It is now June and soon the year will be half over. This year
Covid-19 has become a worldwide problem. Since mid-March the United States has
been advised to shelter in place because of Covid-19 and many businesses have
been shut down. People cannot go to work, and unemployment has surged. New York
State became the epicenter of Covid-19 infections with the highest number of
deaths in the United States. Everyone has become frustrated and worried about
their health and lives. Bad things seem to be happening one after
another.
On May 25, 2020, Derek Chauvin, a policeman, murdered George
Floyd, an African-American man, in Minneapolis. This incident triggered many
people’s already fragile emotions. Many people gathered peacefully to protest
for equality and justice in many cities across the United States. Unfortunately
the news has been mostly about the violent protesters who have been demonstrating
for a week. The scenes of destruction of businesses and cities and clashes
between police and the violent protesters has crushed people’s hearts.
Human beings are children of God. Every person’s life matters.
Lives must not be wasted. In the world of God there are no misfortunes,
disasters, murders, or robberies. But in the phenomenal world we see many
unfortunate events. Why? It is because human beings do not properly see God's
perfect world, the True-Image World. We see the world through frosted and
tinted glass.
Rev. Masanobu Taniguchi, President of Seicho-No-Ie, wrote in the Prayer
to Purify Your Thoughts and Meet With God: “The phenomena before me are no
more than simply parts of God’s creation that gave the impression of being
imperfect when seen through frosted glass for a brief moment. They are crude,
are lacking, vague, monotonous in design, and collapse as time goes by. The
images on the frosted glass are not reality. ‘Beyond them’ lies the
indestructible reality which holds infinite beauty. That is God’s creation.” (Daily
Prayers, pp. 31-32)
Although problems, such as plague, poverty, hunger, inequality,
discrimination, and bullying, etc., do not originally exist in the world of
God, many people grab on to and attach to them in their minds and believe they
truly exist. This upsets their emotions and creates rage and hate as if these
phenomena exist. We all need to practice faith and realize that all human
beings should not fight and destroy each other because of the differences in their
skin color and/or ideology. Every person is born in this world to express their
innate nature and every person is filled with God's love, wisdom, vitality,
abundance, joy and harmony. It is time to practice the belief that we are born
to express joy and great harmony.
We can do our part by striving to discard materialism and
anthropocentrism. Let us pray for harmony between nature and humanity and avoid
excessive convenience. Many people live in big cities because jobs are more
readily available in big cities. They live in small apartments and work very
long hours. They do not cook, but buy processed foods or take-out or eat at
restaurants for convenience. They hire people to do the things they do not want
to do. The conveniences of this lifestyle actually can cause unhappiness. They
produce a lot of garbage, create high energy consumption, waste, and pollution.
They experience the disparity between the rich and poor and are exposed to many
diseases. Climate change and global warming is the negative heritage we are
leaving for future generations.
Let us do our
part to help change that. Let us practice the prayers we are taught at
Seicho-No-Ie to visualize the True Image and promote the movement and the
realization of the great harmony between God, nature and human beings.
At the end of
this message, I will present you the “Words to Pray for Peace” from founder
Rev. Masaharu Taniguchi. Please practice Shinsokan Meditation, read the Daily
Prayers, and deeds of love. Please read these prayerful words along with the
“Prayer for World Peace.”
I am one with God. Not I
alone, but all humanity is one with God. Therefore, in God’s world all humanity
is already at peace with one another, devoid of conflict and fighting. To
humanity God is the one Father who sheds protection over all peoples of the
world alike and keeps them in peace. As God is such, it would be illogical to
think that one nation cannot gain happiness unless she invades the territory of
another. The realization of this truth is the basic cornerstone to bring about
peace to the world. I therefore broadcast this truth to the entire world. The
whole of mankind is now catching this broadcast vibration and being enlightened
about the truth. God’s love descends and sheds light upon the minds of all, and
the peace of God’s world prevails on earth. Now God’s will is realized on earth
as it is in Heaven. From this moment on, mankind knows no fighting or sorrow,
but they look up to God in sublime exaltation. (365 Golden Keys to the
Summit of Fulfillment, pp. 192-193)
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