Why Bushido Could Help You Lead an Empowered Life

In these hectic times, many business leaders, athletes, and professionals often struggle to find a set of principles that can guide their actions and decisions. As a professional coach with a background in martial arts, I’ve observed that what many of these individuals lack is a clear code of honor—a set of values to live by, both in their personal and professional lives. During my martial arts journey, I was introduced to Bushido, an ancient code of conduct followed by the Samurai.

I have come to realize that the principles of Bushido are not only timeless but also applicable to anyone seeking to live a more disciplined, honorable, and spiritually fulfilling life. This article explores the seven core principles of Bushido and demonstrates how they can help shape a stronger moral foundation for modern life.

As I’ve come to learn over the years in my professional coaching career, almost all business owners and athletes lack one thing: the code of honor, or rather, a standard code on which they can live by. My martial arts background exposed me to Bushido, whose principles I’ve recognized could be helpful in anyone’s spiritual life.

The principles of Bushido?

You’ve probably heard of Bushido already. This ancient Japanese tradition was a reserve of the Samurai, an elite class of Japanese warriors, but has since been immortalized in our popular culture to apply to the military and other loyalty-critical areas. Bushido is loosely associated with the European concept of chivalry as well. While the Samurai may be long extinct, the codes and principles they lived on still lives. And no other time in recent history has Bushido been revered again like in the modern world where self-gratification, faulty moral compass, and inauthentic lifestyles are threatening to erode all preexisting codes of ethics.

Here are the 7 principles of Bushido

1. Integrity

One of the most important elements of the code of ethics of any warrior is integrity. Integrity is the foremost element of ethics you must adopt before adopting any other practice or virtue. Why so? Everything begins with integrity; it’s the moral fiber that keeps other pieces of ethics held together. Where there is no integrity there is disintegration. Everything we do: how we talk; how to behave; and how to conduct ourselves shows the degree of our adherence to integrity. Even our trustworthiness is hinged on integrity.

Of all virtues, integrity is the hardest to fake. You only practice integrity for your own sake; it is for the goodness of your spirit. Besides, we all need integrity in our operations in society because it is explicitly reflected in all transactions and integrations we make with others. That’s how it worked in the Samurai’s ranks and other similarly structured tribal communities. But that’s also why we have a lot of distrust in society today. Integrity has become an incredibly rare virtue in today’s society

To the Samurai, the interpretation of integrity was simple: only die when it’s necessary; only strike when it’s necessary. Although this might look bloody, integrity doesn’t just end there, you can apply the same concept in non-life-threatening scenarios. Integrity equips us with discernment which guides us in thought, action, and speech. For instance, integrity helps us avoid acting or talking in an egocentric, hurtful, or nonsensical way. This can be beneficial for the realization of both internal peace and that between two people.

2. Courage

We like to associate courage with warriors, and this can be either in the battlefield or spirit or both. However, we fail to distinguish fearlessness and courage most of the time. Everyone lives in fear unless they’re dead, foolhardy, or egocentrically disillusioned. We must recognize our fears without letting them affect the smooth running of our lives. Courage, on another hand, is that important virtue we dearly need when stepping out of our zones and making important moves even when we’re fearful about these moves. Hence, courage is the initiator of decisive movements and changes that help us explore life in its width and length.

3. Compassion

Compassion is not a stereotype of antique warriors but rather a necessary virtue for any spiritual warrior of the 21st century. It is based in our hearts, which turns out to be also the source of love, sympathy, empathy, and benevolence. If you don’t nurture compassion in yourself, you will have a hard time navigating the ocean of life in which you’ll forever be surrounded by different people with different needs. It all begins with us; you must love and be compassionate about yourself before being compassionate about others. Lacking compassion is very much like being disconnected from the flow of life.

4. Respect

Respect stems from our sympathetic regard for other peoples’ feelings. It is regarded to be a parallel of compassion. Respect is a form of politeness and borders love. Very much like compassion, you must respect yourself for you to respect others. In modern society, politeness is conditioned – it can be based on conditioned responses and fear of disrespect or disapproval – rather than independently developed. True respect and politeness are authentic and requires no compliment. It is a beautiful virtue to respect opinions and feelings or others and maintain meaningful social connections. A real warrior isn’t just respected but knows how to respect others as well.

5. Truthfulness

Integrity and truthfulness are closely related. Being a person of integrity also means you’re truthful in actions and words. For instance, you can’t be a slanderous individual and claim to be truthful at the same time. More often than not, we are untruthful to ourselves about all the irrational fears, excuses and even false stories we invent. In fact, people tend to be more untruthful to themselves than to others. Be true to yourself and you’ll definitely be truthful to others – that’s the warrior’s way of life.

6. Honor

One of the reasons why honor was and is still encouraged in warriors is its tendency to motivate the soul of the warrior to summon the courage and fight with valor. Honor is very much like sovereignty although the latter has some bad reputation due to its association with ruthless historical powers. It is actually the opposite in meaning – sovereignty actually means, as far as spiritual growth is concerned, breaking the shackles of dependencies that are taking away your powers. Spiritual warriors don’t want to be bound with sufferings, powerlessness, and everything else that is detrimental to their wellbeing.

7. Loyalty

It is easy to mistake and even associate loyalty to the virtues of sovereignty and honor but they’re not quite the same. Rather, loyalty is complimentary to sovereignty and honor. Contrary to popular belief, loyalty doesn’t entail complete obedience to a higher power. Rather, it entails applying your efforts, resolutions, ties, commitments where they most deserve to be while benefiting your spiritual growth and freedom. The Bushido culture of the Samurai places a high price on loyalty and honor – breaking one of them was regarded as a disgraceful act only punishable by death. For the 21st century’s spiritual warrior, however, loyalty means cooperating and co-creating loyalty to a shared vision or cause. It also means aligning and building bonds of trust. You become loyal to your sovereignty and purpose by living from your truth with integrity and honor.

Conclusion on Bushido 

The timeless wisdom of Bushido offers more than just a glimpse into the values upheld by ancient Samurai; it provides a roadmap for leading a life grounded in integrity, courage, and honor. In a world where moral codes are constantly being tested and reshaped, adopting these principles can help individuals and leaders navigate challenges with grace and purpose.

By integrating integrity, courage, compassion, respect, truthfulness, honor, and loyalty into our lives, we not only elevate ourselves but also inspire those around us to live authentically. The way of the Samurai may be a distant memory, but the spirit of Bushido remains a powerful guide for those seeking a higher standard of living.