How to become a samurai in the 21st century
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"Let love for people be your highest standard." These words of Confucius are also the guiding principles of our guest today, Jakub Zeman - a Japanologist, writer, translator, but above all, a man who has adopted traditional samurai values into his life.
At a time when we often look at words like honour, perseverance or humility as outdated, meeting Jakub is a return to the essence. He is a bridge between East and West, between tradition and the present. We talked about why perseverance is more important than talent, why being a "noble person" is not a naive ideal but a practical choice, and why today more than ever it is necessary not to be carried away by populism, shallowness or the noise of the mainstream.
The most important thing that came out of the interview
How a boy from Prague became a Czech samurai
Karel:
Dear friends, welcome to another episode of the Talks 21 podcast. Today's guest is Jakub Zeman, a Czech samurai in body and soul. Jakub is a Japanologist, writer, translator, curator emeritus of the Asian collections of the National Gallery and the Society for the Study of the Japanese Sword. A man who is a bridge between the East and the West, between tradition and the present. His mission in life is to bring together Japanese philosophy, martial arts, poetry and tea culture, but above all, traditional samurai values. Welcome to Talks 21.
Jakub:
Thank you for having me.
Karel:
Jacob, tell us your life story. What were you like as a child? What led you to martial arts?
Jacob:
I'm seventy-five, I was born in the fiftieth year of the Showa era, measured in Japan. When I was fourteen, by some strange twist of fate, I found myself training in Shotokan karate, which started here, then still at the Julius Fucik Park of Culture and Recreation. Somehow, I got excited about Japan - and it lasted.
I started learning Japanese, first at a language school and then at the philosophy faculty. Back then, it was called Japanology; today, it's called Japanese studies.
In the fifth grade, however, I abandoned my studies to work as an assistant manager at the Japanese company Cosmo Kuroda. Throughout that time, I was involved in martial arts,, as well as other activities, such as haiku poetry, to which I have been devoted for years.
Karel:
What was your relationship to movement and fighting like as a child?
Jakub:
A very good question. Actually, until I took up karate, I liked to fight and often did. But I was involved in any systematic sport, no. That began with the Asian martial arts, when you started working on yourself and discovered a positive energy that lasted.
Karel:
So you came to sport and movement through martial arts.
Jakub:
And you keep doing it. I now run a dojo called Hakuzan, where we teach Japanese sword fighting in the style of Happo-ryu. We train traditional kata (routines), then tameshigiri, which is chopping with the sword (you might try that sometime), and gekiken, which is free swordplay with soft swords.
Karel:
And how difficult was that journey? How much effort is it? Becoming a master is just a lifetime's work. Where does one get the energy for that?
Jakub:
The goal is not really there - now you are a master and you don't have to do anything. Martial arts training, as well as sports in general, is like being on a boat and rowing against the current. The moment we stop, it starts to bring us back.
At times, when you started to lose your humility and felt like there was nowhere else to go, reality quickly brought you back down to earth. And it was educational, of course.
Karel:
It's one thing, of course, to keep it up - once one has reached a certain level of knowledge and mastery. But the journey there - that's the hardest part. What motivates you in that?
Jakub:
Any great art - and it doesn't have to be just martial - it can be sports, classical music or fine arts - brings incredible freedom. The amount of energy we put into something is directly proportional to the amount of energy we get back. What energy we put into it, that's what comes back to us.
If we go to practice once a week for an hour, we're only putting a little bit of energy into it. If we train every day for an hour and a half or two hours, of course, the result will be completely different.
And talent doesn't play that big a part in it. I've seen incredibly talented people who didn't find it a challenge. They trained in my dojo, and within a month, they had progressed to the same level as others who had taken a year. And in three months, they were out of it. That perseverance is sometimes more important than the talent itself. And me? I was clumsy when I first started martial arts.
Karel:
I was extremely clumsy as a kid, too. And I agree - it's just a lot of effort. If we put more energy into it, it comes back even more. It's actually a win-win. The energy multiplies - and that's the beautiful thing about it.
Why it's not enough to be good at just one thing
Jakub:
Of course, and in the case of Japanese martial arts, there is a huge advantage in one thing. It's not just a sporting activity; there are huge overlaps - cultural, historical, and more. When martial arts is conceived in the right way, it becomes a very complex thing.
After all, in ancient Japan, there was a saying bunbu ryōdō, which means culture and martial arts. The samurai were not just some crude, illiterate warriors running around the battlefield with a sword or a spear. They often practised calligraphy, tea ceremony, poetry, and similar disciplines. It is thus a harmonious development of the human being in different directions.
Karel:
Yes, and what we need today is what is modernly called multidisciplinary synthesis. What's happening is that many people are specialising in one thing. They may be good at that. That's the better option. But the others don't see it.
Jakub:
And Professor Machovec from the philosophy faculty used the beautiful term fachidiot. It's a person who is exceptionally talented in one field, but is otherwise entirely out of touch.
