Compass of the Times 207
Compass of the Times 207
To Beat a New Rhythm
Keiko Takahashi
A Season for Seminars
GLA Yatsugatake Inochi-no-Sato is located in Hokuto City, Yamanashi Prefecture.
It is the home of our souls that houses the Memorial Hall of Life, where we hold the record of our life’s journey. At the same time, it is a training place where we can learn how to live in the present moment in the world of phenomena as a soul that possesses eternal life.
The construction of the training building in Yatsugatake is now underway, and when it is completed, 300 people will be able to use the new lodging facilities and attend seminars1.
GLA holds five seminars at Yatsugatake Inochi-no-Sato and other locations every year, from May to September; namely, Seinenjuku Seminar and Hoshin College Seminar (May), Frontier College and Heart Nursing School Joint Seminar (June), Kakehashi Seminar (end of July), and Yatsugatake Missionary Cultivation Seminar (September).
Since last spring, there is another seminar called One Day One Sheet Special Seminar2, which is held online and at GLA branches nationwide. This year, participants are in the process of creating their Wisdom3 to solve or create their chosen theme by using my book, The Golden Path, as a textbook. Our GLA community is in the midst of the seminar season.
The Essence of the Seminar: Experiencing the Divine Truth
The Yatsugatake seminars are an opportunity for GLA members that may provide a significant turning point toward a new way of life. It is a time when they can deepen the dimensions of their way of life by totally immersing themselves in the Divine Truth for several days.
These seminars are conducted with the hope that members can learn and practice a new way of life while deepening friendships with others in a natural environment away from their usual place of living. There is no hustle and bustle of city life, nor the rhythm that rushes us. We, who are supported by the rhythm of nature and as children of the universe, live our lives for a few days as we are originally meant to be.
During the season of fresh greenery and the growth of life, we will learn how to prepare our minds based on the Divine Truth and how to use our Ju-Hatsu-Shiki4 for a few days of concentration while regaining our original breathing and stance with the smell of the earth, the glow of the trees, and under the clear blue sky and the stars.
Following the program, we will study one aspect of the Divine Truth in depth. Through worksheets and meetings, we will make new discoveries, and while having conversations with our peers after the program, we can open our hearts and experience a new way of life. Through such experiences, we will come closer to the essence of the Divine Truth. Rather than studying the Divine Truth as mere knowledge, we will come to a deeper realization of what we have been learning piece by piece until then and instill it within ourselves as one experience.
Our activities, as we are aware, have been severely constrained by the coronavirus pandemic that has swept the world since early 2020. Our seminars and training at Yatsugatake Inochi-no-Sato and other locations are no exception. Since holding an on-site event is restricted, the current situation is that it is being conducted via online as well.
Nevertheless, the essence of the seminar and its significance will never change. We take a break from our daily life and face and examine our inner selves carefully. We try to immerse ourselves in the way of feeling, thinking, and using our minds that is based on the Divine Truth. Through these experiences, we will find clues for a new way of life.
To Beat a New Rhythm
What is important for us is to expose ourselves to a new rhythm of life during the seminar. It is for us to beat that rhythm on our own and try to experience it.
Living beings on earth, each of them with their own rhythm, resonate with one another like instruments of an orchestra. We humans live our lives with our own unique individual rhythm as well.
The rhythm we will experience at the seminar is nothing more than the rhythm of Ju-Hatsu-Shiki of inner-outer unification5, which can only be created because we are human.
It is no different in the case of the One Day One Sheet Special Seminar, wherein the basic idea is to work individually at home. I sincerely hope that, through the experience of various seminars, we will be able to regain our original rhythm of life and emit the sound of our souls that lie at the depths of our minds. I strongly feel this way in the midst of the seminar season.
(This article is to be continued.)
Editor’s Note
1. Seminars
GLA holds age-based seminars that members can study wisdom on how to solve problems specific to each generation and live a prosperous life. There is the Kakehashi (Bridge) Seminar where parents and children learn together (end of July), Seinenjuku Seminar for young adults (May), Frontier College and Heart Nursing School Joint Seminar for people of middle age (June), and Hoshin Daigaku (College) Seminar for seniors (May). Yatsugatake Missionary Cultivation Seminar (September) is also held for those who aspire to support GLA members. Participants of any of the seminars will be able to receive Takahashi-sensei’s lecture.
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 the 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 duration of the seminar is 40 days, with a rhythm of one study session and four individual studies per week.
3. Wisdom (In-En-Kaho Wisdom)
In-En-Kaho Wisdom is the wisdom, as well as the method devised by Takahashi-sensei that enables us to solve many different problems and create a new future based on the perspective of In-En-Kaho. First, we draw a problem to In (ourselves) and grasp the flow of energy in the circulation of darkness—how In and En (conditions) are combined to produce Kaho (problem). By changing our In and transforming and preparing En (partners, principles, and systems), the energy toward the transformation of darkness will gradually stop. The energy that creates the circulation of light will increase, and we can open up a path to solution and creation.
4. Ju-Hatsu-Shiki
Ju is a reception to perceive in mind (the internal world) events in our reality (the external world). Hatsu is a transmission to interact with the external world after the reception. Shiki is a Buddhist term that refers to visible realities or the external world, such as incidents and events, including human relationships. As long as we live, we continue to rotate this cycle of Ju-Hatsu-Shiki and keep producing realities even if we are not aware of it. (Excerpted and summarized from pp.66-67 of The Glossary of the Divine Truth 2012, available only in Japanese)
5. Inner-Outer Unification
Our inner and outer worlds are constantly exchanging energy, and they are deeply interconnected that they cannot be separated. What is inside of us is always reflected in the outside world. Conversely, what is in the outside world is always reflected in our inner world. (Excerpted from the Introduction to the Study of the Soul, G. Monthly, February 2021)