Friday, November 15, 2013

No Deadlock in the Kingdom of God



This lecture was delivered at the Second Sunday Service on May 5, 2013.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you very much for coming to this Sunday Service. In Seicho-No-Ie we learn about the True-Image World and that there is no deadlock in that world. However, in our everyday life we see many people who have no way to move forward. They seem to be stuck at a dead end. We learn how to get out of a dead end bring out our inner power which dwells in us by fully living in the present moment. If we want to live our life fully, we put everything in one moment and one thing. In the third article of Seicho-No-Ie Articles of Faith, it is sated: “I am sincere in my every word and action! –Troubles do not come from the outside. When sincerity is not manifesting—that condition is in effect trouble. It is not that one has no sincerity within himself. It is just that he does not manifest it. Sincerity means with one’s entire mind, total power, all one’s might. Sincerity gives life to now. Wherever sincerity is demonstrated the place becomes a heavenly paradise at once.”

In other words, when we demonstrate our sincerity, it is the same thing as living our life fully. Then, God’s salvation comes to us. In the Truth of Life Volume 7¸ Rev. Masaharu Taniguchi wrote about this as follows:

“When a person puts his entire body and soul into what he is doing, a certain sincerity of intent is displayed. Sincerity in Japanese is makoto, which literally means the ‘total mind,’ or ‘wholeheartedness.’ It is an attitude that would concentrate one’s entire power on one thing. That is the power to which Lord Michizane Sugawara alluded in his poem:
    If only with the way of sincerity the mind accords,
    Even without praying, God protects.
When one’s entire strength is concentrated on one thing, completely, the infinite power of God goes into action.” (Ibid., p. 82)

It is essential for us to live this way of life. Then, without praying God protects us. When I was in Southern California, I went to a restaurant in front of beach in Malibu for a wedding. It was a very small wedding only for the couple, their parents and family members. There were 10 people including the photographer and me. I was asked to officiate the ceremony by Mrs. Shigeko Sasamori who is a Hiroshima Atomic Bomb survivor. According to Mrs. Sasamori, almost all people who were within 1.5 km of the bomb explosion were killed. However, she was an exception. Her life seemed at an impasse because although she survived from Atomic Bomb, she has been a bombing casualty since then and has had to live with its consequences. Fortunately, she was able to be grateful to everyone and everything and her life was changed completely.

When she was 13 years old, Mrs. Sasamori and her friend saw something falling from the sky. Then, suddenly a big explosion occurred. Her friend died instantly. Mrs. Sasamori’s entire upper body was exposed to radiation and her skin was all black. It came off and was partially hanging. She wandered around, and fell down in front of the elementary school. She murmured her name and address. Someone heard her and four days later her parents were able to find her. Her upper body was keloidal like scars from a fire.

Fortunately, Mrs. Sasamori found a church whose music brought healing of her mind. Then, she was selected for an aid program started by Norman Cousins and was able to go to the United States after World War II to have surgery. She had surgery over 20 times. When I saw her, her face remains with little scars like burns and some of her fingers are shorter than a regular person’s. However, because of this surgery her attached fingers were separated and implanted skin from her legs was applied to her face and upper body. She was saved by kind American doctors and nurses.

Through this experience she decided to become a nurse. Norman Cousins helped her. She went to a nurses’ college in Connecticut and started working in New York. Later she married and had a baby boy. She named him Norman. She later divorced and moved to California. Through her life experience she was able to forgive America and decided to live in the United States.

In June, 1980, Mrs. Sasamori was asked to speak of her experience of the bombing first and then she has helped whatever she could to contribute to world peace. Last year she was not able to come home for 6 months because of her business trip sharing her experience. She went to Europe, Japan and South America. One time she had a layover at the Los Angeles airport from South America, and she decided to go back to her home to exchange her summer clothes for winter clothes, so she was able to continue her trip to Japan.

She is almost 80 but works hard to help others and world peace through her experience. In 2010, she was invited to the graduation ceremony at Winona State University in Minnesota. At first she declined because she didn’t think she was a person to speak at a university graduation. However, they insisted and persuaded her saying “Students will graduate by listening to your experience.” She gave a speech and, at the same time, received an honorable doctor’s degree of humanities from the university. I believe she deserved it. She lives her life fully with honest and heartfelt gratitude toward the people who helped her. At the wedding reception where I officiated, she told me that she totally agrees how important it is to be grateful to our parents and everyone and everything in the universe as described in the Divine Message. Our founder wrote:

    “When we say that sincerity is lacking we mean that a person is not doing his best. He can put forth much greater effort, that is do much better, but he is only trying to get by. He who tries only to get by does not live the Seicho-No-Ie way of life. He does not tread the path of spiritual growth. He does not walk the road to victory.” (Truth of Life Volume 7, p. 83)

Mrs. Sasamori’s life was once destroyed by the bomb, but her thoughts of gratitude and actions changed her life completely. Let us walk the road to victory by living sincerely. Then, although the situation seems to be at an impasse, everything will go well because God appears when we can be grateful to everyone and everything in the universe, i.e. reconciled with the whole universe. In the Divine Message of Grand Harmony it is stated, “To be reconciled with the whole universe means to be grateful to everything in the universe…If you wish to call on me, first be reconciled with everything in the universe. Since I am Love, I shall appear when you have become reconciled with the whole universe.” Please share this teaching of gratitude to as many people as possible and let other people who encounter difficulties become free. Thank you very much.

No comments:

Post a Comment