Lessons from the bamboo | Garr Reynolds | TEDxTokyo

An award-winning writer, designer and musician, Garr Reynolds is an associate professor of management at Kansai Gaidai University in Osaka Japan. He lives in the quiet countryside of Nara amidst the ubiquitous bamboo trees. He is heavily influenced by Japanese culture, and his talk is deeply rooted in the lessons he has learnt from living there for many years. His approach, which embraces the Zen tenets of restraint, simplicity and naturalness, have fundamentally changed the way people design and deliver presentations.

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences.

(Japanese) Good Morning.

How are you?

Once again.

How are you?

Ok, that's all the Japanese.
(Laughter)

I have a question for you.

And here's the question.

What inspires you?

Or that is,

what is it about Japan, Japanese culture
that inspires you?

Whether you are Japanese
or not Japanese,

I'm sure you could answer that.

How about the guys from Dubai?

Thanks for coming, by the way.

What inspires you?
What brought you to Japan?

(Audience) It's a long story.

It's a long story. This is TEDx.
We don't have time for that.

Ok, let me tell you my story.

For me, it's nature.
I mean, there are many things.

And of course family is most important.

But the close second is the nature
in Japan. And it's gorgeous.

Even Japanese who move away from Japan
always talk about, you know,

"I really miss the nature."

And they also say,
"I miss the Onsen (hot spring)."

So it's not just nature,
but the special connection

that Japanese have developed
over hundreds of years with nature, right?

You can see that in this picture here.

And of course historically,
a traditional culture,

it's changed after World War II,
things changed.

Now we are kind of going back,

but traditional architecture
didn't deny nature.

It brought it in.

It says, "We are connected to nature".

The materials are natural,

and we want to see nature and bring it in.

And if you look at the traditional
Zen arts, of course,

Sado (tea ceremony),
Sumie (Indian-ink drawing),

Ikebana (flower arrangement),
and on and on.

These are all about nature,
very much inspired by nature.

The subject is often nature.

And, in the martial arts as well.

I know some of you study
some of the martial arts.

Aikido is the one that's closest to me.

And if you study the martial arts,
the masters always talk about the nature.

How we can learn from nature,
nature is always speaking to us.

Of course this isn't my phrase.

This is Ueshiba Sensei (Master)
who you may know better

as Ou Sensei who invented Aikido.

As he says,
"Nature is always speaking to us."

For example, he said,

"Everything, even the mountains,
rivers, plants, and trees -

everything should be our teacher."

He talked about the stream
in the mountain, for example.

It winds its way through the rocks.
It finds its way.

It's shapeless. It's formless.

But without complaint,

somehow it finds its way
down the mountain, right?

"You should be like water"
as Bruce Lee said.

"Be like water, my friend".

And of course this is my favorite one.

He said, "Study the teachings
of the palm tree".

Oh sorry, not the palm tree.

Sorry, I used to live in Hawaii.
Well, but the palm tree is good, too.

The pine tree, and the bamboo.
I should come to rehearsal.

And the plum blossom.

These are called
the three friends of winter.

Maybe you've heard of it this way.

For example, the plum blossom
is hardy and elegant.

It comes out early before spring has come,

it's actually out there.

Like a leader saying,
"Spring is coming, don't worry."

"I'm here now and I'm beautiful".

And then, of course the pine tree
which is actually all year around.

It's beautiful like trusted friend,

it's sturdy, and it's always there.

So I really think that nature
is a great teacher for us.

It is the best teacher actually,
that I found.

That's what Japan has taught me.

So if I can go back to the slide
that I screwed up before.

It is the bamboo, to me,
that is the one element in Japan I think,

that sort of represents
what the Japanese spirit is,

what the Japanese spirit has taught me
through art and many other things.

So let me tell you why I think that.
I used to live in Osaka.

Anyone from Kansai? Kansai-jin?

Bochi-bochi yana (dialect in the region).
(Laughter)

I'm from Osaka, is a big city
if you don't know,

watching from around the world,
bigger than New York.

It's a massive city.

We like to say,

"Kitanai machiyakedo".
(Although the city is messy)

But it's great, I love living there.
But we moved.

We built a house in Nara in the mountains.

