Explaining vagabond philosophy

Vagabond is easily the most philosophical anime I’ve ever watched I’ll try to explain each
philosophy that I can remember of in the show. The main character of vagabond goes through a
lot of character development because of the philosophy or understanding of him of those
characters (sekishuhai, otsu, takuan, matahachi, kojiro)

First philosophy

The legendary quote “preoccupied with a single leaf you won’t see the tree.
Preoccupied with a single tree you will miss the entire forest” This quote from
Takuan Soho is what I believe to be a perfect example of mindfulness. Mindfulness,
as I currently understand it, is the ability to see better or from a wider perspective.
That way you’re never stuck in one place and you can find the solutions you’re
looking for. Mindfulness is also the ability to shift your perspective in order to fully
understand where you stand. The leaf, the tree and the forest are great metaphors
that can represent various areas of life.
Take, for example, a recent incident in Toronto where a woman got into a
dangerous confrontation with a car at an intersection while crossing the street,
with a child in a stroller. Most media only show the part where it looks like she
nearly gets hit, yells at the driver, hops on the hood of the car as the car tries to
leave and the stroller is left unattended in the middle of the street (the leaf view)
but in actual context both were wrong as even though car wad going an high
speed it’s the lady that tried to beat the car in the race (the tree view) but
knowing context won’t do anything best thing would be to look at what caused a
situation like this to occur in the first place and how can it be prevented since
altercations like this in this area of town are not unique. Major constructions on
the nearby main road are diverting the cars towards smaller residential streets,
causing increasing frustration for both the residents and the drivers. How can that
be alleviated? A better temporary design of the roads taking into consideration
the traffic during rush hours is something that hasn’t been effectively
implemented. Perhaps the city officials in that area as well as the resident should
come up with a proper plan to clearly divert and direct the flow of traffic in such a
way that incidents like this don’t happen again. Redesigning the flow of traffic
with clear indications of where everyone should go, instead of leaving frustrated
drivers and pedestrians to figure this out for themselves, would be an
improvement. The quote was trying to tell us that we should just see the whole
picture and not be fixated on one single point
Second philosophy

The limitations set by musashi itself that him being “infinite under the sun” is the
only way to live seeing his life as a strait path rather than be infinite, he get limited
by it. So essentially, the lesson of “infinite” as it pertains to Musashi is that he was
incredibly limited by this all encompassing goal of being “invincible” and the
lesson from the Yagyu was that its just a word…it really isn’t anything more than
that, and instead of being defined (and limited) by such a word, remember you
are infinite inside, that you don’t have to be obsessed and consumed and limited
by one meaningless word , one which consumed your father. It tells us to not to
be consumed by our desires and be infinite.
Third philosophy

This philosophy tells us that human are like water. Water It can freely switch from
solid, liquid, or gas. But no matter what form it takes, it’s still just water. Perfectly
decided, and perfectly free. What you are is perfectly decided by the heavens. In
Musashi’s case, a human being with both body and talent for swordsmanship. But
at the same time, perfectly free. In Musashi’s case, he does not have to continue
to be a vagabond to prove he is “invincible”. He can opt to be a sword instructor
and marry Otsu and still be the best if he so desires. In real life, it would be the
equivalent of being more than just your career. You can be a really amazing
engineer, because you were born to be an engineer, but that does not mean you
need to identify with it 100%. Who you are is entirely up to you.
Fourth philosophy

We tend to blame a lot of problem on heaven but that’s not true. Heaven, which
you can replace with God or fate or the universe, that which controls the world.
You could have the mindset that when you attempt something that fails, heaven is
laughing at you. It's mocking you as it prevents your goal. But how arrogant do
you have to be to think that the heaven itself even takes notice of you, to prevent
you and laugh? It doesn't, you failed on your own fault and heaven just stood by
and watched with a smile. Musashi has a quote I think relevant. "Respect the
Gods and Buddha but do not depend on them" Gods and Buddha here being
heaven. Heaven doesn't grant you success or knock you down and laugh at your
failure. It just watches as you do that yourself.

If there’s any left tell me 👌 I’ll try to cover death of spiral after few days