Compass of the Times 250

To Unleash Our Mind

Keiko Takahashi

Catching the Light of a New Year

Happy New Year!

With the start of the new year, 2025, the new cycle of the year begins again here and now. Imagine that a breath of fresh air that never before existed has flown in, and a light that renews all things is poured into that moment.

It is the same with your own reality.

Some of you may try to step into a new theme or goal this year. Some may have an issue that they have been working on since last year. Others may have been at a loss to solve a long-standing problem. In all cases, there will be a renewing spirit drawn to you, and a new flow is about to be born.

It is time for everything to be totally renewed.

Bear in mind and pray that now is the time for a new beginning.

Set a New Cycle as the Core of Life: Directly Face Our Mind

Everything in life, whether it is the new reality we create or the daily flow, is centered in our mind.

Our mind never rests but continues to move and respond to the shapeless Chaos that comes to us every day.

Chaos is a state without shape, contours, or name, wherein results and conclusions have yet to be reached. Every encounter, event, and circumstance we experience comes as Chaos.

What touches upon that Chaos is our mind and our actions that stem from our mind. At the moment when our mind and actions touch upon Chaos, which is a mixture of light and darkness, possibilities and limitations, Chaos immediately crystallizes and emerges in front of us as either the reality of light or darkness.

It is our mind that confronts Chaos and determines its contours. Our mind also creates the shape of our life and defines the human footprints that shape the history of the world. It is our inner mind that determines all the realities in which we are involved and that creates everything.

That is why we must always face our mind. We must directly face our own mind and guide it in the right direction.

This would be even more so now at the beginning of a new year.

To Unleash the Power of the Mind

No matter who it belongs to, our mind holds great potential. The power hidden in our mind is more than most people can imagine.

It is a power that can bring about a turnaround, a miraculous recovery from a desperate crisis, or a situation that seems to be at the end of the line. Not only that, but it can also resonate and work together with the universe to perform miraculous steps that no single person is capable of achieving.

It is the “power of the mind” that can be recalled from the footsteps of all the practitioners who have been introduced in my book, Your Other Self (currently available only in Japanese).

And yet, it is us human beings who are not always able to draw forth the potential, the great “power of the mind,” from that mind.

The reason we are unable to do so is that we create our own inner limitations by holding distortions in our mind.

Strong beliefs and obsessions can constrain the mind and prevent it from seeing reality as it is. Our conventional wisdom, preconceptions, obsessions, and assumptions attached to our mind can create many limitations.

The Three Streams of Influence¹ give us the power to live our life. They enable us to live in this world.

At the same time, however, they create things we cannot feel or find and create places we can never go.

We must break the shackles of the mind, such as false beliefs, obsessions, attachments, self-centered conventional wisdom, and biased preconceptions to obtain the freedom of the mind.

We must break down the limitations we have created in our life and unleash our own “power of the mind.” Only then can we truly exert our vibrant “power of the mind.”

Editor’s Note

1. Three Streams of Influence

Wherever we are, whether it be in a community, a workplace, or an industry, there exist tacit premises, conventional wisdom, values, and a way of life. If we live there without realizing it, we become deeply imbued with the atmosphere of that place. I have called such the Three Streams of Influence—family, place, and era that anyone invariably takes on in life. “Family” refers to the values and way of life flowing from the family, such as parents. “Place” refers to the premises and customs flowing from the locality and field of work. “Era” is the conventional wisdom and values flowing from the time and society in which we live. (Excerpted from page 59 of How to Make Your Life the Best by Keiko Takahashi)

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