Explanation of the Shinsokan to Visualize the Four Immeasurable Minds

Thank you very much. Today I will explain Shinsokan to Visualize the Four Immeasurable Minds. The original version of this meditation was created by Founder Rev. Masaharu Taniguchi, who wrote this Shinsokan to embrace humankind with God’s love and the Buddha’s Four Immeasurable Minds. Rev. Masanobu Taniguchi revised this meditation to expand this love not only to humankind but also to all sentient and non-sentient beings, i.e., all minerals, water, wind, sunlight, and Mother Nature. The prayer is as follows:

My mind is one with God’s infinite love and the Four Immeasurable Minds of the Buddha, and it spreads throughout the skies, permeates the universe, and reaches out to all living beings, seeking to remove their suffering, lessen their pain, bring ease and comfort to their life, and give them joy. (Repeat)

All living beings have been relieved of their suffering, their pain has been lessened, ease and comfort have been brought to their life, and they have been blessed with joy. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. (Repeat)

My mind is one with God's infinite love and the Four Immeasurable Minds of the Buddha, and it further spreads throughout the skies, permeates the universe, and reaches out to all lives and minerals on earth, seeking to remove their suffering, bring them ease and comfort, protect their diversity, and give them joy. (Repeat)

Already, all lives on earth have been relieved of their suffering, ease and comfort have been brought to their life, their diversity has been protected, and they have been blessed with joy. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. (Repeat)

Founder Rev. Masaharu Taniguchi introduced this original Shinsokan to Visualize the Four Immeasurable Minds in Seiko Roku (Record of Holy Light). Most Japanese Seicho-No-Ie members have this book and practice the contents of it every day. Founder Rev. Masaharu Taniguchi explained this Shinsokan in this book as follows:

All living beings have been relieved of their suffering, their pain has been lessened, ease and comfort have been brought to their life, and they have been blessed with joy. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

Then visualize intently that all of mankind have been completely relieved from pain and suffering, and get the feeling that you are now leaving everything to God and become grateful. This is not a Shinsokan to seek blessings for your own self but a prayerful meditation to remove the pain and suffering of all of mankind. Therefore, it is not egotistical at all, as a result of which the benefits to you will be greater than in a self-centered meditation. (Seiko Roku, p. 119)

As Rev. Taniguchi wrote, this Shinsokan is not egotistical at all. We pray for all humankind. Remember that this Shinsokan was written 70 or 80 years ago. Considering the current world environment, it is not enough to think only about humankind. We must think about all living beings and the earth itself. As of August 22, 2019, there were 1,954 active wildfires (show the map) in the United States. And, there is a bigger problem because the Amazon rainforest has had continuous wildfires for many months. Since January 2019 there have been 72,843 wildfires in Brazil. The Amazon rainforest produces about 20% of the world’s oxygen, so the current Amazon rainforest wildfires may dramatically accelerate global warming and climate change. 

Why do these negative incidents happen so often? It is because human beings think only about human beings. We must expand God’s love and the Four Immeasurable Minds of the Buddha to all creatures and nature. But, the reality is that still many human beings only think about themselves. For example, according to CNN news, it reported that “Environmental organizations and researchers say the wildfires blazing in the Brazilian rainforest were set by cattle ranchers and loggers who want to clear and utilize the land, emboldened by the country’s pro-business president.” “And 99 percent of the fires result from human actions ‘either on purpose or by accident,’ Alberto Setzer, a senior scientist at INPE, said.” (August 22, 2019)

We need to change our thinking from focusing only on human beings to focusing on all creatures in nature. This is why Rev. Masanobu Taniguchi slightly revised the prayer.

What is the Four Immeasurable Minds? In Buddhist scripture, it is stated, “The Mind of the Buddha is, indeed, the four immeasurable minds of the Buddha,” and these four minds are benevolence, compassion, joy, and equanimity. Benevolence is the mind that feels sympathy and that wants to release people from their sufferings. Compassion is the mind that empathizes with someone’s sorrow and wants to change this sadness to joy. Joy is the state of mind where we can see someone else’s joy and rejoice as if it were our own joy.

It is important that we feel others’ joy as if it were our own joy. Rev. Seicho Taniguchi once talked about this in his grand seminar. He said, “When you find that your neighbor has bought a new car, be delighted and grateful as if you have bought a new car. If you can do this, a new car already belongs to you.” When I listened to this lecture, I wondered how the neighbor’s new car belongs to me. Of course, he did not mean that the neighbor’s car actually belongs to me. But, if I can be delighted with my neighbor’s happiness as if it were mine, then I already have joy in my mind. Since our minds create everything in our lives, a joyous mind will create joy in our lives. Being grateful and being delighted that you already have everything are basic but important ways to realize happiness.

All of you are Seicho-No-Ie leaders in the United States and Canada, so you clearly understand the teaching that the mind creates all. This universe is filled with energy or God’s life that gives life to all things. Although this energy cannot be seen with our naked eyes, we have this energy to use in our daily lives. Human beings have a mind which is a precious gift from God. When we have a thought in our mind, we have shaped this thought into a pattern, model, or mold similar to a mold to make chocolate. Once melted chocolate is filled into these molded shapes, eventually it becomes solid. The universe is filled with creative energy. When we shape thoughts in our mind those thoughts materialize. This creative energy changes and materializes into this world in accordance with our thoughts in the mind. 