When the Nuremberg trials were going on, they were finding out who felt responsible for the gas chambers. One said, "I just designed it, but I didn't make it." The other said, "I made it, but I didn't invent it." And the third said, "I just turned the tap on, but somebody else brought the people in."
Many sensational professionals didn't feel responsible. Maybe they didn't. And here we see how such over-specialisation can lead to a certain dehumanisation - which is then, of course, hugely dangerous.
Karel:
Huge abuse. It's that the person has blinders on, and they only see and enjoy the depths where they have penetrated. That pleases him. And the consequences of that...
Jakub:
Specialisation is, of course, necessary, but at the same time, one should have a broader view and not be dehumanised. As my favourite Chinese philosopher Confucius says, "Love for people should be your highest standard." So we should not lose our positive relationship with people. Then we are less likely to dehumanise and make mistakes. Human existence has an incredible potential for growth. We can work on ourselves and improve in whatever we find meaningful. And I'm incredibly sorry that the vast majority of people don't tap into that potential. They have a talent for something, but instead they're doing TikTok, scrolling and scrolling... And that's how life in the matrix goes. Or drugs or similar forms of futility. It's an eternal shame. Approximately 90% of very talented people fail to utilise their talents, which is a shame.
Karel:
I agree. Anything is possible today. It's simply a matter of paying attention and putting our efforts into the things we truly believe in. If we really believe in it, we'll just make it happen.
Jakub:
That's right. It's been done in The Little Prince. If we wish for something so hard, it happens. But of course, it has to be like the Jewish anecdote where Mr. Goldwine prays all his life to win first place in the lottery. And then the heavens open. "All right, I'll give you the first prize, but buy the ticket." So, you have to buy that ticket and take action to make your dreams come true.
What does the path of the samurai look like in the 21st century?
Karel:
And what is the way of the samurai? How did you become a samurai?
Jakub:
That's an amazing story. First of all, what is a samurai? It's a Japanese military nobility that appeared in the 10th century in the Middle Heian period. Of course, you don't become a samurai; you're born a samurai. It's like a noble title. But samurai values have always appealed to me. You see some of Akira Kurosawa's films as a kid, and you think you want to be the right kind of "badass" on the right side of the barricade. That means trying to be a better person.
And so I incorporated a lot of samurai culture into my lifestyle. I do a lot of martial arts training with my friends in our dojo. I'm getting into haiku poetry and now literature. A novel I wrote about the Homi and Motomu eras with our famous sworders from the late 16th and early 17th centuries was selected as one of the top ten titles at the World Book Fair. I appreciate it immensely. We can draw inspiration from samurai culture and the broader Japanese culture. Do you have a favourite culture that inspires you?
Karel:
I wouldn't say 'culture,' but a huge part of my life is thinking about the meaningfulness of our existence. I've come to believe in a higher meaning of being. That's very unifying.
Jakub:
We see it the same way. Life can be lived in a thousand ways, but some ways are better than others. So it's good to choose the better ones.
Karel:
And if we believe in the meaning, it will appear.
Jakub:
Because what we seek, we will eventually find. Yes. That's how I feel very strongly about it, and empirical experience confirms it.
What values shape samurai
Karel:
And what are those samurai values?
Jakub:
The first one is the jin, which means humanity, humanity, love of fellow human beings. That is, I don't look down on my fellow human beings, I don't turn my nose up at them, but when they are in some kind of trouble, for example, I try to help them. Gi is justice, which means I don't put my profit before some higher value.
Gin and gi, humanity and justice, have to be balanced, because a prince at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries said that humanity without justice turns into softness and justice without love for people turns into cruelty. So there has to be that equilibrium for man to have that kindness, but at the same time to maintain justice.
Rei is courtesy. Or is something like education, learning? Makoto is sincere. That's a significant samurai value. Nobel Prize winner Jaroslav Seifert was once asked what was most important in poetry. He said it was honesty. It's not just in poetry, but it can be in anything we do. In contemporary art, for example, sincerity is often replaced by a pose, an attempt to shock. But then the results are as shallow as they are.
So sincerity is essential. Ko is filial devotion. We must somehow respect our parents, older people and so on. These are all extremely important principles that can serve as an inspiration for the contemporary world. Shin is trustworthiness. If I say I'll be there at five, I'll be there at five. And not at seven. These are essentially timeless and transcultural values that the samurai recorded. The eight samurai virtues have emerged. And that's one of the things that can enrich and inspire us in today's world.
Karel:
Sincerity and authenticity are what are critically missing today.
Jakub:
Exactly. Here's the problem. As Professor Knizkova, the great indologist, said, the anonymous command of the market replaces categorical imperatives. This means that marketing and politicians are telling their audiences what they want to hear without meaning it. They promise mountains of glory, but in reality, their motivation is not the common good. Their motivation is to generate profit and similar objectives.
