Fika There is a word in Swedish that refuses to be merely translated. Fika—from the nineteenth-century slang inversion of kaffe (coffee)—is routinely rendered into English…
Furusato – Nostalgia Furusato (古里 / 故郷) is the Japanese word for one’s native place, hometown, or birthplace, but to translate it as merely hometown…
Zen – Enlightenment Zen (禅) is not a philosophy, not a religion in the Western sense, and not a wellness technique. It is a method…
Qi (Chi) Energy Qi (氣), also rendered as chi in Wade-Giles romanization, and as ki (気) in Japanese, is one of the oldest and most…
Taksu – Spirit Taksu is best understood as a distinctly Balinese Hindu concept with etymological roots in Sanskrit. The word derives from the Old Javanese/Kawi…
Sankofa – Retrieval The Akan symbol of Sankofa is a bird flying forward while looking backward, or sometimes an abstract heart shape. It means: It…
Mono No Aware – Impermanence Mono no aware (物の哀れ), literally the pathos of things, or the sadness of existence, is one of the most refined…
Querencia – Roots The term originates in tauromachy (bullfighting), where it describes the specific spot in the arena that the bull returns to repeatedly during…
Tokoro – Character Tokoro (所 / ところ) is one of those Japanese words that seems simple on the surface, place, spot, location, but reveals layers…
Ìtùtú – Equilibrium The Yoruba concept of ìtùtú (coolness) is a major aesthetic and spiritual category in Yoruba thought, that the universe is animated by…
Ma’at – Balance True serenity (hotep) was considered the result of acting in accordance with the ancient Egyptian philosophy of Ma’at. Ma’at (mꜣʿt) was the…
Hotep (\(tp\)) – Serenity Hotep says: “Everything is as it should be.” The concept of serenity is best captured by the Egyptian word ḥtp (hotep),…
Ma (間) – Space Ma (間) is one of the most profound and untranslatable concepts in Japanese aesthetics and philosophy. While it literally means space,…