Thoughts on the Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi

Musashi quotes that "priests, women, peasants, may choose to die if obligation or avoidance of shame forces them." How can one be obligated to commit suicide or avoid shame? If a person tries to remove shame by suicide then he cannot live up to good standards. One does not purify oneself by suicide. Confessing sins does not purify oneself. A person could just confess their sins and he would be "pure". The only method of purifiying guilt is to make amends for what you have done wrong. Many evildoers have escaped guilt and the so called fate of hell by deathbed confessions and conversions. To repeat one's sins may not be embarassing, and in may enthrall some to relive those moments. This would be so because those people were evil at heart. Hitler himself may have had a confession and believed he would go to heaven. This way of suicide and confession is flawed as it does not truly make amends for evil a person had commmited. People should try to not avoid blame.

That book was great for swordsmanship practice though.