Clarity in the Meaning and Truth of Datsusara

It's been over two years since I've posted in this blog. Although I love the final product of writing and the way it lends to precision of communication, I still struggle with the time and energy it takes to write vs speak or have a discussion. If you are interested in hearing from me more often there is The Datsusara Podcast, which is where most of my broadcasted philosophical energies will be focused. That being said I felt I had to post a little update and clarify some things.

I noticed when reviewing my old blog posts that there is a theme that might have lent itself to misinterpretation. In fact just the name of this company, Datsusara, and it's basic literal translation of "escaping the salaried workers life" might be part of the problem. One could easily read that and think it's all about saying screw you to "the man" and slacking off all day. And while that might be the first step for some people it's not the end or what I was intending to encourage, and there are days I want to rename the company to bring more clarity to what I was trying to show people. Tim Ferriss has struggled with this too I noticed as his very popular book "The Four Hour Work Week" which can be interpreted as some get rich while you sit on your ass guide. But it's not about that, it's about freeing yourself so you can focus your energies and actively do the things that really matter in life.

I believe it is of the upmost importance that we spend every moment doing what is best, living up to our potential and doing good. I also believe that the choices we make as individuals resonate into the world, and everything one does matters, more than anyone can possibly understand. I believe these things because I've seen and experienced what the lack of this belief can lead to. I stress the word belief here because some concepts can't be proved on paper but are true in a way that we mere humans may never be able to comprehend fully or articulate. The first two lines in the Taoist book the "Tao Te Ching" explain this well...

"The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao,
The name that can be named is not the eternal name".

I wanted to be clear on that point as in the past I have attacked some for their belief systems, especially those put forward by organized religions. I still have some critiques of those systems but I made a mistake in judging anyone by their group vs individual actions (this was in part due to my rebellious nature kicking in when I was made to participate in various religions as a child), and I want to apologize for my actions. The greater mission here is to better mankind and the world, if your system does that, then cheers to you!

Whatever mode of philosophy you choose to invoke the important thing is that it's helping relive suffering in the world, or at least not make it worse. The Buddha said "life is suffering" and the crucifixion of Jesus (as morbid as it seems) gets to that same point as do many other mythologies that explain concepts of sacrifice for the betterment of all in a quest to relieve suffering. But it's all to easy to look at the world and assume we don't matter. The intellect when left unchecked can lead us into over rationalization of our actions and easily move into nihilism where we assume nothing we do really matters so we might as well just enjoy ourselves while we watch it all burn. Even worse one can look at the basic truth that life is suffering, view the horrors in the world and decide it is a thing that should not be and that participating in the active destruction of the world would be a mercy. Even unconscious actions of one who has simply given up can lead to increasing the very thing that discouraged us in the first place.

Datsusara is not about rejecting the world in order to have a good seat for the apocalypse. It's about freeing yourself from the bonds of complacency, arming yourself with the truth, and becoming the best person you can possibly imagine.

With that, I now leave you with two relevant videos. 1. An animated propaganda piece we made for Datsusara. 2. An edited talk from a philosopher I enjoy, Jordan Peterson. Who was also on the Datsusara Podcast recently.