being a country with one of the highest earthquake risks in the world.

In June, the UK voted to leave the EU, contrary to most people’s expectations. Furthermore, in the US presidential election in November, the result of Mr. Trump’s victory as the next president of the United States was against the prediction of the majority of the mass media.

Many may have intensified their feeling that anything could indeed happen in the world in which we live. I also believe that many people felt, “There is nothing that is certain. A darkness arises in front of us."

Indeed, we were taught that we now live in the era of Chaos*1. And, it is most certain that how we interact with this chaos with our Ju-Hatsu-Shiki*2 determines our future.

A Calling That People Are Tired of Seeking Ideals

After the United States presidential election some pointed out that an excessive political correctness might have played a role in candidate Trump’s victory.

Political correctness is a way of thinking that prohibits discrimination and prejudice by gender, ethnicity, or religion; and any social system or language based on discrimination.

President Obama, who became the first black president of the United States, has promoted such fairness through policies based on liberalism.

Examples of such policies can be seen in the promotion of social recognition of sexual minorities such as LGBT individuals and increased number of states that legalize same-sex marriage.

However, in pursuing such political correctness, it is pointed out that an excessive promotion of fairness has arisen as in the case of prohibiting the use of the word, “Christmas” in public buildings during this season, or

changing the way of greeting from “Merry Christmas” to “Happy Holidays” in states such as New York.

It was candidate Trump who dared to repeat remarks which ignored such political correctness and which aroused criticism. However, some say that his remarks also received applause, not only from faithful Christians with traditional values, but also from people who were fed up with the excessive pursuit of fairness, and this had a tremendous influence on the result of the election.

What does this mean?

Eliminating discrimination and prejudice is one aspect of the search for ideals. However, people have become weary of realizing ideals such as democracy, humanism or international cooperation, for which mankind has sought through its long history. I consider this as a reality of tiredness of seeking ideals.

Tiredness of seeking ideals is not only the reality seen in the United States election, but also in Brexit as well as

the anti-immigrant and anti-refugee movements rampant all over Europe; they all stem from the same root.

Growing hatred in Japan against South Korea and China is also related to such tiredness of seeking ideals.
How should we perceive this calling?

Nonetheless We Uphold Ideals

In realizing our ideals, we must continue the process of trial and error. Sometimes we fail; sometimes we overdo it.

However, if we abandon our ideals, we lose everything. Ideals mean to us our soul’s aspiration, or blueprint. They are nothing less than the embodiment of our future of hope.

From the beginning there existed in the world a conflict between ideals and reality. With this as a given we must continue to go forward toward our ideals. In all ages, ideals are nothing but that which guides each individual’s reality and leads our society of human beings.

Editor’s and translator’s note
1 Chaos
In the Study of the Soul, the state in which the result of things is yet to be decided is called Chaos. Chaos harbors possibilities and limitations, positive factors and negative factors. Positive factors are clues or elements that lead a reality to harmony, development, or deepening, while negative factors are triggers or elements that lead a reality to confusion, stagnation, or destruction. We give a shape to Chaos by interacting with it with our heart and actions. Once we have given a form to Chaos by touching upon it, the Chaos would never return to the original state. This is the reason why what kind of heart we have as we interact with Chaos is decisively important. (Excerpted and summarized from the pamphlet of the 2016 Lecture by Keiko Takahashi)

2 Ju-Hatsu-Shiki
Ju (perception) is for us to take in the events that occurred in the reality (outer world) into the heart (inner world), and Hatsu (response) is for us to respond to the outside world after perception. Shiki (result) is a Buddhist word and refers to visible reality, such as incidents, events, and the outer world including people. As long as we human beings live, we continue to turn this triangle of Ju-Hatsu-Shiki and keep producing reality even without being aware of it. (Excerpted and summarized from pages 66-67 of The Glossary of the Divine Truth 2012)

Preliminary translation as of December 23, 2016

GLA member-volunteers translated Takahashi Sensei’s words.
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