Daily Yamabushi

That’s the thing. You have to commit to do at least something towards your goal everyday. This is by far the best chance you have at guaranteeing its success.

I spent the better part of the last three or so months trying to memorise a 7-page (small pages, but still) prayer. Well, I actually started actively trying to remember it 10 months ago, but three months ago I vowed to memorise a little bit more each day.

I can gladly say that I have now memorised it. It may not be as smooth as I like, yet, but at least it’s there in my memory. And I believe I only got there by promising myself to do a little bit each day.

Last week I was filming myself for a video. Everything was fine until halfway through when I took a break. I came back, but promptly forgot to turn the mic back on. Then, my camera seemed to be recording, but in actual fact the memory card was full, and it turned out I was just talking to myself.

Of course I was disappointed. I need to take these shots again, and it’s a little bit of an effort to get everything set up (I’ve purposely tried to make the set up as easy as possible though).

But then again, during the filming I was convinced things were recording normally. As such, I see this as a really good opportunity to get in some speaking practice. It’s probably the best form of practice there is, besides the real thing, that is.

Conviction, enrollment, belief. To get the best out of yourself, all you need to do is believe you are doing the real thing.

What I did capture was good, but I did notice my interest waning a little bit as the recording went on. Which means that I need to keep the energy up during recording, and to remind myself to do so periodically too!

So not only was this good practice for the real thing, it was also a good reminder of the techniques I need to be on top of to create quality video.

I don’t buy sweets at the supermarket for the same reason I don’t have social media apps on my phone; I know I’m going to indulge when I know it’s not good for me. Now instead of doomscrolling through my feeds, I instead spend time either writing, or without my phone.

In all honesty, there are still some things I can’t help, for example checking the news or my blog stats. These are inherent parts of having the writing apps. However, they’re also largely inconsequential, so I don’t think I look at them that much (I could be wrong).

It’s about tricking yourself into choosing better alternatives. Alternatives that progress things rather than leaving you feeling empty. After a while the hope is that these alternatives become the norm.

You just have to make sure the alternatives are indeed better for you. Otherwise, you’re only fooling yourself.

It’s amazing how integral your breath is to your wellbeing. I find it amazing how our breath is both consciously and subconsciously controlled.

If you start to feel stressed, it’s not uncommon for it to show in your breath. Before you know it, your breathing becomes shallow, and it can be hard to get in what feels like enough air.

As always, prevention is better than cure. Try to keep your stress levels as minimal as possible with things like regular exercise, healthy eating, meditation, yoga, or not taking on too much responsibility.

However, sometimes it the stress can’t be helped. In those times, sit to the side for a while, and consciously focus on getting your breath in order. That should be always be your first port of call.

I hope this helps.

Action is the only way we can gain valuable feedback that helps push us forward, but sometimes, something is holding us back from doing these things. If it’s something you want to do, but you’re feeling Stephen Pressfield’s Resistance, do things that mean you have no choice but to do what it is you want to do. Either because you’re forced into doing it, or because it’s the natural thing to do next.

If you can label it for what it is, it makes it much easier to deal with.

Calling out someone’s straw man argument helps them see where they may be being a bit unfair.

Labeling procrastination as such helps you see how much time you are wasting.

When you realise you either should or need to do something to push things forward, but for whatever reason you aren’t, make a list of the reasons why you aren’t doing that.

In most cases you’ll soon discover that those reasons aren’t genuine reasons at all, and all that’s holding you back is the fear of the unknown, of the repercussions such an action could have.

But if it’s in the name of making things better, go ahead and pull the trigger. Show me what you’ve got.

The point of travel shouldn’t simply be seeing new places or meeting new people. Don’t get me wrong, these are both extremely valid aspects of travel. However, the point should really be about creating a positive transformation in not only the traveler, but the people and communities they come across as well.

You could argue that new places and people alone are enough to do this, but there also needs to be some context given. That’s where the people who create the experiences come in.

I was recently asked how best to communicate the charm of the spiritual aspects of Yamagata with the world, and my answer is by creating life-changing experiences for the people who come.

The cheapest and I think best form of marketing is word of mouth. With enough core fans, people who come to this region and have a positive transformation alone should be enough to build even more core fans who can also bring a positive transformation to the local community.

