What modern Japanese and ancient Stoics have in common
Though Ancient Greeks and Romans probably never met any Japanese people (probably because ‘Japanese’ wasn’t a thing back then), the philosophy followed by famous Roman emperors like Marcus Aurelius has incredible overlap with the way modern Japanese people think.
There’s a lot to unpack here, so let’s start from the beginning.
What exactly is this ‘ancient Greek philosophy’?
They knew it as ‘ἡ ποικίλη στοά’. If you like me can’t read ancient Greek, that translates to something like ‘Stoa Poikile’ or ‘Painted Porch’. It refers to an impressive colonnade in Athens, where the founder of the philosophy first discussed its Tenets. Nowadays we know this philosophy as Stoicism.
Whereas other philosophies emphasize a relentless pursuit of happiness, stoicism is perhaps the polar opposite. Happiness isn’t an end to itself, and can never be obtained by anyone. It’s the idea that when human greed and strife is left unchecked, the hunger for more never ceases.
And that’s a good point. There’s a couple of people proving the exact validity of that statement (looking at you, mr. Bezos).
How then, can happiness and inner calm be achieved according to our ancient Greek and Roman pals?
Radically managing expectations and radically accepting your circumstances.
That sounds easy to understand, but putting it into practice is.. well.. not so easy. It’s the idea that an individual’s mindset determines the person’s happiness, rather than their actual circumstances. Or as Seneca, one of the most famous Stoic philosophers, put it:
A man is as unhappy as he has convinced himself he is.
Rather than dwelling on unfortunate mishaps, asking yourself why you were unfortunate enough to have to go through something awful, or lying awake endlessly trying to figure out why Jenny from 6th grade wasn’t interested in the dead beetle you presented her, you radically accept the situation. It is what it is. It is done. Water under the bridge.
There is no point having any internal dialogue about things that are outside of your control entirely — after all, you can exert no influence on them. This includes the acceptance of one’s death. After all, all humans must die, so.. why bother to worry?
This mindset, one of realizing what is in and outside of one’s control, is where there’s a curious amount of similarities with modern Japanese people.
It can’t be helped
To dissect some of these similarities we need to dive a bit deeper into the Japanese language and culture.
Something caught my interest while watching the horrifying videos of the 2011 tsunami in Japan. Many people looked at the incoming tide of liquid death and simply said:
‘終わりだ。’ (‘owari da’ — this is the end).
Others simply stared and said ’もうしょうがない。’ (‘mou shouganai’ — it can’t be helped). Though the situation this person was in was terrible, the calm outlook on the approach of death, and the radical acceptance of it showed immense courage and presence of mind.
Shouganai. I too had heard this saying many times when discussing some of the unfortunate things I’d experienced in my life. My Japanese friends would usually simply nod and say:
‘Hmm, well, guess it can’t be helped huh’.
And that’s that. No asking ‘why did this happen to me’, or ‘imagine if I had done X or Y instead of Z’, nor expressing any dismay at how Lady Fortune hadn’t favored me that particular day.
It can’t be helped. It’s in the past. It’s outside of my or anyone’s control — so why bother to worry about it? This mindset that most if not all Japanese people have shows remarkable overlap with the ancient philosophy of Stoicism. One of its core tenets is what’s called ‘heroic acceptance’, being aware of the situation you are in and dealing with it in an emotionally neutral way. You can read more about that here.
Acceptance of one’s death
Furthermore, Japanese culture, and by extent its people, shows a much greater acceptance of that one fact we all know but refuse to accept: We will die. You, me, my friends, everyone. There is no point in fearing it or worrying over it. It’s an inevitable fact of life.
Ancient Stoics believed that this understanding and acceptance was key to living a good life. Stoics are urged to remember the fact that they too will die.
Why?
Because putting your troubles into the perspective of an eternal sleep tends to take the sting out of them. It tends to make the hard to achieve seem worth a try. It makes the petty fight you had with your girlfriend seem like a waste of time. One famous person that lived by this rule was Steve Jobs, who famously said during a speech:
‘Remembering that you are going to die, is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose’
In the West we have made a very conscious effort to not think about death, and try very hard to hide its somewhat less-than-glamorous aftermath. Graveyards are located outside of the city, covered in trees as not to let anyone see what is happening.
Not so much so in Japan. While walking to work I passed by at least two temples, where the urns of the deceased were clearly visible. A stark reminder of one’s inevitable fate. Marcus Aurelius would be proud.
Every day, no matter what part of Japan you are in: graveyards are all around you. When strolling down an alley you might suddenly smell a specific type of incense, and you’ll know. In the end I found this strangely comforting. After working yet another day until 21:00 or even 22:00, knowing that all my troubles were (relatively speaking) totally irrelevant to the greater good was.. comforting.
So, who knows. If Marcus Aurelius and my Japanese co-worker could have somehow bridged the gap of time, language and space, they might just have been great pals.
