PRAYER FOR THE QUAKE VICTIMS - Day 5 (3/8/2020)

            Today, we had the Japanese Seminar and in the beginning, all the participants pray for the victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake and I dedicated the prayer in Japanese. I just briefly introduce my prayer as follows:

            Oh God, the lord of Seicho-No-Ie who governs the True-Image World and the entire universe, we, the participants to the Japanese Seminar, gather here and sincerely pray for God's guidance and protection to be given to those who were affected in the Great East Japan Earthquake and made a transition to the spiritual world.

            Let those victims live a peaceful life and their sufferings be removed. Let the provisions for daily life be abundantly supplied for those who survived, and let the recovery work from the disasters proceed in harmony with nature.

            We, the believers of "human beings are children of God and their lives are eternal," believe that those who were victims of the earthquake live embraced in God's loving hand.

            Today on March 8, 2020, 9 years after the earthquake. We sincerely thank God for your blessing, protection, and love to the people affected by the earthquake, while many problems still remain unsolved.

            We offer our sincere prayers that the recovery work proceed speedily and the life of those affected people go back to normal life and they lead their life filled with joy, love, and gratitude as soon as possible. We thank God for realizing our earnest wish from the bottom of our hearts. [Rev. Mario Kawakami, Chief of the Seicho-No-Ie New York Missionary Area (3/8/2020)]

Words of Inspiration Day 4 (3/7/2020)

Rev. Masaharu Taniguchi wrote the “Keys to Open God’s Treasure Trove” as follows:

We can say we understand the concept that “cooperating with the indwelling Got will bring prosperity” but how do we cooperate with God? The best way is to pray and practice Shinsokan meditation—they are the most powerful keys to open God’s infinite treasure trove. Prayer is a personal communion with God, whereas Shinsokan is an affirmation that the prayer has already been answered. A prayer offered apprehensively or tentatively will not be effective. Only by practicing Shinsokan with the affirmation that we have already received what we desire will its effectiveness be clearly manifested. When we pray hoping for $10 million but instead think only $100,000, we will receive only 100,000. (Truth of Life, August 2006)

Rev. Taniguchi said, “A prayer offered apprehensively or tentatively will not be effective.” Shinsikan is to visualize the perfect creation of God’s world and ourselves. If we want to become happy, we must create a happy feeling inside of us. If we want to become healthy, we must first harbor only healthy thoughts in us. If we want to be wealthy, we must create wealthy thoughts and act like a wealthy person. However, many people think the opposite. They think we can become wealthy if we have this and that. There is a story of a man who only thought of poverty and wanted to become rich in the True of Life Volume 2.

            For so many years before he became one of the richest men in American financial circles, this man was unable to rise above his poverty. One day he realized that his poverty was a disease of his mind. He always thought, “As I am poor, I must be very thrifty.” So all of his actions were restricted by the phrase “as I am poor.” He realized if poverty were a disease, then it could be healed. He was able to change his attitude by changing his way of thinking.

            To change our lives, we restrict ourselves with the phrase “as I am a child of God” so that we can think and act only as children of God. To do this, we must create this as a habit routine. We can do this with Shinsokan meditation. Therefore, it is extremely important to practice visualization.

            Dr. Dispenza explains the importance of visualization in a different way: “If we are thinking that once we have the wealth to buy more things, then we will be overjoyed, we’ve got it backward. We have to become happy before our abundance shows up.” When we create happiness and wealth in our mind, happiness and wealth appear in our physical world.

            We need to understand that in this world everything starts with our mind. We can create thoughts of “model,” “pattern,” or “mold” in our mind. Then, these invisible thoughts “model,” “pattern,” or “mold” in our mind will be manifested in this world. But, many people do not use their invisible thoughts to create their lives and try to fix their problems first by dealing with them. What they are doing is as if they put a carriage before the horse. When they change their thoughts, their problems will be solved and they become happy, healthy, and wealthy.

Words of Inspiration Day 3 (3/6/2020)

            A man featured on Facebook's HONY yesterday lamented the rising prices of apartment rent in New York City. Currently, he works at the post office. Many people assume that working under the U.S. government is stable work, but he cannot find a suitable apartment for his family under his salary. He wants more time to spend with his son, but he can't afford the apartment for the whole family and lives separately. On the other hand, he can't afford low-income apartments because his salary is slightly higher to apply the low-income apartments. This story certainly shows today’s apartment situation in New York.

