Highlights
“Shoshinge”
“Gobunsho”
Ebina Danjo
Free Christian
Anezaki Masaharu
“Because I am a Buddhist, I am a Christian, and because I am a Christian, I am a Buddhist.”
Tsunashima Ryosen
New Person
“An Actual Experience of Seeing God”
Hyogo Christian Church
Nishida Tenko
Ittō-en
“Do not think about tomorrow. Don’t worry about life and the economy. Above all, first seek the morality of the Kingdom of God.”
Tenko-san taught, “Give up egotism.” As a minister I believed that it was my mission as a Christian to teach and lecture, to resent and deplore the corruption of society, to criticize the decline of my superiors and to save sinful society. But in Tenkosan’s view, this was no more than egotism. “I indeed am correct. Therefore, I will be saved.” Throw away the “I.” Then one must become ego-less. He thought that the universe will become one’s world if, by first cleaning the detestable toilets of other people, one does away with the self.
I came to think that the real missionary work to do among Buddhists and Shintoists is rather to convert them to be true Buddhists and true Shintoists. So then I left the ministry after three years, and once more endeavoured to redo my research.
Okada Torajiro
“Breathe correctly with correct posture and meditation will make you one with the universe.”
I continued to practice meditation thereafter, and even now do not neglect it, so that it is my only discipline.
Mr. Mason
In this way, in the course of continuing my research, I whose religious awareness started with my becoming a Christian, no longer believed in Christianity exclusively. Nor did I feel that I could profess to be a Buddhist or a Shintoist exclusively. In other words, it seems best to say that at the same time I am a Christian and a Buddhist and a Shintoist. Another way of putting it is that my faith is free religion without any restriction whatsoever.
The word “religion” infers that one must believe in God. In fact, the relationship between God and man is a definition of religion. However, there are many people in the world who say that they do not know whether there is or is not a God.
As for myself, it used to be that I thought there was a God, but now I cannot imagine that there exists a God in the traditional sense. Rather it is closer to “God has died” (Nietzsche). Nowadays I must oppose the idea of God completely, even in its representations. So in my house there is no Buddhist or Shinto altar.
every human being has religious feeling. I think that so-called religious needs are fundamental and universal elements of humanity. These have taken different forms depending on various environmental factors such as history and climate. There is a certain significance in this, but I think there is only one basis that I want to emphasize.
The first one is “I Believe in Myself.” This means that even if one says there is a God somewhere, rather than depend on this, one should first believe in the essence of one’s self, and then go on to realize this self. That is, it is the act of establishing one’s self. The “self” in this case is not the self that satisfies earthly desires. It is not the self that is a slave to material things and the flesh. It is the self that has the autonomy for becoming one’s own hero. Moreover, it is the vigorous self or “creativity” which is constantly trying to progress and improve. It is the self that strives for “unity” and is not isolated from society. The kind of “self” that I believe in makes me feel that life is worth living. To put it in other words, I believe in a sacred quality inside the self. One can think of it as “essential being” or “character” or “divinity” or “Buddhahood.”
But in the present day, when the idea of no god is prevalent, the absence of God in my concept would be exalted. My basic idea is that we should value the human being and believe in the human being. Perhaps we can call this faith in humanism or a religion without God. With this kind of inquiry, I cannot only save myself but also I can respond to the modern tendency of alienation from religion and the various arguments for no religion and against religion.
My second tenet of faith in life is “I Believe in Other People.” Other people after all represent the autonomy, the creativity and the unitive elements in other people. When I say “other people” I mean that I believe in the “self” that is in my neighbours, assuming that my neighbours possess that “self” also.
“I Believe in a Cooperative Society.” While the self and other people have a certain unique individual character, they are not at all isolated or have a separate existence. By reason of being unique they sprout true mutual reliance, true unity and true love of humanity; thus, they establish a “cooperative society.”
So the three elements, the self, others and a cooperative society are separate and distinct. Each one has a relationship which actually includes the others. That is to say, these three can be thought of as basically being three-in-one.
“I Believe in a Universal Cooperative Society.” The self, the others, and the cooperative society which are three elements in one are “human society.” This alone is not enough. There is something missing. When we think about it, the self, others and a cooperative society all exist because of the universe or nature. Humankind cannot exist apart from nature. That is the basis of our life. I would also like to establish that not only human society but also the heavens, the earth, nature and all the universe are one community (a cooperative society). Animals and plants, the moon and the sun, the air and the water, everything, are in one cooperative society. That is what “Universal Cooperative Society” expresses.
The “Universal Cooperative Society” is composed of the unity of humanity and nature, and the merging of human society with all the universe. I think it is appropriate to think of this as the fourth tenet.
“I Believe in the Church.” In this case “church” can mean a temple or a shrine or anything of that kind, or a specific denomination or organization or group. All are included in the term of “church.” Each possesses certain special characteristics but just as universality does not manifest itself unless some special characteristics are in evidence, some starting point is necessary. So the term “church” is used to refer to these various entities.
A church can be called a microcosm of the universal cooperative society. So people can become universal beings by being members of a church.
However, I do not wish to think that these tenets of faith in life are conclusive. I think that they are provisional in the sense that when we reflect further we will see possible revisions.
human life has no final point. I believe that there is no graduation from the University of Life. My “Tenets of Faith in Life” are like working principles in the University of Life.
My attitude towards life is to grasp and realize the mystery and the ideals not only of religion but also of all human activity.
References
Imaoka, Shin’ichirō. Selected Writings on Free Religion & Other Subjects. Edited by George M. Williams and Andrew James Brown, Translated by William Parker and Dorothy Parker, Uniquest Publishing, 2022.