Compass of the Times 205

To Live Anew

Keiko Takahashi

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April Is a Time to Challenge Ourselves Again

Three months have already passed since we opened the doors to a new year. Many regions of Japan have already seen the end of the cherry blossom season.

With the start of a new fiscal and academic year in Japan, I imagine that many of you are renewing your spirit for a new workplace, a new school, or a new school year.

And there is more. Since last year, when we were tossed around by the coronavirus pandemic, all kinds of human activities have been restricted beyond measure, and we have been experiencing insurmountable difficulties and obstacles. Some of you may have been greatly affected by the pandemic in the past three months.

In the midst of all this, how is your progress regarding the resolutions you made at the beginning of the year and the aspirations you had for the new year? While some of you may be making good progress as you have cherished your wishes you had at the beginning of the year, others may have made wishes, but the months have passed without being able to respond to them. Some of you may have found yourself vaguely aware of the wishes that you initially wanted to hold dear.

If that is the case, I would like to remind you of that wish again this month, at the beginning of the fiscal and academic year.

If you feel that the resolutions and aspirations you had at the beginning of the year are still important now, why not start reclaiming them and restart walking for them again?

This is possible because the month of April is the time of year that allows a second beginning—a time for a restart where we can begin again.

The Flow of Time as a Series of Unique Occurrences Through Our Lifetime

The world we live in is created by the flow of time that will never be repeated.

Whether it is an encounter or an event that we face every day, we cannot undo something once it happens. It is also impossible to reverse the flow of time.

No matter how much financial power or authority we have or how much wisdom we accumulate, we cannot rewind the flow of time.

It is a solemn principle and a law that permeates this world.

That is the very reason why we value each encounter and event and try to do our best. We meet each and every person with the mind that cherishes a once-in-a-lifetime encounter and do our best so that we do not have regrets after each opportunity.

Of course, no matter how hard we try, we cannot always do things exactly as we hoped to, and we often face the reality of setbacks and deadlocks.

Whether it is an enormous project on a national level, a corporate plan, a project in the workplace, or something a person started to do with a sincere wish, it is the same. Many people will perceive the setbacks and failures as something that cannot be undone.

We Can Live Anew at Any Time from Anywhere

A setback, however, is not the end of everything.

We can restart after a setback. We can start over, even after we have failed. Even if we have given up on life, we can still restart our lives and live anew.

If we think about it, while our world is in the flow of time with each event occurring only once, it is also full of various repetitions.

There are repetitions of a day, a week, a month, four seasons, and a year. Anyone who is familiar with theStudy of the Soul¹ would include in it the repetition of our life itself and our transmigration.

I believe that it is such a process of repetition that urges us to restart and re-live anew.

We can start over our life at any time from anywhere. We can begin our journey all over again.

It is never too late to begin such a new journey because everyone has a way to start a new life that is appropriate for oneself.

I suggest that we spend this month of restart with this mindset deeply etched in our minds.

2021.4.1