Karel:
Which is terrible. My perception is that it's getting worse. On the other hand, it has reached the stage where people no longer trust anyone, not even politicians or their representatives. I perceive that society is totally on the verge of collapse; a collapse is happening. It is not sustainable when people do not trust those who are supposed to be important to them, who are supposed to represent them. That cannot work.
However, at the same time, it also gives the average person the opportunity to understand the importance of authenticity, honesty, and truthfulness. So I believe that even in that "mud", it is in turn a breeding ground for the power that something can grow.
Jakub:
As the Taoist teaching of the Yin-Yang monad says, everything has within it the germ of its opposite. When it reaches its highest limit, it passes into its opposite. This can be in a positive or negative sense. For example, the Weimar Republic, with its cabarets, went into National Socialism.
One possible scenario is that a period of moral crisis will lead people to self-reflect and return to common sense. The great tragedy of our time is that extremists from the left and the right have begun to speak in politics. Take the example of Biden, who, in order to outvote Trump, brought all sorts of BLM and similar strident extremists into the political discussion. They then, of course, started talking politics and ended up doing it so ineptly that people elected Trump. And now we're grabbing our heads from the other side.
So it is not a dichotomy of God and the devil, where one is good and the other is bad. It may be that they are both bad. In WWII, Hitler and Stalin faced off against each other, and that didn't mean one was the "good guy" and the other the "bad guy". The ideal thing now would be for people to get a grip, start thinking, see through these kooks and take the normal middle ground of common sense. Because, as the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu says, excess soon fades.
Why the problem is not the technology, but the hands that control it.
Karel:
Absolutely. At the same time, we are currently at a crossroads in history. I've called it the social singularity, that is, a period of extreme intensity of change, of conflict. I perceive that the outcome of today's time could be catastrophic - I believe it won't happen, which would result in a total loss of freedom, essentially a dictatorship under the control of technology and artificial intelligence. Or it will be the Yin-Yang, the awakening that we can connect as a people out of this marasmus.
That presents a huge opportunity because we can utilise technology, something that has historically been lacking. We are able to achieve as a society that we all live in relative material comfort. Is that right?
Jakub:
There is one tragedy, though: absolutely everything is exploitable. It just depends on who takes hold of the entity. Fire is a wonderful thing - it drives away the beast so it doesn't attack the cave with the proto-human, we roast a pterodactyl roast on it... But at the same time, we can use it to set fire to an enemy's field or house.
In the same way, the Japanese sword is just a tool. It's neither good nor bad. If it's on the stand, it won't do anything. A sword only becomes dangerous when a hand picks it up and cuts someone up. But what controls the hand? The mind. That's why the mind is so important and its cultivation is essential to wielding a Japanese sword. Of course, that is a metaphor for anything, like technology.
Karel:
Yes, of course, artificial intelligence is a tool today. It's a good servant but a bad master.
Jakub:
As I've observed in some of the more technical aspects, for example, regarding Japanese swords, it's a genius of mediocrity, but it still has a great tendency to make things up.
Karel:
He certainly does. It's nothing more than a calculation that cleverly handles all the data. It's surprising how effective it is, and all the experts believe it. But it's still nothing more than a calculation. That's why calling it intelligence is misleading in itself.
Jakub:
Exactly. During an interview, an editor asked an AI to write a haiku. The haiku was very flimsy, and I was relieved that a machine didn't yet rule us. I'll start worrying when artificial intelligence starts writing good poetry, but that's not imminent.
Karel:
Maybe I wouldn't worry about it so much. Artificial intelligence can be developed to the point where it can be combined effectively. But what AI will never bring is innovation. As humans, we will still have an advantage in being able to create new things. Conversely, computation can only be what it already is. And that's actually a good thing; it will remove mediocrity. Because mediocrity will eventually disappear, AI will surpass it. But innovation and human creativity, that's the greatest value.
Jakub:
So that would be excellent, of course.
How the sword combines strength, wisdom and beauty
Karel:
Swords are also a beautiful symbol. Of course, it's not just a tool; it's a spiritual symbol. Please tell us something about that.
Jakub:
In all kinds of cultures, and of course in the Japanese one, the sword is one of the three imperial insignia - along with the magatama jewel and the mirror. Today's interpretation is that the sword symbolises courage, the magatama symbolises humanity, and the mirror symbolises wisdom. So wisdom, strength and beauty, as in some Western philosophies, is very similar to this archaic traditional perception of the sword in ancient Japan.
At the same time, the sword was seen as protection from evil forces. When harai, the warding off of evil forces, was being performed, the sword was sometimes practised. When a child was born, it was given a dagger, called mamori gatana, to ward off evil forces. And when someone died, they would place a drawn sword on their chest so that it would also drive away evil forces that would tend to enter the dead body. This was called makura gatana.
The Japanese sword is a fascinating object that can be studied from many angles. From a technological standpoint, it is crafted in an fantastic form of welded Damascus with partial hardening. From an art historical perspective, sword accessories often possess a very high artistic value. The sword itself is nowadays taken as a budjucu token, i.e. an artistic sword. In fact, in the Far East, there is no distinction between high and low art. A tea bowl can be as much art as a painting or a sculpture. And a sword, of course, is as much art as, say, a rock relief.
