4 Japanese Philosophies That Will Change The Way You See The World
And the ways on how to apply them in your life
I have always been very interested in Japanese culture, and I find it quite sophisticated in many ways.
Their way of embedding and practicing the things we already know in their daily lives is inspiring.
I enjoy a lot tuning into Japanese wisdom to break from the chaos.
So if you are in for some wisdom today as well, let’s take a tour.
The Concept of Impermanence
We’ve been experiencing extraordinary times. The pandemic has crushed our spirits in many different ways and left us with uncertainty and so many questions in our heads. Many of us are in states of stress, anxiety, sadness, and pain over the situations created by the pandemic.
However, these days will pass too. Just like all the things we left behind. When you think in this way, it allows you to cope more easily with tough times, right?
This way of thinking explains the concept of impermanence, and it says everything changes and nothing lasts forever.
In Japanese culture, impermanence is an absolute celebration of change. Everything changes, and that is the beauty of life. You can see that in the appreciation of the fleeting nature of cherry blossoms in Japan.
It took me some time to internalize this perspective, and still I’m working on it. Because in Western culture, our feelings towards changes often refer to the feelings like nostalgia, regret, melancholy towards past times and things. That is why we perceive impermanence as it is something we lost or we missed.
But when we genuinely think about this, we can see that all things are in a state of flow. Even our state of being, physical features, mental reality, thoughts, and feelings — all arise and pass away.
How to practice:
Daily reminder: Remind yourself of impermanence — every single day. Until it sinks in your head. I know this sounds a bit “talk is cheap” kind of advice but believe me, it worths trying. Because anything you do long enough becomes a rooted behavior, a habit. Thus you change the way you think.
Embrace the present moment: Just as unfavorable circumstances are not permanent, neither are the positive ones. Many of us don’t notice the beauty of moments when we are experiencing at that very moment. Because we are not good at living in the moment. And we, as human beings, tend to take the moments we have right now for granted.
We all want to know the answer of how to be happy and pursue it for life. Yet, we don’t really realize what we have right now in the moment.
“Awareness of impermanence and appreciation of our human potential will give us a sense of urgency that we must use every precious moment.”
— Dalai Lama
We are all in chase of happiness. But this snatches us out of the present. And remember, it is only present for now. Either good or bad, it will pass anyway. Instead of dwelling on the thought of happiness, embrace the moment you have while you can.
“Nothing in the world is permanent, and we’re foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we’re still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it.”
— W. Somerset Maugham
Drunken Life, Dreamy Death
At first sight, you may want to take this literally, but this saying basically means how foolish it is to spend all your time dreaming about the things you could be doing and waste your life.
Dreaming is good, but sometimes it may be a trap for you that keeps you standing on the shore.
One reason for this is because sometimes people don’t know where to start. They make this thinking so big and complicated in their minds that it starts and finishes in their head. Eventually, they come up with a lot of reasons for not being able to start.
The other reason is the fear of failure. We are living in a world of comparisons thanks to social media. We see many people doing amazing things every day. Some of them are inspiring and supposed to motivate you to act. However, this can be an adverse effect. Because just seeing the happy and successful end result without knowing the background on social media may cause insecurity in your life. At the end, insecurity about doing things incorrectly causes you to unconsciously sabotage your urge to start to move.
There is one crucial thing that you should always remember:
You may fail at something. Honestly, you will definitely fail at something at some point. But that does not make you a failure and will never do.
How to overcome:
Start doing: Whatever you are up to, just start. Starting is the best possible way to be successful at anything.
Focus on solutions: Don’t dwell on the problem more than needed. Put your energy on what you can do to fix it.
Ask yourself relevant questions: It’s important to know what you want in this life. Put efforts on thinking what makes you happy, what is your aspiration, what your priorities are, what you want to change etc. So that you can come up with a concrete and relevant plan that you can succeed on.
Don’t make comparisons: This is dangerous, and people (myself included) fell into this trap quite often. Don’t be deceived by the illusion of social media. I mean, really, don’t. You have your own reality and potential as much as everyone else has. Unleash this potential by start doing instead of staring at other people’s lives for hours.
Listen, Otherwise You Can’t Hear
When you look at the discussions on TV, you can quickly know who is really paying attention to what the other person is saying and who is actually waiting their turn to reply.
You can see plenty of examples in your own life as well. Because lots of us are not taught the art of listening to others. For many of us, the standard way of communication is listening to reply.
Plus, we tend to have preconceived ideas and subjective opinions while listening. In Japanese philosophy, this is totally the opposite. They encourage to listen to someone by putting very little emphasis on right and wrong or good and bad.
They also care about the silence. On the contrary of Western culture, silence is okay during the conversation. It is not something awkward. Yet, it is used to communicate with others far more effectively than words in Japan. They believe it helps to build trust and learn through listening.
How to be a good listener:
Pay attention: Practicing better listening starts with paying attention. This is actually applicable in many areas in life. Mary Oliver says:
“To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.”
Listen with your whole being: Your body language is as important as your verbal feedback. Imagine that you are sitting face to face with someone, but that person is not even looking at your face while speaking. That really does not feel well. Show signs of listening such as smiling, eye contact, mirroring.
Be patient: Sometimes, there may be periods of silence in the conversation. It is okay. Not all of them are supposed to be filled. Don’t rush. Give some space to the people you communicate with.
One Who Chases After Two Hares Won’t Even Catch One
Even though this analogy talks about literally “two hares”, it implies that trying to do many things at once will probably make you fail in at least one of them.
People can actually do two things at once such as walk and talk, stirring the soup and chat with a friend on the phone. But even they are easy tasks, distraction is inevitable at some point. When it comes to bigger tasks, it gets more complicated, even dangerous.
Yet, the modern human being has become one of a multitasker over the time. I’m sure many of us send e-mails during a conference call and use cell phones while driving. I don’t even mention the danger of doing the second one, but unfortunately, we do. We have even started to highlight “being multitasking” as a soft skill during the interviews.
It evolved as a natural process of human beings. But in fact, multitasking was used to describe computers, not people, even though it has become mainstream for people.
Billy Collins sums it up very well:
“We call it multitasking, which makes it sound like an ability to do lots of things at the same time. … A Buddhist would call this monkey mind.”
In a nutshell, multitasking takes a toll. Most of the time we fool ourselves of supposing that we do several things at once but in fact, we just switch the tasks. We rapidly shift from one thing to another and end up with losing time, low productivity and things left unfinished.
What to do about it: Although being multitasking at a certain level is inevitable, you can still be on track by considering these things:
Plan your day and stick to the plan: It’s crucial to figure out what matters most in your daily plan (even in your life). So, prioritize the things in your plan. Thus you can give it your undivided attention and enough energy.
One task at a time: Once you plan and prioritize all the things you need to do, you should stick to your plan. Consider each task as a separate meeting at work. Each meeting has its own time. You don’t usually switch to another one in the middle of a meeting. Do not switch to another without completing the current task. Completing the tasks will also give you satisfaction and motivation for starting to another.
Avoid interruptions: Do you know that it takes your brain 25 minutes to return to the task after an interruption? When you are on something, avoid interruptions. Anything that interrupts you will definitely distract you. So except a matter of life and death, be sure of removing and/or turning off anything that potentially interrupts you.
Take a break: Do not forget to rest. Resting does not mean checking your social media between things. Get yourself away from screens and take a good look at the world around you.