It's sort of like moving
from Manhattan to Connecticut.

But there is more bamboo,
and fewer volvos.

And we have a lot of deer,
but that's another presentation.

That will be next week.

I don't want to talk about deer.

I want to talk about bamboo.

This was my view for many years
from my home office.

I work from home a lot of the time.
It has its own inspiration.

A lot of people out there.
So I went from that to this.

This is a picture as we are still
constructing our house.

And that's the view outside my office now.

There are no people there, just bamboo.
So it's been a couple of years.

I've always been interested in bamboo,

but in the last couple of years
I really began to talk to the bamboo.

So this is what it looks like
out around our house.

I go jogging through here, go hiking,
sometimes just standing

and speaking with the bamboo.

So, I have 10 lessons from bamboo,
but actually this is TEDx.

So I don't have much time. So just nine.

See me in the break for the others.
(Laughter)

Ok, the first one is to remember
what looks weak is actually strong.

Bamboo is incredibly strong.

Pound for pound, stronger than steal,
in terms of tensile strength,

stronger than concrete in many ways.

This is not Japan by the way
but in many Asian countries,

you can use it as scaffolding.

It's amazingly strong.

This is a little video I took
in my backyard just to show.

This is small bamboo
but it's very very hard,

and yet flexible and hollow
as you can tell.

But in the western world
at least where I grew up,

the idea to be strong
is you have to be big.

Like the redwood.
"Be big and powerful and strong".

But as we know and I learned
in 1980 if you remember.

when Yoda says "Size matters not", right?

(Laughter)

"Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you?"

"Hmm?"
(Laughter)

"Anyway you should not.", right?
That was 1980, some of you remember that.

But you know, I grew up in Oregon
in the United States.

So there's a lot of tree Karma in me.
And a forest is great.

But the forest is kind of
a dark and scary place, too. Right?

Kind of weird things can happen there.

Your parents say,
"Be careful in the forest".

But the bamboo forest is different.
It lets in the sun.

So metaphorically, this is the idea
"finding strength in light".

So there's strength and kindness
and compassion and cooperation.

This is very much an Eastern idea.
Particularly a Japanese idea, I think.

You have to be strong to cooperate.

The second thing is, of course
bamboo bends, but does not break.

And we should be like that as well,
shouldn't we?

So this is the video I took again.
There you can see.

This is not a very windy day
but even on a very very windy day,

the bamboo would just kind of
go with the flow. And so should we.

That's something that Japanese
culture has taught me through the years.

If you try to fight against it, of course,

then the results are not always good.

Number three is to be deeply rooted
yet flexible.

So I can talk forever about this,
but you see the baby bamboo.

Their roots are already very very
deep and wide.

This picture is in my neighborhood.
As you can see, surrounded by bamboo.

So the bamboo is there.

It's flexible, but the metaphor is we need
to establish roots in our community.

We are losing some of that.

But in the old days, even before
the formal schools, we had education.

That was the job of the community.

So I think this is something
bamboo teaches us.

Be deeply rooted in your community.

And also you can remain flexible
and creative and international.

Also if you go into the bamboo forest,

you will learn to slow down
your busy mind.

which is ever more important today
when we have so much information.

The Taoist wisdom says, "We cannot see
our reflection in running water.

It is only in still water
that we can see".

And when I go into to the bamboo,
or when you go into the bamboo forest,

you can find inspiration there.

This is where great ideas come from.

Shaun Clee, says "We do know where
great ideas come from,

but they don't come from your laptop".

So I'm very happy to see
no laptops are open here.

That's amazing.
No one told you that? I don't think.

That's great.
If you go to some companies,

I won't mention names,
like Google and so on.

But if you go there to present,
every laptop is open. Right?

So I think this is great.
This is the TED sprit.

Be here now, be somewhere else later.

And the bamboo teaches us that.

Sorry Google.
(Laughter)

Anyway, number five,
Bamboo teaches us to always be ready.

So this is a quote from Furuya sensei.

He passed away, but he was a great
Aikido master from Los Angels, actually.

As he said, "The warrior -"
that is the warrior of peace -

"like the bamboo,
should be ever ready for action".

So through practice, through education,
we make ourselves ready

for any situation that we may find.

