This
is the lecture I spoke on May 10, 2020:
Last week I talked about the
importance of true gratitude. I will continue to talk about how our world is
created in accordance with our minds and talk about the reasons that I fell
ill. Founder Rev. Masaharu Taniguchi wrote:
There is no soul on this earth who does not
seek happiness, riches, and good health, but why can’t they acquire them? It is
because they are facing the wrong direction. Should you think that man’s
happiness consists of a certain thing, a certain status or a certain place, you
are searching for happiness where it does not really exist.
Since man’s fate is as his own mind
developed, it is, above all, essential that we keep our minds in harmony and
peace. If we continuously affirm and visualize the perfection of the
God-created world in our minds, what we do, even though in a natural and
spontaneous manner, will begin to develop to realize the perfection of God’s
world, and consequently bring to us happiness, prosperity and good health. (365
Golden Keys to the Summit of Fulfillment, p. 51)
When you
come to Seicho-No-Ie, you learn that your mind creates your destiny. When I was
ill, it meant that my mind created the illness. My mind attracted illness in
order to improve myself. You may question that my life should be the opposite
of that. I got ill because of my accumulated delusory thoughts. The law of the
mind created my illness.
Last autumn, I celebrated my 60th
birthday. In Japan, this is called Kanreki. Long ago in Japan people believed
that Kanreki signaled the end of the life span and was the time for rebirth.
Jesus Christ said, "Truly, I tell you, unless you are born anew, you
cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3: 3). Because I wanted to experience
a spiritual rebirth, I created a “Practice for Spiritual Rebirth.” The practice
included gratitude, repentance, purification of the mind, prayer, rituals, and
writing in the Sundial Diary. I chose 20 prayers from the Recitation of the
Truth, its sequel, and the Daily Prayer. I practiced, read, and
prayed for over two hours a day for many, many days. I started to wonder how I
would know if I had been spiritually reborn. My subconscious mind believed I
had left everything up to God, but my conscious mind was obsessed with seeing
the results of my practices and prayers--I wanted proof of my spiritual
awakening.
We know that true reality
does not come from phenomena, but because of my illness I had forgotten that. I
forgot to feel gratitude from the bottom of my heart. During my illness my wife
did everything for me. She prepared special meals all the time, she read the Holy
Sutras and Songs of Praise. She had to towel dry me after I bathed
because I was too weak to do it myself. She helped me get dressed. Still, my
focus was not gratitude but to see proof of my spiritual awakening.
While recuperating after two weeks
of illness, I got up and sat in a chair to read the Holy Sutras and
Seicho-No-Ie books. In one of Rev. Taniguchi’s books, I encountered a story
about a wife who was not able to forgive her husband. When she realized that
her husband was a genuine and respectful person, through her spiritual
awareness and gratitude, almost all of her illnesses were cured except her
limp. Rev. Masaharu Taniguchi explained that when this wife was able to thank
her husband from the bottom of her heart “her limp was already healed. But her
conscious mind didn’t realize it and was attached to the delusion that ‘my leg
hasn’t yet healed’.” (Shinko “Kanrono Hou” Kaishaku [New Edition
Expounding the Nectarean Shower of Holy
Doctrine] p. 243).
When I read this, it was a
revelation that my conscious mind was attached to the physical manifestation of
my spiritual rebirth. I was obsessed with the proof of spiritual rebirth for
my 60th birthday wish. My practices, reading, and prayers changed my
subconscious mind but my conscious mind was still attached to the physical
proof. When I realized this, that delusion was destroyed. I truly regretted my
behavior to everyone, especially towards my wife. During all the difficulties
that she had to go through with me, I was only thinking about my spiritual
rebirth. I became emotional and that night before going to bed, I thanked my
wife and one by one thanked everything around me.
Since I was 5 years old, we
moved from place to place nearly twenty times. I did not live in any home for
more than 10 years. My wife has lived with me longer than my parents and
siblings. When I woke up in the middle of the night, I was grateful again and
thankful for everything that existed in my memory--even for the houses
where I had lived. I remembered some unpleasant memories being bullied when I
was young. But I looked for the positive things that came from these negative
experiences and actually became grateful to all those who bullied me. I was
filled with gratitude and didn’t know how I could express this gratitude. I got
out of bed to write down my thoughts.
When I was writing at the
desk, I realized that I was the one who has lived with me for the longest time.
I was sincerely grateful to myself for letting me live as Mario Kawakami for 60
years. I am grateful I am surrounded by great family members and friends. I was
born as Mario Kawakami and I can enjoy everything around me. As I thought about
these things, my heart and gratitude naturally went to my parents and my
ancestors. I do not know how many years I will live, but I promised myself to
live a life to be proud of and decided to fulfill my mission as Mario Kawakami.
To be spiritually reborn does not
appear in the outer world, but appears as a new way of thinking. I must be
sincerely grateful to everyone and everything around me in a new way. Nothing
is ordinary and everything is a manifestation of joy from God.
From the beginning I was
the spiritual existence, but I was unaware of it. The delusion to worry only
about the manifestation of my spiritual awakening in my phenomenal life had to
be destroyed because of the law of the mind. I recovered my health and will
live my life with true gratitude to fulfill my mission. I will never forget
this experience. Thank you for all things in the world, and my renewed
determination to continue contributing to the movement to realize the great
harmony of God, nature, and human beings. Thank you very much.
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