Therefore, it is up to us to build that context through the experiences we create, and the people of Yamagata are living proof that this stuff works.

Yamabushi is a simple example, undertaking arduous training on the Dewa Sanzan mountains for self-development, or the Yamabushi running Shukubo pilgrim’s lodges who have provided spiritual journeys on the Dewa Sanzan for a few centuries now.

But there are tons more.

The Samurai culture of Tsuruoka, the merchants of Sakata, who together fought off the Imperial Government in the Boshin War, or the local grandmother who passes down generations and generations of local knowledge to those wanting to learn how to best live off the land.

For starters.

When asked how best to communicate the culture, I assume most people would be thinking the likes of YouTube or TikTok. These are great at building awareness, but how great are they at building transformation? Transformation that builds more transformation without a need for an advertising budget.

When you’re doing something that puts yourself out there, it’s easy to get dejected when things don’t go as smoothly as you expected. But you really shouldn’t let these things get in your way, they are just easy excuses you can make.

For example, besides outside noise coming in, your face being out of focus, or the camera overheating after about 20 minutes, my camera doesn’t feel the need to let me know when the memory card is full when I’m filming myself. Well, it does on the main screen, but not on the screen I’m looking at when filming.

I spent the better part of an hour filming yesterday only to find out that the last 20 minutes or so weren’t recorded as I had run out of memory. It’s such an easy fix, I just have to switch the cards, but first I need to know that the cards need switching.

Lesson learned. And at least it’s better than my GoPro that wouldn’t record when I wanted to film the last part of the ascent up Chokai-zan…

Now that I’ve learned these things, though I have no excuses not to get the work done in the future!

In world cups where it’s do or die, it’s hard to pick the right team for each game. If you pick your best players, some of them may be too fatigued or god forbid injured to be able to play in the next game. But then you risk losing the current game to even have a chance at getting that next game.

In many ways it’s a battle of attrition. You have to have good enough players on the field, so you either need enough good enough players, or you need your good players to be good enough for longer.

This is similar to creative endeavours as well. If you don’t put out something good enough, you risk losing at least part of your audience.

Essentially this means you constantly have to be putting your best foot forward. You constantly have to be trying your best, not only to defeat your opponents or to get the upper hand on Pressfield’s resistance, but so you can do enough for your own satisfaction to keep on keeping on.

Yamabushi training takes you away from normal everyday life, at least in the sense that it takes you away from modern society. Yamabushi training itself is also a part of normal everyday life.

So when I say ‘it’s precisely because we are taken away from our normal, we are able to more greatly appreciate our normal’, I am wrong (as Master Hoshino likes to remind me).

There are different normals. There is the normal everyday life that we have in society, and there is the normal everyday life we have as Yamabushi in the mountains.

It’s not one versus the other, it’s both. At the same time.

So it’s not being taken away from normal that leads to the appreciation, it’s the comparison of normals. And that leads to Ikigai.

When it comes to meals, there is no delicious, nor disgusting, bitter nor sweet.

There just is.

When it comes to experiences, there is no entertaining, nor boring, useful nor useless.

There just is.

When we eat or do things not for the sensations they bring, but for what they are, we understand their true essence.

The next time you feel flustered, dissatisfied, or otherwise unhappy about something, don’t focus on what you’re feeling. Focus on what the food or experience is.

If we can learn to do this, we can more easily live a life without attachment, and a life full of content.

I was talking to a woman who was a professional wedding MC for over 20 years. If you’re surprised that such a job exists (I certainly was), then you haven’t been to a modern Japanese wedding. The things are planned down to a t, and any stuff up, especially with names, can have enormous repercussions for anyone there in a position of power, MCs included.

So, I asked this woman what tips she had for keeping confident after all these years. She says that she has since realised that she was in completely the wrong industry, which just shows how powerful the technique is.

All you have to do is laugh out loud, forcefully if you have to. Not only does laughing help relax your vocal chords, it also tricks your mind into having confidence, partly as you become self-aware of the people surrounding you. The other part is that laughing causes you to not take yourself so seriously.

