Daily Yamabushi

Put your work out in the world to see where it gets you

Today I was honoured in being a guest on Tokyo’s biggest radio station J-Wave 83.1 (at least I heard it was the biggest). When I asked how they had found me, the producer told me she had been following me on Yamap, an app for mountain climbers in Japan, for a few years now. I only have less than 20 followers on this app, but it seems that at least one of them was interested in what I am about, enough so she reached out!

The point I want to make is that, especially these days, when you put your work out into the world, you never know who is listening. You never know who will come across your work, who will take an interest in it, and who will want to learn more on a more personal level.

If your work is for an important purpose (like I hope my work to be), then it makes putting it out in the world all the more important!

The aim of meditation, if there were to be one

The aim of meditation, if there ever were to be one, is the simple practice of being ok with being. It’s about putting yourself in the moment, staying there, and being content with that.

Make this a regular practice, and you can more easily tap into the sensations you get when you’re in that state. Do it out in nature where things are unpredictable, and you can better deal with the unpredictable.

Just being ok with being, isn’t that hard in theory. But it does take practice. And that we can do.

Let the inertia get you over the line

Unsure where to start? Do what’s absolutely necessary. Start by doing what absolutely must be done. When possible, make what’s necessary as clear as possible, and do that.

If you do it right, it puts you into the flow. Then all you need to do is ride the wave. But you just have to do it. You just have to start. Let the inertia get you there by starting with the bare minimum.

If you find your mind wandering, see where it takes you

Being transfixed in the moment is a great start to see what your soul is trying to tell you. When we focus on being in the now, such as through Zen meditation or getting out into nature, we don’t want our mind to wander. We want to bring our focus back to the situation at hand, to the tatami mat, or the ground beneath our feet.

Practice this enough and it becomes second nature to turn our minds off.

Or at least, in theory.

If you allow yourself enough time in meditation, no matter what form that may be, soon you will find that when your mind wanders, it can give insights that were just under the surface. Our mind wandering can show us things we find we truly wanted to do, but just hadn’t realised were there until then.

However, generally this is only achieved through practice of being in the moment, which is when we try to turn our minds off.

Paradoxical, sure, but it works.

In theory, it’s not hard. Practice is another story though.

I was asked whether it would be easier to learn another language seeing as I have already learned Japanese.

Yes. Of course it would be.

When you learn a second language, you learn what you need to learn. That alone makes it easier.

Vocabulary and grammar is all it takes. Well, that and a bit of practice.

These come with a lot of connotations though. With vocabulary, you need to know the word’s meaning, form, and use. You need to know what it means, what form it takes in certain situations, including pronunciation, and where and when you can use it. To make this part a hell of a lot easier, you learn the most common, and therefore most useful, vocabulary first.

Grammar is a bit of a different kettle of fish. Each language has its own quirks. Learning these can be helped by memorizing some key phrases, questions, negatives, and the like, and then all you need to do is to replace some of the words with the vocabulary you’ve already learned.

Then all that’s left is a hell of a lot of practice. Reading things at or below your level is a great way to do this by yourself, but if you’re wanting to learn how to speak a language, you’re going to have to speak it (take note, Japan). Find someone kind enough to be a speaking partner, and then speak it as much as you can. Do whatever it takes to get past the inevitable embarrassment barrier, and then practice to your heart’s content.

Or at least, that’s how I’d do it.

Help each other out

For the second week in a row, a kind old lady at the swimming pool still had the stickers on her goggle lenses. You know, that layer of film you’re supposed to peel off before using them. The first week I just let it pass thinking she had just bought them.

But this week…

For things like this, for example something on your face or something stuck in your teeth, I like to let people know because I would like for them to let me know too.

But this, it’s so strange, but I can’t bear the embarrassment. She would have worn the goggles a few times by now, and a whole lot of people would have noticed, but no one has been kind enough to let her know. When she finds out, it’s going to be a bit of a horror show.

I guess I should just suck up the embarrassment and let her know next time I see her, lest I’m doing something similar.

Danger and opportunity in one word

One of my favourite words in Japanese (originally Chinese) is the word for crisis.

You heard that right.

Why?

The word for crisis in Japanese (same characters in Chinese) is Kiki 危機, written with the character for danger, and the character for chance.

The ancient Chinese were pretty wise. They recognised that within every crisis there is an opportunity. And in fact, in same cases, precisely because there are crises, there are opportunities. The development of technology during war is a prime example.

The English term for crisis comes from a Latinised form of the Greek krisis, which describes a “vitally important or decisive state of things, point at which change must come, for better or worse.”

Crises give us the chance to see things in an otherwise unfamiliar way. Looking at things from a different perspective helps us understand not only the situations, but the problem differently too. This gives us insights we wouldn’t normally have.

