The Power of Friendship (2/10/2013)

The following lecture was given at the February's second Sunday Service:

In our lives we have several chances to encounter our best friends.  Unfortunately in my life, I have moved over 20 times because of my father’s job and my job, but I made many good friends and at the same time lost contacts and cannot contact some of them.  Friendship is very important in human lives.  Because of my friends and our friendships I have been able to have a beautiful, successful life. These friends and our friendships are the power to create my abundant and fulfilling life.

Rev. Masaharu Taniguchi, founder of Seicho-No-Ie, wrote, “As implied in the statement that man is a social animal, man cannot live without others.  What is particularly important is to have good friends.  Good friends are essential throughout life, but people who are good friends from childhood and youth have the opportunity to discover the good points of each other, praise each other, comfort each other, and help each other. Through such efforts, they are enabled to develop tremendously.” (For Young People, p. 76)

Regarding the friendship Rev. Taniguchi explained the following things in the same book:

1. Have good friends, especially from youth.

2. A good friend will have faith in us.

3. Even with ordinary material success, much has to be credited to the power of good friends. 

4. An important thing is that our friends have an influence on our personality.

5. How can we get good friends?

6. At times the best friend for us is a good book rather than a human being.

I think the first and second ones do not need an explanation.  The third one Rev. Taniguchi emphasized how important it is to have a good friend in order to be successful. He wrote:

“Let us say that someone opens a law office. He has graduated from a law school and passed his bar examination, but he has no contacts. No one knows what his capabilities might be...If he has good friends or acquaintances who praise his talents and ability and recommend him to others, he may in due course become a famous lawyer and come to enjoy wealth and reputation abundantly. Through the recommendation of a friend he might be appointed a judge, a presiding judge, a chief justice of a higher court, and perhaps in time a chief justice of the Supreme Court. In life it is difficult to be recognized just because one is capable. There are such things as influence and connections and, through the good offices of another, a person who is somewhat less talented than the best may still get ahead. That is an advantage enjoyed by those who have good friends.” (pages 77-78)

To be successful, we need good friends, but a more essential thing for us to have good friends is to affect our personality. Rev. Taniguchi said, “As just discussed, friendship is necessary even for material success, but much more important is its influence on personality.  Wealth and reputation may be lost over time but an influence on personality stays for a lifetime and becomes a treasure or a handicap.” (p. 79)

Then, how can we have good friends?  I would like to introduce some concrete ways sharing a book, How to Make Luck 7 Secrets Lucky People Use to Succeed, by Marc Myers.  In this book he introduces some concrete ways to become successful, and he especially mentioned that our friends sometimes become gate persons (key persons) to bring us luck.

1)             Loyal: Become known for being loyal to your friends. When you develop a reputation for sticking by your friends, you win the respect of important people. Being known as a loyal friend shows that you stand by those who help you and that you know how to reciprocate when a favor is done for you. As a result, you make life look easy and you become someone people want to help. (p. 97)

2)           Naïve: No matter how knowledgeable or experienced you think you are, you need something extra to make people want to go out of their way for you. For some lucky people, that something extra is an ability to be little naïve. (119)

3)           Find out how smart others are: A childlike curiosity is nothing more than being fascinated by what’s being said and showing it. Instead of trying to show how smart you are, it’s far more productive and beneficial to find out how smart others are. (124)

4)           Do not expect repayment: When you make sacrifices for people without expecting or asking for repayment, you double your chances of receiving good fortune. (129)

5)            When you become generous to your friend:

a) To be truly generous, don’t spend too much time thinking about what you’ve done for others, only about what others are doing with the gifts you’ve given them.

b) Give when your generosity will build high-quality friendships.

c) Give when people are down on their luck. One of the best times to offer assistance is when people are facing hard times.

d) Giving is important, but so is following up with additional help.

e) Give something else if you can’t give what was requested. (134-135)

6)           Do not count on too much: Don’t get greedy. A big mistake many people make when friends or contacts provide them with help is expecting a miracle. They count on their key contacts to give them whatever they want whenever they need it. The problem is that people put too much faith in too few key contacts. They expect these influential people to make their lives easier on demand. What impatient people fail to remember is that key contacts are busy. (153)

By using these techniques we will be able to find lifelong friends and enjoy our friendship.  If we have these good friends, we can have great treasures better than material treasures.  In my very first lecture of this year I shared my personal experience how my Seicho-No-Ie friends helped me to come to the United States.  Before working at the local Seicho-No-Ie Chiba Missionary Area, I had worked for the Hilton Hotel for 8 years.  In the first 6 years I worked in the Tokyo area.  While working at the Tokyo Hilton Hotel, I lost my father in 1987.  I was devastated and I lost a big guidance in my life.  When my father was collapsed, I visited him and helped my mother to take care of him for almost 30 days. My father died on April 17, 1987, but my grandfather had died March 3, 1987.  So, I took about 4 or 5 days of for the funeral.  After a few weeks, I was able to take 4 weeks days off because of my accumulated paid vacations; however, if my friends did not cooperate to assist my shift for a month, I would not be able to take these paid vacations. When I left the Hilton Hotel at the end of December 1990, I had the accumulated vacations and my last day of working at the hotel was November 3, 1990. It was usually difficult for us to take paid vacation fully, but I had been able to take days off about 5 weeks within 2 months because of my friends helping me.

