Musashi's Dokkodo (The Way of Walking Alone)

Insurance Executive:
There is desire and there is desire so overwhelming, so all-
consuming, so over-attached to the thing on which it’s focused, it
becomes physically, mentally, and spiritually dangerous to the one
desiring.
There is nothing wrong with desire. It could be argued that wanting
and wishing are powerful motives to help us do the very best for our
family, our friends, and ourselves. I desire to be promoted at work
because it would provide me with fresh stimulation, better my
family’s financial situation, and enable me to contribute to more of
the causes I believe in. I desire to pass my next martial arts belt
exam because it will show me that I’m on the right track, encourage
me to continue do my best, and allow me to train with advanced
students who will challenge me. I desire to be the best partner to my
husband because I want our marriage to continue to be the joy that it
is. Lastly, I desire to give my best to my fitness, intellectual and
creative pursuits, and my spiritual life. I believe these kinds of
desires are healthy and beneficial.
But to be over attached to any of them can be ruinous. For example,
if my desire to be promoted at work drives me to backstab, claim
credit for work or ideas that aren’t mine, or in any other way falsify
myself to that end, I risk losing the employee I want to be. Likewise,
if my desire to earn the next belt in the martial arts leads me to “kiss
up” to my instructor, ridicule other students, claim credit for work
around the school I didn’t do, or falsify whatever else I deem
necessary to make myself recognized, I risk losing the very martial
artist I want to be. If in my desire to be the best partner to my
husband, I purposely demean his efforts to do the same for me, or I
compete on some level to make it appear I’m the only one putting in
the effort for our marriage, I risk losing my partner in life and I risk
losing the person I want to be for him. Lastly, if in my effort to be the
best I can be, I falsify my achievements to others, I risk lying to
myself and ultimately living a life based on falsehood.

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When desire becomes all-encompassing and I hurt others in my
mindless zeal to achieve these things, I lose my compassion,
honesty, integrity, and my power. What is my power? It’s a
combination of my self-control, dignity, love for others, restraint, and
sense of civility. These powerful qualities can be lost when a desire
is so demanding it destroys everything I want to achieve and the
reasons I wanted to achieve them—the betterment of my family, my
friends, and myself.
To be overly attached is to live in fear that what I desire will never
happen. Then fear only makes me desire it more. In other words, by
fearing I won’t attain what I want, I will want it more, only to fear not
attaining it.
The solution? Follow the middle path. Musashi’s disciplined life and
spiritual path were set in a culture and time vastly remote from ours
today, so detachment from desire might have been possible then,
though I have my doubts. Or, might he have written the precept as a
goal one should strive for; it’s value being in the struggle. Perhaps
he saw this striving to follow the precept the same way that people
who meditate strive to continually bring their wandering minds back
to the present.