How to train every day and not destroy your body
Karel:
What is your daily routine? Do you have any rituals that are important to you?
Jakub:
Rituals are definitely important, and of course, a big ritual for me is training every day. I practice with different weapons, and if you practice sensibly, it's also good for your health. But if you practice unwisely, it can backfire. That's what happened to me. I was going to the World Knife Throwing Championships, and I practised for about an hour and a half a day in all kinds of weather.
Additionally, I was training poorly, which I wasn't aware of at the time, and I was using too much power. I had a rotator cuff tear. Then, at the World Championships, I threw with my other arm, and out of the 149 competitors in the no-spin category at three meters for accuracy, I was ninth, which is not bad. However, in any case, it serves as a reminder to train intensively, but also with common sense.
Karel:
But at the same time, what makes sense is some balance and, let's say, ambidexterity, meaning that one has connected hemispheres. You train with both hands?
Jakub:
That's right. You know that yourself as an athlete. If I lifted a barbell with only one hand, I would get a muscle imbalance. I was talking to a friend of mine, a karate player of a very high technical level, who used to practice judo in his younger days, but only for sport. Then he found out that one part of his body was 30 per cent stronger than the other, so he switched to karate instead.
Karel:
I see for myself that symmetrical sport is very important. And for sports that aren't symmetrical, you have to compensate intensely so that you don't compromise your health.
Jakub:
And most importantly, I have an excellent friend in the dojo, Jeník Plechatý. Besides being a swordsman, he also trains in MMA. I think the club he trains in is not good because he always says, "I came from training and this is where they dislocated this."
Recently, we had a very dear friend, Master Matsuba Ichiro. He's a swordsman with the highest mastery of Mukansa. He's won the entire Japanese sword forging competition ten times, which is the highest grade a swordman can have. He is also a grandmaster of the Jiki Shinkage-ryū style of Japanese swordsmanship, at a level never seen before. Additionally, he holds a 6th dan rank in Aikido.
We were just talking to this friend and master Matsuba. We were saying, "Practice in a way that keeps you healthy, not in a way that harms you." Master Matsuba added, "We have the possibility of living on earth for maybe 70 years. Wouldn't it be a pity to go from those 70 years to 50 years and say: "Here I am in pain, here I am being pricked..." Therefore, it is better to practise in such a way that one does not harm oneself and destroy one's health in the pursuit of some performance.
How to live a long and good life
Karel:
I disagree slightly about the potential lifespan here.
Jakub:
We can live here for a hundred years or more.
Karel:
I believe even more. It depends on how one maintains oneself.
Jakub:
It's possible, but the Dalai Lama has let it be known that, with any luck, he would like to live to be 130 years old. However, it's about the quality of life, and there are many different aspects to it. Marcus Aurelius, in his Meditations, says that death rejuvenates the universe. For example, Japan, which is a wonderful country, has a huge problem right now - a third of the population is over 65, which is like a ticking demographic time bomb. More countries have these problems, of course. Japan has 1.1 children per family, we Czechs are a bit better off, and even the South Koreans have 0.9 children per family. That's already a terrible problem. So ageing alone a priori is not necessarily an absolute advantage.
Karel:
It certainly isn't. It depends on what kind of ageing. If it's a process of gaining wisdom and experience, while at the same time not degrading physically or in other ways, then it can be more of a rejuvenation than an ageing.
Jakub:
Exactly. That's why disciplines like tai chi are excellent. When practised sensibly, it enhances the quality of life and delays ageing. I have a great friend, Martina Slaba, a world vice-champion in tai chi and a twelve-time European champion. She is a person who radiates positive energy directly.
She's a petite young lady, in her mid-thirties, but she's one of the greatest fighters I know - she trains for maybe eight hours a day. She's kind, she has a sense of humour... So a martial arts master doesn't have to be just a muscular, bald individual with a frown and teeth clicking menacingly. The essence is something else.
Karel:
I would say that a true master has a smile on his face.
Jakub:
I've indeed had the pleasure of meeting some truly exceptional martial arts masters. Recently, for example, there was Naka Sensei, the karate legend who starred in the movie Kuroobi. I have already mentioned Matsuba Sensei, but there are also fantastic people here in the Czech Republic, such as Vlada Budin, who is a 6th dan in Shotokan karate. He is such a positive and easy-going person that I am always happy when I meet him. And of course, there are more people like that in European fencing.
It is a great, perhaps the most tremendous boon of martial arts that one has the opportunity to meet such quality people. Take Pavel Cerny in defensive shooting - it is a highly meditative thing, which people don't realise. Or the legionary Stanislav Gazdik. These are individuals who have everything well-organised in their minds and can inspire others tremendously.