In addition to this, one of my best friends at that time was head hunted for the new opening Hilton Hotel near Tokyo Disneyland and thought that it was good for me to work with him in a new environment.  He asked me to work with him at the new hotel but I was not interested.  He strongly suggested his recruiter to recruit me to work there with the exact same conditions including the salary.  In this way I was promoted under this great condition without any effort.  The most important thing was that I moved to Chiba because I was able to meet one of my mentors who is Rev. Nanao Yamato.  Because of his influence and support, I was able to work at the Seicho-No-Ie Chiba Missionary Area.  If I had not moved to the new hotel, I would not have come to the United States because Rev. Yamato gave me a chance to study at UCLA and 6 months vacations.  Without my friends present, the Mario Kawakami would not exist and you would not be able to listen to my lecture.  Now, I believe you understand how important it is to have good friends.

Some of you may say that some people do not have a chance to meet a good friend.  In my case as I explained that because of my moving over 20 times, I had difficult times to have friends especially when I was young. Fortunately, my parents guided me to Seicho-No-Ie and I read many SNI books.  They became a part of my life, my philosophy and became very good friends.  Rev. Masaharu Taniguchi wrote the benefit of having good books which might become one of your best friends in For Young People:

“At times the best friend for us is a good book rather than a human being.  Henry Beecher observed that people who read Ruskin change completely after reading his works.  Books are live expressions of the writer and they can give their readers the same influence as living people.  Not only that, books ask for nothing except the small amount to be paid for their purchase; yet they joyfully wait for you to use your entire faculties to absorb and take away any amount of the good things they contain.” (p. 84)

We are often easily affected by our friends.  Depending on our friends we may become cheerful or gloomy, rude or gentle.  If we have bad, insincere friends, we might do bad things without feeling guilty and become insincere.  If we are surrounded by people who delight in finding fault and poking fun, we might do the same thing to others.  If we are surrounded by people who are gentle, tolerant, sincere and industrious, those characteristics will be implanted in us and we will be a very delightful person who attracts many good friends.  Thank you very much.

How Can We Realize Our Dreams? (1/6/2013)

Happy New Year! I am so happy to see you all. Today, I’d like to talk about how to realize our New Year’s dreams. We can accomplish great things, but that can only be done by completing it in small stages step by step. We cannot build a great temple like the Main Temple in Nagasaki, Japan with only one person’s strength but can build it with the cooperation of many people. We cannot build a great temple instantaneously but can build it step by step. In the same manner, we cannot make a difference instantaneously but can do it by living each day fully. We need big dreams to fulfill our lives. We must not hesitate to have big dreams, but in order to realize them we have to do what we should do now. We should make a difference in our lives and lives of others and change our environment and the way we live for the better.

Then, how can we make a difference and realize our dreams? We are all children of God, so we can do anything whatever we want. All we have to do is to draw out our infinite potential within us. We don’t have to be enlightened in order to draw out our infinite potential. It is the same that we do not have to be enlightened to experience a great testimony. All we have to do is to apply what we learn and practice it in our daily lives step by step. We cannot accomplish anything without completing each step, just like reaching the top of the tower by going up the stairs one by one. When you finish your current step, you can take the next step up. In other words, reaching enlightenment and fulfilling your life are not your destinations but the journey or the process in realizing your child of God nature.

Seicho-No-Ie Founder Rev. Masaharu Taniguchi explained why someone cannot successfully make his/her dream come true. Rev. Taniguchi said, “The reason things do not go smoothly in life is because we entertain limitations in our minds. As long as we have limitations in our minds—it is like riding a bicycle while applying the brakes to it at the same time—we shall never be able to secure success even when success lies right before us.” He then taught us how we should pray:

“We are not beings that have become separated from God. We are one with God. God is our supporter, and together with Him we fulfill the mission that He has granted to us. We are exactly as God is. We possess exactly as God possesses. We are beings with infinite ability, and perfect success is ours here and now.” (This Is How I pray, p.40-41)

To deeply believe that a human being and God are one is the best way to realize our dreams because with God we can do anything. Unfortunately, however, many people believe that there are circumstances which exist outside of themselves that hinder the materialization of their dreams. In other words, they don’t feel that God resides within themselves. Please let me remind you of the words that Rev. Taniguchi stated, “The reason things do not go smoothly in life is because we entertain limitations in our mind.” No one can hinder our success other than our own minds. Therefore, we must first identify our perceived problems and limitations, and then eliminate them from our minds. Then we will be ready to draw upon our infinite power within to fulfill our dreams.

For the last 12 years in California, every January I offered my prayer to our members for their New Year’s dreams to come true by the end of the year. They wrote their wishes and dreams, and their wishes were consecrated in God. The SNI New York Missionary Area does the same thing. This morning some of you have received your prayer envelope which had been written your wishes and dreams. During the past years I observed whether or not their dreams had come true. Some members realized their dreams while others did not. I wondered why some members achieved their dreams while others didn’t. After much soul searching and consideration of our SNI teachings, I believe that there are 5 reasons why it can seem so difficult to achieve the goal of realizing our dreams.

1)      We sometimes fail to realize our infinite power within and God is within us.