The important thing here is the kind of thoughts you have in your mind. If you become attached to something, this means your thoughts are attached to something and you lose your freedom of thoughts.

In Buddhism, realizing the three virtues of benevolence, compassion and joy are important, but if we don’t discard the mind of attachments, we cannot live the life of a child of God. Discard attachments including these three virtues. You are leaders, so it is natural for you to have strong desires to want to save other people. We need to discard this attachment to save others, or our thoughts lose flexibility. If we are able to release our attachments, we will feel our true nature that is one with God’s love. This is true love. In the Bible it is called Charity. If we are bound by our own thoughts of charity, unlimited loving vitality and joy to help others won’t bubble up from within. Christianity and Buddhism teach you the same Truth, which is to love others and work for others, but this is accomplished only without attachment or with unconditional love. We must never forget that we must discard all attachment in order to accomplish our love for others.

Our Seicho-No-Ie President, Rev. Masanobu Taniguchi said that some of us practice God’s love and the Four Immeasurable Minds towards human beings and some animals like our pets. However, those people need to show the same love to monkeys, deer, rats, skunks, etc. In other words, it is not enough to show our love only to those we choose or like. That is not unconditional love but mere attachment. Human beings find it difficult to practice the last immeasurable mind, “equanimity,” because they create attachments to acquire certain things from nature such as rare resources, diamonds, uranium, and other rare minerals. Human beings destroy nature to acquire coal, oil and natural gas even though these underground resources contribute to global warming. People kill elephants, foxes, and mink to acquire tusks or to make a fur coat. People want to collect these expensive and beautiful things. In other words, they have not attained the last immeasurable mind “equanimity.”

It may take a long time for all human beings to attain God’s love and the Four Immeasurable Minds; however, we must not forget that we should practice “equanimity” during our lifetime because sooner or later all of us will die ultimately discarding our physical bodies. Practice “equanimity” so that we can attain God’s love and the Four Immeasurable Minds. When you experience “equanimity” your spiritual merits are beyond your imagination.

As Founder Rev. Taniguchi said, “This is not a Shinsokan to seek blessings for yourself but a prayerful meditation to remove the pain and suffering of all of mankind.” And this new version of Shinsokan is not only for humankind but also for all sentient and non-sentient beings. “Therefore, it is not egotistical at all, as a result of which the benefits to you will be greater than in a self-centered meditation.” To help all living beings and everything in nature, your mind needs to be able to be one with them. As our concerns regarding the environment and Mother Nature are growing, it is pertinent that we practice this Shinsokan Meditation daily. With this understanding, let us practice this Shinsokan Meditation. Thank you very much.

Let Us Practice Mental and Emotional First Aid

Thank you very much. Today, we will discuss how to practice Emotional First Aid. A couple of days ago, my daughter sent me a TED Talk and said, “This video is the reason why I’m so passionate about mental health and psychology. Please watch it and let me know what you guys think!” The title of the video is “How to practice emotional first aid” published by Guy Winch. He compared our emotional and mental health with our physical health. He explained it in the beginning:

What do we know about maintaining our psychological health? Well, nothing. What do we teach our children about emotional hygiene? Nothing. How is it that we spend more time taking care of our teeth than we do our minds?

Why is it that our physical health is so much more important to us than our psychological health? We sustain psychological injuries even more often than we do physical ones, injuries like failure or rejection or loneliness. And they can also get worse if we ignore them, and they can impact our lives in dramatic ways.

Dr. Winch explained how important it is to protect ourselves from loneliness, heartbreak, emotional pain, rejection, and emotional bleeding by practicing emotional first aid. He said we often convinced ourselves that we cannot do this or that, but it is bad for our mental health not to practice emotional hygiene. One failure prevents us to move one and stuck in the same place because we are so afraid of doing things correctly. Many people somethings think that they have to do correctly, or they should not do. They are so fearful to fail.

For example, if someone who has many resources and experiences than you failed the same goal you may have, you might convince yourself you would not be successful. In Seicho-No-Ie we must have a strong conviction to achieve our goals because our mind has the motive power to work hard our endeavors, to push ourselves forward without giving up, and believe in ourselves.

Dr. Winch introduced “rumination” which one of the unhealthiest and most common habits. This means you repeat negative experience in your mind over and over again. He explained in this way:

To ruminate means to chew over.  It’s when your boss yells at you or your professor makes you feel stupid in class, or you have a big fight with a friend and you just can’t stop replaying the scene in your head for days, something for weeks on end. Now, ruminating about upsetting events in this way can easily become a habit, and it’s a very costly one because by spending so much time focused on upsetting and negative thoughts, you are actually putting yourself at significant risk for developing clinical depression, alcoholism, eating disorders, and even cardiovascular disease. The problem is the urge to ruminate can feel really strong and really important, so it’s a difficult habit to stop.

