Life   of   Tara 

Authors advocating the spiritual thought

    15/09/2014

（スピリチャルな思想を標榜する著作家は、特に英語圏に多いようです。彼らは、ヨガや禅、タオイズムなどの思想表現を駆使して、ハッピーな世界を実現しようとしています。しかしそこには何かが足りないのです。宗教とは何かという厳しい視角が欠落しているように思えます。）

 Recently, rainy days have continued. The scenery around Tara veiled in rain darkly is also very good. However, weeds have grown thick rapidly. Therefore, it is hard to mow them.

 By the way, I have read a book about spirituals. The author is Ken Wilber. But I did not feel like reading through this book. I was disappointed at the enumeration of his superficial language. He connects words used in various religious thought easily and speaks too much based on them. That is, Atman, Emptiness, Heaven, Tao etc. which are concepts of Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and Taoism etc. are used by him easily.

 Why? He does not understand that the universality of each religion is built on its secrecy or hidden nature conversely. Essentially, a person must accumulate severe ascetic practices in order to achieve a true experience. A true experience can be accomplished by a hidden ritual sacrifice truly. Therefore, a person cannot experience it only by the arranging such words easily.

 An ancient Indian believer of Hinduism said as follows. That is, one who only reads religious scriptures like a Western thinker is never able to understand the true Knowledge by which one can be free from the nature of false ignorance. One has to practice one's own duty through the sacrifices. However, it is quite difficult for us to live calmly without depending on the transformation of our minds. In fact, we are always under the mental situation of happiness, sorrow and anger in our daily life. Believers of various religious thoughts from ancient times have carried out quite severe ascetic training in order to overcome the transformation of their minds.

 However, Western thinkers of Spiritualism are never able to talk about their own experiences for overcoming the transformation of their minds. They write and talk about only words acquired not by their own experience but by superficial ideas of various religious thoughts. They scatter the spiritual language and insist that the union of people by the love is possible. They publish a lot of books letting you wake up through illusion as if there is something splendid outside of oneself easily. It seems that they intend to get praise of the world by such commercialism-like publishing.

 I am not a religious believer, too. However, I do not feel honor that I am not a religious believer. I pay respect to a religious believer who practiced difficult experiences. And I would like to grasp something valuable which is shown not by the enumeration of words but by the wisdom got by such an experience. Such a thing valuable is extremely simple and modest.

 My physical strength has weakened gradually. It has become difficult for me to maintain Tara as before. Therefore, I have to think seriously how to maintain Tara without depending on only my effort. So, I am going to discuss about the future of Tara with people around Tara, that is, with people in the dairy farm.

Appearance of a huge wild boar

    22/07/2014

（タラの芽庵に巨大なイノシシが現れました。写真はイノシシが通ったタラの芽庵の前のけもの道です。ここは俺の縄張りだぞと。はて、私の縄張りとは共存できるのでしょうか。）

 When I visited Tara on July 12th, I encountered a huge wild boar. That was a black boar who seemed to be 100kg weight. The boar was crossing the road slowly in front of me. Come to think of it, recently I was wondering what the huge hole of the field in front of Tara was. The criminal was this big wild boar. I used to throw away food waste in the field. Therefore, the big boar used to pick through the garbage there. I thought I had to be careful not to throw away raw things out of Tara.

 Recently, things which I ought to do at Tara have increased. I found a lot of wood waste in front of Tara's door. That is, the base of the door was eaten by woodworm. So, I cut the timber of the base and sprayed a lot of insecticide there. After that, I mowed grass along the road in front of Tara. I sweat very much after a long interval and got tired. But if I didn't mow grass for a month, people could not enter the place around Tara because of a lot of grass. The road to Tara would never be found. So, I have to mow grass twice a month alone. Furthermore, it was discovered that water has leaked from an aging water pipe. So, I got the contractor to repair this water pipe at a remarkable amount of money. Like this, various works and problems about Tara have become a burden to me. I have to talk with people involved in the place around Tara by this autumn. That is, I have to talk with a son of late Takahashi, present president of this dairy land and an officer of this town. And I have to determine how to deal with Tara from now on by this year.

 Apparently, my physical strength has waned. Also my memory has weakened. The time when I can do everything like young age has already passed away. So, I have to concentrate my will on what I ought to do in my remaining life. Even so, I cannot do a great thing from now on. However, I might be able to consider well what human being's consciousness is, in the future. Our consciousness is something beyond individual. But I will not consider it in relation to the result of quantum mechanics though some scientists expressed that possibility. I am not going to create such a far-fetched theory.