2)     We do not always know how to properly draw our infinite power out.

3)     We will not be able to realize our dreams if our dreams do not improve our souls, or spiritual development.

4)     Our dreams are not precisely defined, and/or we do not think that we have to change ourselves to make the dreams come true.

5)     We often hold a deep fear of failure which inhibits our desire to take risks that could bring success.

The first and most important reason why people do not realize their dreams is that they do not truly believe that they possess infinite potentials within themselves and that they are children of God. Every human being has already received his or her own unique talents. Therefore, all he or she has to do is draw out his or her unique talents out. Because of this reason, many people cannot express their indwelling talents. The best way to solve this problem is to use Shinsokan Meditation to Visualize God who is within us because Shinsokan tunes her mind to oneness of God and her.

Even if we are aware of our infinite potential or talents, people don’t necessarily know how to draw them out. SNI teaches us to draw out our inner talents and strengths with the power of imagination and the power of the word. Every invention and discovery started from people’s minds. People’s beliefs and never-ending endeavors supported by their beliefs have accomplished many successes in the human civilization. In order to accomplish small or great goals, we need positive power that is fueled by our imaginations and our words. Therefore, SNI propagates the use of the positive power of words. Later of my lecture I will introduce a message from “For Young People.”  It motivated me to free my imagination so that I could dream a great dream.

Some people still do not realize their dreams even though they recognize their talents, know how to draw them out and work hard to express them. In this case, they may not have realized their dreams if their goals do not promote their spiritual development. When I speak of spiritual development, I mean our expression of God-like qualities such as generosity, compassion and perseverance. If your dream conflicts with such qualities, your dream won’t be realized. For example, if your dream is to own the biggest SUV ever made, the result will be increased environmental pollution. A generous dream would be one that fulfills your desires and does not harm others. Some people do not care whether they hurt others or the environment and will sacrifice others and nature in order to realize their dreams. However, you have already learned how important it is to accomplish something with harmony.

Finally, people’s dreams won’t be realized if they cannot express precisely what their dreams are. For example, if you want to have a new job or house, you have to write and visualize the exact thing that you want. If you just wish you want to have a new job, you have to know what kind of job you want, how much salary you need, when you want to start working, where you want to work, and so on.

Lastly, we must eliminate our fear of failure. A famous psychologist said many people are as fearful of success as they are of death. Perhaps this fear of failure stems from the fact that we must evaluate and make changes in ourselves and in our lives that seem difficult at first. However, we will be able to eliminate this fear by practicing SNI teachings because what we do is focus ourselves on our True Image. I would like to introduce my own experience with you. I was born in 1959 in Japan, to parents who were already SNI members. My father was a SNI minister who dedicated his life to spreading the teachings and helping others. Because I saw how happy he was to learn and practice SNI teachings I decided to dedicate myself to SNI.　

For a long time I had a dream to work for SNI International Headquarters and devote myself to spreading the SNI teachings. During my school days, I eagerly participated in SNI activities. After graduating from high school, I entered a school specializing in foreign languages where I studied in English.　

After graduation I wanted to work in the SNI Int’l Hqs. My father disapproved of this idea. He said, “Desire alone is not enough. One must have the ability to perform the necessary work.”

At that time I knew I was lacking in ability, but I felt in the future, after polishing my character and improving my English, I would be able to enter Int’l Hqs and contribute to the overseas movement.　

However, I could not get a job at SNI at that time. I was offered a full time position at the Hilton Hotel where I had worked part time while a student. I accepted their offer. After working there for six months or so, I began to dislike the monotonous work and considered quitting. However, I recalled the following passage from “For Young People.” It motivated me to free my imagination so that I could dream a great dream.　

“You must have a dream: whatever is of value in this world started out in the minds of people who bravely dared to dream.  Take away dreams from man’s history and there would be no culture as resplendent as the culture we now enjoy.  Indeed, a person who dreams is a person who stands at an outpost of human culture.  People who succeeded in cutting down the thorns that stood before them, in leveling what was steep, in changing difficulties into happiness were invariably people who had dreams…..

“Dream your dream now.  No matter how poor you are now, you are already wealthy in the world of dreams.  Regardless of how unfortunate you are now, you are already fortunate in the world of dreams.  If you know right now that all things are created by the mind, it will be the same as if you had already left the impoverished, unhappy circumstances of the present and had been reborn in a new, wealthy, and happy world.” (from For Young People)

Reading these words always motivated me and encouraged me. I decided to do my best every moment at my job even if I disliked it, because I was free to quit whenever I wanted. So I did my best every moment. Three months later I was able to move to a new Hilton Hotel in Shinjuku, Tokyo. My work became more challenging, and I was very busy, but I continued to devote myself to the SNI youth activities more often. During that time the teachings empowered me to do my best at work and to devote myself to enlightenment activities. In addition, working with the hotel guests enabled me to consider matters from the other person’s perspective.

In 1990, I resigned from the Hilton Hotel where I had worked for more than 9 years and had been the assistant manager of the hotel. I had been offered a position at the SNI Chiba Missionary Center. Rev. Yamato invited me to work there, so I agreed and I quit the Hilton Hotel. However, they didn’t employ me as a regular staff member, and in this reason my income was reduced by one-fourth. I worked part time for 6 months. During that time I had no insurance or social security. If I had not known the teachings and had seen this situation as a phenomenon, I would have been dissatisfied and complained.

