Complete One’s Duties Within The Day

“Complete One’s Duties Within The Day: One Second Ahead Is Uncertain.”

– Daidoji Yuzan

This comes from Budoshoshinshu: The Warrior’s Primer of Daidoji Yuzan. The Budoshoshinshu is a collection of essays that Daidoji Yuzan (1639-1730) wrote 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 several different copies of this on my shelves, I’m using the translation by William Scott Wilson for this.

In this essay, Daidoji Yuzan wrote, “For a warrior serving a lord, there is a primary understanding concerning the execution of his daily duties, as difficult and unending as they are. Specifically speaking, it is the important resolve to do one’s duties within the day allotted, rather than thinking that one will have unlimited time in the future. The reason for this is that, for the men in this uncertain world, neither high nor low are able to tell what tomorrow may bring.”

This lesson is as relevant today as it was when written centuries ago in Japan. None of us knows what tomorrow may bring. We have goals, we have lists, and we have schedules and expectations. But not one of us knows for sure that we will even wake up tomorrow morning, or that some unforeseen event, local, or global, won’t change everything.

Writing this, I couldn’t help but think of one of my favorite movie series. Remember Apollo in Rocky III? “There is no tomorrow!”

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