How to become a master and live a life of honour
Karel:
You could provide guidance on how to approach that mastery, including the path to take. One of those things is that beautiful saying: "Fall seven times, get up eight times." That's actually the foundation of strength. However, it also helps relax the mind and achieve balance.
Jakub:
There's a Japanese proverb called nanakorobi yaoki. And it's just about that endurance, as we were talking about. Perseverance is sometimes much - or I would almost say - almost always more than talent. We can sometimes stumble along the way. I, for example, destroyed my shoulder. It was such that I could barely lift that arm a few inches. For a lot of people, of course, that would be the ideal solution: "I'll stop now." But I said no, and I started training with my other arm. That's just a funny analogy, of course.
Another one of the amazing people I respect immensely is my friend David Drahoninsky, a Paralympian. He's won five medals at the Paralympics in archery. He was an athlete; he did taekwondo, and then, at about 14, he fell asleep and was injured in a fall, injuring his spine and leaving him in a wheelchair. Instead of giving up, he took up archery. Today, he can inspire many healthy athletes, and I consider him one of the greatest fighters I know. Being a fighter really isn't just about the physical side, it's all there - in your head.
Karel:
No, it's definitely in the head. It's strength and perseverance. At the same time, the ability to let go of thoughts and get into what I call a state of flow, or being open to chi, is important.
Jakub:
In martial arts, there is an important term, zanshin, which is concentration, and then hoshin, the release of that concentration. I think in some disciplines, and it doesn't have to be just martial arts - like combat shooting or archery, which we've talked about, and indeed Japanese sword work - we have to connect the two seeming opposites. It's about total relaxation and at the same time tremendous concentration. It's not easy to get into that state. The head understands it immediately, but for the body to understand it, it takes effort, effort, effort.
Karel:
Exactly, so that our head, specifically the frontal lobe, doesn't block these processes, because this part of the brain is behind the slower thinking.
Jakub:
Only when we have mastered the technique perfectly, having done it a million times, can spontaneity and relaxation emerge. Of course, everyone would like to have spontaneity right away, but unfortunately, true, quality spontaneity is not without discipline.
As a very true Mexican proverb says: "Take what you want and pay for it." That means if I want to achieve mastery in something, I have to work hard. There are no keyboard shortcuts. But if we have chosen a quality topic for our self-development, there will be a win in the end.
Karel:
The core samurai value is a life of honour. Today, living in honour is the basic principle for all of life to be meaningful.
Jakub:
I'll give an example again. Here in the Czech Republic, some super-gaunts stole billions, walked the streets, and laughed in everyone's face. But in Japan there was a case where a boy, a paranoid schizophrenic (he had a diagnosis that was not his fault), killed a child. The father of this teenage murderer, to apologise to society for his son's committing such a crime, committed suicide - he apologised for doing so. In Japan, honour is a highly valued cultural phenomenon.
However, as I noted, anything can be abused if someone takes it to extremes. Honour can be abused. An example is the German Honour and Blood Protection Act. That's "honour", which has nothing to do with absolute honour. Peace can be abused. Lots of people call for peace, say that peace is above all, and suggest "making friends with Putin", - which is terrible. Love is abusable; someone pretends to love to gain some advantage from it.
So we come back to authenticity. My favourite Confucius says that the most important thing of all is the correction of concepts. That is, honour is honour, peace is peace... That is, don't confuse peace with the imitation of peace.
Why freedom is not free
Karel:
As you mentioned at the beginning, for individual principles and values to be right, they must be together. If only one thing is said, without the other dimensions, it can go awry.
Jakub:
Justice will degenerate into tyranny. And humanity without justice... It's like spoiling my child because I'm fulfilling what I see in his eyes, but in reality, I'm harming him.
Karel:
What's fair is if every person gets hit in the head in the morning - that's fair because it happens to everybody equally. But of course that's nonsense. So, it's the connection of principles and values that creates harmony, a meaningful life.
Another key value that I don't see emphasised as much in Japanese culture is the value of freedom.
Jakub:
It's more complicated than that. If we look at it, for example, politically, in Japan, if you fulfil your obligations, you can do whatever you want. That's why there are all sorts of otaku subcultures, which in turn can inspire global pop culture. However, you must fulfil your duty. Fulfilling those obligations can be much more challenging in Japan than here, which is why there is a much higher suicide rate than here, for example. Several factors contribute to this, as societal pressure on the individual is significantly greater. As the saying goes, "Take what you want and pay for it."
But now the question is, what is freedom? How would we define it? Japan is a modern, democratic country with all that entails; however, there is a rather different problem, namely the enormous pressure to perform. When I looked at some subjective list of perceived feelings of happiness, we Czechs are doing very well, while the Japanese are not; they are unhappy because they are trying to achieve some unattainable perfection. As Buddha Shakyamuni said, "If the string is too loose it will not make any sound, and if it is too tight it will snap." It takes finding that happy medium. When I practised unnecessarily before the World Cup, the string snapped, and it was wrong. So you have to find an equilibrium, keep looking, make mistakes sometimes, but keep working on yourself. And with any luck, we'll make some progress.
