You have arrived in Japan and everywhere you go you are greeted with respect and warmly welcomed. After all you are a guest. Now you know however, that something deeper lies beyond. In past posts, and for simplicity, I call it “the system.” The system is the nationwide mindset that all Japanese are operating from. Instilled since childhood, honed from adulthood, and mastered in old age.
In a much more general kind of way its fair to say that Western conventional wisdom is also a system of sorts. In many ways we are bound by it, but relatively speaking it’s a looser arrangement. We generally agree on “right and wrong” for example.
Not so in Japan. There is no right or wrong. In the same vein, there is not even the concept of universal fairness. To understand the reason for this we must remember that Japan was isolated and inward looking for hundreds of years while we all skipped around the planet intermingling with each other and sharing our views and opinions. It seems almost beyond belief that a whole nation of people did not partake in this. I for one am so glad they didn’t! NOT because I don’t believe in the concepts of right and wrong or of universal fairness, but because, by default, it now offers any individual who is interested, a rational explanation concerning a nation of people dedicated to cultivating inner space!
Throughout the centuries it has been the role of the Japanese government to slow everything down and to prevent change from occurring. You only have to look at the state of politics around the world today to see what NOT doing this has cost us.
In my last two posts I have talked about how “Unminding” could possibly be a beneficial aspect of our own individual lives. Here you can see how it also plays out on a National level. In a sense the Japanese Government is also playing the role of “Unminding” or reversing, the effects of change upon all of its society in general. This is why, up until only very recently, the government has not played a large role in exporting its countries culture globally. The Japanese consensus is that change should not be sought after until it can no longer be avoided.
As always, I’m not taking sides here. My path is the middle way. I’m sitting in the middle and describing to you just what I can see from both perspectives that are on either side of the cultural fence.
Most of us have heard of the concept of “inner space” and its importance. We give space to our loved ones so that they have room to be themselves for example. Teenagers need space from their parents so that they have room to grow etc. and, as I have previously pointed out in a recent post, great art must be balanced by the space around it.
Many individuals will agree that we need some inner space, but how much? And how many of us actively cultivate it? Indeed, how do we cultivate it? Most of us can also see that our ability to find this inner space is being eroded. It doesn’t exactly appear that our world is expanding, does it? Most of us agree that the world is indeed -shrinking.
Now the Japanese are a very stoic race of people. In the face of total calamity, which occurs often, they are always calm and composed. When I evacuated Tokyo in 2011 due to the Tohoku earthquake, I left with 250,000 other foreigners. One of the things that struck me was how calm the Japanese were after the power station had just had a nuclear meltdown. Over the course of that week following the earthquake and tsunami there were regular strong tremors 24/7 and nobody could sleep, supermarkets were stripped bare, news footage showed helicopters dumping water on the crippled reactor. The mushroom cloud went up! When we left our house and got on the train to Narita the Japanese were all off to work like it was just a regular day. No one was talking or showing emotion. It was surreal.
Now I can’t get inside the head of a Japanese person. As I have said in previous posts, I am also not one to emulate them. I would possibly suggest however that this stoic nature can only come from having a generous amount of inner mental space. It makes sense to me that if your life is totally geared to a harmonic system of scaffolding that you know intimately and that it provides you with a relatively stable personal trajectory that is not erratic, then you are going to be reasonably satisfied that this, in its own way, is a kind of inner freedom in itself.
Let’s come back to the starting line. You are on your way to the base of Mt Fuji. You know that the Japanese are a group orientated society and that as such they are all on the same page. You understand, in contrast, that you are obviously an individual with your own unique life to live. This covers most of us. Then you think of the world at large. What’s happening to it? “How are the changing events of the world likely to affect my future?” you ask yourself.
From the standpoint I’ve just described most Japanese are not concerned about this because they are already totally committed to the system and therefore their fate. After all they are in a group of 120 million others who all totally agree with them, in terms of how to live, think and act, and this gives them comfort.
As for us individuals, we are primarily navigating on our own, alongside 8 billion others all doing the same thing. So many of us are all fighting each other like mad, trying to be “Individuals” on the internet so that we can build a life. Nobody can see for the clouds.
“Slow down buddy,” says Buddhism, “just cope with this moment” and to a world that is still getting faster and faster, Buddhism replies “The Spirit is Slow.” Again, you can see how both of these tend towards a reversal, an unminding…
What awaits us at the very top of Mt Fuji then, is a vast personal inner space, with the bluest sky you ever saw.
You are now at Fujiyoshida, the city at base of the mountain. This is going to be iconic.
It’s gonna be a steep climb.
Next post: Fuji: Prepping yourself to climb