Compass of the Times 260

To Live to the Fullest

Keiko Takahashi

A Life Fixed in the “Same as Usual”

As autumn deepens, how are you spending your days? Autumn is a season that invites us to face ourselves and our lives. It is also a time when we are invited to shift our lives from the dimension of reality to the dimension of the mind, and further beyond that, to the dimension of the soul that gives meaning to our life.

This month, I hope that you will take a moment to look at your own life, drawing such a deepening of life into your heart.

Most of our reality is created by repeating similar days over and over.

The sun rises in the morning, and people and the world begin to move. Eventually, the sun sets, the darkness falls, and all is quiet. The rhythm of each day is constant, linked to the rotation of the Earth.

Seasons begin with spring when life sprouts, followed by summer of growth, autumn of harvest, and winter of silence. This cycle of the seasons is also linked to the Earth’s orbit and repeats without change.

Our lives are something that are woven through the cycles of a day and a year, and, through these cyclic repetitions, the shape of our life becomes apparent.

As we experience repetition, we begin to feel that each day and each year is indeed the “same as usual.”

In the meantime, we all eventually come to believe that “life will continue as it has in the past.” Our lives are fixed in “repetition” = “same and usual realities.”

The Soul Starts to Move

Even though our life is created by repetition, it does not end only with repetition. Sometimes, a reality emerges that cannot be called repetitive.

When we are buried in repetition, our lives are like frames in an inorganic stream of images. There are no deep inner workings of the mind, and we end up reacting with the stimuli of pleasure and pain.

However, when we encounter a significant life-changing milestone, an unbearable ordeal, or an unforgettable joyous encounter or event, our minds are stirred to make great movements. A new Sense, Emotion, Thought, and Volition begin to cycle.

Furthermore, not only does making the mind work when we ask ourselves, “What is the meaning of these encounters and events? What are they calling me to do?”, the soul, dwelling deep within our minds, begins to move as well.

What we should truly seek is the “soul-moving moments.” For there are things that can only be done with the “movement of the soul.”

Only when the soul is moved can we face and respond to the purpose and mission of our life for the first time.

To Live to the Fullest

What, then, gives rise to such “soul-moving moments,” and how can we bring ourselves to those moments?

I believe that what is indispensable for this is “to live to the fullest.”

We all live with various limitations.

I am sure that many of you have realized in your lives that your abilities and talents are limited. And yet, that is why it is essential to use your abilities to the fullest.

We face straightforwardly each task and duty or various encounters and relationships, and give it our all.

“Living to the fullest” is not limited to such moments. It is essential to do the best we can while we prepare for events as well as after they have ended, and to continue seeking the Blueprint¹.

When we continue to put our energy into it, we will be able to make our soul move, not by external stimuli or blows, but by our own power.

We will be able to move our souls by our own volition and create time to respond to the promise of life.

Editor’s Note

1. Blueprint

Originally, a blueprint is referred to as 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 promise made with the Great Existence, with God. (Excerpted from page 105 of The Golden Path by Keiko Takahashi)

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