Ep246: Subtle Art of a Cat - John Maki Evans 2
John Maki Evans is a teacher of Japanese swordsmanship, practitioner of several syncretic esoteric Japanese spiritual disciplines, and author of ‘Kurikara: The Sword and the Serpent’.
Available on Youtube, iTunes, SoundCloud & Spotify – search ‘Guru Viking Podcast’.
John discusses his time at Oxford University, his depression as a student, and why it took him years in a monastery and extensive training in Japan to undo the effects of academic study on his mind.
John shares his insights into ‘The Subtle Art of a Cat’, a little known, centuries old Japanese text with a potent message about spiritual cultivation, true art, and complete spontaneity.
John tells the story of the text and explores its hidden meanings, including how to maintain awareness during dynamic action, access freedom and flow, and move beyond self consciousness.
John also reflects on his powerful near-death experience, the art of teaching, and how to harmonise the primal forces of Thanatos and Eros, death and desire.
00:00 - Intro
01:09 - Getting into Oxford University
04:30 - John’s experiences at Oxford University
07:57 - Struggles with depression
09:12 - Bad effect of Oxford on John’s mind
10:25 - Stultification and John’s personality
11:04 - Time at the monastery and releasing inner stuckness
13:26 - Time in Japan and developing a different personality
17:28 - How John learned Japanese
18:43 - Study arc for reading Japanese classics
21:19 - Gaining practice value from texts
23:37 - Accessing the real thing
27:22 - The Subtle Art of a Cat
33:17 - The polarising ego
35:14 - Spontaneity and beyond self consciousness
37:09 - Neti neti
39:12 - Spontaneous action and the spiritual side of martial arts
41:35 - Freedom and flow
43:09 - Maintaining awareness and complete spontaneity
45:47 - John’s life changing near-death experience
54:20 - Hara power, the unconscious, and the survival instinct
58:16 - True martial cultivation
01:00:06 - Common mistakes and hurting oneself
01:04:11 - Complete body-mind participation
01:05:43 - Evaluating quality of movement and being
01:07:46 - Duende and art
01:09:18 - England and the old white male
01:10:24 - Learning to be with Thanatos and Eros
01:12:39 - The Gate of Killing and Death
01:15:39 - Harmonising intuition and manipulation
01:16:16 - Egotism in the martial arts
01:18:00 - Becoming exposed and the art
Previous episode with John Maki Evans:
To find out more about John Maki Evans, visit:
Read ‘The Subtle Art of a Cat’
Music ‘Deva Dasi’ by Steve James