In 1945, a 62-year-old man came to the mountains of Iwate Prefecture in northeastern Japan and began to live in seclusion.
Although his life was miserable and lonely, he enjoyed it and lived alone in the mountains for 7 years.
This old man is the famous Japanese poet and sculptor Kotaro Takamura.
Later, he wrote about this experience in a book called "The Four Seasons of the Mountains."
In "The Four Seasons of the Mountain", the author uses 15 essays to record what he has seen and heard, depicting a simple and simple but full of emotions of the spiritual home.
Some people say that this is a Japanese aesthetic of life like Yataro Matsuura and Muji.
Some people say that this is a "Walden" that belongs to the Orientals.
Only when we calm down and walk into Kotaro Takamura and into the four seasons of the mountains will we find that this book is telling us that solitude is the best practice for a person.
Being alone is self-healing
Before going to the mountains, Kotaro Takamura was going through the most difficult moment of his life.
The death of his wife and the turmoil in Japanese society have repeatedly hit his spirit and lost the motivation to create.
In order to be free from the past, he chose to exile himself and went to the mountains in the backwoods of the poor countryside to live a solitary life.
Although the materials were scarce, the beautiful scenery in the mountains gradually soothed the pain in Kotaro Takamura's heart and filled him with vitality every day.
He said from the bottom of his heart: "As long as I am alive, I will enjoy the joy that nature brings me!" ”
After 7 years, he not only healed his painful and anxious heart, but also regained the art of sculpture and opened a grand creative plan.
Ashtray believes that many times, when we encounter things that make us unhappy, we often choose to go out and play with friends, but we don't know that being alone is the best way to heal.
There has always been a custom in Greek folklore that when a loved one dies, the living person wears a specific costume every day to visit the graveyard of the deceased and talk to him there.
In the end, he will gradually pour out all the negative emotions such as reluctance and grievance in his heart, and people will slowly come out of sadness and return to a better life.
While this process may seem cumbersome, it is actually using the power of solitude to soothe the wounds that lurk within it.
Psychology believes that actively seeking solitude is a form of self-redemption that gives one full control over emotions, impulses, and desires.
Ashtray also feels that no matter how unbearable reality is, we should also set aside some time alone to activate the mechanism of self-healing of the body and mind.
To be alone is to stay away from ineffective socializing
Kotaro Takamura's hut is independent of the mountains, and his nearest village is Yamaguchi Village, where fewer than 40 farming families live.
Due to the poor land and the harsh climate, the life of the people in the village is extremely unfree, but he found that because of this unfree existence, the villagers will have the habit of helping each other.
For example, everyone in the village repairs or renovates a house for someone else's home without compensation. Things like building roads and bridges are also done together. Whenever we encounter anything that is beyond our reach, we all help each other to solve it together.
As Kotaro Takamura says in his book, the villagers' real enthusiasm is something that people living in big cities don't appreciate in any way.
Ashtray feels that this is because the materialistic urban life has trapped people in a kind of "ineffective social" inertial thinking.
This socialization, which seems hilarious, doesn't make much sense because it can't bring any joy and progress to your life.
And the reality is that only good people can get useful social interactions.
There is a young doctoral student, when he was studying, few people took the initiative to make friends with him, but when he obtained his doctorate, the number of people who took the initiative to contact him was endless.
Finally, he realized that he should not waste time on ineffective socializing, but should spend more time on his own scientific research projects, so that he can become more valuable.
Ashtray believes that the so-called social is actually an equivalent exchange, if you are not good enough, then your network has no value.
Therefore, instead of wasting energy to make "friends", it is better to spend more time learning how to be better alone and enrich yourself.
As the saying goes, "Low-quality socializing is not as good as high-quality solitude." ”
The rest of your life is expensive, don't be reluctant, stay away from the land of right and wrong, and avoid people and things that keep consuming you.
To be alone is to be the most authentic self
In the 7 years of living alone, in addition to enjoying the company of beautiful flowers and trees in the mountains and cute little animals, the most pleasant thing for him is that he has found the most authentic self.
He used to live in a luxurious studio in Tokyo, but he didn't feel much happiness; now he lives alone in a dilapidated hut in the mountains, full of vitality every day.
Before, he was anxious all day and out of place with people; now he is calm and mixed with the villagers around him.
He said that everything he did here now was to go with the flow and resign himself to his fate, and although he was alone, he was full of great satisfaction in his heart, so he decided to live here for a long time.
The German philosopher Schopenhauer once said, "One can be oneself only when one is alone." Whoever does not love solitude does not love freedom, for a person is truly free only when he is alone. ”
Ashtray is deeply aware that when you are alone, you are the most relaxed and free, and you can talk to yourself.
And only when a person can get along well with himself, his heart will be the most comfortable.
The famous actor Chen Daoming is an "old drama bone" who is hot in the show business circle, but he prefers to be alone.
He said in an interview: "Solitude is a virtue that purifies the heart. ”
It is precisely because of this state of mind that he is far away from the distractions, not only returning to his true self, but also becoming a clear stream in the entertainment industry.
Life, always our own, has nothing to do with others, and being alone is the best opportunity for us to be ourselves.
To be alone is to enjoy solitude
A female reader once wrote to Kotaro Takamura and asked him why he could live peacefully in the middle of such a harsh environment in the mountains, without feeling lonely at all.
Kotaro Takamura said in his reply that he had no parents, no wife and children, and in the eyes of others, this may be a kind of loneliness.
But in his own opinion, he could not feel this lonely trouble, because he had taken all this for granted and could accept it calmly.
Kotaro Takamura calls this state "loneliness without loneliness." Zi Xin felt that this was also the highest state of solitude.
Solitude is not because of loneliness, but to enjoy loneliness, and people who are truly happy often know how to enjoy being alone.
The scientist Darwin once said, "The true meaning of happiness lies in tranquility and a lot of time alone." ”
Knowing that there is a high praise answer, which says that there is a woman who is not good at getting along with herself, she has a strong sense of dependence on the outside world, as long as the boyfriend is not there, she immediately loses her happiness, and she has slowly become a resentful woman in the eyes of others.
Later, she saw a sentence in the book: "Please wake up, you are already the happiest thing just by being with yourself, and your happiness does not depend on anyone or anything at all." ”
This sentence was like an empowerment for her, so that she began to know how to enjoy the loneliness of a person, but also knew what kind of life she should pursue.
In the view of the ashtray, when a person no longer needs external factors to fill his emptiness, he can truly mature and have the ability to embrace life.
Sometimes, immersing yourself in loneliness, doing what you want to do most, and living the life you want most is also a faint happiness.
In the last appendix to The Four Seasons of the Mountain, it is written that Kotaro Takamura's life was full of pain and displacement, but it must not be called "unfortunate." Because he always maintained appreciation and dedication to everything in his life, all of which became his precious asset.
Kotaro Takamura's heart is painful, but he chooses to use solitude to resolve this pain, but in the process, he has tempered his personality.
Beginning with pain and ending with wisdom, it is the charm of the book "Four Seasons of the Mountains" and the personality charm of Kotaro Takamura.
Oprah once said, "All those alone times determine who we become." ”
Kotaro Takamura's solitude time has made him the second half of his life and allows us to witness that solitude is the best practice for a person.