            The satisfaction of the human lifestyle is varied depending on each individual. If stable jobs can be found only in the city, people need to live in the city. Consequently, the housing situation becomes worse. In rural areas, there are many empty houses that are abandoned. We may live there even if our incomes are low or we cannot have a convenient lifestyle. Some people say they can't live in such places because they don't have work and very inconvenient, but they think that way because they do not want to change their own standard lifestyle that they currently have.

            Over 30 years ago my mother lost her husband who was 57 years old at that time. When my father passed away, my mother received a very small amount of the widow's pension every three months. It was too small to live on; therefore, she asked her children to send some money for help. She rented a small house in a rural area near her hometown. I started sending $500 for more than 5 years. My 6 siblings did the same. The amount was up to them, but I know two of them sent the same amount that I did. After 6 or 7 years of sending money, my mom suddenly told us that we didn't have to send money anymore. She said she decided to build a new house in the current old house where she was not able to live because no one had lived there for 20 years. I asked her how she could pay. She said she had already paid. That was a real surprise for us and we, her 7 children, were so delighted. But, how could she save such large money? She had a small vegetable yard and grew some vegetables and rice for herself. She was always grateful for everything that she had and took great care of them.

            My mom said that she saved all the money that we had sent her, and she also saved her widow's pension as much as possible. She also got free vegetables where she lived. Plenty of badly shaped eggplants, cucumbers, pumpkins, etc. were dumped on the roadside. The farmers couldn’t sell these vegetables even at a very cheap price. In addition, if they wanted to sell, they had to pay the transportation fee to the town, therefore they left these vegetables on the roadside. They were all free, so my mom picked them up almost every day and ate them for many years so that she was able to save money.

            With these savings, she negotiated with a carpenter that she knew, and built a wooden house. I don't know if I can do the same thing that my mom did 30 years ago if I am in a similar situation. A couple of years later when she built a new house, my mom started living with her eldest son, his wife and their children. My mom took the rent from her son and saved money. With this money, she built an additional room for her grandchildren. Then, she renewed the kitchen and bathroom for her daughter-in-law and put the solar panels as well and earned a small amount of money every month.

            I understand that human beings can do anything if they truly wish for. I observed my mom for many years, so I truly understand the power that we human beings have. But, a question is: Can I grow my own food to live and pick any food on the street like a really poor person?

            My mom could do that because she was in a desperate situation, in other words, there was no other choice. I've never in that situation. In addition, I still attach quite many things in my current life.

            Returning to the first story of the post office person, I understand the struggle of his housing situation. Many people also understand his struggle and posted various comments and opinions, but one message that impressed me a lot was as follows:

“You're obviously doing all you can to keep it together! But while reading this I notice your little boy coming in to kiss his daddy. You're his world (along with his momma). You're doing the best you can with what you have and your child is not lacking in love! Wishing y'all the best!”

I believe this post office person has raised his son very well. I hope the current housing situation in New York will improve soon and become affordable. Meanwhile, we have to change our way of thinking about our lifestyle. Thank you very much.

Words of Inspiration Day 2 (3/5/2020)

 Dr. Joe Dispenza observes three different stages of human being’s existence. The first stage is to think. The second stage is to do and the third state is to be. He also explains these stages are being operated by three different functions of brains: neocortex (thinking brain), limbic brain (emotional brain), and cerebellum (habitual thoughts brain). He wrote as follows: “Let’s use a true-to-life example to take a practical look at how these three brains take us from thinking to doing to being. First, we’ll see how through conscious mental rehearsal, the thinking brain (neocortex) uses knowledge to activate new circuits in new ways to make a new mind. Then, our thought creates an experience, and via the emotional (limbic) brain, that produces a new emotion. Our thinking and feeling brains condition the body to a new mind. Finally, we reach the point where mind and body are working as one, the cerebellum enables us to memorize a new neurochemical self, and our new state of being is now an innate program in our subconscious.” (Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself, pp. 130-131)

            Once the cerebellum downloaded the program, i.e., does something habitually, the habit becomes yourself. To change our habits we do not have to go through having experiences, increasing the similar emotions and reacting over and over again. Dr. Dispenza says that we can change our habits without experiences.

