REV. MASANOBU TANIGUCHI’S ADDRESS AT THE NEW YEAR’S CELEBRATION
Practice of Love in Daily Life Urged
The New Year’s Celebration was held on January 1 at the Seicho-No-Ie Headquarters in Harajuku, Tokyo. Rev. Masanobu Taniguchi, Vice President of Seicho-No-Ie, addressed about 500 people in the capacity of the Superintendent. He spoke for about 20 minutes.
He first referred to his New Year’s Message from last year which is included in his Shokan Zakkan Part 9 (Random Thoughts, Part 9), which was published on January 1, 2008. In that message, he interpreted the proverb, “Holding a wild boar, one does not know its smell” to mean “One does not know the risk of meat eating and cannot stop it,” and he urged a reduction in meat eating, as it is a cause of global warming. This year he pointed out that now, one year after that, meat consumption world-wide is on the rise.
He next said that last year there was good news in the area of environmental issues.
The view held by a group of scientists that global warming is a natural phenomenon and hence it is not necessary for human beings to reduce CO2 emissions was denied by the synthesis report of the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The report provided scientific evidence that human activities are causing global warming.
Rev. Taniguchi pointed out that the report helped raise the general public’s awareness about the need to control global warming. He also introduced that the documentary movie, Inconvenient Truth, by the former Vice President of the U.S.A., Mr. Al Gore, which strongly warned about environmental crisis and won an Academy Award. Mr. Gore and IPCC were awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. Rev. Taniguchi said that the view that human beings are not responsible for global warming has now lost ground.
The Vice President also spoke of the international conference which was held in Bali, Indonesia at the end of last year, where the participating nations reached an agreement to cooperate in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. He highly values the fact that this agreement was reached because of the timing: just prior to this year’s start of the Kyoto Protocol’s commitment phase, which means that the countries will have the obligation to reduce CO2 emissions.
Rev. Taniguchi next turned to the topic of the animals in the twelve horary signs. This year is the Year of the Rat. Unlike the tiger, which commands respect or fear, proverbs do not usually use the rat in a good sense. Saying that the two animals can change places, he introduced two proverbs: “If used, it turns to a tiger immediately, and if not used, it turns to a rat;” and “If the right time comes even a rat turns to a tiger.”
These proverbs mean that “if one is placed in an important position, sometimes a seemingly incapable person can perform well” and “every person can fully bring out his ability if he seizes an opportunity.” The Vice President offered an interpretation from the Seicho-No-Ie point of view: “he who has the awareness of a rat cannot lead a life of anything but a rat’s, while he who has the awareness of a tiger can bring out a tiger-like ability.” Rev. Taniguchi said whether we become a rat or tiger is determined by our awareness of the self and judgmental ability to capture the chance.”
Regarding the Seicho-No-Ie Movement, which is said to be faced with difficulties, the Vice President taught that an opportunity is born if we tackle the difficulty head-on without escaping it. For example, the reason why Toyota is gaining a stronger position over GM is because it has developed hybrid technology in Japan where there is a disadvantage of high gas prices and also because this new technology is necessary for humanity in the new age when the world is undergoing a change in civilization from the fossil-based fuel to hydrogen and natural energy.
Rev. Taniguchi taught that Seicho-No-Ie’s Zero Carbon Movement can potentially give birth to a new idea, although it is seemingly a difficult path. He called upon the attendees to study and train themselves in their daily lives, deepen their awareness of their God-nature and Buddhahood, and promote the activities to express it in their day-to-day life, rather than going to a distant place and bring back a burning sense of mission.
Rev. Taniguchi went on to stress that what is important in this effort is the practice of deeds of love. He taught that the most important thing for human beings is love and that love is to have a sense of oneness with others by giving. He said, “Let’s energize the organizational movement by practicing deeds of love in our daily lives.”
At the end of his address, the Vice President read a portion of the “Prayer to Practice Good Deeds and Enhance Joy” from his book, Hibi no Inori (Daily Prayers) and concluded by saying, “I would like to join hands with you and powerfully promote this Movement.”