Don’t purposely go out of your way to make a crisis. Don’t start a war for the sake of insights. That’s just stupid.

If you find yourself in a crisis, see it for the opportunity it is.

Show the resistance up by doing what you set out to do

You know what you could be doing to help something succeed. You know that there is a different way to go about things that could bring better results.

And yet, you don’t try it.

This is the resistance. This is that magical force that stops us from reaching our potential, that we need to do all that we can to get past. Don’t let the resistance get the better of you. Put the resistance in its place and get out there and do what you need to do.

Who knows when such a good chance will come again?

Anything short is failure

If your best effort fails, it’s not a failure. Not giving your best effort and failing is a failure because you failed to truly see what could truly be. That’s why when you set your mind to something, you need to give it your all. You need to give it every chance to succeed.

Anything short is true failure.

Bad work to good work

Bad work repeated is bad work. Bad work iterated on and gradually made better is the start of great work.

Iteration after iteration is how you get to the great work.

It doesn’t have to be good. It doesn’t have to be perfect.

Being is how you get to being better.

Doing is how you get to doing better.

It just has to be.

Blinding fireworks

The more fireworks you send into the air, the greater your chances of lighting up the sky.

Some fireworks need a whole lot of effort to even get off the ground. Some fireworks work straight of the bat.

Yet with sustained effort over a long period of time, you learn what works and what doesn’t. Slowly, but surely, you learn that’s how you get those dazzling fireworks.

It’s no use debating the right shade of blue.

You have to get started. You have to get your fireworks ready, and light up the sky.

Be the life and soul of your own party

Are you letting your soul dictate your life, or your life dictate your soul?

Are you doing what you’re led to believe by others you should be doing, or are you doing what your soul is telling you to do, even partially?

It’s not always easy, but we need to at least be making the shift to a soul-first life. Otherwise we risk doing everything for the sake of someone else.

Trust your soul, and let it lead you. Everything else will follow suit.

This post is heavily inspired by the words of Master Hoshino.

Start with who

In case your lost, wondering what to do next, think about who you would like to serve. Having a who makes things much easier. Having someone in particular to serve means you are much more focused on making a good thing for at least one person, rather than making a mediocre thing for no one.

You are able to choose your who. Your who should be someone you want to serve who also has the ability to give you what you require in service of them. Your who also gives you hints towards what you can create as well.

All you need is a who.

Working on the craft is working towards a better you

To have a craft to work on is a gift. It’s a privilege. A craft is not something to be taken for granted.

When you have a craft, do all you can to keep it up. Give it your best effort simply for the purpose of doing that craft.

Working on the craft is working on yourself. It’s building a better you through external means, but these external means give internal meaning.

And all you have to do is work on the craft.

Embrace your soul’s inclination

‘A life at the whim of the soul is a life well lived’. – Master Hoshino

If you’re lucky enough in life you’ll find something worth fighting for, something worth giving your all to, something you feel not only obliged but obsessed with seeing through.

The key is knowing how to find these things, or knowing when you have found them. The thing is, you just have to keep searching. Even when you think you’ve found it you have to keep searching. Who knows, you may have only uncovered the surface.

Either way, if you keep searching and searching, you’ll know when you’ve found it. You will either feel it with your body, or your soul will let you know one way or another.

You just have to trust your soul. You just have to embrace your soul’s inclination, and to pursue it no matter what.

That’s how you find it.

Doing so is how you are led to greater things

The director of Breaking Bad saw Bryan Cranston’s range in an episode of the X-files and thought he would be perfect for the role of Walter White. The casting directors of Interstellar saw Matthew McConaughey in Mud and felt he was perfect for the blockbuster film.

Neither of these actors thought they would have such pivotal roles in such huge works when they were filming. They would have dreamt of it, but they didn’t let that get in the way of doing a good job acting in the first place.

Focus on doing your best with what is right in front of you. The results will speak for themselves. And who knows, they may even get you on a bigger screen too.

Life in a nutshell

Experience is everything. No experience, no lessons, no growth.

Every experience is a chance to experiment. Experiments mean you can be experimental, you can try things you normally wouldn’t. These experiments give you experience that you wouldn’t usually get.

When the experience doesn’t turn out as you had expected, you can see it was because it was an experiment.

Then you can start again on your next experience / experiment.

Most importantly your own

I’m lucky in that I’ve both experienced it myself, and seen it in others that Yamabushi training and Shugendo is powerful stuff. The ancient Japanese knew a thing or two about getting out into nature and using it as a training ground to better yourself. I’m just trying to pass on that wisdom to as many willing people as possible.

But are your efforts enough? Is what you’re doing to turn the dial, turning the dial?

Enough is never enough. There’s always more to do, especially with a mission such as this.

But if you haven’t found that mission, what are you to do?