            Have you ever heard of the term visualization often practiced by athletes? This is the theory that what you imagine becomes reality. There was an experiment done with people who practiced the piano. Some actually played the piano to practice and some only practiced in their minds. Those who actually played the piano increased muscle strength by 30%. Those who rehearsed in their mind to practice increased muscle strength by 22%. By mentally practicing, your mind or your thinking brain can actually increase muscle strength. This is the process of visualization. (Summary of p. 83)

            Shinsokan Meditation in Seicho-No-Ie practice this visualization. We visualize our True Image which is perfect and harmonious while contemplating quietly. This meditation is explained in detail in the Truth of Life Volume 8 and Shinsokan Is Wonderful. Since last November, the Seicho-No-Ie New York Center started broadcasting Shinsokan Meditation in English at 7 am for our members who wanted to practice meditation using Zoom Video Communication app.

Words of Inspiration Day 1

          A new plan for my 30 years from now on: I have lived for 60 years and probably have another 30 years which are almost one-third of my entire life. I accomplished many things in the last 60 years but they were only for myself. I will dedicate my 30 years to only for other people and nature.

          I don’t know clearly what I can do or what should do, but I will use the first 1000 days (10 percent of the 30 years) to establish my basic movement to dedicate to other people and nature. I want to inspire and motivate other people for their happiness and to change their lives. I also inspire people to restore peace and harmony between human beings and nature.

          To change people’s lives I must share the truth that comes from my own understandings and experiences. I have learned the truth from Seicho-No-Ie, so during the first 1000 days, I will do the following things to establish a basic movement for another 30 years in order to help people and nature:

1. Write something motivating to other people every day.

2. My message will become an inspiration for other people if I continue this for 1000 days.

3. I need to take care of my physical health. To do this I will not eat after 7 pm and also exercise at least 10 or 15 minutes in the evening.

4. To take care of my mental health, I practice love myself and learn how to express it.

5. To take care of my spiritual health, I will love other people and nature and express love in a concrete manner.

6. I record these things every day.

Words of Inspiration Day 1: Ralph Waldo Trine said, “The whole of human life is cause and effect, there is no such thing in it as chance, nor is there even in all the wide universe. Are we not satisfied with whatever comes into our lives? The thing to do then is not to spend time in railing against the imaginary something we create and call fate, but to look to the within, and change the causes at work there, in order that things of a different nature may come, for there will come exactly what we cause to come. This is true not only of the physical body but of all phases and conditions of life.” (In Tune with the Infinite, ©2007 Wilder Publications, pp. 35-36)

          There are many examples to explain this truth. A simple example that I experienced happened last month. On the first Monday of February 2020, I went to New Jersey to distribute 160 Truth of Life magazines. First I dropped my daughter off at her school and then drove to a storage facility in Wayne, NJ to deliver the magazines.

            When I arrived at the storage facility, I thought that I had driven all the way to NJ without the car keys because my daughter had them when she got into the car before me that morning and I did not remember her giving the key back to me. It is a new hybrid car with an electric sensor key. I became upset and angry with her, but there was nothing I could do and I had already driven over an hour to get to NJ. So without turning off the car, I delivered all of the magazines. It was a cold day and even though I had to use the bathroom I had to wait until I got home so I drove very fast.

          I kept dwelling on all the negative things that happened on the way back to home: why didn’t my daughter give me back the key or why didn’t I ask for the key; and dwelling on the negative things that could happen: what if I am caught by the police; what if he asks me to turn off the engine, etc. As all of these scenarios came to my mind, I denied them and screamed “thank you very much” all the way home. When I got home and had time to use the bathroom and calm down, I decided to check the car. I found the key beneath the driver’s seat. My daughter had given the key back to me and I had put it in my pocket, but I didn’t remember doing so because I was so distracted while in the high school drop-off lane.

          If I had known the truth, I would not have had to suffer for three hours worrying about having to use the bathroom or having the police stop me or having to turn off the engine without the key. All of this drama was created by my mind. If I knew the truth I would not have had to suffer.
          Our lives are the same. We do not have to suffer from anything if we realize the Truth. If we know the Truth we can use our mind properly so that we can change our lives in any way we like. Jesus said, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32).

