Word of the Month by Keiko Takahashi
February 2015
Compass of the Times 131
To Grow
Keiko Takahashi
Humans Are Beings That Grow
After a month into the new year, you February have settled down and regained your usual composure.
This month, as we are nearing the season of life, I would like to think about the growth of us human beings together with you.
As a matter of fact, humans have such great potential for growth to the point that we can say that “humans are beings that grow.” I would like all of you to verify this.
From the initial stage of human form as a 0.1mm sized fertilized egg, we undergo repeated cell divisions and eventually begin moving as a fetus. After nine months the newborn baby born out of its mother’s womb into the world is approximately fifty centimeters long.
At this point, our bodies have already grown about five thousand times more than when we were fertilized eggs.
Knowing that today the average height of a Japanese male and female is about 172 cm and 159 cm respectively, we have grown more than thrice the size when we were a baby, and over 15,000 times the size when we were a fertilized egg.
We must say that this is a tremendous level of growth.
The Heart and Mind Grow without Limit
Our surprise does not end there.
Physical development of us human beings is said to halt in our mid-twenties. It means that extraordinary growth of the body stops at about 1/3 of our life span. After reaching that peak, aging is supposed to begin.
However, even when our physical growth
stops and decay begins, humans harbor the dimension in which we continue to grow constantly. This is an amazing point about humans in a true sense.
What is this dimension in which we continue to grow? It is the very dimension of the human spirit. The growth of our heart and of our spiritual dimension is limitless.
At birth, humans are beings far weaker than other animals. We cannot stand up or walk on our own, and without parents or guardians, we are immediately exposed to life-threatening dangers.
Surviving through protection and one-directional receiving, our heart is weak and shallow, sensitive to only pleasure and pain.
From such a stage, we learn how to live, absorb knowledge and increase what we can do. As we accumulate experience and gain specialized skills, the range of our abilities expand even further. We solve
problems on our own and can create new realities. Our heart – our spiritual dimension crystallizes into “abilities” and reaches a certain peak.
However, our heart and mind do not end there, but can begin to respond to a new question “then, for whom and for what do we use those abilities?”
We dedicate our abilities to the masses of people, to those who are precious to us, and to the place that must be protected. Through this process, our heart continues to further develop and deepen.
The further we walk our path of life, the further our capacity to empathize and sympathize with others expands. The ability to contemplate and judge matters will be refined through many experiences.
Explore and Discover the Vastness of Your Heart
Therefore, because you have been born as a human being, I cannot help but to hope for you to walk the path of limitless growth and deepening.
I want you to explore the vastness of the heart that breathes within you, and re-discover that infinite realm on your own.
When we achieve this, we will harbor a totally different heart from the weak, shallow, and nervous one which we once had, and live a totally different life.
It is the strong way of life in which we never lose independence against trials which fall on us one after another. It is the deep way of life, in which we try to perceive the divine will in any situation avoiding being superficial. It is the serene way of life which perceives every incident as a condition to accomplish our aspirations that lie in the depths of our heart.
The journey into our heart is sure to guide us to such a way of life.
Preliminary translation as of January 30, 2015
GLA member-volunteers translated Takahashi Sensei’s words.
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