Day 17

My last update was March 19 and I will write during these weeks why I was not able to update, but now I can do. So I will do briefly.
          Today's White House briefing President Trump said, "Beginning of Holy Week for Christians and America, and all around the world, we may be apart from one another. As you can see from our great churches, our great pastors and ministers out there working very hard but we may be a part we can use this time to turn to reflection and prayer and our own personal relationship with God. I would ask that all Americans pray for the heroic doctors and nurses, for the truck drivers and grocery store workers, and for everyone fighting this battle... But most of all I'd like to ask for our prayers for the families who have lost loved ones, ask God to comfort them in their hour of grief..."
          This is a very important message. We should turn ourselves to God and deepen our relationship with God.

Be Reconciled with the Whole Universe: Day 16

            Yesterday Governor Andrew Cuomo used an analogy of the coronavirus as a war to explain what difficulty New York is facing right now. This morning an economic analyst Steve Rattner compared the current stock market with the bankruptcy crisis of Lehman Brothers in 2008. He further compared it with Black Friday in 1929.

            Yesterday the stock market fell down the same level as to when Donald Trump was inaugurated. Steve Rattner pointed out that this fall was the steepest and fastest decline in stock market history. It was down 32 percent from the peak and took less than a month to get there. He said, “To put that into historical perspective for you, in the great recession, it took a year for the stock market to fall as much as it has fallen in one month. Without getting too political about it, I think there is a piece of this that certainly relates to leadership… Market, okay, we can deal with this. Then, he (President Trump) says stuff that freaks people out or they don’t understand, doesn’t sound like he is taking it seriously, and it goes the other way.” (Morning Joe's 3/19, MSNBC) In other words, this problem of falling market is the problem of the leadership of how the White House or President handles it.

            Recessions in the past have been caused when there is a disconnection between the markets and reality. It was said that Joseph Kennedy suddenly realized that it was time to get out of the market when he was receiving stock-trading tips from a shoe-shine boy. When people become overconfident or too relaxed with the strength of the market it can be a dangerous sign that the value we attribute to companies does not represent the true value which they bring to the world. We are now living in a time when some people believe we are experiencing a recession that is worse than the Great Depression while our country’s leadership is telling us that everything is fine. Clearly, there is some disconnection between reality and what we are being told, and as a result, our society is descending into chaos.

            Many people offer completely opposite perspectives of this situation, but no one can tell us what the correct way forward is at this moment. Only God can. Therefore, it is extremely important that we practice Shinsokan and tune our mind into God’s vibration and hear His guidance and carry it out.

            I will repeat the same thing that I wrote yesterday again. All life comes from God and there is no evil life or harmful life. These lives have their own purpose to fulfill in order to support nature and earth. We need to stop driving out certain species and exhausting limited resources for our own personal gain. We must be reconciled with the whole universe and be grateful to everyone and everything.

All life Comes from the Universal Life: Day 15

            On March 16, President Donald Trump recommended social gatherings be limited to 10 people or less. Restaurants and pubs have closed their doors and some are open only for pick-up. Office workers are asked to work from home if they can. Today, Governor Cuomo announced that no business can have more than 50% of their workforce report for work outside of the home. Because of this, I will work at home starting tomorrow. There were very few people on the street in Manhattan and Grand Central Terminal today. It will be like a ghost town tomorrow.

            Many people may think that coronavirus is the worst enemy of humanity. Some people even likened the current situation as another world war, but viruses or microorganisms also have the life that comes from God. Rev. Masaharu Taniguchi 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)

            In nature, diversity is essential, and many different components work together in the web of life so that everything operates like clockwork. If you remove the given pieces, it no longer functions, and the whole structure collapses. Human beings, however, have been killing many species for their own comfort and convenience. The majority of us do not realize it and some are still killing these species. We must stop it. This is not a virus attack but we have been cutting our own life’s web by our own greed. If we learn from nature and practice a way of life to live together with nature, we will be able to change our world.

Do Not Practice Empty Power of Word: Day 14

            Some people encourage to practice positive thinking and other people denied saying it does not work. Even some of them believe the power of words and the power of the mind but sometimes doubt positive thinking because they only practice empty words.

            Our minds have the power to create our destinies. When you can change your mind, you can change your life. How can we change our minds? We must use the power of positive words. The positive word with emotion has power but without emotion does not work. A person who was told that she needs to be grateful to her husband and practice to say that he is a good person repeatedly, then her husband would become a good person. She said repeatedly that her husband was a good person and also chanted “thank you very much” many times. Every day she checked if her husband was changed or not, and he became worse. She claimed that positive words' chanting did not work. Her practice, of course, did not work because she totally believed that her husband was a bad person and tried to change him by using positive words. In other words, what she truly believed appeared.

            In order to receive good fortune, our minds need to be prepared because the phenomenal world is unfolded in accordance with our thoughts. You may say that a person is fortunate, but his good fortune actually comes from his prepared. Therefore, he was ready to receive good fortune. Rev. Masaharu Taniguchi wrote: “Napoleon boasted, ‘Do you think I am lucky? I create my own luck.’ This may be true for a person whose mind is well prepared, but if said by a person who is not mentally prepared, it is a foolish and irresponsible utterance.”

