Zen and a Way of Sustainable Prosperity
If you are interested in sustainable ways of living, and want to make a difference in the society, this is a must-read book. It will give you a totally new look on sustainability. I discovered a secret of Omi-merchants who were one of the most successful merchants in Japan in the 18th century. They knew the way to be prosperous while making society happy. The secret will help you become successful at your business while creating, an environmentally friendly, socially just, spiritually grown society. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072LBFFYS/
IKIGAI BUSINESS
What if you can find a business that is meaningful to you, making society happy, and profitable all at the same time? Well, that is IKIGAI BUSINESS.
What does Ikigai mean? Ikigai has become such a buzzword like hygge with its famous diagram; we don’t know if it is a word or a philosophical concept anymore. In Japan, it is just a word and not considered to be a symbol of happiness and longevity like it is in the West. I don’t know about the people in Okinawa, but for most Japanese, Ikigai is a noun meaning worth living or having a purpose in life.
Therefore, IKIGAI BUSINESS means business that is worth living for; work that is fulfilling to your soul because it is aligned with your life mission.
Examples of an IKIGAI BUSINESS are an artistic work, an environmentally friendly venture, or a socially conscious project.
How to find your IKIGAI BUSINESS?
Omi-merchants who were considered to be the most successful merchants in Japan from the medieval period to the 18th century have clues for IKIGAI BUSINESS with their famous philosophy called Sanpo-Yoshi.
The teaching of Sanpo-Yoshi stated that every business the Omi merchants conducted needed to be beneficial to the seller, the buyer, and society in general. In short, a business must result in a three-way satisfaction.
It is like Swedish Lagom or Chinese Yin and Yang in the sense that you keep a balance between two extremes, but Sanpo-Yoshi is more like a harmony among three parties. When you think of happiness, for example, you are not only thinking about your happiness, but also the happiness of your family and people you associate with, as well as the happiness of the society you live in.
This is a book to help you find a Sanpo-Yoshi business so that you will feel Ikigai in your work. It is good for people who are not happy with your work and want to change your career, people who want to start your own business, and people who are interested in sustainability since it deals with sustainable ways of living. It is also a good read for people who are interested in Omi-merchants and their secret to be successful while making society happy.
It is part of Zen and a Way of Sustainable Prosperity, focusing on Sanpo-Yoshi business.
IKIGAI DIET
Are you interested in natural food, organic lifestyle, or macrobiotic diet? If so, this is a book for you. It has the most recent information on traditional Japanese dietary culture.
If you want to be healthy, the optimal way is to model the best of the best in the field.
Who are the healthiest people on the planet then?
Well, Japan is considered to be the country with the longest life expectancy, and it is featured in many books including The Blue Zones and Ikigai. It is also famous for macrobiotic diet.
Who are the healthiest people in Japan then?
The young generation has lost in touch with the traditional Japanese diet so they can’t be the one. The old generation can be the one since they follow the traditional diet and many of the centenarians who appear in the longevity books belong to this category. And yet, can they really be our role model? They lived in a different era, and their methodology may not be applicable in the present period: They don’t necessarily lead a healthy lifestyle anymore since our way of food production has changed. Nonetheless, they haven’t adapted themselves to the current agricultural situation.
In that case, who could we learn from?
What if there is a group of people who have inherited the nohow in the traditional lifestyle and adapted themselves to practice it in the present environment? There is a growing population of people who are conscious of their health in Japan. They eat radiation free organic food, macrobiotic food, fermented food, and many of them live in the countryside to lead sustainable ways of living. They grow rice and vegetables using organic farming, natural farming, and permaculture. They are the people who practice the Japanese natural way of living in the present circumstance and, therefore, are the healthiest people in Japan.
Ikigai Diet I am introducing in this book is the diet of these naturally conscious people in Japan. You will learn what to eat, what not to eat, and how to eat, based on the secret of the traditional Japanese natural living which is central to most Japanese martial arts; healing arts such as Shiatsu, Reiki or acupuncture; Zen; and the macrobiotic diet.
Omi-merchant's way of Sustainable Prosperity 