Rectitude

You can define rectitude with many words such as:

• Moral uprightness; righteousness.
• The quality or condition of being correct in judgment.
• The quality of being straight in the moral behavior.

That what we'll get if we looked up this word in the dictionary but what is it really mean and how can we classify a person to have this quality or not?

well let's talk a bit about this virtue, it is one of the most important virtues for the warrior since this virtue defines all other virtues and as one of the greatest samurai said once "Rectitude is the bone that gives firmness and stature. As without bones the head cannot rest on the top of the spine, nor hands move nor feet stand, so without rectitude neither talent nor learning can make of a human frame a samurai. With it the lack of accomplishments is as nothing".

So what does it really mean to be rectitudinous ? A well-known bushi defines it as a power of resolution: "Rectitude is the power of deciding upon a certain course of conduct in accordance with reason, without wavering, to die when it is right to die, to strike when to strike is right."

In simple words it is the ability do define what is right and to do it and stand for it even if the price is the persons own life and from that we understand why it is a virtue defining all virtues.

In Japan back in the old days the the epithet Gishi (a man of rectitude) was considered superior to any name that signified mastery of learning or art so being rectitudinous is not only considered as a posession of a virtue but as an achievement also.

Now we reach the more important question how can we define a Gishi (a man of rectitude) and how to become one, well it is simple in words but believe me it is hard in act. in words I can say that you should put every act in your life to a simple scale whether this act is right or wrong you may say that this is a sentence we tell kids in order to be good children and that for adults it is more complicated than that and that the line between right and wrong is rather vague cause as an adult you'll be in certain situation that will oblige you to lie, deceive, and other stuff for the greater good, well to tell the truth as I was writing that exact previous sentence I was like what is this crap I'm writing how come an intelligent human being is not able to differentiate between what is right and what is wrong, that is just absurd to even think of, the strange thing is that we forbid our children from doing or even thinking of these things and why is that? the answer is simpler than you think it is just that we want them to stay pure while in our custody and after that they may got corrupted as they like and that is the story of us all so why do we need to get corrupted the answer for that is cause we choose to be and don't tell me "we have to in order to be able to live in this world" and such crap, it is simply what you choose to be not what the world want you to be so the moment of truth is whenever you decide that it is enough of the lying, deceiving... and it is time to be a Gishi (a man of rectitude) and believe me there is no loss in that not so ever so be true to your self and that is what matters.