However, I didn’t want to worry about such matters because it was my decision to work for SNI. The reason why I quit the hotel business and went to work for SNI was because I love SNI and wanted to devote myself to the SNI Humanity Enlightenment Movement. Thus, I began practicing Shinsokan and reading the 4 Holy Sutras everyday for 100 consecutive days from 3 a.m. to 5 a.m. during the fall and winter months.

It was very cold at 3 o’clock in the morning in Japan but I didn’t want to miss a single day because I believed if I completed 100 days of practice, the SNI teachings would manifest in my life spiritually, physically, and mentally.

The day before the 100^th day, Rev. Yamato went on a business trip in Tokushima where I was born. That was middle February. His business was extended and needed an important document. I flew to Tokushima to bring it to him. I stayed at my mother’s house. The next morning I woke up at 3 a.m. and practiced Shinsokan and read the Holy Sutra. That day Rev. Yamato wanted to go to my father’s grave yard, so we went there and read the Holy Sutra together. In this way I completed my 100^th day of practice. After 100 days, I became self confident.

After that, I expressed my desire to go to the United States to study English. I didn’t know when I could go and how long I could stay, because I didn’t have a visa or even a passport. I let go of my desire by giving it to God.

February and March passed by, and the SNI Chiba members started to worry about my trip. Everyone asked me the same question: “When are you going to the United States? Where will you stay?” I left everything up to God, so I answered, “I don’t know. I haven’t yet received any answer from God. I’m just leaving it up to Him.”　

In the middle of April I started to worry about my trip because everybody else worried about it. But my experience of “100 days of practice Shinsokan” helped me to find peace. I had already sent my application to UCLA 2 months earlier and had also asked my friend buy the cheapest round trip ticket to LA. All I had to do was to trust God who was preparing everything for me.

On April 29 my friend suddenly informed me that my flight to LA was the 14^th of May. I had not heard from UCLA and didn’t have a visa yet. But the next morning I received a fax from UCLA that permitted me to enter their English curriculum. So, I took it to the American Embassy and got the student visa on the same day. Meanwhile, I was advised that someone had offered me a place to stay in LA. This person was Rev. Yamato’s friend’s wife’s father’s elder sister. She was a total stranger for me but kindly offered me a room and didn’t accept my offer of payment of rent.

Within two weeks I got everything I needed, except money. I had gotten a lump-sum discharge allowance when I resigned from the hotel, but I had spent it for my apartment rent and SNI activities for 6 months. I called my mother and discussed financial situation. The very next day she sent me 10,000 dollars. I was very grateful but the amount was not enough.

A few days before I left Japan, my friends held a farewell party. At the party the greatest gift came to me, and that was 6,000 dollars because my friends knew that I needed money. I really appreciated them. In this way I could study at UCLA for 3 months.

Before I went to the United States, I had planned the youth group summer spiritual training seminar with a totally new format and youth members needed me to be there. It cost about 2,000 dollars to go back to Japan and I did not know what I should do.

However, I realized that I couldn’t have my desires through my efforts alone. My friends, my mother, youth group members helped to make my dream come true. So, I decided to go back to Japan for only 5 nights in that summer.

When I went back to Japan in August and helped the seminar, I was able to find the place after I returned to Japan. One of my friends took care of the lease agreement and also negotiated the rent.  Within 5 days stay in Japan, I found a beautiful 4-bedroom apartment on the 7^th floor with 500 dollars rent. 

In addition, SNI Chiba helped my rent so that I only had to pay $200. After 18 months I left this apartment because I had agreed for the owner that whenever his sake I would leave that apartment. So I left there with gratitude, but I had to find a new place within a month.　

Again, I let go of my problem by giving it to God. This time I knew what kind of place where I wanted to live. So, I requested two things to God: First, I wanted to live not an apartment but a house with a small yard because I did not have time to maintain a big yard. Second, I needed almost the similar amount of rent because I sent $500 every month to my mother who had a very few source of income.　

Within a month I was given a house with 3 bedrooms including one Japanese-style room, a comfortable living room and a nice small yard with garage. The rent was $500 but I shared the house with my friend, so I paid only $300 and could continue to send money to my mother. Now this roommate became my brother-in-law.　

The rent was my desired amount; however, this owner placed a condition on the lease that I had to leave the house exactly in one year. Since I didn’t have time to find another place, I said okay. The day I had to vacate the house was in March 1994. I believed everything would go well after 1 year.

In December 1993, it was announced that I would be assigned to New York from March 1994 exactly the same month that I had to leave. God planed everything for me; therefore, He gave me the rented house with such a specific condition. If I didn’t have faith in God, I might have complained to Him about why I was given such a condition. But again I accepted everything as it was.　

I do not want to say that I was grateful because everything I needed was provided. True faith does not change according to material possession. Even if you earned less than half of what you previously earned, or even if you were given all the material wealth you need, do not increase or decrease your faith. God has already within us and provided everything that we need. All we need is to know the 5 important things to make our dreams come true. Please write your new year dreams and send to us. We are happy to pray that your dreams come true this year.　

Merry Christmas!

