Uketamo

In my post, “Let’s Illuminate Lives This Diwali” on 24 th October, I had shared a small video on the importance of Diwali by B K Shivani of Brahmakumaris spiritual movement, wherein she said that the best gift to be given to anybody is, “I accept you as you are.”

Today morning I came across a Japanese term, “Uketamo” that means in English, “Acceptance to the core” or “I accept with an open heart.”

When I read about it, I came to know that there is a little known mountain region, Dewa Sanzan in northern Japan. It’s used as a training ground by the Yamabushi monks for more than thousand years for self-development and self-discovery.

One of their training programmes is “The Lessons from Mountains”, in which participants are asked to climb mountains, cross rivers, sit under waterfalls etc through the forests. They have to follow the instructions of the Master without questioning him.

The only response from participants should be “Uketamo.” The purpose of the programme is to make them accept all the challenges in the journey with courage and acceptance to prepares them for their real life challenges.

Yamabushi monks believe that sooner you accept all the good and bad things thrown at you by the life, the lighter you feel. Uketamo helps us drop unnecessary expectations and enjoy the path ahead to growth.

For example, if you get struck in a traffic jam, a relationship gets strained beyond repair, or a leg gets broken and a long-awaited trip is to be cancelled, or any similar unpleasant experience, what options are there?

If you have the option, be creative and solve the problem, and move forward, but if there is no option, Uketamo.

Don’t blame yourself or regret, just embrace the realities of life and deal with them. It will lessen the pain

It doesn’t mean that you should accept  whatever comes to you, with folded eyes and hands. But we should stop fighting with things we can’t control or not in our hands. We can’t change everything in life as we wish.

Things are moving very fast, when we come across daily several unpredictable situations, when we don’t know how to respond. It’s then, we have to remind ourselves, Uketamo.

–Kaushal Kishore

image: pinterest

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