ikigai

生命的意義

Circles of life

生命的圓圈

Many Japanese are bemused by the global resonance of an obscure concept

許多日本人對(duì)一個(gè)不起眼的概念在全球引起反響感到困惑

• be·mused?/b??mju?zd/?/b??mju?zd/ adjective

showing?that?you?are?confused?and?unable?to?think?clearly?困惑的；茫然的 ?

1 NORM TAM spent most of his life climbing up the corporate ladder. In his early 40s he was earning a hefty salary as an executive at a global shipping firm. But he could not help feeling a bit empty. He started Googling terms such as “meaning” and “purpose”. Eventually, he stumbled upon a Venn diagram showing four circles labelled “what you love”, “what you are good at”, “what the world needs”, and “what you can be paid for”. His eyes fixed on the peculiar foreign word at the intersection of the circles: ikigai.

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譚諾姆一生中大部分時(shí)間都在向企業(yè)的高層攀登。在他40歲出頭的時(shí)候，他在一家全球航運(yùn)公司擔(dān)任高管，賺取著豐厚的薪水，但他難免感到有些空虛。他開(kāi)始在谷歌上搜索 "意義 "和 "目的 "等詞語(yǔ)。最后，他偶然發(fā)現(xiàn)了一張文氏圖，圖中有四個(gè)圓圈，分別標(biāo)明 "你所愛(ài)的"、"你所擅長(zhǎng)的"、"世界需要的 "和 "你能得到報(bào)酬的事情"。他的目光定格在圓圈交匯處的一個(gè)奇特的外語(yǔ)單詞上：ikigai。

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2 Mr Tam, who lives in Canada, is one of many Westerners to have discovered the Japanese term, which loosely translates as “reason for being”. The diagram, created in 2014 by Marc Winn, a British entrepreneur, has gone viral online, especially on LinkedIn. A self-help book by two Spanish writers, “Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life”, has been translated into 63 languages, sold more than 3m copies and helped globalise the concept. “The Eastern, Asian approach is inspirational,” says Paul Donkers, a career coach in the Netherlands. He dispatches more than 100 licensed (by himself) ikigai coaches worldwide “to help people find meaningful careers”. There are now ikigai weight-loss pills and crypto-companies.

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居住在加拿大的譚先生是發(fā)現(xiàn)這個(gè)日本術(shù)語(yǔ)的許多西方人之一，它被寬泛地翻譯為 "生命的意義"。該圖由英國(guó)企業(yè)家馬克-溫(Marc Winn)于2014年創(chuàng)建，后在網(wǎng)上瘋傳，尤其是在LinkedIn。兩位西班牙作家寫(xiě)的一本自我?guī)椭臅?shū)《Ikigai: 日本人的幸福長(zhǎng)壽秘訣》，已被翻譯成63種語(yǔ)言，銷售了300多萬(wàn)冊(cè)，并幫助將這一概念全球化。"荷蘭的職業(yè)培訓(xùn)師保羅-唐克斯（Paul Donkers）說(shuō)："東方、亞洲的方法是鼓舞人心的。他向全世界派遣了100多名有執(zhí)照的（由他自己頒發(fā)的）ikigai培訓(xùn)師，"幫助人們找到有意義的職業(yè)"?，F(xiàn)在有了ikigai減肥藥和加密貨幣公司。

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3 Mr Tam, too, launched a business inspired by the concept: IKIGAI Coaching. “When I first saw the diagram, I was terrified…I knew I was not living my ikigai,” he says. Ever since, those circles have guided him “l(fā)ike the lights on an airport runway”. At his workshops, he helps corporate leaders and executives fill in the diagram’s prompts. He advises meditation to help “unlock” their potential, he says.

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譚先生也在這個(gè)概念的啟發(fā)下開(kāi)展了一項(xiàng)業(yè)務(wù)，IKIGAI培訓(xùn)。他說(shuō)："當(dāng)我第一次看到這張圖時(shí)，我很害怕......我知道我沒(méi)有活出我的ikigai"。從那時(shí)起，這些圓圈就 "像機(jī)場(chǎng)跑道上的燈光一樣 "引導(dǎo)著他。在他的研討會(huì)上，他幫助企業(yè)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人和高管填寫(xiě)圖表中的提示。他建議通過(guò)冥想來(lái)幫助 "釋放 "他們的潛力。

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4 Yet few in Japan give much thought to the idea. When TED, a conference, staged several talks on the concept, a tweet by a baffled Japanese observer went viral: “Apparently, there’s an ancient Japanese philosophy called ‘ikigai’…h(huán)uh? What’s that?”. Native speakers seldom use the term. If they do, it is in the context of small joys, such as spending time with family or enjoying hobbies, says Kanda Nobuhiko, a psychologist at Bunkyo University near Tokyo. “If I decide to sneak out of a lecture to have a beer, that counts as my ikigai.”

