Compass of the Times 175

To Bear Fruits

Keiko Takahashi

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Four Seasons of Japan

Japan is in a temperate climate zone and has four seasons that display an abundance of colorful changes throughout the year.

It is said that the four seasons in this country is characterized by their significant differences in temperature. This means that the features of each season are sharply defined.

As if to be awaken out of hibernation, living things start to move about and sprout in spring. Many plants go through overwhelming growth and thrive in summer. After the hot weather has passed, the temperature drops, and the trees change colors in autumn. Then, bitter cold winter sets in.

These are the four seasons.

However, such four seasons in Japan may not remain as they are now.

Currently, the climate change has become a worldwide problem.

Even in this country, we can see changes in the eco-system due to the effects of global warming. Insects and marine creatures that could not survive here, have been found more frequently.

Some predict that most of the country will soon have subtropical climate by the middle of this century. This means that the relationship we have carried on with our familiar nature as well, would not be the same forever.

If that is so, isn’t it a truly precious experience that we are able to feel four seasons of the nature now?

To Face Autumn, the Season of Fruition

Among the four seasons, we call autumn as the season of fruition.

Many crops and plants bear fruit as the time of harvest arrives. Fruition is the crystallization of the steps that cannot be attained overnight.

As it is said that it requires 88 procedures for the harvest of rice, many crops grow by receiving various support before they come to fruition.

Fruition means that what is inside manifests itself in the external world in the best form. That is to say, it requires that much corresponding energy for what is inside to manifest in the external world.

This is also true in our life. In order for us to obtain fruition in the phenomenal world that we live in, we must have an accumulated and condensed energy that corresponds to the results.

As we are entering autumn, the season of fruition, I believe it is important to be conscious of the fruition of our own progress of the year.

During your progress of this year, how and what kind of energy has been accumulated and condensed? As a result, what kind of fruition or results have been produced?

Four Seasons of Life—Season of Fruition

As we have observed many times, life itself is compared to the four seasons in the Study of the Soul1. Spring is the youth generation that seeks dreams, aspirations, and their visions for opening up the path to respond to them. Summer is the middle age group that pours forth and accumulate their energy in order to actualize such aspirations and visions. Autumn is the senior age group that proceeds toward the crystallization of the steps they have taken. Our life comes to an end here, but the progress of the soul does not.

Winter is the period when we prepare for a new life in the world of our origin. After going through this season, the soul will again turn the cycle of life toward the next life.

In the Study of the Soul, which regards human beings as an existence bearing eternal life, the cycle of the four seasons— spring, summer, autumn and winter—is indeed suitable to describe the steps of life that never ends.

Our lifetime is one of those cycles. Our soul repeats this cycle over and over, wishing to achieve its development and evolution.

Regardless of the season of life to which we currently belong, especially if we live in the life of autumn, we must continue to think further about this season of fruition.

Every one of us is given enormous amounts of support and guidance. That is all the more reason why we must devote ourselves to transforming our inner power so that it bears fruit as the best life through encounters and events.

2018.10.2