As you may have heard, we will be moving to Manhattan, New York in January 2013. Every moment of our lives in Southern California was so joyful and memorable! Our eldest daughter, Mika, will stay in Torrance to graduate high school, while Eri and Saki start their new lives in NY. We will go around a full circle by going back to our starting point of marriage, which began in Manhattan in 1994. We will continue to devote ourselves to the Seicho-No-Ie church, our community, and schools as much as possible. May the joy of the holiday season be yours, and may the New Year bring you much happiness, prosperity, peace and love.

The Kawakami Family (December 2012)

Let Us Genuinely Practice Three Seicho-No-Ie Practices

The following message was my message of the July/August SCMA newsletter.

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In this phenomenal life, there are many important things which are bestowed to us by God as important. If there is no life, we cannot accomplish our mission which was given to us by God. Therefore, the action to terminate life must be ceased because it is a sinful act.  However, some people think and act that money or material things are more important than life because they have their own moral reflection. But our morals should come from God. In other words, goodness is one of God’s virtues. Goodness is not only good for oneself but it is also good for many people. Goodness is not egotistical or partial—it is impartial. Seicho-No-Ie prayers have positive words, but if you only pray for your happiness and do not pay mind to others, that is not a good prayer. In the phenomenal world, sometimes “good” is interpreted into different meanings because every situation is different.

              In July, Tomas Lopez, a lifeguard in Hallandale Beach, Florida, was fi red because he saved a person who was drowning. The reason why he was fi red was because the person who was drowning was in the out of insurance coverage zone in which Tomas watched. This relates to liability insurance. A company should have liability insurance. Liability insurance means if something happens on a company’s property, they have to be legally responsible for it. However, any company cannot prevent absolutely every accident before it happens.  So insurance is needed, and insurance covers only incidents in a certain area. This applies to the beach as well. The lifeguard company of Tomas Lopez was responsible for whatever happens to their employees in their designated area.  So, they had a policy for their employees to not tend to any incidents happening outside their designated area. Tomas knew that he would be fi red if he didn’t abide by it, but he thought that saving a human life was more important than this policy.  Consequently, he was fired, and his fellow lifeguards also quit the company in protest of their decision.

              So, if you were a lifeguard, would you do the same thing as Tomas did? I think the average person would answer, “Yes.”  Many people would also probably think that this company is wrong, but what is actually wrong? I believe most people think that policies or rules, overall, should contribute to the happiness of human beings. Life is very important. The lifeguard company’s policy was to protect their business, not for saving the life of human beings.

              That was probably not too difficult to figure out. Yet, how about the next example? The following is a true story that took place in Afghanistan, revealed by Michael Sandel in his book, Justice: What’s The Right Thing To Do? I will summarize between pages 24 and 30:

              In June 2005, a special forces team made up of Petty Officer Marcus Luttrell and three other U.S. Navy SEALs set out on a secret mission in Afghanistan, near the Pakistan border, in search of a Taliban leader, a close associate of Osama bin Laden. According to intelligence reports, their target commanded 140 to 150 heavily armed fighters and was staying in a village in the forbidding mountainous region.

              Shortly after, the special forces team met two Afghan farmers with about a hundred goats. One of them was a boy about 14 years old. The Afghans were unarmed. The American soldiers trained their rifles on them, motioned for them to sit on the ground, and then debated what to do about them. On one hand, the goat herders appeared to be unarmed civilians. On the other hand, letting them go would run the risk that they would inform the Taliban of the presence of the U.S. soldiers.

              Four soldiers did not have any rope to tie up the Afghans, so their choice was either to kill the Afghan goat herders or let them go free. One of the soldiers voted to kill them and another voted to set them free. The third one had abstained. So, Petty Officer Luttrell’s vote would decide the lives of Afghan goat herders. If you were him, what would you do?

              Since we are not in the Navy SEALs and not actually in Afghanistan, it is difficult for us to decide one way or another. However, Petty Officer Luttrell was in that situation and cast the deciding vote to release them. About an hour and a half after they released the goat herders, the four soldiers found themselves surrounded by eighty to a hundred Taliban fighters armed with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades.  In the fierce firefight that followed, all three of Luttrell’s comrades, except for Petty Officer Luttrell, were killed. The Taliban fighters also shot down a U.S. helicopter that sought to rescue the SEAL unit, killing all sixteen soldiers on board.

              The reason why I introduced this story is not because I am going to tell you that in our lives we have very difficult decisions in which we would need to sacrifice a human life. As a matter of fact, Professor Sandel wrote:

Few of us face choices as fateful as those that confronted the soldiers on the mountain. But wrestling with their dilemmas sheds light on the way moral argument can proceed, in our personal lives and in the public square.

       Life in democratic societies is rife with disagreement about right and wrong, justice and injustice. Some people favor abortion rights, and others consider abortion to be murder. Some believe fairness requires taxing the rich to help the poor, while others believe it is unfair to tax away money people have earned through their own efforts. . . .

