Happy New Year to all Seicho-No-Ie members throughout the world!
I am sincerely grateful to God that I was able to welcome the New Year 2023 with all of you, safe and sound. Thank you very much.
It is now the 3rd year for us to greet the New Year in the continuing novel coronavirus pandemic. While we cannot hold in-person events such as Public Lectures nor Spiritual Training Seminars, to confirm our faith, we have been forced to use the Internet in which we have tried to learn unfamiliar techniques and tools, such as SNS and Zoom. Because of that, however, we have started to expand our movement in a new direction. Added now to the traditional hierarchical movement rooted in the community, is a flatter and wide-ranging, timely movement.
The Ukraine crisis which began in February of last year has adversely affected our lives in many ways, including soaring prices, economic recession, political instability, and the surge of refugees, but it also has born an emerging positive trend. By promoting the “P4U – Peace for Ukraine” movement, the movement that supports Russian-invaded Ukraine, throughout the world in a timely manner, we have produced a movement encompassing unprecedentedly wide-ranging spheres with concrete actions and a feeling of unity among the members.
However, it is unfortunate that this unexpected incident in international politics has produced an undesirable tendency of dividing the world into two. The present world cannot afford to have a “new Cold War.” The climate change resulting from global warming continues to get serious, and many people in poor countries have been victimized, and not only a large number of environmental refugees have been created, but also the ecosystem essential to our survival continues to be destroyed, thus the fears of a global food shortage are growing.
One of the climate-change related disasters that shocked the world last year was the devastating floods in Pakistan. The total area of Pakistan is 796, 000 square kilometers. It is about twice the area of Japan, about 1.5 times the area of France, and about 1.3 times as wide as Ukraine. One third of Pakistan was inundated. The damage is said to reach $30 billion. Comparing this amount with Japan’s budget for the next fiscal year, it is approximately 4 times the amount under the control of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Who on earth will cover the cost of such a huge loss?
This
time, the direction of an answer to this question has begun to appear. Sherry Rehman,
the climate Minister of Pakistan, the very country that experienced this
disaster, tweeted on the results
of the United Nations Framework Climate Change Conference (COP27) held last
November in Egypt, as follows:
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The announcement offers hope to vulnerable communities all over the world who are fighting for their survival from climate stress.
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“The announcement” is in regards to establishing a fund, with money from developed countries, to redress the damages suffered by developing countries caused by recent climate change. It is for the first time that the concept of “climate justice” was agreed upon in the world since the COP system had been established. That is, it took 27 years for developed countries to admit to have any form of responsibility for climate change. We cannot deny that it may have been too late, but let’s promote our movement with more courage and conviction so that the world will proceed in the “direction” that it has finally agreed.
By the way, I’m afraid many people think that “an individual’s personal power cannot, in any way, solve the problems of the global environment or climate change.” I heard that especially among young people, a sense of helplessness prevails and some of them become depressed, with the thought that they can’t have any dreams or hopes in their future which will be marked with further environmental deterioration. It is said that this symptom is called “climate depression.” This is how we have treated young people who will lead the next generation. This comes from our long neglect of intergenerational ethics.
In my book entitled “Learning from Nature,” which was published twenty years ago, I wrote about the inevitable human suffering if we single-mindedly pursue the progress in science and technology and material prosperity alone, as the following:
The
progress of science and technology doesn’t necessarily produce bad results. “Sustainable
economic development” may not be just a dream if, in those areas, ethical
powers are at work and human desire is controlled in the right direction.
However, under the present political and economic systems, there is no room for
‘ethical powers’ to work, or if they work, their power is not sufficient to be
effective.
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Under such circumstances, there is no way other than to let “ethical powers” to work “in the mind” of people who constitute society. The driving force for that power to work is religious belief and faith. Especially since “inter-generational ethics” don’t work without recognizing the value which transcends personal life, it is difficult to persuade people of the value transcending personal life without them having religious belief.
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Religions must cope with this problem much more vigorously. Unfortunately, nowadays in Japan there is a growing tendency to avoid “religious belief” altogether which people think can be a tool for religious organizations or their leaders to satisfy their desires.
This
cynical view could be applicable to a few false religious groups which play
with trickery, upholding false beliefs, but it is not applicable to the
majority of religions which have taught and practiced an ethical life until
today since the dawn of civilization.
Religion doesn’t think that human beings are the collection of separate individuals who are unrelated to each other, but thinks that each is a member of an “indispensable community,” closely related to each other. Especially in Seicho-No-Ie, we think of this “indispensable community” to be the entire “life on the earth,” including not only human beings but other living things and minerals on earth.
Recently, I had a chance to read the book, “The Book of Hope,” by Dr. Jane Goodall, a primatologist who is well-known for her chimpanzee research. The doctor is 88 years old this year, and has lectured around the whole world not only as a researcher but as an environmentalist and UN Peace Ambassador. So, she knows well about the current serious situation of our planet earth. Nevertheless, she stresses in the book that she still has hope, and people should have their own hope for the future.
For her, hope is “what enables us to keep going in the face of adversity. It is what we desire to happen, but we must be prepared to work hard to make it so.” (p.8) That is, it is not just dreaming for the situation to become like this in the future, but we have to continue our effort with conviction in actual difficulties for the realization of that dream --- this is the hope she meant.
Dr. Goodall gives the following 4 reasons we can have hope in this era:
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1. The amazing human intellect
2. The resilience of Nature
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3. The power of young people
4. The indomitable human spirit
For the most part, they overlap with the Seicho-No-Ie teachings, “a human being is a child of God with infinite potential.” Dear members of Seicho-No-Ie, as Dr. Goodall states, we have amazing intellect and will power. By infusing them with the feeling of oneness with nature, and by further mobilizing the power of young people, we can live on with “the hope” through this challenging age. This hope is to spread the message of “God, Nature and human beings are essentially one” to make a common sense of the world.
I’m looking forward to working with you to promote our movement this year. Thank you very much.
2023_SNI_President_Message_English.pdf
