内界という最後の秘境The Inner World, the Last Unexplored Land

Parents, siblings, friends, communities, society, government, and the world—various elements constitute our external realm. Yet, there exists a final, unexplored frontier that extends boundlessly for us: the internal world. Within this internal domain, there also exists a world of parents, siblings, friends, communities, society, government, and the globe. I ponder this internal world daily, continuing these thoughts even amidst ordinary actions. The more I live my daily life holding this sensation, the more painfully I realize that the greatest characteristic of the modern era is separation. Day after day, I contemplate how to breach this divide.

History is a curious thing. when treated merely for the accumulation of knowledge or the display of erudition, it becomes nothing more than a dead history, devoid of life. This is because history does not reside in the array of letters signified in documents. Even if one stores and memorizes such knowledge in the brain while stagnating in that superficial recognition, it is not true scholarship. Only by re-perceiving everything from the perspective of living history does the form of living scholarship emerge; yet, we realize we have long lost this living scholarship. That is to say, only by diving into history—or into the figures who lived through those eras—and carefully deciphering, through assimilation, the tension that existed between their internal and external worlds and how those tensions were generated within human conduct, can we finally relativize what we call "the era."

The inquiry into history is the finest mirror reflecting one’s own self across time and space.

If we can master this way of viewing history, we come to know that the external and internal worlds are not separated. Simply put, we can touch the conviction that they are not two, but one. However, because a profound separation occurs within us—confined as we are in a modernity that refuses to end—we are already unable to grasp the object itself. The troublesome matter is that in a world where the object itself cannot be grasped, no matter how much one argues that the internal and external are one rather than two, practically speaking, it is regarded merely as "one way of thinking" and falls into a state of being stockpiled simply as knowledge. Consequently, regarding the movement toward the real itself, matters proceed without any change occurring. As modernity possesses the advanced characteristic of never ending, people within it cannot escape the state of slowly suffocating to death.

Therefore, when considering how to break through modernity, we must stand upon the premise that no matter how much we conduct objective consideration of the object called modernity, we have been pulled so far apart that we can no longer grasp its actual substance. Acknowledging this precondition, we must start not by grasping the distinction between internal and external as a separation, but by re-grasping them as a world that exists synchronically, even while being torn apart. In other words, thought itself must undergo a fundamental fluctuation.

Originally, the internal world is the external world, and the external world is the internal world. In this understanding, we live life through actual conduct, constantly correcting it to establish it as our own life. However, when this recognition is separated by knowledge, this synchronic world of the internal and external vanishes. That which separates this recognition through knowledge is nothing other than private self-interest.

When this happens, people possess a habit of refusing to live while facing their own internal world; thus, they consciously invert their focus toward movements that attempt to improve life by correcting the external world. This is because the act of reflecting yourself within yourself is, for human beings, the most painful reality. In other words, this is exactly what humans wish to avoid most. Unlike "knowing" in the current sense, "knowing" in the true sense is actually nothing other than the act of reflecting oneself within oneself. Originally, scholarship has effect only in the process of deepening self-awareness through this reflection. That is, all scholarship is merely a diversion unless it reflects the person within themselves and brings awareness to reality as it is. Here, the technique of dialogue with history, in the broad sense, is required.

However, historically, people inevitably try to avoid this self-awareness. When this happens, the tendency to entrust life to "something other" inevitably strengthens, resulting in a situation where one alienates oneself. As years pass, one forgets one's self at the origin; what was initially entrusted transfers into complete delegation, and eventually, one moves toward attempting to improve one's own environment and life by correcting that "other." There, a better life is idealized, groups are formed, and moving in the same direction collectively is proposed as the ideal future; arriving there is fabricated as a good future for humanity. I say "fabricated" because, although the better future common to all is an answer that absolutely does not exist outside, here, the answer is sought on the outside. Such people form narratives to maintain a certain influence, and under the fiction of these narratives, they command human behavior and move into a stage of practice with a sense of purpose.

The problem is that practice is perceived as existing to fulfill the purpose raised as an ideal, premised on the inverted knowledge and recognition mentioned above. However, the solution is not there. First, the major premise—that knowledge is meaningless unless it can be used—is not being considered. Here, the important concept of "sharing" comes into view; but as everyone now understands, this philosophy of sharing, which was once extremely important to human beings, has been reduced to something consumed merely at the level of cognitive recognition on social media, falling into a situation where it holds no power. We must consider how to reclaim true knowledge, recognition, and sharing.

A suspicion personally circulating in my brain recently is that there are no people in the world who actually know the act of using knowledge.

Let us change our thinking. If the amount of knowledge and the transformation of the external world were to match proportionally, clearly, the modern age is aberrant. After all, despite knowledge becoming more colossal than ever before in human history, and the knowledge accumulated within each individual’s brain being of a volume unprecedented in history, we do not feel that the external world is becoming a better future.

There is an interesting perspective: viewed from a Japanese historical standpoint, the amount of information a modern person receives in a single day rivals a lifetime's worth in the Heian period, or a year's worth in the Edo period. In other words, as everyone understands, it is clearly impossible for a single human being to carry and process modern volumes of information (and by extension, knowledge). Furthermore, the human brain itself has not changed significantly even after tens of thousands of years—if anything, it is devolving—so humans do not possess the power to process such enormous amounts of information. You can understand this by considering the body's nutrient metabolism: if you ingest a large amount of food your body cannot metabolize, illness naturally arises. In Japan, there is an ancient teaching called Hara-hachibu (eating until eighty percent full) that preaches dietary temperance; this teaching was thoroughly enforced, especially for those who pursued scholarship. That is to say, people of the past considered that the temperance of diet was not separated from the temperance of knowledge.

Why did they temper knowledge? Because if you cram in one hundred percent—or more—of a capacity of one hundred, the possibility of thinking for yourself, acting, and thereby mastering learning becomes zero. This means the internal world of the learner loses its yohaku (pristine empty space). In fact, the problem that arose in the Edo period, when scholarship permeated widely, was exactly this point. Currently, while temperance and fasting regarding meals have spread, there are still few who realize that knowledge is the same. In Japan, the method of realizing a pleasant life by "Danshari" (the art of shedding and decluttering) possessions owned in excess has been historically honed; this perspective must be applied multilaterally to our respective, differing daily lives.

No matter how much you accumulate what you cannot process yourself, it cannot be used; thus, you arrive at the problem where knowledge is merely stockpiled with no executability. Yet, humans think they want to use what they have taken the trouble to hoard. As a result, despite not understanding the matter well, the rampant practice of speaking and broadcasting socially begins, and people fall further into confusion.

In this way, people become unable to discern for themselves that separation is occurring within them, and they collectively fall into the aforementioned inversion. Unless the separation is resolved, modernity will not end; yet, because the focus has not shifted here, absolutely nothing changes.

Is that knowledge truly necessary for you?

Now, during the year-end and New Year holidays when society regains its silence, let us create an opportunity to look back on this year and reflect upon ourselves.