Compass of the Times 261

To Reflect

Keiko Takahashi

Closing Out the Year

It is December, the last month of the year 2025. Amidst the hectic pace of the year-end rush, how have you been spending your time?

Precisely because this month marks the end of the year, I hope you will take this opportunity to reflect on your journey thus far.

For example, what kind of year has this been for you? What encounters or events remain in your heart?

Some things may have unfolded just as you envisioned.

Some may have experienced things moving smoothly when they felt “supported by a greater power.”

Conversely, others may have faced adversity where everything seemed to go wrong, perhaps even feeling “I am abandoned by heaven.”

This past year has likely brought you experiences of success and failure, good fortune and trials, smooth sailing and rough seas, light and darkness.

Life is precisely this alternation and intertwining of good times and bad times, light and shadow. Amidst the realities of ups and downs, fluctuating good and bad, and light and shadow, we discern what should be valued to create a better reality. That is what should be called the most important thing in life.

What light and shadow situations have emerged in your journey this past year? How have you received them and walked through them?

How We Reflect Guides a New Flow

In order to achieve aspirations and goals in reality, we value the practice of turning the Cycle of Implementation (Actualization)¹, the cycle of Foresight Wisdom² → Action → Hindsight Wisdom³.

In a one-year cycle, we engage in Foresight Wisdom at the current year’s end, or the beginning of a new year, to envision the coming year, and then we will have time for Hindsight Wisdom in December when the cycle will close by reflecting on our journey.

We pose questions to ourselves, such as “How was this year’s journey for me?” “How did I receive those encounters, those events?” “Was I able to listen to the calling that was there?” “Was I able to receive that voice and take a new step forward?” “Now that I’m reflecting back, is there anything left unresolved?” “Is there anything new I must consider?”

Reflecting on our past journey and the Cycle of Implementation (Actualization) we have advanced thus far is significant because it fixates that experience deeply in our minds.

It means re-engraving the time we may have let pass by vaguely, as our own lived experience. We reflect on how we felt and perceived those events, what we thought, what resolutions we made, and what actions we took. Coming to realize and discover certain things precisely because we have lived through that experience, we hold these insights in our minds and lead them to a new way of living.

Indeed, leading to a new way of living is what makes the reflection of our journey thus far most significant.

Reflecting on the past directly connects to living the future. How we look back on what has been will undoubtedly guide a new flow.

To the Beginning That Embraces All

At year’s end, as we receive the fruits of our journey and deeply reflect on it, what awaits us is the start of a new year.

When one cycle closes its loop, a new cycle opens. As 2025 closes, the new 2026 cycle of the year begins.

What will we entrust to this new cycle? What will we wish for?

Before letting your thoughts wander, please feel the new cycle of 2026 in your heart.

What we need now is to cast aside various limitations and honestly envision the aspirations we truly seek.

In this yet-to-be-seen year ahead, you can create realities never before manifested.

A new beginning encompasses everything. Amidst the forewarning of all possibilities and limitations, we embrace it all and take our first step toward a future not yet realized.

Editor’s Note

1. The Cycle of Implementation (Actualization)

The Cycle of Implementation (Actualization) refers to the process of circulating between the spiritual world and the real world when we seek to manifest things: Foresight Wisdom → Action → Hindsight Wisdom → Foresight Wisdom → Action → Hindsight Wisdom, and so on. When aiming to implement anything, repeating this cyclical process becomes paramount. Hindsight Wisdom and Foresight Wisdom primarily unfold within the dimension of our spiritual world. Based on these, we then execute actions in the real world. Execution yields a result that we can then reflect on, using it as the foundation for the next step.(Quoted from the September 2020 issue of the G. Monthly, “Introduction to the Study of the Soul 141”, pages 12-13, available only in Japanese)

2. Foresight Wisdom

Foresight Wisdom refers to a process in which we confirm our aspirations, form a Blueprint, and seek the “best possible path” to realize the Blueprint prior to implementing a task.(Quoted from The Path of Prayer, “Prayer for Hindsight Wisdom,” page 227)

2. Hindsight Wisdom

How were the results? When implementing a task, were you continually conscious of your aspiration (purpose) that you initially confirmed? Were you not lax in examining reality in greater detail? Above all else, did you try to guide the situation to accord with your aspirations by changing yourself first, without attempting to merely change the situation in and of itself? The essence of Hindsight Wisdom is to bear in mind that the moment you reach “completion of task” simultaneously marks the beginning of the next stage. It is a process through which you will be able to learn more from failures or setbacks that you usually would not want to reflect upon.

(Quoted from The Path of Prayer, “Prayer for Hindsight Wisdom,” pages 228-229)

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