Complete One’s Duties Within The Day

Please note that we are NOT the original writers of this blog post. All credit goes to the original writers. Find the original post as published at this link: http://yourwarriorsedge.com/warrior-wisdom/complete-ones-duties-within-day/

Writing this, I couldn’t help but think of one of my favorite film series. “There’s no tomorrow!”
– Daidoji Yuzan
“Complete One’s Duties Within The Day: One Second Ahead Is Uncertain.”

The post Entire One’s Duties Within The Day appeared on .
In this essay, Daidoji Yuzan wrote,”For a warrior serving a lord, there is a primary understanding concerning the implementation of his daily responsibilities, as hard and unending as they are. Specifically speaking, it’s the important fix to do one’s responsibilities within the day allotted, rather than thinking that one will have unlimited time in the long run. The reason for this is that, for the guys in this uncertain world, neither high nor low have the ability to tell what tomorrow may bring.”

This comes from Budoshoshinshu: The Warrior’s Primer of Daidoji Yuzan. The Budoshoshinshu is a collection of essays that Daidoji Yuzan (1639-1730) composed before he died attempting to illustrate the true meaning of what it meant to be a member of the warrior class and the paradox of that class’ existence during times of peace. While I have many different copies of the on my shelves, I’m using the translation by William Scott Wilson for this.

This lesson is as important today as it was when written centuries ago in Japan. We’ve got goals, we’ve got lists, and we have schedules and expectations. But none of us knows for sure that we’ll also wake up tomorrow morning, or that some unforeseen event, local, or international, won’t change everything.

We don’t know what’s going to happen, so it’s important that we focus on important tasks and accomplish our duties now, and not put them off to the future. This was the way of the warrior that Daidoji Yuzan wrote about, and it ought to be the way of those who live with the warrior’s edge today.