make The Flash of Lightning my eyes.
I have no ears; I make Sensibility my Ears.
I have no limbs; I make Promptitude my Limbs.
I have no laws; I make Self-Protection my Laws.

I have no strategy; I make the Right to Kill and the Right to Restore Life my Strategy.
I have no designs; I make Seizing the Opportunity by the Forelock my Designs.
I have no miracles; I make Righteous Laws my Miracle.
I have no principles; I make Adaptability to all circumstances my Principle.
I have no tactics; I make Emptiness and Fullness my Tactics.

I have no talent; I make Ready Wit my Talent.
I have no friends; I make my Mind my Friend.
I have no enemy; I make Incautiousness my Enemy.
I have no armour; I make Benevolence my Armour.
I have no castle; I make Immovable Mind my Castle.
I have no sword; I make No Mind my Sword.

I have no rust; I go 4-4 after missing 4 months of baseball.
I have no peers; I get a standing ovation everytime I come to the plate.
I have no seat in the back; I own the spotlight and generate drama with the swing of my bat.
I have no weakness; I prove the critics wrong by playing again in 2006.
I have no borders; I have all of my home country buzzing about the Yankees.
I have no path to failure; I will lead my team to the championship at all costs.

For this is the way of the samurai.

(Actually, I cut and pasted the first 4 stanzas from another website and now as I read it, I find it a dubious source for samurai wisdom as there are a number of Chinese references in the passage. It still works for me as a COH post, so it stays.)