We all experience these. However, by doing this we use our mind power in a negative way and intensify our mind power to create our environment negatively. Rev. Masaharu Taniguchi explained this in a different way:

Count the things that you can do rather than what you cannot do.

“I am good for nothing!” By believing this we are only aggravating our sense of inferiority. Even if we fail just once, if we think about our failure for a hundred times, we are impressing it on our mind to that extent. Moreover, those thoughts become the cause of an inferiority complex. Therefore if we wish to do away with our inferiority complex, it is best to stop counting our failures and take notice of our successes. (Open the Door of Your Life, Vol. 3, p. 169)

We have to create a positive habit by ruminating positive experiences. This is exactly Dr. Winch suggested. He had his twin brother who had suffered from aggressive cancer, he fell into this situation. Fortunately, he is a psychologist and knew what to do. He said, “Studies tell us that even a two-minute distraction is sufficient to break the urge to ruminate in that moment. And so each time I had a worrying, upsetting, negative thought, I forced myself to concentrate on something else until the urge passed. And within one week, my whole outlook changed and became more positive and more hopeful.”

In Seicho-No-Ie we offer various techniques to break the urge to ruminate in the moment. We have Shinsokan meditation, chanting practices, transcription of the sutras, laughing practice, Mind Purification service, practice the power of words, etc. In particular, when we use the power of words, we use the same technique of rumination to create a positive habit. In the prayer by Rev. Masanobu Taniguchi in the April 2019 Truth of Life magazine it is explained as follows:

The power of the Word in a single “act” may be just small, but by repeating it in the same direction, the “deed” becomes “karma” and exerts a great deal of power. By repeatedly expressing good acts, good words, and good thoughts, “good deeds” become “positive karma” and form my destiny. On the contrary, negative acts, negative words, and negative thoughts, if repeated, strengthen the power of negative karma, and form a negative destiny. It is the wrong use of the power of the Words. (Truth of Life April 2019, p. 6)

As current academic studies show that the Seicho-No-Ie teachings and practices are efficient and help many people. I will offer practices and ceremonies to apply people in New York as much as possible. So, please support our movement and at the same time help yourself.

At this Sunday Service we will practice a simple way to change our negative thoughts and attitude toward a positive manner. For example, when someone causes you to suffer unjustly, mistreats you, deliberately reduces your income, or misunderstand your true intentions, you must not hate him. It is easy to hate the person who did something bad to you, but if you do so, you will ruminate negative experience to form a negative habit. So, what should we do? We use the opposite words, thoughts and expressions. When you have a very hot bath and cannot bathe yourself because it is too hot, what will you do? Yes, put cold water in it. In the same manner we use opposite words, thoughts and expressions to the negative thoughts. These negative situations are only temporary existences. The Holy Sutra Nectarean Shower of Holy Doctrines teaches:

A temporary form is eternally false and can never be Reality./ Do not fear what is unreal,

Do not treat as Reality what is unreal./ Confront what is unreal with Reality.

Dismiss what is not true with the true./ Oppose falsehood with the True Image.

Face darkness with light.

In other words, whatever the negative situation you have to use the opposite, which are positive words, thoughts and actions. When you are in sadness, anger, loneliness, disapproval, complaining, or depressed, what kind of thoughts and action do you need to do?                                                 

Negative Condition	Opposite thoughts	Practice
Sadness/chagrin	Joy	Laughing practice/read a joke book or watch funny video
Anger	Forgiveness	Mind Purification
Complaint/dissatisfaction	Gratitude	Gratitude chanting
Feel condemned/disapproved	Blessing	Pray for others/Practice deeds of love
Feel depressed	Open the mind and accept all and yourself	Being one with nature/ Ancestral Memorial
Surrounded by negativity	Positive words	Read TOL and positive words
Impasse situation	Consign all to God	Shinsokan Meditation

Some people may think how they can consign everything to God in a very negative situation. However, there is no impasse in the world of God, so if you believe in God and follow His will, everything will turn out better. In this month Truth of Life magazine Rev. Seicho Taniguchi wrote, “Become happy does not necessarily mean that things turn out the way we want.” In the beginning it may not appear as what you thought it would be, but you need to believe in God and do your best. In this article a member’s daughter went to her mother’s to help for a month, so she closed her store for a month. When she went back home, she found out that her merchandise, personal belongings were all stolen. Her neighbors thought that she moved. Her mother told her that she should consign everything to God. I will read the conclusion of the article and end my lecture today:

Then later, their area was affected by a flood, but about 8 p.m. one night of the following week, the belongings that the burglars had stolen were found. After one stash was found, they started to find one after another. In the end, everything that was stolen was found. Due to this, it was as if the belongings had been evacuated before the flood and therefore not affected, and they were returned after the flood was over. So, everything turned out for the best. This may be something that doesn’t happen that often, and it may even seem to be impossible when you think about it with a human mind, but these things happen a lot when you’re guided by “God’s infinite wisdom.” (Truth of Life, April 2019, p. 14)

Rev. Taniguchi said that these things seem very rare but happen “a lot.” In my life, yes, it happened. I do not share it today, but when you truly believe in God, these things will happen. Thank you very much.