Compass of the Times

December is the month that concludes the year. I expect that your days are busy. “Time flies like an arrow.” Many of you will agree that time passes by very fast.

The stars that shine in the night sky have provided humans various meanings since ancient times. One example of this is the way that people have superimposed their destiny on the movements of the stars..

We live in the 21st century. Living in this era, we acquire and share particular feelings common to many of us.
That is, a feeling of inner emptiness.
 Nobody may, in reality, feel that their inside is literally “empty.”

For many people, life is what has begun unnoticed. The reality is that no one begins life’s journey with a clear sense of its onset. As if a dice is thrown into the world, we are forced to make a bet on what we call life, without knowing whether we will win or lose.

How many people today would feel discomfort at the idea that “human powers and possibilities are mostly determined by genetics”?

Since the discovery of the structure of DNA made in 1953, genetic research has increased with exponential advancement. The Human Genome Project began in 1990 with a goal to identify all human genes and was declared complete in 2003, two years ahead of its original plan of 15 years.

How rich the reality of our world would be if we were able to see every possibility that existed at any given moment?

Yet, we are not able to live while simultaneously observing every possibility. Just as we are not able to exist in two places at the same time, we normally choose one possibility out of many to act upon, which also means to discard many other possibilities.

In the month of June when it is officially the beginning of summer, GLA holds the Gathering of Utsushi-mi to commemorate the day when the founder of GLA, Master Shinji Takahashi returned to heaven.
This gatheringis to ascertain the meaning of the eternal soul to live in this world in the physical body or Utsushi-mi.

Having a physical body is the very reason why we can create various realities in the phenomenal world, and learn much from incidents and encounters that happen in reality.

This month, I would like to think about one example of the resolve that we must have as we lead our lives. That is, “Our lives are not equal to one another.”

As the three streams of influence which are the basic conditions of life in the Study of the Soul indicate, it is never the case that our lives are all exactly the same as one another, even when we share something in common. Each person’s life is different in many respects.

The educational system of Japan is about to undergo seemingly the largest reform of the postwar period.

Japanese education until now has valued education as a route for children to absorb information and acquire knowledge. It is not an exaggeration to say that excessive emphasis has been put on this.

“I want to live a life based on the Study of the Soul*1, but such a life is difficult,” some of you may feel.

In a sense, this feeling is natural because a life based on the Divine Truth has multiple aspects and often differs from the ways you were taught through your birth and upbringing.

A month has passed since the new year began and I presume that your daily lives have regained their calm. Even so, there might be those of you who want to review your goals and aspirations for this year.

If you are one who seeks such a review, I would like you to think about a “grand challenge.” I suggest this because sometimes it happens that the path that you should take becomes visible for the first time by finding a grand aim or far-reaching aspiration.

Happy New Year.

I sincerely pray that the year 2017 will be an even better year for everyone.

I believe the year 2016 was the one in which we became acutely aware that each of us lives in the era of Chaos and are placed in a state of confusion.