 However I think that the intentionality of consciousness has something that leads us every person somewhere. I would like to consider such a phenomenon. But I might not have the ability to discover the mechanism. Even so, I would like to watch my intentional phenomenon which tries to converge on the somewhere, and would like to describe it faithfully at least.

 Dear my big wild boar! How do you think of my intention?

United Provinces of Kawaminami

    28/06/2014

（私が生まれた場所を初めて訪れてみました。そこは川南合衆国。終戦後、国が進めた大規模な開拓地には大陸からの引揚者や日本列島の津々浦々からの入植者などが殺到し、一大開拓村が出現したのでした。）

 Recently, I was able to visit Miyazaki prefecture in Kyushu, west end of Japan, after a long interval. There is my memorial spots such as my birthplace in Miyazaki. One of my friends who is a high school classmate and lives in Miyazaki city guided me to various places where I wanted to visit.

 My birthplace is situated in the borderline area between Takanabe town and Kawaminami town, in the middle of west coast of Miyazaki. I was born there but my family moved when I was one year old. Therefore, I didn't have a memory of my birthplace. My mother died and my father suffers from dementia. So I tried to seek for my birthplace by using various information such as an old family register. I sent these information to my friend. He was kindly enough to identify my birthplace and guided me there by car.

 That place is a splendid area where we are able to view a vast plain, great ocean and a ridge of mountains at once. The vast plain is a fertile land consisting of dairy lands, rice paddies and various vegetable fields. That area was exploited as a national project about 100 years ago. However, that area was used as a base of parachute troop during World War II, and a lot of paratroopers flied off to south-eastern Asia. After the war, the Japanese government opened that huge area, about 3000ha, as an agricultural frontier for people all over Japan. So, repatriates from the old colony and applicants as pioneer across the country came with a rush in this area. As a result, people from various region came to live their lives there. Therefore, this area were called United Provinces of Kawaminami.

 My father worked at an national agricultural office there at that time. I was born at the government quarter alongside the office. My friend managed to find that place and guided me there. That was a place named Mochida around a huge green field. There were the Mochida ancient tombs near the place. The Mochida tombs which were built around the fifth century are famous for the size of a scale, and a large number. It shows that powerful power and rich culture existed in this area from ancient times. A tea garden spreads around the tombs. This area is a wonderful place and we feel a comfortable feeling even now. However, aging progresses also in this area. Young people who try to build a new culture there are few.

 United Provinces of Kawaminami is still a cultural slogan of the public office of this area. Therefore, young people who are ambitious should gather in this area from the whole country in Japan or from the whole world. United states of America is historically a cultural aggregation of various races. So, United Provinces of Kawaminami should be a cultural aggregation of various nations. I think that it is a problem which present whole Japan has. Japan must open the valuable promising area in Japan to a lot of young people all over the world in the future. It might be the only road which Japan where the decrease in population continues can survive.

 Photos are the Mochida tombs, and massive stone statues of Buddha near the tombs.

What is a life of freedom?

    31/05/2014

（タラの芽庵の建設に携わった二人の友人が久しぶりに訪ねてくれました。彼らは退職後の生活をこれからエンジョイするようです。ところで彼らがいうにはタラは少々傾いているようだというのです。大変！いつも通っているとそういうことに気がつかないのです。）

 I have had a cold for two weeks more. I have not been able to recover from a cold since then. It shows that I have grown old. Two of my friends who once worked with me at the prefectural office visited Tara a week ago after a long interval. They told me that Tara seemed to lean to the front a little as compared to the previous situation. I have not become aware of that fact. That is, I have grown old without knowing Tara's growing old.

 Anyway, we chatted about various things for the first time in a long time. One of them has already retired the prefectural office and is working there as a retired worker reappointed. The other is going to retire the prefectural office next year. Both are thinking about what kind of life they should live from now on. In such a sense, I am surely their senior. Five years have passed since I retired the prefectural office. What sort of things have happened to me for these years? My mother died of pancreas cancer. I launched my website. My father has become dementia. I have had a first grandchild. And I have lived a peaceful life with my family members and friends. In this way, my life for five years has passed comparatively simply and quietly. However, my inner life for these years has apparently changed. Of course, I have got old and my physical strength has weakened. But I came to be able to just accept my feelings directly though I had a lot of shameful and regrettable things. And I came to be sure that I have no choice but to live my remaining life based only on my true feelings.