       How, then, can we reason our way through the contested terrain of justice and injustice, equality and inequality, individual rights and the common good? This book tries to answer that question. . . . (pp. 27-28)

              Professor Sandel gave us deep insight to consider and discuss moral philosophies in this book, but as long as we discuss something from the phenomenal viewpoint, we cannot find solution because moral reflections change depending on time, place, and cultural and/or racial background.  During the Tokugawa Shogun period between 1600 and 1868 in Japan, killing the parent’s or master’s killer for revenge was allowed until it was legally prohibited in 1873. Traditionally in the Muslim culture, a man may have up to four wives if he believes he can treat them equally, while a woman may have only one husband even if she can treat men equally. In the phenomenal world there is no absolute perfection, because this world is a reflected world like a projected movie. Therefore, in Petty Officer Luttrell’s case, there is no absolute good decision.

              Then, what should we do? What is the best way to resolve our problems? First of all, in Seicho-No-Ie, we need to know the Truth because the Truth shall make us free.  We need to realize our True Image through the three important SNI practices. In the phenomenal world, we sometimes run into a stone wall and think there is no solution to our problems.  As long as we see the situation from the phenomenal viewpoint, we will not find any solution. However, when we apply the law of God’s love to our problems, we will be able to resolve them because anything is possible in the world of God. Therefore, let us genuinely continue to carry out our three important SNI practices (Shinsokan meditation, reading the Holy Sutra and Seicho-No-Ie books, and acts of gratitude).

You Are the Master of Your Destiny!

The following lecture was delivered at the SNI Orange County Center's One Day Truth Realization Seminar on October 27, 2012:

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We are all children of God; therefore, we are the master of our lives. We can change our lives to whatever we want. As today’s One-Day Truth Realization Seminar’s flyer states: “You are always the master. You control your own destiny. That is why you must not think that others are to blame for your misfortune. You are solely responsible for your misfortune or happiness.”

In Seicho-No-Ie, there are several important teachings that you should not miss such as “You are a child of God,” “You are the master of your destiny.” and “All environment by which you are surrounded are reflections of your mind.” You are the master of your life, but your wishes are not always realized because your fervent wish and sincere wish are different. Rev. Masaharu Taniguchi wrote:

“Your sincere wish will come true. Sincerity does not merely mean being fervent. It means your innermost truth. The innermost is the opposite of a superficial shallowness. By following fashion, satisfying one’s vanity, hastily welcoming the situation, rashly swimming with the tide, and being swayed by rumors, one wants to do something. But that something cannot be a sincere wish. Jesus fervently prayed with bloody perspiration in the garden of Gethsemane, ‘If you are willing, take this cup from me’ (Luke 22:42, NIV). However, this was not his actual sincere wish.” (Truth of Life magazine Oct. 2010, p. 25)

Jesus fervently wished to take that cup from him, but this was not actually his sincere wish. Rev. Taniguchi continued:

“Jesus’ sincere wish was that he himself be crucified on the cross for the sin-consciousness of human beings, in the same way that Moses had saved the Jewish people from the fury of God by lifting up the bronze snake and putting it up on a pole. Therefore, he prophesied that, ‘just as Moses lifted the snake up in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up’ (John 3:14, NIV). This was his subconscious sincere wish. However, his conscious fervent wish was ‘take this cup from me.’ However fervent the wish in your conscious mind, it shall not come true when you have the opposite wish in your subconscious mind.” (Ibid., p. 25)

Rev. Masaharu Taniguchi described the mind in the following manner: “The mind is like an iceberg, with the subconscious mind becoming increasingly larger as it goes deeper. The conscious mind, which appears above the surface, is only the tip of the iceberg. What appears above the surface of the water is only a small portion of the iceberg as most of its large mass is below the surface and out of sight...The subconscious mind is exactly like this. It becomes bigger as it goes deeper, and the lower portion of the subconscious mind is what is common to and interconnected with all mankind” (Prosperity and Health, p. 276).

Rev. Masaharu Taniguchi likened each person’s conscious and subconscious minds to the above diagram. The conscious mind is about 5 percent of the total individual mind. The subconscious mind is almost 95 percent of the mind. Within the subconscious mind there are several layers of consciousness. Rev. Taniguchi described the relationship between conscious and subconscious minds: “The conscious mind is merely a point that protrudes on the surface of the subconscious. It has the role of receiving or preventing unwholesome things from entering the mind. The subconscious mind, on the other hand, passively accepts whatever is impressed on it by the conscious mind, entrusting it further to the creative power of the grand Life (God) of the universe. The conscious mind is the surface mind that consciously selects whatever impressions that come” (Control Your Life By Your Mind, p. 63-64). Furthermore, Rev. Taniguchi explained the relationship between the subconscious mind and the Super-consciousness (God-consciousness) in the above-mentioned book, Prosperity and Health. I won’t quote the entire section of this, but his core point is that each individual person’s subconscious mind is directly connected to God through his or her God-consciousness. Therefore, we call every person a child of God.

Rev. Taniguchi said our subconscious minds control our lives. For example, if something embarrasses us, we suddenly blush and our heart rate goes up. How can we stop blushing and bring our heart rate back down? We cannot control these reactions with our conscious minds. When something negative happens to us, we just add another worry or concern into our minds. In other words, we have continuously accumulated negativities in our minds without cleansing them away. If we repeatedly hold old grudges, our minds are more inclined to become upset and angry, and even hateful. These emotions can cause great harm to our physical and mental health as well as our business and personal relationships. Many people do not recognize that our subconscious and conscious thinking habits are what prevent us from leading healthy and happy lives. One of the reasons is that people usually forget about their negative thoughts at the conscious level after a certain period of time has passed and assume that they feel fine. However, these negative thoughts did not disappear but have accumulated in their subconscious minds. This is like sweeping dirt and dust under a rug. It has simply been hidden from view. However, it is still there doing great harm from the deep recesses of the subconscious mind.

