2010 Seicho-No-Ie Special Conference
Rev. Masanobu Taniguchi Provides Guidance
Let's Be Aware that Each of Us is a Member in Restorning Nature
On July 10 to 11 the 2010 Seicho-No-Ie Special Conference was held at the Seicho-No-Ie Headquarters in Harajuku, Tokyo under the guidance of Rev. Masanobu Taniguchi, President of Seicho-No-Ie, and Mrs. Junko Taniguchi, President of Seicho-No-Ie White Dove Association. The Conference was held for Ordained Ministers/Assistant Ministers in Japan, the Republic of China and the Republic of Korea and was attended by 236 people. This was the sixth Special Conference held in Japan. The previous one was held in 2008.
The theme of the Conference was “A Consideration on the Relationship Between Nature and Man.” Rev. Taniguchi gave a concluding lecture on July 11. Mrs. Taniguchi lectured on July 10. Also, on both days four Ordained Ministers gave presentations entitled: “Learning from the Natural View of Major World Monotheistic Religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), “Learning from the Natural View of Major World Polytheistic Religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism), “Learning from the Natural View in Japan” (Mythology, Religious Background), and “Today’s Natural View (From the Viewpoint of Psychology).
On the second day of the Conference, Rev. Masanobu Taniguchi gave a concluding lecture for about an hour.
Rev. Taniguchi first spoke on the view that monotheism is the cause of natural destruction and pointed to the fact that natural destruction is occurring even in polytheistic countries and the world is faced with an ecological crisis.
The President next referred to a view presented by an Ordained Minister that “monotheistic religions regard nature as a creation of God and man the administrator in whom God entrusted nature.” He suggested that despite the fact that it is logical for monotheism to treat nature with care, actually it does not do so.
Rev. Taniguchi next touched upon Christianity’s changing natural view: it was first believed that God and man shared rationality and that the natural world and man were one, but with Christianity’s spread to different parts of the world, a view was born that God, man and nature were separate and man can look down upon nature because it does not have rationality and it led to anthropocentrism.
The President also pointed out that different things are written in religious scriptures and that what human beings either discarded or selected according to the need of the time has been taught as the teaching. From the point of view that the common desires of human beings lead a religion to either disarray or a correct path, it can be explained why polytheistic countries are doing the same things as monotheistic countries.
Rev. Taniguchi urged that when viewing a religion, it must be grasped in its historic, economic and social context, and he stressed the importance of the fact that when lecturing, a lecturer should always keep himself in check to see if he is explaining the teaching to suit his convenience.
Rev. Taniguchi next cautioned against falling into fundamentalism when interpreting the scriptures. If one considers the written words themselves as the truth, he tends to pick up what is convenient to him. He emphasized that it is important that when we lecture, we are always conscious of the real truth behind the messages in the scriptures and the essence that is beyond expression.
Regarding environmentalists’ criticism that a section in the Genesis says God ordered man to have dominion over every creature, Rev. Taniguchi explained that different views are stated in other parts of the Bible, the Bible had a multiple number of authors and that a discipline to minutely explain the scripture developed in Christianity to determine the truth.
When a scripture presents differing views, A and B, there are three ways to explain it: to adopt A or B or else develop C in a logical way, and that today a lot of efforts are being made to create C
The President next introduced, as an example, the Green Bible, which highlights in green all references about nature and man. From the explanation in this Bible, Rev. Taniguchi pointed to C, which responds to the criticism that today’s Christianity is dealing with environmental activities. He noted that there is a lot to learn from Christianity’s current interpretation of the Bible, and that Buddhism and Shintoism have not yet provided such interpretation. The President said that we should learn from Christianity in trying to close the gap between our actual life and faith.
In concluding his lecture, he explained, as he did at the National Leaders’ Seminars, that there are two kinds of logic in our mind: “logic of symmetry which tries to see similarities and “logic of asymmetry” which recognizes individuals based on the differences.
Although human beings need both of these viewpoints, too much emphasis has been historically placed on the “rationality,” which is dictated by the “logic of asymmetry.” In the past, human beings loved animals and vegetation and felt like a part of them, but an increasing number of people do not care about the made demise of the natural world, which is creating an ecological crisis of today.
The President stated that unless humanity moves in the direction of bringing the “principle of symmetry” into their daily life as well as the social and economic system, this crisis cannot be prevented.
The President went on to say that until now we created the efficient city with the “left brain preference,” “digital way of thinking,” “asymmetry,” “logic of the consciousness” and that this brought on an ecological crisis. He pointed out that it is necessary that we admit to the fact that nature offers us balancing mechanisms (right brain, analog, symmetry, subconsciousness) and that those are already being used in many different areas.
In concluding his lecture, Rev. Taniguchi asked the attendees to know the importance to humanity of the movement that is occurring in the world to restore nature and that they spread the teachings in their own areas with the awareness that they are members of this movement.