Framing the Fuji Television Building

 In Cityscapes, Travelscapes

The site’s redesign took longer than expected and I am glad that it is back up and running again. Hope you guys will enjoy the new design and layout.

Sharing one of the shots taken during my recent visit to Tokyo. This was the first time I actually visited the Odaiba district. As I was walking along the bridge I came across the headquarters of Fuji TV and decided to use the edges of the bridge to frame this striking architecture. The dome at the top of the building is the observatory deck. Regretfully, I didn’t get enough time to visit. I imagined it would be really beautiful up there especially during sunset. Supposedly, you are able to get an awesome view of the Tokyo Bay and the Odaiba precinct from the observatory. There is also a Statue of Liberty at the Tokyo Bay which came as a surprise for me.

Sometimes when we reach the crossroads in life, we wonder why we are stuck. Getting stuck is not the problem, reaching the crossroads in the first place is the problem. Let me explain. From a very young age, we are taught that there must be an effort in everything we do. The harder it is, the better for our growth. We call these challenges. When we purposely seek challenges to fulfill our desires in life, we are bound to reach crossroads and make difficult decisions on the way. The harder the challenge, the more we gain or so we thought. Therefore a series of struggles and effort seems like the correct way to a successful life.

The dictionary defines effort as a “strenuous attempt”. Strenuous means demanding or requiring vigorous exertion.

How then can you not suffer if life is always a strenuous attempt?

To face challenge and to exert every effort requires the mind. There is no other way around it. Mind over body is what we call it. You can drive your body to exhaustion just by thinking and that eventually leads to depression.

What if on the contrary, life is about being easy and effortless?

You don’t see the trees putting in too much effort, or the flowers, or even the animals. They just do what they do, or more accurately, what nature intended them to do. There is no effort in that you are alive, your heart is beating and you are breathing. It is natural and it sustains you. You don’t need to think about it. Imagine if you need to think about how to breathe, how would that impact you?

I have heard a parable:

There was once a snail philosopher. He likes to ponder about all things. One day he came across a centipede and he was so impressed with him that he just had to ask, “How did you manage to walk with all those legs?”

The centipede thought for a bit and replied, “I don’t know, I just do.”

Now that the question have been asked, the centipede couldn’t get it out of his mind. He started to ponder about the arduous task of coordinating his hundreds of legs. How did I managed to put one foot in front of the other? Which one should I move first? He fumbled and fell and he never walked the same way again.

The mind, as powerful as it might seem, can sometimes become the greatest hindrance.

Easy and effortlessness is not common among people. Following our nature takes great trust in the energy that moves our spirit. You cannot believe in it because it is not something you can see. How can you trust something you cannot see? It is difficult. What you cannot see doesn’t mean that it do not exist, such as the air we breathe. Something larger than us is giving us our life force, it brought us here, makes each and every one of us unique. Yet we would like to be like the other, have what the others have. We start to reject our intrinsic nature, and refrain from being who we really are within. Slowly it becomes harder to trust ourselves because of the many faces we are trying to emulate. Inevitably, we reach the crossroad from the path that others have chosen for us.

If it is in your nature, everything you do becomes easy and effortlessness. It is just who you are. You might be moving mountains and it will seem like impossible to others, but it is effortless for you because you are born a mountain mover. There are no crossroads, there are only moments. Each moment you behave and act in the only way you know how—by being yourself. In that state, there really are no choices, there is only one way … your own natural way.

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