In order to remove these harmful thoughts from our mind, we periodically hold the Mind Purification ceremony at the centers. When we cleanse our negative emotions and thoughts from our minds and accumulate positive thoughts, our conscious and subconscious minds agree and our wish becomes sincere.

What then is a positive thought? A positive thought is enlightenment. To become enlightened we have to know the following three things:

1)      Deny the existence of phenomena. Phenomena are not true existences. They are reflections.

2)     Affirm that we are all children of God.

3)     Realize that our minds create our destinies.

We are all perfect spiritual beings and have God nature deep within ourselves. However, phenomenally we can still see imperfection through our physical eyes. Rev. Masanobu Taniguchi expounds this in his prayer, Prayer to Visualize the Non-Existence of Misfortune, in Daily Prayer (Hibino Inori). (Underline was the parts I read.)

Prayer to Visualize the Non-Existence of Unhappiness

  The world created by God is perfect.  All is sufficient, give to one another, support one another, and are in harmony.  There is no lack or deficiency, taking or stealing from one another, and there is no conflict.  All ideas, beauty, and goodness fill and permeate throughout, and are given order through various laws. That is what is being referenced when it is written in “Genesis,” “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good….”  I believe in God from the bottom of my heart, and because I have great confidence in Him, I believe in this, and declare, just as God did, “All things created by God are exceedingly beautiful, exceedingly good, and perfect and harmonious.

   This is the Truth, the True Image, and the true form of the world of the world of God, the Buddha Land, the Pure Land.  It is not possible for me to see it with my physical eyes, hear it with my physical ears, smell it with my physical nose, or taste it with my physical mouth, nor can my skin feel it.  As a child of God, I can simply visualize it directly with my mind.

   Because I deeply visualize the True Image that exists, I know that the “unhappiness” I see is not real.  I know that the “unhappiness” I hear with my ears is not reality.  I know that that which I smell with my nose is not real.  I know that that which I taste with my mouth is not the essence of things.  I know that that which I feel with my sense of touch is not the True Image.  The world I know through my five senses is not the true world created by God.  It is a “reflection of my mind” in two ways. The first is because our senses do not sense everything of all existence, but only what is necessary to maintain the survival of the entire body. The second is because I do not know the feeling itself but reinforce what I am trying to know with my senses.  In other words, I select from my senses only it is that I “want to know.”  That is why, when I feel that “there is happiness before me,” I am reflecting that “unhappiness.”  It is not God’s creation, and because it is not God’s creation, though it may be sensed as phenomena, it is not reality so is non-existent, false, a temporary reflection, and is something that shall eventually crumble.

   Although I may feel that unhappiness stands solemnly before me, it is not God’s “anger,” “punishment” or “trial.”  God does not create “unhappiness.”  He has created only the perfect and harmonious world of Grand Harmony. Hold fast to this faith.  Grasp tightly on to your trust in God.  That which “angers” is our own mind, that which “punishes” is our own mind, and that which seeks “trials” is our own mind.  That which our mind seeks manifests before us as phenomena.  That which appears to be “unhappiness” is a reflection of my mind. When my mind limits or restricts “happiness” to suit itself, any phenomena other than that manifests as “unhappiness.”  Although I may be happy, I am feeling unhappiness of my own volition.  Do not hold God responsible for whether or not you are happy.  He does not create phenomena.  He creates only the True Image and reality.  He creates only the world of God and the Pure Land of Buddha.  In the world of God, all people are happy from the beginning.  In the Pure Land, all living things are filled with infinite happiness from the beginning. 

   Now, as I deeply contemplate and visualize the True Image of existence, I truly know and feel that all things that truly exist are perfect and harmonious and filled with infinite happiness.  My existing is happiness.  My being able to use the tool that is my physical body is happiness.  My having parents who gave me that physical body is happiness.  My having a life that was “marked” by my parents and ancestors is happiness.  Being able to share cultures is happiness.  Being able to have relationships with animals is happiness.  Being able to love the flowers and fruits of plants is happiness.  Being able to feel and sense the sky, oceans, wind, and clouds is happiness.  That is not saying that the breeze, sudden showers, or the sounds of breaking waves, the voice of the thunder, lightning, the cries of the birds, insect sounds, the babbling brook, the sound of the waterfall, or the sound of the surf—the phenomenon itself that we know through our senses—is not in itself happiness.  The greatest and most certain fact behind those infinite number of things—there is a Creator that transcends all of this abundant and diverse phenomena, and there is, here, a perfect and harmonious world created by that God.  That is why, phenomena appearing as that “reflection”—this is the source of happiness. Because, as a “reflection” the phenomenal world is sufficiently magnificent, beautiful, filled with goodness and ideas, think of how the world of God, the True-Image world that is the “source,” must be. Contemplate this.  Meditate on it.  The True Image lies behind the senses.  I am in the center of the perfect and harmonious world of God, and if I visualize and feel only this, happiness is there.