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然而，在日本很少有人會(huì)考慮這個(gè)想法。當(dāng)TED（一個(gè)會(huì)議）舉辦了幾場(chǎng)關(guān)于這個(gè)概念的講座時(shí)，一位困惑的日本觀察家在推特上發(fā)了一條博客，"顯然，有一種古老的日本哲學(xué)叫做'ikigai'...嗯？那是什么？"。日本人很少使用這個(gè)詞。東京附近的文京大學(xué)心理學(xué)家Kanda Nobuhiko說(shuō)，如果他們這樣說(shuō)，那是在小確幸的背景下，例如與家人共度時(shí)光或享受愛(ài)好。"如果我決定從講座中溜出來(lái)喝杯啤酒，這也算作我的ikigai。"

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5 Ikigai thus joins a long list of Japanese words that have been repurposed to lend an aura of ancient wisdom—and exoticism—to banal ideas. Kakeibo has been peddled as the “Japanese art of saving money” (in practice, keeping a notebook to track finances). Shinrin-yoku, or the Japanese art of “forest bathing”, is really just going for a nice stroll in nature. Wabi-sabi describes an interior design trend that embraces minimalist decor and natural materials. In Japan, it refers to an aesthetic philosophy of appreciating imperfection. (Hygge, a Danish word meaning something like “cosiness”, has suffered a similar fate.)

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因此，Ikigai加入了一長(zhǎng)串日語(yǔ)詞匯的行列，這些詞匯被稍加修改，為平庸的想法披上了古老的智慧和異國(guó)情調(diào)的光環(huán)。Kakeibo被兜售為 "日本的省錢藝術(shù)"（在實(shí)踐中，保持一個(gè)筆記本來(lái)跟蹤財(cái)務(wù)狀況）。Shinrin-yoku，或日本的 "森林浴 "藝術(shù)，實(shí)際上只是在大自然中進(jìn)行一次愉快的漫步。Wabi-sabi描述的是一種室內(nèi)設(shè)計(jì)趨勢(shì)，即擁抱極簡(jiǎn)主義裝飾和自然的材料，在日本，它指的是一種欣賞不完美的美學(xué)哲學(xué)。(Hygge，一個(gè)丹麥詞，意思是 "舒適"，也有類似的命運(yùn)）。

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6 Yet the difference in interpretation also owes something to the passage of time. In 1966, Kamiya Mieko, a Japanese psychiatrist, published “Ikigai-ni-Tsuite” (About Ikigai), a thoughtful memoir based on her experience of treating leprosy patients at a sanatorium on the small south-western island of Nagashima. Her message, that individuals can overcome hardships so long as they have something to look forward to, resonated during a period of soaring living standards and corporate drudgery.

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然而，解釋上的差異也歸因于時(shí)間的流逝。1966年，日本精神病學(xué)家神谷美惠子出版了 "Ikigai-ni-Tsuite"（關(guān)于Ikigai），這是一本深思熟慮的回憶錄，基于她在長(zhǎng)島（一個(gè)日本西南部的小島）療養(yǎng)院治療麻風(fēng)病人的經(jīng)驗(yàn)。她所傳達(dá)的信息是，只要有期待，個(gè)人就能克服困難，這在生活成本飆升和工作繁重的時(shí)期引起了共鳴。

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7 Some Japanese experts have been all too happy to capitalise on ikigai’s global appeal. In “Awakening Your Ikigai: How the Japanese Wake Up to Joy and Purpose Every Day”, Mogi Kenichiro, a neuroscientist in Tokyo, claims that ikigai is “highly immersed in Japanese culture”. He makes his case through figures familiar to foreigners, such as Ono Jiro, a sushi chef made famous by a Netflix documentary, and Miyazaki Hayao, a much-loved anime filmmaker.

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一些日本專家非常樂(lè)意基于ikigai的全球影響力將其變現(xiàn)。東京的神經(jīng)科學(xué)家Mogi Kenichiro在《喚醒你的ikigai：日本人如何每天從快樂(lè)和目標(biāo)中醒來(lái)》中聲稱，ikigai "高度滲透在日本文化中"。他通過(guò)外國(guó)人熟悉的人物來(lái)說(shuō)明他的觀點(diǎn)，例如因一部Netflix紀(jì)錄片而成名的壽司主廚小野二郎，以及備受喜愛(ài)的動(dòng)漫制片人宮崎駿。

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8 Others would like to see the concept make a comeback inside Japan. Despite its reputation as a land of healthy, long-lived people, Japan is hardly a utopia. It has the highest suicide rate in the G7, a club of rich countries. Its demanding corporate culture has led to cases of karoshi, or death from overwork. The government has tried to legislate its way to a healthier work style, with limited effect. Perhaps Japan, too, could do with a bit more ikigai.

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其他人則希望看到這一概念在日本國(guó)內(nèi)卷土重來(lái)。盡管日本被譽(yù)為健康長(zhǎng)壽之國(guó)，但它并不是一個(gè)烏托邦。它的自殺率在七國(guó)集團(tuán)（一個(gè)富裕國(guó)家俱樂(lè)部）中是最高的。其苛刻的企業(yè)文化導(dǎo)致了 "過(guò)勞死 "的案例。政府曾試圖以立法的方式建立一種更健康的工作方式，但效果有限。也許日本也可以多一點(diǎn)ikigai。