Posts Tagged ‘notice’

An intriguing way to experience flexible focus is through time travel, in whatever way you can. The cinema easily transports us to other places and times, and for an hour or so we are able to experience life from a completely different point of view. Whereas Science Fiction takes us into the future, and Fantasy takes us out of time altogether; Time Travel films have an interesting way of helping us visit the past. One of my favorites is Kate and Leopold (2001), starring Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman, in which a man living in the 1870s is transported through a time tunnel to modern day New York. The contrast in cultures shows what we have lost or forgotten over the last century in our rush to modernize everything.

This corresponds to just after the end of the Edo Period (1603~1868) in Japan, an extended period of seclusion from the outside world, in which many aspects of Japanese culture and manners were highly developed and became deeply rooted. Many of them persisted well into the 20th Century, and though they are but shadows of their original form, sometimes they live just beneath the surface, as if they had just grown dormant.

There is a quiet but vital movement today to bring Edo Manners back, as an indigenous way of repairing the damage that seems to be unraveling many fine features of Japanese culture.

Manners in Japan used to be the core of communication. Measured in body language, good manners revealed character. A person’s posture (shisei) was considered synonymous with his or her attitude and upbringing.

Today a more casual attitude prevails, and this has led to a deterioration of manners once taken for granted. Lack of consideration for others results in get out of my way behavior. In small ways it shows when young people sit in the Silver Seat while old people stand. In larger ways it manifests in the increase in corporate and political scandals, and in the rising rate of violent crime.

Koshikawa Reiko is the founder of the NPO Edo Shigusa (www.edoshigusa.org), and the author of many books, including a Manga version, Edo Shigusa Nyūmon (Manga-ban), published in 2007 by Sangokan. Her books and lectures contend that Edo manners are a fundamental but endangered aspect of Japanese social behavior, and show many examples contrasting traditional manners with modern behavior.

Eight of my favorite Edo Shigusa

Edo Shigusa goes far beyond etiquette. It shows how to live with respect, culture, and style. In Edo Shigusa, we find many words worth keeping.

Act now, think on your feet (Soku Jikkō)

Japanese have a traditional distaste for talk in the form of excuse making. People were told that in problem solving it was more important to be hands on than to talk on. This is basis of kaizen, or continuous improvement, in which you think as you work, and make improvements as you go.

Use your sixth sense (Kan)

Much effort was made to refine the senses and develop the ability to intuit what was going on, rather than waiting to be told. This led to exceptional development in many aspects of culture and craftsmanship.

Answer with one yes (‘‘Hai!’’ wa ichido kiri)

It was considered important to answer immediately, and with a single yes, to show that you were fully attentive and ready to act. To say yes twice was considered flippant and rude, as in ‘‘Yeah, yeah. What do you want?’’

Pretend not to notice (Toki ni wa, mite minai furi)

If it spared a person’s dignity or gave them a chance to avoid embarrassment, it was sometimes considered best to pretend you didn’t notice. Helping a person save face led to loyalty and trust.

View the positive side of things (Yō ni toraete)

In Edo culture complainers were thought to be energy drainers. It was not only more pleasant to be around people who were positive, it was more energizing and productive too.

Don’t cross your arms or legs (Udekumi Ashikumi shigusa)

Crossed arms were considered to be a sign of stubborness or a closed mind, while crossed legs showed a lack of respect. In both cases, crossing your limbs also made you less ready for action, and more vulnerable to injury or attack. In less casual times, bad posture showed bad attitude.

Don’t cut across in front of people (Yokogiri shigusa)

In pedestrian traffic it was considered rude to cut across in front of someone. Even today, many Japanese signal with their hand before crossing in front of you.

Be polite in momentary encounters (Sokunoma tsukiai)

Edo was crowded and busy. Daily life included many brief encounters with people characterized by greetings, which were the lubrication of communication. In brief encounters, a smile, a polite word, a gesture of kindness can go a long way.

To start integrating these Edo Manners in your life, you can download the EDO SHIGUSA MANDALA, and begin making notes on what it means to you, how people respond to you differently, and how the Edo Shigusa Way works as well for us today.

On Tuesday, August 4, 2009, Reiko Koshikawa did a presentation at the Hotel Kabuki, in San Francisco, sponsored by the Japan Society, Japanese Chamber of Commerce, Japan Airlines, and others. The pamphlet created for this presentation is a treasure, containing fascinating definitions of many Edo Shigusa terms, in categories including the Edo outlook on humanity, view of the world, thoughtfulness, manners, taboos, and the Edo outlook on work. Download the Edo Shigusa Piazza Pamphlet, and enjoy a view of world that has much to teach our own. You can select the most meaningful Edo Shigusa for you, and create your own Mandala chart as a reminder to work on practicing it in your life.