Keep searching until you do. You owe it to yourself for simply being alive, and you owe it to humanity to live your best life. We don’t want to see you dissatisfied or regretful, we want to see you engaged and thriving.

If that means doing something no one has ever done before, even better. You need to prove not only to others but to yourself that you are brave. That you have what it takes to push the dial and to change lives.

Starting with your own.

How preparing for hiking can give perspective

Preparing your bag for hiking is never an easy task. You need enough to be able to survive out there, but too much and you risk literally weighing yourself down.

Plus, going out in spring or autumn is much more unpredictable than going out in the height of summer, or the depths of winter. Put simply, at these times of year the temperature is a lot less predictable. This requires a little bit more planning, as you aren’t sure whether you’ll need an extra jersey, or perhaps more importantly, extra water.

The only solution then is to bring enough to cover your bases. However, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Having more on you means besides being prepared, it’s also a chance for a bit of muscle training. It’s a chance to prepare body and mind for when you inevitably do have to carry more weight.

In all, like most things, it’s just a matter of perspective.

Climbing steep slopes

When you film yourself climbing mountains, you realise how difficult it is to show how steep the mountain is. Sure you can film it from the side, but if you’re shooting from behind or in front, it’s quite difficult or in fact impossible to show just how steep a slope is.

A lot of what we see of other people is like this. We have no idea how steep a slope they’ve had to climb to get there, even if we’re looking right at that steep slope. The only person who truly knows how steep it is, is the person who climbed it!

This isn’t to say we shouldn’t give up trying to understand for ourselves, but we have to realise that a different perspective is just that, a different perspective.

Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans – John Lennon, Beautiful Boy

Life is in the way, you can’t deny it, but when won’t it be?

The best time to start investing is yesterday. The second best time is now.

Now’s as good a time as any to get started on what you always said you would.

Decide in advance what you’ll do when you hit a wall

One of the most important parts of habit creation is deciding what to do with the off days, and I mean both kinds of off days; The days you decide in advance you will take off (or not), and the days where you’re just not feeling it.

For the first kind, you need to decide in advance how often you are going to do the habit. And I’ll give you a hint, daily habits should be daily. Having weekends makes you resent the days you have to do it. Pick a schedule, and stick to it no matter what.

Then the second kind, the days you really don’t feel like it. If you follow the first rule, you have no choice. You go with whatever you’ve got.

Or, you decide in advance what the bare minimum is, and do just that. Keeping up the momentum is a lot more important than you’d think, and the bare minimum is all that it takes.

In any case, you should have some sort of understanding of your frequency, and the bare minimum. Everything else will take care of itself.

An attempt at the impossible is futile. But is it really?

Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.

An attempt at the impossible is futile, but is futility such a bad outcome?

The mere attempt to do something means you’re thinking about it. It means you’re attempting new ways to achieve a certain aim. And with aims for things that were previously impossible, any attempt is far from futile.

Sure you may fail at achieving the said aim, but you’re at least allowing us to become closer to achieving it.

And that is anything but futile.

One example where acceptance is key

When I was in high school my bag got stolen. The first thing my dad did after I told him, besides checking whether I was ok, was to call the locksmith. My keys were also in the bag, and with my address on my license (which is why when given the choice you shouldn’t put your address on your license * cough * Japan * cough*), the thief also would have had access to our house.

Accept the situation for what it is, then act, and it can help you from further damage. That’s but one example of the power of acceptance.

Emotions are like an itch

Every time you get an itch, you know to stop. You know that if you scratch it, it’d only get worse. You know if you’re able to stop yourself from scratching it, you can stop it compounding and it would cease to be a problem.

Every time an emotion hits you, you know to stop. You know that if you let it get to you, it’d only get worse. You know if you’re able to stop yourself from letting it get to you, you can stop it compounding and it would cease to be a problem.

This is how we should view emotions. Like an itch. Some of course we should scratch, but some we need to just leave them be so that we aren’t reacting to them rashly.

The itch.

How to think about getting Nihongo Jozued

This used to really piss me off.

I have the highest qualification in the Japanese language proficiency test, and I’ve even interpreted for gold-medal winning athletes, international magazines, not to mention translated a whole lot of stuff too. So when someone compliments a friend or family’s Japanese as ‘Jozu’ (to be good or adept at something), despite them just being in the country for less than a week and only saying ‘arigato’ or ‘konnichiwa’, it can get a bit annoying.

I say used to, because it doesn’t anymore. I’ve since realised that the term isn’t talking about a person’s level of ability. Well, it is in that if you can even say these simple words, it’s more than what Japanese people expect. They aren’t telling you that you’re good at Japanese. They’re simply telling you that they’re surprised you have any ability. They’re telling you Nihongo Jozu just to show their surprise at you using the language.

Get over yourself. Of course they’re not saying someone who speaks but one word of a language is a master at that language. They’re not that naive, or whatever it is you’re thinking.