Visualize the True Image and Be Flexible: Day 9

            Governor Andrew M. Cuomo declared a state of emergency last Saturday due to the pandemic spread of coronavirus in New York City and Westchester County. The Governor confirmed 43 additional cases bringing the State of New York total to 216. The number of positive cases for the virus in Westchester and New York City is 121 and 52.

            Because we are unable to provide adequate building cleaning due to our current building renovation, the Seicho-No-Ie New York Board of Trustees decided to cancel the Sunday Service, Friday Truth of Life Study Class, and Ancestral Memorial Service at least through this weekend.

            If you have any ailments or even slightly under the weather, please stay home. I will deliver my short message and practice Shinsokan meditation at 11 am this Sunday through Zoom Video Communication, so you will be able to view it. If you are on the mailing list, you will receive detail information.

            The coronavirus situation might become worse phenomenally, but our True Image will never change. The first and foremost important thing that we must realize is that we are all children of God, perfect and harmonious. Therefore, we will never become panic. When we keep peace in our minds, the best idea will come to deal with the situation. Rev. Masaharu Taniguchi wrote: “Since the perfection of God’s life is being constantly manifested within me, I am always strong and healthy. God’s wisdom is constantly guiding me in my activities, therefore I shall never err in my actions. I shall always advance on the right path and never become lost on a crooked road.” (Truth of Life magazine, March 2002, Prayer to Remove Fear and Attachment)

            When we visualize the True Image, we will never be suffered from anyone and anything. Rev. Taniguchi also wrote: “As we now visualize the True Image of existence, we see that the life of all living things, even to the smallest microorganism, is an outpouring of God’s life. As long as they have life, all forms of life are expressions of God. Thus no virus, bacteria, fungus, or protozoa can ever invade man and cause him to fall ill. The belief that man comes under attack by microorganisms and falls ill is nothing but a dream, nothing but an illusion.” (Truth of Life magazine, June 2000, Prayer to Become Aware of My Indestructible True Body)

            Fear brings another fear and panic, so we must visualize the True Image. When we visualize the True Image through Shinsokan meditation, we will receive appropriate ideas on how to deal with our situation. When we follow our inner guidance, we will be always safe. Some people asked me why we do not have our meeting if we practice Shinsokan to visualize the True Image. These people think that we can have a gathering if we do not have fear in our minds. However, it depends on a person how deeply convinces oneself as a child of God. When we realize the True Image, there are many ways to have our lives. If you only think one way is the best way, you already lost your battle because you do not have flexibility. In this world, there are many choices and ways to deal with difficulties. We need to stick to what we are doing, but sometimes we must become flexible and avoid uncertainty.

            It was said that the Zen monk Kaisen wrote his last poem in his life at Erin-Ji temple: “If you eliminate thoughts, even a fire is cool.” He was surrounded by the army of Nobunaga Oda (1534-1582) at that time. Nobunaga’s army set a fire and he was burned. Rev. Masaharu Taniguchi introduced this poem and wrote: “We are not saying that it is correct faith to advocate ‘ego’ to not get burned while sitting in fire, but we are saying that we must follow the guidance of God’s wisdom and naturally be led not to sit in fire.

            If someone thoughtfully considers your situation and gives a piece of advice, you should be flexible and if your gut feeling says that you should listen to this advice, you do not have to insist of your own idea. The teachings of Seicho-No-Ie says that we must be reconciled with the whole universe. If we are reconciled with everyone and everything in the universe, nothing will harm us. However, if you lose flexibility and insist that you can go into the crowds by saying nothing would harm you. This story of the Zen monk Kaisen gives you an inspiration. This story is introduced in the December 2019 Truth of Life magazine on pages between 21 and 22. Please read it again.

            Let us read the Holy Sutra together every day to pray that the coronavirus will subside in New York and in the world.

Live As Normal As Possible: Day 8 (3/11/2020)

The city of New Rochelle appears most frequently on the news in New York. My home is located right next to the city of New Rochelle probably within a few houses away. The news calls this city, "cluster." It is as if an epicenter of an earthquake. The state government, the Governor, and the Mayor are doing whatever they can do or should do to prevent expanding coronavirus. It's a good idea to be as cautious as possible and we should avoid fear and panic. As long as I know many people are dealing with it using their wisdom and lead quite normal lives.

            Yesterday when I came home by train, many people got off at New Rochelle Station. People have to work, and their lives continue in any situation. If we are panicked or scared and emotionally upset, our situations will become worse. We need to know updated information through the news, but the news should be carefully broadcasted. It should not sway people's emotional fear. At the same time, we who watch news also be careful to not be fearful but just accept the necessary information and live our regular lives as normal as possible. Let us continue reading the Holy Sutras and Songs of Praise daily.

A Day Is A Thousand Years: Day 7 (3/10/2020)

            I take the first train to go to my office in Manhattan every morning. The train is not crowded but not empty. I sit on the seat and usually read a book for 35 minutes. I recently started reading Ralph Waldo Emerson. He said, “If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore, and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown.”

            Nowadays people are so hectic and they may not believe in God if they don’t see the result soon. On the contrary, we forget the truth that God has already give us what we need like the light of the stars on the night sky to lead people to their homes. We see the light every night which shows us the way we should go, but we do not think the light is our answer. If we see the only once in our lives or twice, we may see its brightness and appreciate it. We must see recognize the light. We must be patient, not hectic. When we live in the countryside, we have to learn patience.

            We are lucky because God is patient. Peter said, “But do not forget this one thing, dear friend: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter, 3:8-9).

            When we see things and think about them from God’s perspective, we can become patient, forgive other people, and give abundantly. When we see and think about these things from the viewpoint of nature, we can become patient, forgive other people, and give abundantly. If we still don’t understand, we must deeply pray to God. We should find nature and live in the bosom of Mother Nature.

A Month of Letter Day 6 (3/9/2020)

            I practiced painting and writing by hand every day in February. It is called A Month of Letter. I received from people whom I sent and they are all moving stories. I will introduce two of them.

            The first person had a problem practicing Shinsokan Meditation for 30 years and couldn’t continue more than a week. In the end, he quit practicing last year. However, he really wanted to resume Shinsokan this year and started. He practices breathing techniques for 10 minutes before Shintokan and now is able to practice without any difficulties. He now loves to practice it every day and after the Shinsokan, he continues visualizing the True Image for 5 minutes.

            Another person who recently replied to me by email that she really enjoys her life now. In her life, she had undergone several life-threatening surgeries, but now she is fine and already had her 80 years old birthday last year. Now, her grandson goes to high school. On her birthday her husband gave her a new red Porsche. So she enjoys driving almost every day. When she goes out by this new car, elderly people, especially women, often began chatting with her and she had joyful conversations. That makes her happy and loves driving more. I think some people have a prejudice that young people might look good with a brand new red Porsche but not an over 80 years old lady. Imagine if a lady who seems like over 80 years old driving a brand new red Porsche, some people may think a bit negative thing. However, this lady is a very positive thinking person and says, “I'm 80 and driving a new car, a red Porsche. I think that by driving a new red Porsche may encourage senior people who might give up many things and give a new hope that they can do many things regardless of their ages.” I think this positive way of thinking is beautiful. I am glad that I continue A Month of Letter this year again. Because of this practice, I could hear many wonderful stories. So I wanted to share these stores with you.

            I am grateful to some people who upload their YouTube tutorial painting. I often learn from them.

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.