Karel:
And regarding training, what would you recommend to people who want to lead a quality life? How much time and attention should I give to that? Three times a week for two hours, where is the limit?
Jakub:
There is a terminus technicus sekai dojo, which means the whole world is a place for self-development. Now the question is what the person is looking for, even just in terms of martial arts. And again, it doesn't mean that one way is right and the other is wrong. As Buddha Shakyamuni said, "It is impossible to catch a bird in a net with one eye." It doesn't mean that because we, for example, train traditionally in our dojo, starting with thousands of sake, which few dojos in contemporary Japan do, that our ultra-traditionalist approach is the right one and the others are wrong. Some people train in martial arts the way we are trying to train - like authentic performance in baroque classical music. However, some people do it as a form of exercise for their health, which is also a good motivator. Someone does it to meet quality people, which is still a good motivation. So everyone has to find what they're looking for, and if they look long enough, they'll find it.
Why being yourself sometimes means going against the grain
Karel:
We can agree that being true to your own beliefs is fundamental. Not to succumb to outside influences, just to be authentic, to be yourself, not to be beaten down. And therein lies the strength - the training, the mental and physical balance that allows you to persevere.
Jakub:
And at the same time, of course, not to be influenced by the mainstream. That's essentially the 'sapere aude' principle. Have the courage to use your reason, as Kant says. And he's right. The Buddhist sutras say the same thing: if everybody misbehaves, it doesn't mean I have to misbehave. When everybody lies, it doesn't mean I have to lie. We have enormous freedom in decision-making. And not everybody understands that they don't necessarily have to go with the mainstream. Because, as the Indian proverb says, "even a scared fish can swim with the current."
Karel:
So it certainly makes sense even to risk misunderstanding and going against the mainstream.
Jakub:
It is necessary, because who is pushing the development? It's those who go against the current. With that said, of course, at any time there's a risk of failing. But then again, another proverb says it's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. I deeply agree with that. Again, my favourite Confucius says that "the small man seeks his benefit, while the noble man seeks the common good." We have the freedom to choose to be the little man or the humane, noble man.
Karel:
Yes. In the next step, seeking the collective good is also beneficial for one's personal well-being.
Jakub:
It can be. That's a decision. It's terribly archetypal in all sorts of religions, for example, from the ancient world: little Heracles as a child tending sheep, and Delight and Virtue come to him and say, "Choose." "If you choose me, you will not starve all your life, you will not thirst, you will sleep on soft pillows, you will drink only the best wines, and so on." And Virtue says, "If you choose me, you will have blood, sweat and tears. But you'll have something left."
Now the question is, what is the meaning of our existence? It's to leave something positive behind. Because again, the mainstream tries to tell us that the more consumer we are, the more human we are. But what am I better at if I drive an expensive car, have an expensive cell phone? Nothing. I am a quality human being by being a quality human being, that is, by trying to fulfil my duties to my fellow human beings and to society. That's the real value, not whether I drive a Bentley or a Lamborghini.
Karel:
I agree. I suggest that, ultimately, a person is happier when they maintain their strength and integrity. This is true even if he finds himself conflicted or has to go through suffering. In the end, he comes to an important realisation.
Jakub:
Socrates drank hemlock when he could have safely walked away. Master John Huss also could have recanted, but he did not...
Karel:
Yes, and the meaning is in history, in histories, in the collective consciousness. And that is the most important thing. What I see as a huge problem in today's society, especially in Western civilisation, is the so-called certainties. The constant call for certainties, that we want to have certainties, and everybody has the right to have any certainties at all, is a total degeneration.
Jakub:
Mainly, it's such a big myth and mantra of populists that "everybody is entitled to everything". But that's not the case. What makes my fillings jump out of my teeth is when I hear about some kind of unconditional income, so that people will have an unconditional income and they'll be able to grow. That's not how it works. That's the way, for example, only one person in a hundred would grow and start studying Latin or philosophy. Ninety-nine people out of a hundred, unfortunately, would go on to lead a tumultuous life.
Karel:
That's the unconditional income theory. But I argue that unconditional income must be conditional. If society is wealthy and we can achieve through technology what we previously couldn't, such as eliminating starvation. Everyone can meet their basic material needs, then let there be a minimum basic income. However, it should be conditional on a person showing some activity. This means that if I want some additional income, I must demonstrate in some way that I am exercising, training, making art or developing myself.
Jakub:
Function makes an organ. And if the function is not there, the organ atrophies. Rousseau says that freedom is like strong wine, which strengthens strong natures and destroys weak ones, but in fact, most natures are weak. Going against the tide is not freedom.
Again, there is the "status of the artist" thesis, which suggests that one should receive money because one has a certain imaginary status as an artist. However, evolution, which occurs through struggle, emphasises quality. The moment we make the artist an object in a zoo where they don't have to compete, they start creating shallow things. Just because someone calls himself an artist doesn't make him an artist.
