Compass of the Times 219
Compass of the Times 219
Cultivating Oneself
Keiko Takahashi
Season of Seminars
Every year, from May to June, three Age-Based Seminars1 are held in succession at the verdant Yatsugatake Inochi-no-Sato. In addition, the two-month-long “One Day One Sheet” Special Seminar2 begins nationwide. This period can be called the golden seminar season.
Whether it is the Age-Based Seminar or the “One Day One Sheet” Special Seminar, they all have one thing in common: we can have a more focused time of study than usual.
How do we perceive things in accordance with the Divine Truth? How do we respond to the calling? How do we continue to rotate our Ju-Hatsu-Shiki3? How do we perceive the present? How do we search for the blueprint4 that exists there, and how do we bring it closer to realization? A seminar is a place where we learn the answers to those questions in various ways, and one important way is by following the models who have put the Divine Truth into practice.
A Time of Inner Cultivation
Especially during this seminar period, what we will work on without change is to face ourselves and cultivate ourselves. The founder of Buddhism, Buddha, once compared us humans, who are born and raised as we are, to the wilderness of nature. He stressed the importance of cultivating the wilderness.
In a wasteland where weeds grow endlessly, and rocks and stones lie scattered about, even if precious seeds are sown, they will not be able to grow properly because they are blocked by those weeds, rocks, and stones.
The same is true for humans. If we leave our inner wilderness untouched, even if new seeds of wisdom are sown, they will not bring true blessings to our minds. That is why we need to cultivate ourselves every day.
Only when rocks, stones, and the weeds that grow one after another are painstakingly removed day after day can the earth within us be ready for the seeds to be sown. Thinking in this way, Buddha taught his disciples.
Since its inception, GLA has emphasized the importance of cultivating oneself.
For us, cultivating ourselves means, first and foremost, facing our own mind. We observe how our mind works and how it operates in creating reality. We do not think of the workings and operations of the mind as something fixed and unmovable but rather as the starting point of the change. We use a plow or a hoe when the ground has been hardened to bring air into it so that new life, including microorganisms, can grow. In the same way, we dig up the mind that has been hardened and closed to bring forth new workings of our mind; they are new ways of feeling, thinking, and making decisions.
The Latin phrase “to those who cultivate themselves” is stamped on the back cover of In the Blank Pages of Life, which contains the Multi-Faceted Truth of Nature, the Multi-Faceted Truth of Human Beings, and Words of Self-Reliance, all of which can be said to be the source of the Study of the Soul5. This is proof that the foundation of our path is to cultivate ourselves.
Bringing Out the True Inherent Power
By cultivating the earth, many lives that were hardened and closed begin to live, and at the same time, new life activities will begin. When that happens, that place is transformed into truly rich soil. This means that the original power of the earth to nurture all life is restored.
It is the same with our mind. When we cultivate the wilderness of the human mind, remove the rocks and stones that were there, and carefully remove the harmful weeds, the power that our mind originally possessed will be restored.
We have the ability to accept any situation without turning away, to listen to the calling through various encounters and events, and to perceive each situation as Chaos6. We have the ability to search for and discover the blueprint entrusted in that Chaos and to create an energy flow toward that blueprint by fine-tuning In and En (conditions).
The inherent power that we originally possess, the power stored in our souls, will be drawn forth from within us.
Editor’s Note
1. Age-Based Seminar
Just as the nature’s four seasons—spring, summer, fall, and winter—are irreplaceable, all the seasons of life—the time when we are a child, adolescent, middle age, and elderly— emits a precious light that cannot be compared. We are born into the World of Phenomena (this world) through the Gate of Birth, enjoy the seasons of life, return to the World of Real Existence (the other world) through the Gate of Death, and will be born into this world again when the time is fulfilled. This is a new view of life, the cyclical view of humanity that cannot be seen from the linear view of life that begins with birth and ends with death. In age-based seminars, participants can learn how to live each season of their lives. Specifically, there is the Youth Seminar for adolescents (May), Frontier College and Heart Nursing School Joint Seminar for people of middle age (June), Hoshin College Seminar for seniors (May), and Kakehashi Seminar for parents and children (end of July to August).
2. “One Day One Sheet” Special Seminar
This is a seminar to learn the wisdom of the Study of the Soul by using Takahashi-sensei’s book as a textbook and a guidebook as secondary material. While reading and deepening sensei’s book every day, participants will cut open pages of their guidebook and work on a variety of exercises for 30 minutes a day. The total period of the seminar is 40 days, with a rhythm of one study session and four individual studies per week.
3. Ju-Hatsu-Shiki
Ju is Reception, in which we perceive events that occurred in reality (external world) into our mind (internal world). Hatsu is Transmission, in which we interact with the external world after Reception. Shiki is a Buddhist term that refers to visible realities or the external world, such as incidents and events, including people. As long as we live, human beings continue to rotate this cycle of Ju-Hatsu-Shiki and keep producing realities, even if we are not aware of it. (Excerpted from pages 66-67 of The Glossary of the Divine Truth 2012; currently available only in Japanese)
4. Blueprint
Originally, a blueprint referred to plans showing how to build something such as a building or a machine. From there, it has come to refer to diagrams or plans for just about anything or for diagrams of the future that ought to be. It is the reality that we seek to realize and aspire to achieve. In the Study of the Soul, the term is also imbued with the meanings of the Idea (ideal form) hidden in all things and the meanings of the promise made with the Great Existence, God. (Excerpted from page 136 of The Golden Path, currently available only in Japanese)
5. Study of the Soul
The Study of the Soul is a system of theory and practice in which we seek a way of life by connecting the visible and invisible dimensions. In contrast to the study of phenomena, which science represents by dealing with the materialistic dimension, the Study of the Soul goes beyond that, dealing comprehensively with the materialistic dimension and the invisible dimension of the mind and soul. That is a principle that I have discovered from intensive studies of human beings and the individual life journeys of the many people whom I have met. By looking at the soul, mind, and reality as a whole, we observe human beings and hope to respond to every possible occasion. (Excerpts from p.40 of How to Make Your Life the Best by Keiko Takahashi）
6. Chaos
Chaos indicates the primordial state, which has yet to have any form or clear outline, nor results or conclusions. There exist various possibilities and limitations, as well as light and darkness harbored within. The origin of the word “chaos” comes from the Greek myth of the primordial deity Chaos. Chaos is a state prior to the beginning of the universe that harbors all light and darkness. It is a state of nothingness, but at the same time, it conceals all possibilities. As the main premise, the special characteristic of Chaos is that it inevitably leads to a way of life that transcends good or bad judgments. (Excerpted and summarized from page 126 of How to Make Your Life the Best)