Word of the Month by Keiko Takahashi
May 2015
Compass of the Times 134
To Walk on One’s Own Feet
Keiko Takahashi
You Cannot Know Unless You Walk There
May is the month when the green of the land returns. When we soak ourselves in that freshness, we cannot help but feel the power of that which is born and grows anew. Nature’s activities cycle through the seasons the same way every year, yet at the same time, they always appear new. Those that live in nature continuously challenge themselves to advance into the time ahead.
Some who like to travel to new places and sites may consider that the time of preparation is as enjoyable as the journey itself. They may think that the most attractive part of their travel lies in the process where they imagine the climate and natural features they will experience, the culture that has been nurtured there, the people they will meet or the sceneries they will view.
However, the real wonder of the journey is in each moment of the journey itself. No matter how much you prepare for it, you can never experience the journey unless you put yourself in that land, step on its soil, feel and breathe its air.
There will be sights and scenes that you can view, foods that you can taste; but only when you are there. Moreover, as a stranger you can experience the pattern of lights and shadows and the scent of the town as you stand amongst the bustling people in the evening streets. You can feel the flow of time that has accumulated within its ancient buildings.
These are the experiences brought forth when we immerse ourselves and breathe in these new and novel places. The truth of an unfamiliar land cannot be known unless we place our feet on its soil.
The Winner in Life Is the One Who Takes On Challenges
This truth goes far beyond just travel but extends to all aspects of our lives.
When we ponder how we live our lives, it becomes very important to live them in specific ways.
The routes that our lives take have been formed by countless challenges. All what we call “new experiences” represent our steps of taking on those challenges. To try things, to take one step forward, or to tackle things – these are the steps that form our lives and open the path that we may take. Our ability to win in life is brought about solely through our choice to take on challenge.
If you have engraved a new way of living in your heart, then take it forward.
If you have imagined a new path, take one step toward it.
If you have a new wish, seek and move ahead.
If you have made a new decision, carry it out.
If you have renewed an aim in your heart, pursue it.
Those who never stop such challenging efforts are the ones who should be called "winners in life."
Implementation and Practice Illuminate the Power to Think
Everyone can agree that one aspect that makes us human is the ability to have thoughts flow freely through our mind.
We can think about the various possibilities of tomorrow’s schedule and our future plans. We can plan and imagine in advance what we are going to work on.
The map of the future1 and the foresight wisdom2 presented in the Study of the Soul3 are exactly what we can work on thanks to our imagination.
By anticipating tomorrow and thinking about the future, we can make the best of the potential that “time” possesses, and create a new reality.
However, no matter how deeply we anticipate tomorrow or think about the future, actualization takes place only through the steps of implementation and practice.
The map of the future is realized through the steps that humans take who live in accordance with that map; and it is the implementation of the foresight wisdom that realizes the visions within it. The power to think and imagine that is bestowed on humans can exert its full potential only when they make specific and steady steps in their lives.
For this month, I would like us to focus our minds on living in such a specific and explicit way based on what is in our hearts, making brand new steps with our own feet firmly planted in the ground, to take on the challenges of the future.
Notes
1 The map of the future
The map on which you illustrate concrete visions of your future, by drawing out Metsu (aspirations, hopes and dreams) from within your soul and envisioning how you want to be and what kind of life you want to create in the various places you will be involved in one year, in five years, and in ten years in the future. (Excerpted and summarized from Words of the Divine Truth 2012, published only in Japanese.)
2 Foresight wisdom
The cycle of actualization, or the process of foresight wisdom—implementation—hindsight wisdom, allows us to access gradually to the blueprint that the world is to bring forth. In foresight wisdom, we observe what we are being called to do from the future, and think about and set in advance goals, means and measures for opening up a new reality. (Excerpted and summarized from (Excerpted and summarized from Words of the Divine Truth 2012, published only in Japanese.)
3 The Study of the Soul
It is the perspective that grasps our lives from the level of the soul, and refers to the system of the truth, the Divine Truth, that permeates every aspect of the human soul and the world. As opposed to the study of phenomena that is directed at the tangible world, the Study of the Soul is an investigation of all things, including the formless and intangible world. (Excerpted and summarized from pp.3-4, The Reason Why You Were Born as You by Keiko Takahashi)
Preliminary translation as of May 20, 2015
GLA member-volunteers translated Takahashi Sensei’s words.
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