Granted, this technique might be especially good in Japan. The environment can be extremely tense with people not feeling free to be themselves and laugh out loud naturally. But I’m pretty confident that it works, going on 20 years of professional wedding MC work.

There’s something primitive about feeling the crunch of the leaves under our feet, smelling the dirt, and sensing the breeze as it flows across our face.

Whenever we go ‘out’ into nature, we are reminded that we need to do so more often. Nature is our drug, it is the reason we are alive, and it’s at the core of our being.

The ancestors survived out in nature, living off the land, and they did so with a reverence that can be easy to forget in this modern life.

This reverence must never be forgotten. Nature is in our nature, and its regenerative properties are next to nothing.

Don’t believe me? Next time you’re feeling in a funk, go ahead and take a walk in your nearest forest.

Ideas don’t come fully formed. If they did, where would the fun be? Ideas come to us as an embryo. It’s up to us to work on them, to form them into their potential. The only way to do this is to get them out into the world, one way or another. Only then can ideas be seen for their true worth.

However, the real magic happens when ideas mix with others, when other thoughts and ideas are compiled on top of one another, mixed, and made into new ideas.

But this is only ever possible if the first part of the equation happens, when the ideas are brought out into the world.

Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.

Bill Gates

The best part of the daily practice is that it builds.

And builds.

And builds.

Bill Gates couldn’t have said it better.

Having a daily practice gives you concrete evidence that with dedication and discipline, you truly can achieve things that you wouldn’t have thought possible.

But you have to be a little bit naive. You have to be ok with things not working out.

At first, that is.

With a daily practice, you have days on end to work on projects. Days on end that build.

And build.

And before you know it, you’ve achieved what younger you would never have imagined.

What matters is that you put something out in the world. It doesn’t matter how crap it is, but it should be your best at the moment. When you understand everything is a process, and everything is connected, you understand that further on down the line, these experiences all build up, and all come in handy. But that this can only ever happen when you put something out in the world.

It’s now been more than two weeks since I deleted the Instagram and Twitter apps off my phone. Honestly, it has been extremely freeing. My average screen time is well down, and instead of brainlessly doomscrolling I’ve found myself using apps for writing more and more.

I also don’t think I’ve had many withdrawal symptoms at all. The first couple of days I did find myself trying to open the apps, but I quickly remembered that they weren’t there anymore, and got back to writing.

The Drawbacks

One downside is that since I’m not posting on Instagram or Twitter regularly (besides my blog posts automatically shared on Twitter), there’s less engagement with the outside world. This could be to my detriment, and I really should make some kind of posting schedule. However, I figure if it means more time spent writing and editing videos, then overall it’s probably for the best.

Also, I use Instagram for business. You can still make posts using your computer, but you can’t post stories and you’re rather limited overall. I may have to reinstall the app simply for when I need to post certain things, which is obviously quite tedious.

Besides the writing app, I probably also increased my time spent reading the news. This is a good and bad thing, as clickbait is still very much the norm, and it means I don’t get as much social commentary.

Workarounds

For messages, I still use the Facebook messenger app. Thankfully since Instagram and Facebook are connected, I get notifications if someone has sent me a message (which you can always do by email too).

Twitter on the other hand, you can totally just use the desktop version. I’m not sure if it’s just me, but there’s some sort of bug on my desktop Twitter where when I try to scroll down the feed, everything gets jumbled up. I keep seeing the same posts repeated, and I also can’t click on them freely. This stops the doomscrolling in its tracks.

In conclusion

I used Instagram heavily for a few years, and Twitter a bit since about 2 years ago now. I feel much better having left them behind, and can focus more on the long-form content I wish to produce.

The sharpest part of the blade is also the part that doesn’t get used the most. It’s the most useful part of the tool for what the tool is most useful for.

Rather than forcing the cut, let the blade do its job. Otherwise, you risk ruining what it is you were using the blade for in the first place.

Let the tool be the tool. That’s the best way to get the job done.

When I was 16, during waterpolo training we did this challenge where we had to hold a 5kg bottle of water above our heads while doing eggbeater (to stay upright in the water) for as long as possible. I will always remember this as I was able to do it the longest.

There’s no way I’d be able to replicate this same feat now, but I still remember what I told myself to get through.

Just one more push. See if you can’t do one more.

