Musashi's Dokkodo (The Way of Walking Alone)

partial feeling is a path to failure and regret. Your initial feeling, your
intuition, may not bring about the correct response. As his precept so
aptly points out, the mind and the heart need to be of accord before
you can proceed from intuition to action. It is much like the public
opinion whenever a person pleads the Fifth. That presumption of
guilt is an emotional decision, one that is sparked without engaging
the mind or applying critical thought. In other words, it is a partial
feeling. Similarly, a mental decision, one made of the mind without
the heart, is a cold decision. It is born from the letter of the law with
no gray area, no wiggle room, and no opportunity to consider the
context of the event being judged. This too is a partial feeling.
Here’s an example: Recently while talking with a martial arts friend
he revealed that he was fighting with his son’s school. A young boy
had been expelled from that private school because he had brought
his prescription medicines to school and was caught giving them to
some of the other teens. Once discovered, the kid was expelled from

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the school for drugs. Makes sense, right? Drug-dealing and school
don’t mix. But what was seen at face value wasn’t the whole truth…
The part of the story that clouds the event is that the boy who had
the prescription is developmentally slow. He was exploited by the
other kids because they said they would be his friends when he
didn’t have any, but “proof of friendship” required him to hand over
some of his ADHD medications. You can see how this obfuscates
the moment. After a weeklong involvement by parents, letters, phone
calls, and meetings with many who had no real interest in the fight
beyond the principle of it, the school’s principal remained steadfast
with her decision. The boy was to remain expelled from the private
school. He was banned from the other private schools in the diocese
as well, and since he had violated the school’s policy his family also
forfeited their tuition.
Did this decision fit with the letter of the law? Sure. Were there
extenuating circumstances? Absolutely. But, were the extenuating
circumstances taken into consideration? Absolutely not. The
principal’s decision had no heart. It was all head. And, it was an
incomplete decision, justified legally perhaps, but brutal and lacking
in the compassion that makes us human. It was made on a partial
feeling.
Feelings are real but must be married with fact before decisions are
made. Facts are real, but do not suffice alone, they must be married
with emotion. This is the world we live in—it is physical and ethereal
at the same time. To make a decision based on a partial feeling is
what Musashi asks us all to guard against. In the aforementioned
boy’s case we can easily see why. A good decision is formed from a
complete feeling which must have facts and, in many cases time, to
let our humanity shape a more circumspect and reasoned choice.