Karel:
Essentially, yes, it's the Yin and Yang, the eternal balance where even struggle is a part of it. Our goal and mission as a human society may be to move closer to the optimum. An optimum in how much effort one must make, one must go "to the marrow," but at the same time, make it as humane as possible.
Jakub:
Again, it's kind of a happy medium without extremes. Praise the heavens, now we have reached a point in Central Europe where nobody is starving. But mere affluence hasn't brought any society to heaven. Mere affluence means degeneration.
Why children need boundaries and not freedom without responsibility
Karel:
So, what I perceive, and again, the paths can be different - let everyone choose - is that everyone needs to have some activity where they have to make an effort, where they put in the effort, so to speak. Whether it's a sport where he works hard or an art that he immerses himself in. That's where life is fulfilled. And that's what's important to teach our children.
Jakub:
I'm a big fan of so-called stress-free education, where we don't educate our children because they know best what's good for them. I think Prince Tolstoy attempted this in his time with the sons of his muzhiks when he sought to teach them according to Rousseau's method, which involved allowing them to do as they pleased and thereby learn. And that's not how it works.
I just think that these populist ideas completely ignore the empirical experience of thousands of years of humanity having tried it before, leading to the realisation that it doesn't work. And we will repeat the same mistake over and over again, which is a waste.
Karel:
There are so-called liberal arts schools that go far in this philosophy. The question is to what extent and in what way. Because, in some aspects, it is beneficial to offer freedom, but how to do it? How to offer freedom, the possibility of choice, so that the child can find his true purpose, what he wants to do?
Jakub:
It's terribly simple. When we have a pet, I saw an episode on TV where a man was explaining how to raise a pet. The cat attacks us for no reason, does whatever it wants, and we're all unhappy about it. The expert said, "That's obvious, because you have to set boundaries for the animal, give it a so-called moral, tell it what it can and cannot do."
As with animals, with children, it is always the parent or the teacher who has the experience, unlike the child, and says, "This is good, this is bad, you can do this, you can't do that." If we somehow set that aside, we create a selfish person who thinks they are the centre of the universe, but then, of course, the collision with reality in society will be bad.
When Greta was lecturing top politicians and university professors, I thought, "What is this?" This man has achieved nothing and has no judgment. And for those who are unfortunate enough to applaud her, it is wrong. Because wisdom grows with age, it's not something we're born with. Based on experience, we sometimes "break our mouths", re-evaluate our perception of the world and our surroundings, and mature to do so. A child should be shaped in some way by school and, of course, by parents, but not by being allowed to do whatever they want. That's imitation education, not real education.
In Japan, children in schools are taught courtesy; they learn to clean up after themselves and other basic things. That could be why the Japanese are so polite, honest, hard-working, because they have sensational leadership from the lowest levels of education.
Karl:
My approach is to give the kids freedom while maintaining firm boundaries. I don't compromise there.
Jakub:
And I saw it yesterday as we were making tea, my son was bringing in the teacups. I thought, "Well-behaved child."
Karel:
And he found that on his own.
Jakub:
But the fact that he found it on his own, and he was already instinctively doing the right thing, is again a consequence of the fact that you raised him well.
Karel:
Thank you. At the same time, I believe it is essential for children today to have the opportunity to discover their own strength and courage. I climb rocks with my children, I climb trees with them...
Jakub:
I agree. The great tragedy is that parents, in this so-called struggle for grain, have no time for their children. Instead of raising them themselves, they let the Internet raise them and TikTok and these worthless things. Then the kids live in the matrix, in this virtual world, instead of living in the real world - climbing rocks and doing what we did as kids.
This is one of the moments when people should consider trying to reverse that. The fact that children spend more time in the virtual world than in the real world will lead to problems in the real world. This is also true in adulthood and, of course, in Japan. The extreme is the so-called hikikomori, where someone is so panicked about society that they spend their whole life in one room and refuse to go out.
In Japan, of course, it was said that the Karashishi lion cubs would throw their children off a cliff to educate and raise them. You, of course, have the advantage of not throwing your children off the rock, but teaching them to climb. And that's certainly a good skill to have in life. And not just for rock climbing, but in general.
Karel:
Yes. Of course, we may have an advantage, but it's hard for the average person because they have to go to work. And then how to spend time with the children? That's the problem of setting up the matrix in general, the problem of setting up the society. A promising approach for the future is for people to live more communally, allowing children to be together and have one or two adults care for them. And they can actually "circulate" in a way. Modern society has made it incredibly compartmentalised, and the system is then difficult to function within and problematic.
Jakub:
There's actually been an evolution of schooling. Now, all my friends who are teachers and educators at all different levels are bitching about inclusion. The problem is that the whole group adapts to the pace of the slowest. Thus, the whole society loses. Again, these are some unfortunate populist impulses created by people with no common sense. And unfortunately, it's not good.