 I have managed to maintain Tara so far. And I have thought about the life left for me at Tara. What kind of things can I do from now on? Do I have to do some significant things for present human society or world peace? Such a thought is quite ostentatious. I don't mind finishing my life as it is. But I would like to create some works as my true natural life till I die, as much as possible. Such works should be admitted not by the public but by the true self. That is enough. True evaluation comes later. I would like to achieve my duty by expressing what I should tell faithfully to my feeling on my website.

 Both of my friends are expecting a new life more free than ever. Of course, they have been working hard at the office so far. Therefore, they have the right to live a relaxed life in the meantime after their retirement. But soon, they will come to know that a true freedom is a severe fight for realizing the true self. What is the true self? It differs following each person so that his character, personal history and environment differ each other. And only the person understands it. They will have to find it by themselves from now on.

 By the way, what do I ought to do for preventing from leaning of Tara despite a little? That is a great problem because Tara might survive beyond the generation though my life is limited. So I have to take measures of that purpose also by getting the wisdom and power of my friends.

 Bhagavad Gita

    09/04/2014

（桜はあっという間に咲いてあっという間に散ってしまいます。そんな折、インドの友人、アイアーさんから、インドの古典的な思想バガバッド・ギータについて、心温まるメールが何度も届きました。まだサンスクリットを身につけていないな。本当の意味は英訳本では分からない、と、いつものお叱りを伴うものでしたが。）

 My Indian friend Iyer who is 88 years old has sent me letters about Bhagavad Gita recently. I have already introduced Gita as ' Aljuna's anguish' in 'What's New'. I explained the particularity of Gita's world compared to Buddhism. That is, Buddhism seeks for the state of silence and nothingness. But Veda(Gita's world) seeks for not only the state of nothingness but also the state of action. Action is the Karma as fate given to each person. Each action of each person forms this secular world. Each person cannot but live a life shouldering each Karma. That is a human being's life. We cannot get true knowledge without action. Through action, we can gain true knowledge in order to find true self. After that, we can enter the state of nothingness eventually.

 What is action for each person? Moral action is better but there are various actions for each person. Not only better actions but also bad actions exist in this secular world. A person who does bad action shouldered such Karma as he is obliged to do so. Why? That is because his previous life weighs heavily on him. Each person has no choice but to live a life with his own Karma. But through such Karma, we come to be able to find true self eventually. I think that this thought leads to Tantric Buddhism or the world of Tannisyo created by Japanese priest Shinran.

 Iyer told me that he had sent 75000 copies of booklets of Gita(only part of chapter ⅣandⅤ) to children all over the world. That was his Guru's order to Iyer. His Guru was a great Archarya famous all over the world. But I wrote to him that it was too difficult for children to understand Gita even at the part of ⅣandⅤ. (It is English version; Edwin Arnold's SONG CELESTIAL) He replied to me as follows.

 I know that Gita is a difficult book to understand by any one, much less by an alien, without a backdrop of Indian culture. Then why sending books to children, one may ask. If a million children read that book and ONE Child takes the trouble of understanding the intent of the Gita, it will be enough, as my Guru said.

 What a splendid talk his Guru gave to Iyer! Fighting with expression of Gita apparently filled with inconsistency leads to understanding Gita well. Such a fighting child, though he is quite rare, will save the human being's world in the future! Iyer also told me about Gita as follows.

 Basically, it deals with the Karma(action), Bhakti(devotion) and Gnyana(knowledge) yogas and the way to reach godhead, through any or all of them. Krishna's upadesha (advice) given to Arjuna on this battlefield, forms this Gita. In His advice Krishna says, "this body can be destroyed, but the soul (Atma) is undestructible. This soul is none other than the Almighty, who resides in every living being. This is a postulate and is to be accepted as such. Arjuna has to fight this battle, because he belongs to the warrior class, whose duty it is, to destroy the enemy and save his subjects and Arjuna fights here, for the sake of his elder brother Dharma Putra, who is the king. If he fails in this duty (karma) of his, he will be committing a sin thereby. This fight, he has to do, without any attachment, and as an offering of his to the Almighty.

 In any case, the Vedas never said that you must shed all actions and strive for Gnana only. Vedas deal with the Do's and Don'ts of humanity, in its one part (Karma kanda, full of actions ) and with the nature of the Almighty, in its other Upanishadic part (Gnana Kanda), where you leave the transient pleasures of this world and strive for the absolute Truth, which is Almighty itself. The Gita is a compendium of both these. It does not stop with discussing the Kurukshetra battle alone. One part of the advice of Krishna to Arjuna is the advice to all, with Arjuna as the front, and can be said to be the first part of the Veda, I had stated above, and the remaining essential part as forming the synopsis of the Upanishadic lore. In view of the context of the battle, both are given simultaneously and intertwined.

