Bushido is more commonly referred to as ‘the way of the Samurai’ – the bushido code that those ancient warriors lived by and which placed honour as important above all else. Similar codes have existed for other warriors and powerful individuals throughout history; for example knights would behave according to chivalry, perhaps because those who have he power to take lives perhaps require a stricter moral code than those in other professions. More broadly such codes are known as the ‘Way of the Warrior’. How cool is that? In Japanese ‘Do’ (as used as a suffix in ‘Karate Do’, ‘Aikido’, ‘Judo’ etc) and in Chinese ‘Tao’ means ‘Way of’. Martial Arts in this way are viewed as a way of life – not merely a set of cool moves with which to slice and dice your opponents (although they’re that too).

But what does honour mean? In Bushido honour is described as complete loyalty to one’s cause and one’s shogun (master); in fact Samurai actually translates literally as ‘to serve’. This loyalty was so extreme that should a Samurai fail to perform their task they would willingly take their life through Hari-Kiri by thrusting their dirk (a short blade) into their abdomen thus regaining their honour. A Samurai has no fear of death and to die in combat is a glorious fate.

Today though this kind of loyalty to a cause could be considered fanaticism or extremism and loyal followers ready to die for their beliefs is unsettlingly close to the same type of thinking that brought us suicide bombings (bad). Even Chivalry places a loyalty to ‘God, King and Country’ above all else. So how can these values be applied to work in today’s world?

Following a person, organisation or set of beliefs blindly takes away your locus of control, your independence, your freedom and your sense of responsibility. If you don’t question a set of instructions you are little more than a machine and can be easily manipulated.

Today we should be loyal to our values but these should not be values that anyone else has given us. These should be our own rules and ideals that we have developed through experience alone and we can constantly review them and adapt them as our knowledge grows. ‘Honour’ then, is the upholding of these beliefs. Should we knowingly go against what we believe to be right and compromise our own values – through peer pressure, fear or laziness – then we have damaged our honour. We still shouldn’t stab ourselves though...

We should strive to improve our body and mind as much as possible to enable us to keep to our code and live honourable lives. At the same time we shouldn’t try to force our own values on anyone else – we are all different and we are all suited to different philosophies. No one has all the answers and there’s nothing to say one way is wrong and another is right. Although that’s just what I think...

If every individual in a community strove to perfect themselves, instead of trying to force their ways on everyone else, then they would live in a perfect society.

Mack LeMouse

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