The anti-authoritarian approach to teaching is also a problem. A friend of mine, a lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts, says that students there want their teachers to entertain them, but they would never dare ask them to do something. The vision is that students educate each other through pseudo-philosophical discussions. But my friend said the biggest problem is that it loses the craft. We can't be surprised, then, that contemporary art - I'm not saying always - is losing both content and form.
In the past, for example, there were Judeo-Christian and ancient traditions and histories in Europe. But what do contemporary artists take as a subject for their work? Mostly they epigone something and there is nothing original, nothing nice. And of course, besides the content, there is the form. If I don't know how to draw or paint well, I'll do some screams and poses. And that's weak.
There are exceptions, of course. My excellent friend Jiri Straka, originally a sinologist who went on to study at the Beijing Central Academy and is now a professor there, teaching traditional ink painting to Chinese people, is one of the few examples that not everyone follows this misguided mainstream. They are going their own way and producing great quality. Now he's having an opening at Pellé Villa on September 30, so I invite you most politely.
How to preserve freedom in a time of populism and coercion
Karel:
The problems we're talking about - that is, the kind of degeneration of society, more shallowness and so on - will resolve themselves by what's happening. Because there's a collapse going on in Western civilisation, and we're facing problems like logistics failures, power outages, and so on.
Jakub:
It's true, I can't shake the sad feeling that now, within the European Union, but not only there, there has been at least a decade of very bad politicians. They have been buying voters with social benefits and solving pseudo-problems instead of real ones. We have dealt with toilets for fifty genders, and we have not dealt with pension reforms. We did not address the fact that if we do not arm ourselves, we give confidence to the various despots across the border, who, of course, arm themselves and do not like us. Now it's good to get back down to earth, to the path of common sense, and address the real issues, even if it's not the most popular approach.
Karel:
The political system is not capable of that. That way is more of a push from below, where people need to wake up as individuals and start working more collaboratively as a community. The state is ceasing to function, politics has lost trust, so the system of functioning, management and some cooperation has to start from the bottom.
Jakub:
It's always best if you start with yourself or in the community of people around you. Despite all my reservations, I am a supporter of democracy. Democracy changes what is wrong, perhaps too late, but without bloodshed. If there were no representative democracy, a lot of very bad presidents would rule for decades and do more damage than if someone grabs their head after their term and elects someone else. Putin is in his fifth term, and unless someone hits him with an axe, he will rule until he dies.
Karel:
It's more of a free society with equal access to opportunity. Representative democracy does have its weaknesses. It's a question of how to implement it technically. It should be in the spirit of democracy, i.e. equality and freedom, but how to achieve it? The political party system is outdated, and people should vote directly for individuals, rather than for parties, and hold them accountable for their actions.
Jakub:
I agree, because when I hear the word "party", I don't trust it. A party is just a vessel, and the people inside are like tea. Just because the vessel is nice doesn't mean that the tea inside will be of good quality. That's why, whenever I vote, I choose personalities who are trustworthy and whom I consider to be honest and of high quality.
Karel:
And that's why I mention the D21 system, where people are directly elected and where there is direct accountability. This system brings consensus and the need to connect society, not divide it. The problem with political parties and the way elections are run is precisely that they divide society, and it pays to pit people against each other, which encourages populism and extremism. However, today, more and more people are becoming aware of this fact and are gaining a certain resistance to it. We should achieve this goal before it is too late.
Jakub:
Absolutely. Ideally, this is how it could work.
Karel:
My big current project is called Ark 21, Ark of the 21st Century. It is about reflecting what we have been through, and this is true in general. We must be able to learn from history and not forget our experiences. Not to try to sweep uncomfortable things under the carpet and pretend that they do not exist.
Jakub:
That's Eliade, that's the eternal return. History is always repeating itself. So the solution is this: Be brave, use your reason. And stand up for your vision, no matter what the mainstream says.
Karel:
And again, we come to that internal setting of honouring not being manipulated or bribed by the mainstream to look nice.
Jakub:
To quote my favourite Confucius, a great master whom I hold in great esteem, "The pine tree does not change its colour throughout the year, nor does a noble man change his mind if he is truly convinced of it." Here we go again with authenticity.
Karel:
But at the same time, it's the openness that one can be wrong, of course. However, it must be acknowledged that I will likely gain some insight and change my opinion.
Jakub:
It's kind of that Socratic "I know I don't know anything, enlighten me". Unless one is a dogmatic jerk, one will be taught. And by this method of dialogue, he gains a deeper understanding.
Karel:
We've reached a profound philosophical conclusion. Let us know again where we can find you and where we can join your journey.
Jakub:
I have a website, www.jakubzeman.cz, so if you're interested, take a look. I'm also doing an alternative Ikigai fest at the Beachclub Ladvi on September 21. It's going to be a lot about tea, with martial arts, tai chi, yoga, and more. If you're into that kind of thing, you're welcome. Thank you very much for inviting me. We had a nice chat, and I wish you all the best.
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