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Once is never enough. 

I’m what’s called a Yamabushi. The closest thing in English is a mountain ascetic. To be able to call yourself a Yamabushi, you need to have undertaken a Yamabushi training (called Shugyo). In our case that could be the weeklong Autumn’s Peak Ritual at the end of August, or for women, the Miko Shugyo at the beginning of September. 

Of course, once is never enough. But it is enough to be called a Yamabushi. 

And once you do it you understand…

Yamabushi training is powerful stuff. 

It’s so powerful, in fact, there’s not a moment in your life you can’t apply it to. 

That’s because living in the moment is one of the main things we practice. 

I’ve said it before, but it’s impossible to not be in the moment when you’re walking on a precarious snow bank through thick fog for hundreds of metres on end. The only thing to stop you sliding down into the abyss, like I’ve seen Yamabushi sticks do on multiple occasions, is a thin rope. 

Or your ability to balance. 

Similarly, when you’re out hiking at night with only the faint moonlight filtering through the pitch black forest and your stick to guide you, your only choice is to be present in the moment. 

Let your brain wander, and you could easily end up like the aforementioned stick. 

Yamabushi training reminds you that the current situation, and you being in it, are all that exist. In these moments, we are constantly reassessing the situation. We are constantly awake, we are constantly alive. 

We are constantly being

Whenever I feel anxious, overwhelmed, or need a reminder to wake up, I think back to these moments in my training. I stop to reassess the situation. I stop for a moment to simply be in the moment.

We can try it right now. 

Let your attention move to your breath, to your weight in the chair or your feet on the ground. Feel the temperature of the air on your face, the texture of the device you are holding, the sights, the smells, the sounds. Remind yourself that you are in a fleeting moment there to be enjoyed. 

Then snap back to reality with a fresh mind. 

It’s an amazing feeling, enough to get high on without any substances. And it all begins by simply being out in nature, too. 

Well, there’s a little more to it than that

Yamabushi practice Shugendo, the path or way of gaining supernatural powers through ascetic practice. 

Supernatural powers. 

The Shugendo we practice on the Dewa Sanzan mountains here in Yamagata is called Haguro Shugendo. Haguro Shugendo has a powerful object of study and philosophy called Uketamo. 

Oo-keh-tah-moh

Even the sound of it is enough to bring chills up your spine. 

Translated simply as ’I accept’, Uketamo is a living, breathing, philosophy and practice. You learn Uketamo by training out in nature in the ways of Haguro Shugendo. 

Uketamo is what you do when you need a reminder to be in the moment. 

It’s what you do when you’re under a waterfall and the weight of the water is crushing down on you. 

Uketamo is what you do when you’re oddly overcome with tears in the middle of Yamabushi training (true story). When life gets overwhelmingly thrown at you, when you have to deal with feelings you have never felt before, when things don’t go your way, you know what to do.

Uketamo is accepting your place in the world, accepting your current self for who you are, warts and all, and about knowing that in a lot of situations, for better or worse, it’s all you can do. 

And more importantly, it is all you need. 

(Also importantly, Uketamo is not what you do when you injure yourself, that’s when you tell your master. Uketamo is not persevering for the sake of it, it’s not a competition. Last, Uketamo is not simply accepting other people’s agenda. Nature’s agenda, yes, other people, not so much. Use Uketamo to reflect on these things, but not just to accept them)

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.