You Summon Happiness

Thank you very much. Today, I will talk about how to summon happiness in our lives. Many people think that happiness comes from things outside of us. In fact, happiness begins from within us. Happiness is created by our minds. Rev. Seicho Taniguchi explains this very simply in his book, Messages of Wisdom and Love. I will share this article with you. (Please read this book on pages of 68 & 69.)

Rev. Seicho Taniguchi said, “Man’s mind is the creator of all things. In addition, both hope and despair have been created by man’s mind.” You may think that your mind does not create your misfortune or troubles, but you should realize that you are the master of your life. 

It is said that Disney’s movie creators always start a movie by thinking about how unfortunate they can make the hero in the beginning of the movie because the most gratifying part of the movie is the progress the hero makes through his misfortunes and ordeals and how he overcomes them. You are the main character, hero, and protagonist of your life’s movie. In the movies, there are characters with no difficulties and misfortune. They are called “extras.” When you try to avoid life’s difficulties, you are not the hero of your own life’s movie, but an “extra.” By avoiding life’s difficulties you will not experience joy in your life. Only by accepting and overcoming challenges will you experience joy in your life.

How do we accept our circumstances and change our attitude? Rev. Seicho Taniguchi said that we need to resolve to be happy and resolve to be grateful by saying, “Therefore resolve now to be happy for whatever the circumstances you can always be happy. Resolve to be grateful. Then you will be able to be grateful to all people, things, and circumstances in the universe.” Rev. Masaharu Taniguchi said the same thing in today’s prayer (1/19/2020): “We must know that whatever we experience, we need it in order to strengthen our soul and deepen our understanding. We must confront every experience with gratitude and with a sense of welcome, for every experience is an important lesson to our soul.”

We must confront every experience with gratitude. Many people see negative things as evil or bad, but like the unfortunate events for a movie hero, these things appear for a reason. So, we have to change our perception and change our attitude towards unfortunate things.

Rev. Seicho Taniguchi reminds us how precious our eyes and hands are. He said, “How can you live without being grateful to your hands? It is a mystery that joy does not well up within you.” If we remember to be grateful for the small things in life such as hands and eyes, joy cannot help but well up within you. I have a lot of challenges. I have setbacks and difficulties in my job, at home, in my health, and in my life but I am the master of my life. I am always grateful to everyone and everything. 

Some people complain about their children or spouse. Xanthippe, the wife of Socrates, was one of the worst wives in Western world. Her name is often used as a pronoun for a bad wife. The students of Socrates witnessed that at an occasion Xanthippe screamed to him like thunder and threw water on top of his head from a bucket. Watching this, his students asked, “Are you okay with what she did to you?” 

Socrates joked first saying, “After the thunder rain always comes.” Then, he said, “You should get married. If you got a good wife, you can become happy. If you have a bad wife, you can become a philosopher like me.”

I am not sure this story is true or not but the point of Socrates’ statement is that we each choose how to interpret negative things in our lives and we can change our attitude to accept it. We can start recognizing the small things and being grateful for it and then increase it gradually to recognizing greater things and being grateful for them. Rev. Seicho Taniguchi said, “If you desire to rejoice and if you desire to become grateful, you will soon become happy. A small happiness calls forth a medium-size happiness. A medium-size happiness calls forth an even larger happiness. An even larger happiness infinitely summons up greater and greater happiness for us.”

Today, we will practice how to call forth a small happiness and be grateful. We will use a mirror today. (Distribute a hand mirror to everyone.) First, look at your eyes. If you frown, you need to open up the middle of the forehead. With the mirror, you can also practice a natural smile. While gazing at your eyes, smile with your eyes. Then, smile with the center of your face. Say to yourself, “I am happy. I am joyful. I am grateful. I am lucky.” While you are gazing at your eyes and repeating these words, these thoughts will go directly into your subconscious mind.

You can change the words to whatever you want. For example, “I am beautiful. I am healthy. I am wealthy.” If you want to increase your confidence, you can say to yourself, “I am confident. I am talented. I can do anything because I am a child of God.”

Since we have only a short time today please continue to practice this at home with your own mirror. Thank you very much.

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.