 A question arises here, "why should we spend our time seeking after Atma, Consciousness, Paramathma, God etc? Should we not go about our day to day functions and helping each other?". Yes, we can. We all want to spend our lives, enjoying everything, as long as we live. We seek pleasures in the cinema houses, or in other places of gaiety, we want to have good and tasty food, have a luxurious place to live in, spend our time with our kith and kin, and at old age, have a peaceful life in an arm-chair with all comforts around us. This is our idea of a good life. But none of us have this always, and on the contrary, we are afflicted with all sorts of ills, from sickness to enmity around us in many forms. In fact, we are like one who has lost his priceless diamond inside our own room in our house, but are searching for it in the bazaar. Our sages in their wisdom declare that pleasure and peace lie within yourself and in your own heart, and therefore you have to seek it there only. This pleasure is what we call Atma, God etc.

 the Bhagavad Gita, strange as it may sound, will be able to contribute to a change in the thinking pattern in man, which alone can address these woes and herald world peace.

 I pay respect to my friend Iyer because he has thought about Vedas hard and has tried to propagate earnestly the idea of Gita despite of his old age.

 Hakata

    28/02/2014

（博多は古来から中国や朝鮮半島、東南アジアとの貿易を通じて繁栄した国際色豊かな都市です。しかし最近の中国及び韓国との政治的な摩擦が都市の経済にも影響を与えています。そこで、国家を乗り越えた都市社会の可能性について考えてみました。）

 Hakata is an old name of Fukuoka city which is the largest city in Kyushu district of Japan. Recently, I visited Hakata for participating in a wedding ceremony of my cousin's son. The population of Fukuoka city is about 1.5 million. High-rise buildings can not be built because Fukuoka city is near the airport, but the city is bustling wherever you go. The wedding ceremony was held at a hotel in Canal City which is a unique near-future entertainment town in Hakata. There is a canal in the center of town and fountains spout out around a canal. (Above photo) A lot of people including visitors in Asian countries are walking there. Originally, Hakata was a cosmopolitan city through trade with China, Korean Peninsula and Southeast Asia from ancient times. Therefore Hakata was one of trade centers in Asia because a lot of foreigners have visited Hakata on business. But now, foreigners, especially Chinese and Koreans, visit Hakata not only on business but also for shopping and sightseeing. So, businessmen of Hakata have made a lot of investment for the project which further calls in Chinese and Koreans.
 However, numbers of travelers from China and South Korea to Hakata dropped dramatically due to the visit to the Yasukuni Shrine by the prime minister of Japan recently. So, investors and businessmen in Hakata feel disturbed by this situation. This shows that a cross-national political problem affects the economy of the local city seriously. When I took a taxi in Hakata, a driver said as follows. Indeed, after Yasukuni problem occurred, economy in Hakata continues to stagnate. However, some Koreans and Chinese have visited Hakata in their own way, despite of facing the political issue of the states. That is, some people never worry about the states or political issues and try to extend their economic interests all over the world. This is the appeal of human activity driven by economical situation.
 I think that the influence of a modern state is already in a precarious position. China has strengthened the military power aiming at sea advance, but cannot run into the military war with other countries in any way. So much, across the states, the economy of each state is connected globally. The state is already losing power to solve a racial problem, an economic problem, or an environmental problem. The existing state is losing the trust of the people. Beyond that situation, there are three possibilities as for human future society. One is the integration by EU in Europe. The second is the regional integration according to self-government of the race. And the third is the expansion of the self-government of the city and the union between such cities in the world.

 Hakata or Hukuoka city should aim at the self-government of the city. The prefecture that is the puppet of the state is already a useless organization. Hakata should take advantage of civic creative vitality, should tie up cities in the world directly, and should form new civil society beyond the existing states. In the Asia art museum which Hukuoka city manages, modern fine arts and culture of Asian countries are being introduced. Hakata should become the base station where cultured people and youths in Asia interchange with each other. Street venders of Vietnam and Thailand etc. should open stores at the stand village of Nakasu and Tenjin, and Asian culture villages should appear everywhere in Hakata. If it is realized by the power of Hakata citizen and a city administration without obtaining the help of the state or a prefecture, I think it is wonderful for human being's future.

      　Back                                                                   Next