            Our mind creates our destiny. Rev. Taniguchi said that it is a foolish and irresponsible utterance if we use positive words without our mind’s preparation. He continued, “Laws permeate the universe, and to grasp the opportunity is to utilize the laws. Law exists in the universe even if the mind is not prepared. When man is mentally prepared, however, he will be able not only to fly into the sky but to explore the entire universe. The study of science is, in essence, for the preparation of the mind.” (Truth of Life December 2002)

            To use the positive words we must totally believe in them. If you use positive words to change about your husband or child, you must completely believe that he is a good, excellent person mentally and emotionally. Do not repeat empty positive words without emotion. Practice positive words with your strong emotion and belief that he is a very good person. When you truly feel that way, he will appear before you as a good husband or child.

Acrylic Paints and A Palate Knife : Day 13

            Watching the news about coronavirus every day, it’s depressing and disappointed with the guidance of the White House because it is so poor. The Bishop of the SNI US Missionary Headquarters called the special emergency meeting of the SNI ministers in the U.S. on March 3 to discuss how to deal with the coronavirus, there were only 2 persons confirmed positive for the virus in New York. Since then, almost every day the number of people who tested and confirmed positive has increased.
            I immediately emailed to our Japanese leaders because we had planned the Japanese Seminar on March 8. We discussed the seminar on whether or not we should postpone it. We concluded that we had the seminar but stopped promoting it to the public. We did whatever we could such as sanitizing doorknobs and tables as well as chairs, giving up providing refreshments to the participants, opening the windows while putting the heater on during the seminar, etc. We also broadcasted our seminar to those who wanted to participant online. We encouraged members to join the seminar online. We did everything that we could but watching the federal government actions, I was flabbergasted and disappointed. That disappointment still continues until today, I won’t discuss it today. I will write about a different thing.

            My brother texted me that my mom’s dementia became worse and it was difficult for his family to take care of her. My sister-in-law became so tired of taking care of our mother and became depressed. So my brother asked the siblings to help him and his wife. I want to do everything I can but am not sure what I can do because I do not live in Japan. It is difficult for me to take even a week's vacation right now due to the lack of full-time employees in the SNI NY Center. Great ideas will come to me at the most appropriate time in order to help my mom and my brother’s family.

            Now, what I do for my mom is to paint on an envelope every week and write to her with this envelope. Today I used a palette knife to paint. To paint with a palette knife on the envelope is not easy because it is too small to paint on the envelope with a palette knife. But I did because I wanted to send something different to my mom. Last month I called her on her birthday, she said she forgot many people even her own children and asked them who they were. She also said that she enjoyed my weekly letter but she did not read it but just enjoyed painting. That’s the reason that I want to do something different.

            I started using acrylic paint a couple of months ago because I had plenty of leftover craft smart paints that were used to use at Sunday school. I bought many Craft Smart Paints for the Sunday school students to paint together with them, but our Sunday school ended 4 years ago. I didn’t want to waste them, so I started using them. This acrylic paint is liquid, so it is good for painting with brushes, but if you use expensive acrylic paints, it has texture and more fun. Today, I add baking soda to these acrylic paints and painted with a palette knife. This was the first trial. I need to practice a lot to make an impressive paint envelope, but I enjoyed it. I hope my mom also likes it.

Spend Time in Nature: Day 12

            The Seicho-No-Ie New York Center was officially closed today. There was no Sunday Service, but I conducted it on the internet using Zoom Communication Conference. This was the first time to hold the service online. My computer’s microphone was broken a long time ago and a technician in Larchmont couldn’t fix it. I connected through my iPhone but couldn’t use the PowerPoint presentation. I think it went well.

            The coronavirus brought difficulties to many people in many ways. But my daughter does not have to go to school and will study online next Wednesday, so she is happy. Maybe I have to see it as an opportunity for a family bond. One of my New Year’s Dreams is to have fun with my family. So many years I dedicated my time mainly to my work and my wife and children didn’t have enough time to spend with me. Now, two of my children have left home and the last one will soon go to college this September. I need to find out how we can enjoy it as a family for the next 5 months.

            I want to spend the time with my family in nature such as hiking in the forest, enjoying on the beach, or walking along the river. My wife also wants to spend time in nature, so I bought a book, Explorer’s Guides 50 Hikes in the Lower Hudson Valley. There are many different kinds of hiking courses between Westchester and Kingston counties such as 2 or 3 days hiking or 2 hours hiking course. This year I hope I can go hiking at least 5 times with my wife and children. Last year, we went to 3 different places: Bash Bish Fall on the border between NY and MA, Fire Island Lighthouse Beach in Long Island, Hampton Beach in NH. I hope we enjoy nature as a family.

Drive Out Fear and Express Love: Day 11

            Fear is the worst enemy of human beings. Why do we fear?—because we do not know the true nature of fear. If you don’t know something, you cannot figure out what it is. That creates fear. Many people do the same things such as order the same menu, go to the same restaurant, use the same company or buy the same brand because they do not want to take a risk to try unknown things.

            Why do we not want to try unknown things?—because we do not want to fail and become unhappy. We must know that this world is created by God, so wherever you are, you are always in the best place and whatever you do, you are always guided by God. Stop worrying about unknown things. Believe the perfect creation of God. Do not imagine misfortune. Rev. Masaharu Taniguchi wrote: “Fear is the very emotion that is the cause for all misfortune. Since this world is a world created by God who is goodness, great sympathy and love, intellect and wonderful wisdom, and 0mniscient and omnipotent, there is no way that misfortune, which seems to go against love, could exist here. Nevertheless, we imagine that misfortune is real. We ought to know that God is absolute love and filled with nothing but love.” (Open the Doors of Your Life 2, p.94)

            The best way to drive out your fear, bring your love out more. Give kindness to others. Express gratitude to your family members. Praise your friends more. Thank what you receive from nature. These are all expressions of love. You can do it because you are a child of God. You are a child of the Love of God.