WORK & ETHICS - The Japanese Roadmap - 3

According to the American Center for Disease Control, 50% of the American population live with one chronic disease or the other. The statistics also show that over 70% of all deaths in the USA are due to chronic disease. In the most, these chronic diseases are diet and lifestyle related. A society that lives constantly on the fast lane tends to grab fast foods that line up with its frenetic lifestyle and speed. We are largely an eat-as-you-go generation. Consequently, there is an unbridled culture of snacking and even binging on the most worthless eating patterns, without paying attention to the quality of the food we eat. Consequently, because in the most part, parents are too busy to cook at the appropriate times, children grow up becoming fast food junkies, raised on a diet of hamburgers and all forms of altered foods conveniently processed for economic rather than health advantage. Our focus is largely on when we eat and how we eat rather than what we eat. The attendant gluttony, obesity and other consequences on individual and collective health have become matters of concern in many nations.

The Japanese concept of Hara Hachi Bu, that is, “eating until you are 80% full” or until you are no longer hungry, rather than eating until you are full, is also a prominent feature of the Okinawans and the secret of their legendary longevity.

Have you ever heard about autophagy? It is a process that keeps your body’s cells in proper balance by taking old or damaged components in a cell and then recycling them by converting them to amino acids that can be used for fuel to form new proteins. Call it nature's quality control for your cells. During autophagy, healthy cells destroy cells that have potential to predispose the body to diseases. Autophagy kicks in when the body has been given a break from food for a period of between sixteen to twenty-four hours. A Japanese doctor, (not surprisingly) Yoshinori Ohsumi won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2016 for his seminal work on autophagy and the positive effects of fasting to enhance the process. The Okinawans knew this for centuries because the practice has been among them for over 2,500 years! They are known for the longest life expectancy with little or no disabilities in the world! Okinawans do not eat until they are full. They simply eat as a necessity, not as an indulgence, and their diet consists mostly of fruits, vegetables and nuts as well as seafood rather than red meat, and the sugar-laced, fatty diet of western cultures. With the Okinawans, eating time is nourishment, family and community time. Food is eaten more like medicine than as an indulgence. Hara Hachi Bu does not only teach dietary discipline. By extension and by implication, it teaches the principles of personal discipline, delayed gratification, self-denial and a healthy lifestyle, essential components of successful living.

Shoshin is another Japanese concept that we can learn from. When we have acquired significant knowledge or skills in a particular field or profession, there is a tendency to become fossilized in our thinking when it comes to that area. Why? Our knowledge becomes the trap or box that shrinks our thinking or perceptions in that field. We tend to resist new possibilities in the field and demonize anyone who questions the boundaries of our knowledge or competence. Our insights, if we have any, become narrow and over time, less challenging. We view every new interrogation of the traditions and confines of our current expertise with disdain and cynicism. I was a part of the stage play culture in Nigeria in the mid-70s through the early 80s. Inspired by the “alujo” and “alajota” dance theater rooted in traditional folklore and culture, theater was an expression of a collective ethos and the dramatization of communal dilemmas and mythical beliefs. The stage was its ultimate expression. I grew up knowing the traveling theatre that had its practitioners traveling to schools and communities to stage plays. I was exposed to the stage from my elementary school years when I participated in what we then used to call “end of year entertainment”, usually staged at the end of the school year. In High school, I was the pioneer leader of my school’s first Drama Club. Moving on from that, I became actively involved with stage plays in the university.

When the cinema culture started emerging in Nigeria in the seventies with people like Hubert Ogunde, Ade Afolayan (also known as Ade Love), Moses Olaiya (Baba Sala), Eddie Ugbomah, Ishola Ogunshola (I Sho Pepper), it was a novelty. But it was initially resisted by many stage practitioners who felt that it lacked the personal touch and realism of stage. A lot was also said about professionalism and quality. Many stage actors refused to be part of what eventually became Nollywood. They eventually became totally irrelevant and uncelebrated by the very field they had spent their lives featuring in.

This perspective of professional rigidity and narrow-mindedness stifles creativity and progress, and if care is not taken, can leave us holding the relics of what was once a novel idea, while the rest of the world has moved on without us. Have you heard the story of the old man whose grandson rubbed his moustache with the strong-smelling variant of cheese while the old man slept? The old man woke up from his sleep, perceived the rancid smell of the cheese, and not knowing where the stench was coming from, lifted his head, twisted his nose, and blurted out, “The whole world stinks!” What he did not know was that the joke was actually on him.

Shoshin is the Japanese word for “a beginner’s mind”. It is associated with Zen Bhuddism and martial arts. The phrase comes from an essay by Zen teacher Shunryu Suzuki in his book Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. In it, Suzuki wrote that the concept of beginner's mind is an empty mind that is open to new perspectives and possibilities, rather than being locked up in traditions and rigid notions.

Remember what Jesus said about becoming like a child if you must be given access and functional capacity in the kingdom of God? Shoshin teaches us to free our minds of the preconceived notions that “expertise” and professional opinion in any discipline tend to impose on us. Instead, we are to be teachable and open to new ideas that challenge and stretch our confines of thought. Shosin entails approaching the study of any subject, even where we claim expertise, with an open mind that recognizes that we are not infallible and so, are open to new thoughts and ideas that can literally thrust us out of our knowledge comfort zone and subdue the arrogance of our ignorance parading as expertise.

When we open our mind to knowledge, we can discover new horizons, become proactive, anticipate rather than react to change, and by so doing, expand our horizons of thought and achievement. Our creative capacity blooms when we can truly empty ourselves and recognize that creation always has new things to teach us. No matter how much we think we know, there is always much more to know… continued.

Remember, the sky is not your limit, God is!

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