The sixth thing is to find wisdom
within emptiness.

Now, Zen talks all about emptiness.

We can be here until the cows come home,
talking about emptiness.

So, I just want to talk about one aspect
so I can quote Bruce Lee.

As he said, "Empty your cup
so that it may be filled".

Too many of us are like this.

We are already filled up
with preconceived notions and prejudice.

We can't learn anything new
until we first empty our cup.

And of course, my favorite master,
master Yoda said the same thing.

So let's all say this together
in the Yoda voice. Se-no,

"You must unlearn
what's you have learned."

Hm, that's very good.
(Laughter)

Ok. Number seven,

and this is something in Japanese culture
you learn very early on,

is the idea of committing yourself
to continual growth and personal renewal.

For example, if you look at the bamboo,
it can grow sometimes up to a meter a day

if you can believe that,
some kinds of bamboo.

Over 100 feet, over 35 meters or so.

And this is not Japanese.
This is a Chinese Kotowaza (Proverb).

But I think you can understand
the Kanaji (Chinese character).

It says, "Even a 100 foot stock of bamboo
can progress one more step".

So the Japanese idea is,
"If you think you have arrived,

You've already begun your decline".

You are never satisfied.

If you ask these great Zen masters,
or a martial arts master,

"Oh, you are so great,"
and he'll say, "Not yet".

This is a very powerful lesson,
I think for many of us from the West.

Never be satisfied.
To always try to get a little bit better.

Then of course, the bamboo is wonderful

for expressing its usefulness
through simplicity.

And as Furuya sensei
says the same thing.

The bamboo does this. We should do it.
The world is so complicated.

We can differentiate ourselves
and be more useful if we simplify things,

which isn't easy to do.

You know this Kanji, right?

This is one form of simplicity.

This here, that's Take, bamboo at the top.

So, actually in Kanji,

there are hundreds of characters
that have bamboo in it.

But this is the essence.

Bamboo is very much associated
with simplicity.

You see the bamboo here, right,
and the whisk of course and the mat.

Bamboo is absolutely everywhere
in Japanese culture

and in Asia in general.

I just took this picture a few days ago.
This is my friend's scarf.

We were talking about bamboo,

she took off her scarf from Italy,

100 percent bamboo -
it's absolutely everywhere

and of course this is my neighbor.

I don't know where he got
the bamboo legally.

Anyway, he's making a fence.
(Laughter)

I noticed something was missing.

Even making a fence with bamboo -
it's amazingly useful and it's beautiful.

We should be like that.

The final thing is bamboo teaches us
to unleash our power to spring back.

This is very very important
now more so than ever.

Here you can see a photo.

This is bamboo in the foreground,

lots of heavy snow, it bends over
as it accumulates ice it'll bend,

sometimes it'll bend even all the way over
and touch the ground on the other side

but in the spring it bounces back.

We should be like that.

Many people right now are going
through a kind of winter of their own.

This reminds me of this Kotowaza.
Everyone knows this one?

How many people can actually read this?

Seino "Nanakorobi yaoki".

Wow, this is great audience!
It didn't work in Paris, I tried.

(Laughter)

But this is really the essence
of the bamboo.

This is the essence of what Japanese
culture has taught me.

And this reminded me
of the great American philosopher

Rocky Balboa.
(Laughter)

(Music: Theme of Rocky)

You can put your hands together.
It's alright.

(Clapping)

All right.

Rocky said, this was in his latest movie,
Rocky 37 or whatever it was.

(Laughter)

He said, "It ain't about how hard
you can hit,

it's about how hard you can get hit

and keep moving forward,

how much you can take
and keep moving forward.

That's how winning is done."

That's kind of Zen in it's own way.

That's the American version of

"Fall down a thousand times,
get up a thousand and one,

but never never ever give up."

All right, so what are the lessons
from the bamboo then?

First of all, flexibility
and adaptability.

When you asked me
what is Japanese character

these words come to mind.

And this boils down into one single word

which to me describes bamboo
and describes Japanese character

which is resilience
and to never never give up.

So be like the bamboo, my friends.

Be like the bamboo.

Japanese: Thank you very much.

(Applause)

Thank you.