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Yamabushi training is simple.

We go into the mountains. And we come out. What happens in between is something only those who take part understand, and it’s something only those who take part need to understand.

At the beginning of this month, I took part in the weeklong Akinomine Autumn’s Peak ritual run by Dewa Sanzan Jinja. For the layman, think of the Autumn Peak as a weeklong retreat. The ultimate chance to think about the things you always thought you’d think about but never thought about how you’d go about thinking about them.

That kind of thing.

This was my third Autumn’s Peak ritual, so I somewhat knew what I was getting into. But, as with all trainings, I didn’t know what kind of realisations I’d have this time around until I got there.

Here are some of the things I realised that wish I could better incorporate into my daily life.

And maybe you could too.

(Well besides Uketamo, of course.)

Perhaps the strangest realisation I had during our weeklong training was this:

Oh, that’s right. Music exists.

-Me after a few days on the mountains.

On the mountains, our soundtrack was whatever the birds and the bees could come up with. That, and the chants and songs we sing, the conch, and I guess you could also add the excessive snoring of a few dozen men sleeping right next to you.

If you can call that music (seriously, you probably could, it was like being in a field of bullfrogs).

Besides that, though, our only form of entertainment was the thoughts spiralling around in our head.

And that was enough.

This week on the mountains reminded me I can exist perfectly well without recorded music. However, my suggestion isn’t to stop listening to things in the background.

It’s to think about the things you could live without.

Like,

Time.

Time!

The mountains run on mountain time. We didn’t even have clocks. Over the course of the week I found myself either reaching for my smartphone, or flicking my wrist to check my watch, which wasn’t there.

But then I found I didn’t actually need to.

In our current world, everything is determined by the tick tock of the clock. In a society like Japan where bullet trains run to the second, this is even more the case. The irony that yamabushi training is a Japan thing is not lost on me, perhaps that’s why it’s also so necessary here.

Either way, it took me a good while to realise that I could just look at what the sun was up to. I don’t need a clock to tell me when to go to sleep, and I don’t need one to tell me when to wake up either (that’s what conches are for). I could just do what I feel like when my body tells me that’s what I feel like doing.

The problem is obviously we live in a modern world that runs on clocks, but that doesn't mean you have to follow them all the time, right?

Which reminds me,

I recall a certain Elon Musk lamenting that all the top software engineer talent went to the likes of Facebook and other social media companies. This was so they could engineer apps and websites simply to keep us using said apps and websites as much as possible. Elon obviously wanted the talent for himself (I hope he got it with Twitter). But those supercomputers we have in our pockets? Well, those engineers did a good job. Smartphones are the ultimate distraction machines.

It was tough not having my phone on me. It was tough not being able to check my instagram feed while on the toilet. It was tough not being able to see how many YouTube followers I had while walking between rooms in the house. It was tough not being up-to-date on the latest goings on in small-town New Zealand while taking out the trash. It was tough not being able to see how many views my blog post got while watching TV.

It was tough.

But then I got used to it.

I found out that I had been using my phone when I really didn’t need to. I found out that idle time isn’t actually a bad thing. That the time you spend deep in thought without some useless piece of information you’re going to forget until the next time you pick up your phone could actually be good for you. That not having your phone with you 24/7 would not kill you, and in fact, if you’re not careful, the opposite could well be true.

During yamabushi training, you’re essentially left to your own devices.

Yamabushi training reminded me distraction-free thinking is a thing, and it’s a thing we should make a point of doing much more often.

Yamabushi training is the ultimate excuse to just be

Without all these things to worry about, your only worry is worrying about being in the moment. You only have to think about what’s right in front of you. And that’s when you realise that is all you only need to worry about anyway.

And the best part is, it doesn't take a weeklong yamabushi training to figure out (like it did for me).

This article from the Kiwi Yamabushi newsletter got more than 1,000 reads, so I decided to put it here for everyone. Get articles just like this in your inbox by signing up here. Paid subscribers get priority access and access to the full archive of over 100 articles.