What Japanese Architecture Can Teach You About Life
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In Japan, traditional buildings are not erected to inspire awe or grandeur.
They are not supposed to last forever or instill the fear of God in the hearts of little people.
Compare that to the magnificent cathedrals of Europe.
In Asia, traditional buildings — even royal palaces or important Buddhist temples — don’t attract your attention the way that Il Duomo in Florence or the Notre Dame of Paris do, standing majestic and tall, poking the sky.
They blend into the background, aiming to harmonize with the surrounding mountain or sea, rather than overwhelm it.
What is more, they are built with the expectation that they will decay and return to dust. So you see a lot of wood, which twists and falls apart in time. The paint fades with rain and time.
Everything returns to nothing.
That’s on purpose.
It is amazing to understand excellence as being in harmony with space and time.
What changes when we place our devotion right in the middle of the death and decay of life?
More by: Simone
Simone Grace Seol is an oracular creator based in Seoul. She is descended from Buddhist teachers and shamans who traversed realms beyond death.
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