MEDITATIONS: DOKKODO; THE WAY OF ALONENESS XIII.

Principle Thirteen

Do not pursue the taste of good food. (Miyamoto, Musashi)

Food is perhaps the most universal vice, extending to all animals, great and small. This is because food is not only or necessarily vicious. Food is also, in fact, a natural and necessary resource for living beings. And it is food’s dual nature which makes it such a powerful example and allegory for vice or virtue being found in moderation—that being Aristotle’s golden mean, or the “proper way” in a more Confucian context.

The prior implies that there is a right and wrong way to consume food—or anything else—and in particular a right and wrong way to consume food which tastes quite good. This interpretation can be validated in the composition of the translation, “Do not pursue the taste of good food.”

Notice that Musashi does not say, “Do not consume good food.” He specifically proscribes “pursuing” its “taste.” The specificity is significant in this case, because the danger is not in the food itself; it is not even in the food’s flavor—that is to say, there is no sin in enjoying what one eats. The error is placed in the aim. When one eats a favorite food for the sake of its taste, i.e. for the sake of pleasure, one embodies and thereby constructs a value hierarchy which places immediate sensory gratification above other values. Herein lies the danger.

When one values the present above the future—or, said another way: if one values being over becoming—then he will sacrifice his future self, his neighbors of the next days and even hours, as well as those who will come after him, all for the sake of a transient present which sublimates with each passing moment.

When one values pleasure over truth and propriety, he will lie to himself about the happiness he presently possesses and about that future happiness which he is sacrificing. He will exaggerate the satisfaction he gets from his indulgences and understate the pains he and others will suffer as a consequence. And he will lie in this fashion at increasing frequencies as his pains likewise increase with each indulgence. The cycle is doomed to become exponential, for when push comes to shove, truth and propriety will seem more uncomfortable—at least in the short run—than pursuing a bit more pleasure to numb the pains in the moment.

What, then, ought one to pursue? In regard to food, its natural and primary functions are sufficient. Animals eat to provide nutrients to their bodies in order to optimize their ability to fulfill their teloi—their purpose or function, which is to produce a garden of Eden for their offspring, to bring children into a world—natural and cultural—which facilitates those children succeeding in the same way.

Here enters the psychological and social components. The food should only be nutritious. It must also be tolerable and sustainable for a community across time. Ideally, the food also serves to bind the individual to his community via common culture around cuisine: growing it, preparing it, cooking it, serving and sharing it—for this creates stability, purpose, and belonging, all of which are necessary for the human animal to flourish.

Said concisely, the way of nutrition is to eat in a balanced way to promote physical and psychological health in oneself across time and in one’s community such that the good eating habits persist across generations.

Thus does the way of nutrition naturally accord with the Way as such, for harmony is found in the Tao, the thing-itself, and not in the isolation of subjective experience. Pursuing delicious tastes may bring pleasure in the moment, but such flavors can never help one escape from the prison he constructs for himself. That prison is Hell, the bottomless pit and punishment for prideful and arrogant self-worship, which is the same as placing one’s thoughts, feelings, and experiences—false ideals and false idols—at the apex of values where belongs God, the world, the transcendent, objective, ineffable Tao.

“Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world.” (Miyamoto)

Do not mistake the finger pointing at the moon for the moon itself. “Do not pursue the taste of good food,” but pursue enjoying food good for one’s accordance with the thing-itself.

Miyamoto, Musashi. Dokkodo, translator unknown, 1645.