The Japanese Art Of Acceptance: How To Embrace Vulnerability
For the Japanese, being deprived of everything at some point in life can take a step towards incredible light and knowledge. Accepting your own vulnerability is a form of courage and the mechanism that opens up the healthy art of resilience, where you never lose direction or the desire to live.
In Japan, there is an expression that has been used frequently since the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This expression took on its full meaning during the tsunami disaster of March 11, 2011 in Fukushima. “Shikata ga nai” means “ There is no other remedy, there is no alternative or there is nothing else to do”.
“Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable. But in any case, always be honest and always transparent. ”
-Mother Teresa-
Instead of understanding this experience from a defeatist, submissive, or negative point of view like any Westerner would, the Japanese feed on it and view it in a much more useful, dignified and transcendent. In these cases of injustice, anger or anger is of no use. This resistance to suffering where we remain eternally prisoner-era of “ Why me or why this misfortune happened ”, either.
Acceptance is the first step towards liberation. We can never completely let go of the pain and the pain, it’s obvious,
“Shikata ga nai” or the power of vulnerability
Since the 2011 earthquake and the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, many Western journalists traveling to the northeast of the country are discovering how the traces of the tragedy are evolving and how these people are succeeding small. little by little to emerge and relive. It is fascinating to understand how they come to terms with the pain of loss and the total disappearance of what used to be their life.
But as curious as it sounds, the journalists who make this long trip come back with much more than a report. Much more than testimonials and striking photographs. They bring with them wisdom, return to their Western routines with the feeling of being different from the inside. Here is an example of this existential courage: Mr. Sato Shigematsu, who lost his wife and son in the tsunami.
Every morning he writes a haiku. It is a poem composed of three lines in which the Japanese refer to scenes from nature or everyday life. Sato Shigematsu finds great relief in this type of routine, and doesn’t hesitate to show reporters one of his haikus:
“Devoid of affiliations, naked
Yet blessed by Nature
Caressed by the breeze of the beginning of summer. ”
As this survivor and victim of the 2011 tsunami explains, the courage to embrace his vulnerability every morning through a haiku allows him to connect much better to himself and to nature. He understands that life is uncertain, implacable at times. Cruel, even when she wants to.
But, learning to accept what has happened and say to himself “Shikata ga nai” (Accept, there is no other remedy) allows him to put aside the anguish and focus on what is needed: rebuilding your life, rebuilding your land.
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