In this age of myopic scrolling, we need Ma more than ever.
The time in between my clapping is ma. If you just have non-stop action with no breathing space at all, it’s just busyness, but if you take a moment, then the tension building in the film can grow into a wider dimension.— Hayao Miyazaki
For God’s Sake, Say Something!
At the end of a recent trip to Maine, I was on my way to Portland airport. My good friend Sonia, who I’ve known for over twenty years, drove me along RT 1.
The trip from Midcoast, where she lives, is about a seventy-minute commute. We pass over bridges, over Penobscot Bay, and through quaint towns like Damariscotta, Wiscasset, and Bath.
The drive is, well, quiet.
About forty minutes into the trip, Sonia looked at me and said, “You’re too quiet.”
While I’m not an introvert, many introverted people find a comment like that intolerable. You can find plenty of “appropriate” replies to these comments and endless conversation threads on you’re too-quiet slings.
Why do people might make these comments? I can discuss societal norms and cultures — they are certainly valid reasons.
Instead, I’ll settle for the uncomfortableness of silence in an abysmal ocean of digital crap.
In our scrolling-media-savaged realities, we are wired almost 24/7. Our brains crave incessant, dopamine-inducing stimulation — and that includes chatter. Mindless chatter.
Studies show scrolling induces anxiety and depression — yet it also produces a quick dopamine rush, the neurotransmitter associated with pleasure. Notifications or likes on posts trigger dopamine release, eliciting positive feelings.
Just like a drug, perpetual scrolling “hooks” us to want more — and that’s exactly how platforms like Instagram were created using the Habit-Forming Design concept.
Many people, like my friend Sonia, become unsettled in silence. And that’s okay.
For them, it’s just damn uncomfortable. They crave something to fill that space of silence, something to make them feel more at ease with the world.
We find beauty not in the thing itself but in the patterns of shadows, the light and the darkness, that one thing against another creates. — Junichiro Tanizaki
Ma — the Beauty of Silence
What we need now is the Japanese concept known as Ma.
Ma is an emptiness in space, a pause, a ceasing, a void — the silence between notes in music and spoken and written words. It is a negative space in paintings and the strategic spacing in architecture.
Ma transcends emptiness.
Comprised of the Japanese characters for door 門 and sun 日, Ma represents a door filled with sunlight.
Ma represents the essential elements life requires to breathe, feel, and connect. Without silence and pause, growth is stifled — and so is our ability to thrive.
This universal principle permeates every facet of existence — if we ignore it, we create a void within a void — and allow chaos to win.
How to Welcome Ma Into Your Life
Ma is integral to Japanese thought and embodies everyday life in Japan. And there are plenty of reasons to make it part of your life. Here are three.
Pause Your Impulses
Ask anyone who’s done business with the Japanese, and they will confirm that important decisions move very slowly. This is Ma in action.
The Japanese pause before taking action because they understand long-term thinking is important — especially in financial decisions. They contemplate every aspect of the situation— including the emotional aspects.
The use of Ma in business (and in daily life) teaches us a long-term thinking mindset (and you’ll find this concept in every business book ever written, and hear it from some of the most successful masters of business. Steve Jobs was a fan.)
In our chaotic world, it’s easy to be reactionary, and inundated with emotions that cloud our thinking, leading to disastrous decisions.
Instead of reacting, pause and breathe. Move into a long-term thinking mindset.
2. Make Conversation More Meaningful
When the Japanese bow, the deliberate pause at the end before straightening the back shows deep respect. The absence of a pause is considered rude.
The same is true in conversation. When Japanese speak, their conversations are imbibed with pauses — what is unsaid is more important than what is said.
In the West, pauses demonstrate intelligence and culture — unnecessary words and listless chatter are considered a waste of energy — and dialogue absent of silence is considered uncouth.
In conversation, the concept of Ma is strictly adhered to, or you are deemed ma-nuke, or a fool.
Speaking without pause in the West means you did not think or listen to what was said.
3. Organize Your Life
Sumi-e brush painting (and all traditional Japanese art) contains white, or empty, unpainted areas that intentionally contrast the paint and shapes. Ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai’s nishiki-e prints, for example, are full of space interspersed with shapes and color.
This is Ma in art and the same concept is true of life. The relationship between form and non-form (Ma) in painting is exactly how we should better organize our lives.
Ma is about the pause (space) we contemplate to get the larger picture in our lives—one that is absent of distractions. Think about all the anxious thoughts you might have had yesterday. These are mere annoyances that prevent you from arriving at any solution.
Ma gives us perspective by ensuring adequate space between thoughts and actions. Think of it this way: birth is a beginning leading to a destination, death.
Life is Ma.
Ma is a universal canvas for our growth and its fundamentals enrich not only our cognitive functioning but also our interactions with the environment.
Considering spaces in every aspect of your daily interactions helps organize your life and places a focus on the meaning of relationships. What do they mean to you?
The Japanese have four different words for “space” (ironically, Japanese words for space focus on relationships with people):
Wa is an awareness of connections.
Ba is an awareness of knowledge.
Tokorois an awareness of place, or state of being
Ma, of course, is an awareness of negative space, or moments of quiet.
Perhaps our most difficult task is to silence negative thoughts. Understanding each of these four concepts helps you enrich your life.
Society is a perpetual swarm of non-stop chaos. It’s a pursuit of things, possessions, wealth, status, and bigger and better everything.
It’s a belief and fear of lack and what might happen when there is none. Yet in this hustle to achieve is the belief that obtaining more will make us happier.
Our pursuit leaves us hollow and incredibly detached because of the absence of Ma.
Ma embodies the beauty of silence, the embracing of space, and the luxuriousness of pause.
Listen. It’s in music — Mozart used it — and in architecture, Frank Lloyd Wright cultivated it. Living in his spaces enriched lives and the environment because his use of Ma included a blending of nature into structure.
And it can be in you. But you must put it there by building kizuna (enduring bonds and close relationships).
The next time you hear “you’re too quiet,” just smile and nod and share your silence a little longer.
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