Musashi isn't warning you away from joy itself—he's identifying a peculiar trap of the modern mind, where we chase the *feeling* of pleasure rather than the activities that naturally produce it. When a swordsman obsesses over winning (the reward), he becomes rigid; when he obsesses over perfecting his technique, victory arrives as a byproduct. The same applies to friendship: someone who pursues "connection" through forced networking events often ends up lonelier than someone who simply builds something worthwhile and finds kindred spirits along the way. The paradox is that pleasure pursued directly tends to slip away, while pleasure earned through devotion to something else lands with the weight of authenticity.