Edo Shigusa is about consideration for others, having a positive attitude, and showing respect in body language and behavior. Many of the lessons from Edo Shigusa make good sense to us today. We learn this behavior by watching others. But as Fred Astaire said, the hardest job kids face today is learning good manners without seeing any.

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Tagged as: active garage, Edo Shigusa, Edo Shigusa Piazza Pamphlet, Excuse making, Flexible Focus, japanese culture, Japanese Mannerisms, japanology, Kate and Leopold, mandala charts, manga, notice, noticing, Sixth sense, william reed

If we examine our life, we have some areas which are not the way we want them to be. For example, we want to move ahead in our career but we are stuck at the same position, Things don’t happen the way we want them to happen. Why?, It is because we have not genuinely accepted this as a problem and have not taken full responsibility for it. We may think we took responsibility but we don’t. The good news is it is very easy to find out if we are genuinely taking responsibility and the test is rooted in action. The test is simply to notice if we are acting or reacting. The former resides in the land of ‘taking responsibility’ and the latter does not.

In reading about countless successful people, I have noticed that they move things forward to produce the situations they want.

In other words they become a “cause in the matter” i.e they cause things to happen. Once we know that we are the “cause in the matter”… opportunities that we were blind to before will start to appear, they appear because , now we are looking for them. For example, when you drive today, decide to enjoy the roads, the scenery along the way.. and for this trip stop thinking about anything. I bet even if you have been driving for a few years, in this trip you will “notice” new things that you never saw before… even though the driving route is the same, the car is the same, the destination is the same and even the components of the scenery are the same (they have always been there!)

Go ahead, Be a causer and drifting will never happen.

P.S. Thanks to landmark Education for the distinction “Cause in the matter”.

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Tagged as: Action, active garage, cause, cause in the matter, distinction, landmark education, life, notice, reaction, vijay peduru

While I was growing up, I was told that the meaning of education is going through the motions of schooling followed by a professional collegial degree. For about 80% of my life, I held onto that as the truth. It took a lot of stagnation in my career and also the mundane routine of doing the same thing day-in and day-out to shake me out of my tranquility. There is a saying about teachers – “Teacher shows up when the Student is ready”. I was ready… and my teachers showed up. Over the next 3-4 years I surrounded myself with teachers and learned what it really means to be educated.

Here is what I learnt:

1. Education is not only about gaining the knowledge of something as in memorizing facts or formula, it is also about knowing when to apply what to produce situations that you want for your future.
2. Education is about learning new distinctions that give you the power of noticing what has gone unnoticed so far… and is perhaps even (without your knowledge) running you or your life.
3. Going through the motions of school and college is a part of education as it makes you minimally viable in the marketplace – but that’s not where it should stop. Learning, like living life, is a continuous process.
4. Education is not just about knowing … it is, in fact, more about doing.

The last point is beautifully depicted in a story about Henry Ford, in the book The magic ladder to Success by Napolean Hill. The story goes something like this:

During World War II, Henry Ford brought a suit against one of the national newspapers for calling him Ignorant. The lawyers of the newspaper asked Ford a number of questions for quite some time in front of the jury at the trial trying to prove that Ford was, indeed, ignorant. One of the questions asked was “How many soldiers were sent by the British in the war of 1776?” Ford’s response was “I don’t know how many were sent but I have heard that it was a lot more than ever went back”. Ford continued to play with them zestfully, often responding with such witty answers to more of these testy questions… until a point when he grew really frustrated with a rather insulting question. He said “If I should really wish to answer the foolish question you have just asked or have been asking let me remind you that I have a row of buttons hanging over my desk. By pressing the right button, I could call in any number of people who would give me the correct answer to all the questions you have asked and to many that you have not the intelligence to either ask or answer. Now, will you kindly tell me why I should bother about filling my mind with useless information in order to answer all foolish questions you have to ask, when I have able people around me whom I can call on, if I really need the answers to these questions?”

Henry Ford had little elementary schooling, but, clearly he was one of the most educated men in his times. He probably did not have a lot of knowledge but he more than compensated for the lack of it, in his application and doing… The fact that he is a legend, now, is proof enough for that.

If you are at a point where you feel stuck or stagnated in your career, perhaps a place to look would be your “knowledge gap” and be careful with how you read what I just wrote – I use the word knowledge in the context of doing, now knowing.

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Tagged as: active garage, application, career, college, education, future, henry ford, himanshu jhamb, notice, school, stagnation, stuck, student, teacher, work