And then it was a matter of repeating this until I truly was unable to continue and my body gave up.

During tough times this can be all we need to get through. In some circumstances, this can even be the difference between life and death. Are you able to push through one more?

This attitude takes you from having and reaching a goal, to building on it. So much so, you’ll be surprised at how much you can get done.

During a recent yamabushi training, Master Hoshino was giving us a rest on the red Shinkyo bridge of Haguro-san. Although we weren’t doing anything, this exercise had extremely powerful implications.

In yamabushi training there is no talking, there are no watches, and the only aim, if there were to be one, is to do yamabushi training. By having us waiting on the bridge like that, all Master Hoshino was doing was allowing us the chance to be in the moment.

That’s it.

The simple act of waiting, without words, without time, without intention, was enough to help us feel how powerful simply passing the time is.

And that’s what meditation is. Feeling the passing of time.

When we don’t have our phones to distract us, places to be, people to meet, when all we’re required to do is to just be there in the moment, that is meditation. And it’s something our modern world does a very good job of getting in the way of.

Meditation reminds us of the here, the now, and the self. In other words, meditation is a reminder of all that exists.

Taking the time to remind ourselves of this on a periodic basis is a strength.

And the best thing is, you don’t have to do anything.

The difference between good service and bad service, or a good product and a bad product, is pride. Are you doing it because you are proud to be doing it, or are you doing it simply because you have to?

As much as possible, we need to be proud of what we’re doing. We need to make things something we can be proud of.

Those who do this all the time really stand out. If it’s something you’re truly proud of and it is criticised, you truly feel it. This is greater motivation to do better work in the future. It’s a matter of pride.

When the dates are set for yamabushi training, the dates are set. You’re going to be doing training on those dates. I’ve been through both typhoons and days with zero clouds in the sky on Gassan. We have no real way of predicting what side of Gassan we’ll see before we enter training.

But it really doesn’t matter.

When you resolve to start a new habit, or change a few things, you have to resolve to do it no matter what is thrown at you. It’s no good choosing the days you go out for a run, because those days may become fewer and far between when winter rolls around. Likewise, you need to have some sort of plan for what to do if you get invited to a BBQ on a day that isn’t your cheat day.

It’s never easy. If it were easy, you wouldn’t have resolved to do it in the first place. But if you put it in your mind that you will do it no matter what is thrown at you, when things inevitably are thrown at you, it’s much easier to persevere, and get through.

Things we are naturally inclined to like, things we are naturally inclined to do, things that bring a positive energy to the world, these are the things our souls are telling us we should do.

So we should do them.

Our souls can be unpredictable, one day liking one thing, the next hating it. But as Master Hoshino says, if we live at the whim of our souls, they rejoice.

When we follow our soul’s inclinations, who knows where they will lead us. Most of the time though, our souls are leading us there because they have an inkling, or an innate knowledge, that it is the right thing to do. Even if in the moment it feels like the wrong thing to do, in time our souls let us know that it was indeed the right thing.

Everything is a process, and if we fight against it, often in ways society tells us to, then we’re only prolonging our soul’s agony. Best to listen to our soul, and let it guide us to do the things we love.

I’ve been consistently surprised by the depth with which I have been able to go to with the 100 Famous Mountains of Yamagata project. I know I go on and on about this project, but it has truly been probably the best way I could think of to learn about my own backyard.

I’m currently working on a story for Sabane-yama, which was known as a hard part of the Ushu Kaido, one of Japan’s most historically significant routes. The connections are uncanny. There is a direct relationship with Osaka Castle and the Shinkansen that I would never had guessed (well, the Shinkansen one you probably could guess), and all this from just a tiny mountain on the borders of a tiny town, Funagata.

Japan has roots that run deep. This is in huge contrast to NZ, where for example mountains don’t have that much of a meaning at all. To be honest when I started this project, I thought I would be climbing mountains like those in New Zealand, but it has turned out to be a huge discovery of hidden culture. Hidden, or simply not communicated. I have had to dig deep to find a lot of information, but it is there, and it is useful.

I feel it’s my job to dig this stuff up and make it consumable, and I’m trying to do that the best I can. So far on a personal level it has been quite rewarding, and I intend to keep it up.