    God is the source of my happiness.  God does not create unhappiness.  “Unhappiness” is merely the house of cards given birth to by the delusion that the physical being is the self.  I offer my heartfelt appreciation to God for teaching me this Truth.

I read Rev. Masanobu Taniguchi’s Daily Prayers every morning and they help me to enlighten my day. I will occasionally introduce his prayers. The next thing we should do is to affirm that we are all children of God. We have to practice Three Important Practices which are Shinsokan Meditation, reading the Holy Sutras and SNI books and perform deeds of love daily. Some may say that we can practice the first two but that the “deeds of love” is not easy to perform every day. You have to change your perceptions. “Deeds of love” in SNI is not only to subscribe to Truth of Live magazines and share them with other people. To be kind to your family members and neighbors, to clean up the streets, to give encouragement, to give a smile and bring joy to other people, or even to pick up trash are all deeds of love. You cannot say that you won’t be able to such things.

The third thing is to realize that our minds create our destinies. I’d like to share a recent book which I read. This book explains how to organize and clean your room. By reading this, I realized that to clean and organize our rooms depends on our minds. I also realized that keeping material things for a long time and cherishing and caring for them are completely different.

In my house there were many material things and I didn’t know how to organize them. However, by reading this book I understood why. The author, Mari Kondo, is an expert in teaching how to clean and organize rooms and offices. Under her guidance, every customer can clean and organize his/her room. In business, repeaters are important, but she has no repeat customer because everyone can do a better job after her guidance.

According to Ms. Kondo, with regard to organization problems, out of 100 percent 90 percent of the cause is related to one’s mind. She said, “There is no way to mess the room without involving you. In other words, you are the one who makes a mess in your room and it is the reflection of your mind.” She also said that she almost never cleans her room because her room is always clean and organized. She said probably once a year she cleans her room for about an hour.

Then, how do you start organizing your room? She gives us the following advice:

1)      What kind of room do you want to live in? Visualize the ideal room. If you cannot visualize the room, find an ideal room from magazines and put that model room or ideal room on the wall.

2)     Repeatedly ask yourself at least 5 times; “Why do you want to live in that room/have that kind of lifestyle?”

3)     Organization is not to rearrange things in your room or discard things that you don’t need. Organization is to keep what you use and what you need.

4)     Organization is a process to select what you want to keep not what you want to discard. In order to do this, you have to set a standard of your things and decide what you want to keep by touching each item with your hands.

5)     Do not clean by room but clean by categories. Collect the same items in one room and start organizing and/or sorting.

6)     Start organizing things which are easy to sort such as clothes. Recommendation: clothes-> books-> documents-> small things (DVD, accessories, stationery, cosmetics, medicine, kitchen things, daily necessities, food, etc.)-> things rich in memories such as photos and letters.

7)     Sorting order of clothes: tops (shirt, sweater)-> bottoms (pants, skirts)-> hanging clothes (jackets, suits, coat)-> socks-> underwears-> bags-> small things (scarves, belts, hats, shoes)-> event clothes (Halloween, bathing suit, party dress)-> bags

8)    When you get rid of your personal stuff, do not give them to your family members and proceed disposing without letting them know. You will always be interrupted.

When I read this book, I thought the author did not think of material things as materials. She said, “A gift is to convey a person’s feeling. Recall the touching moment when you received it and be grateful and then discard it.” “To organize is to clean up the past.” “Please dispose all the letters from someone whom you associated with. The purpose of love letters belongs to the moment to receive and read it. Generally speaking, those who have sent a letter do not remember what he wrote or even remember the fact that he had sent it. Regarding accessories and jewelry, you should keep them if they are precious to you. Otherwise, get rid of them, or you may miss a new encounter.”

When I read this book, I realized that I did not fully utilize things that I kept at home. They accumulated in the closet, on the shelves, under the bed and in the garage, and I haven’t seen some of them for over 3 years, 5 years and even over 7 years. How can I say that I care for my personal things? It means I don’t care for them. So, I cleaned my room and separated what I really want to use and what I do not need and prayed in my Shinsokan meditation, “O God, I have many things that I haven’t used for years such as clothes, bags and personal belongings. I am sincerely grateful to them which brought me joy and surprise. Please send these things to those who most need them. O God, thank you very much for granting my sincere wishes.” I had a garage sale. I gave some of them to my friends and took some of them to the Salvation Army and Goodwill. Through this experience I was able to refresh my feelings towards my personal belongings and again be grateful to them. These material things are not things that I need or do not need but are the manifestation of God’s life. I am grateful to my experience that I could cherish my life again and feel passion toward the material things that I have. They are not matter but manifestations of the life of God.

Conclusion:

We are all children of God; therefore, we are the master of our lives. We can change our lives to whatever we want. To do this, we need to realize the three things which are:

-         Deny the existence of phenomena. Phenomena are not true existences. They are reflections.

-         Affirm that we are all children of God.

-         Realize that our minds create our destinies.

We also practice Three Important Practices which are Shinsokan Meditation, reading the Holy Sutras and SNI books and perform deeds of love daily. Then even our rooms will be able to reflect on our minds and become organized. Thank you very much.