Recently I’ve been researching 武士道 (bushidō) – the ancient Japanese way of the warrior, mostly to try to figure out if it ever was actually a legit thing, or if it’s a modern invention.
Spoiler alert: it’s a bit of both. You can read my conclusions in my WordPress article here.
Bushidō comes with a handy list of 8 virtues that one can follow to lead one’s best and most noble life. You may not have been born a samurai, but you can still live like one by following this code.
They are available here on my Etsy site. WordPress users get 15% off with this code: WPCODE15 (just enter it when you checkout)
The third virtue is “Benevolence, the Feeling of Distress”, which I have translated as “Compassion”.
These 8 virtues were first mentioned in Nitobe Inazao’s 1899 book “Bushido: the Soul of Japan”.
Nitobe writes: “Benevolence to the weak, the downtrodden or the vanquished, was ever extolled as peculiarly becoming to a samurai.” He illustrates this by recounting an event from the 12th century in which a warrior slays an adolescent (he’s pretty much compelled to because if he doesn’t do it, his comrades will), and feels so bad about it afterwards that he becomes a wandering monk.
Make of this what you will, but it does illustrate that “benevolence” is more complex than mere kindness. For this reason I have translated this virtue as “compassion”, which is more than kindness; it also requires seeing the “larger picture”, and understanding the world from others’ points of view.
Calligraphy by Vicky 