Founder of seiza meditation.
Here are his thoughts about education.
There is a word “teaching by rote” in Japan, but it should be called “non-teaching”. The true meaning of education is none other than to draw out the original nature of the individual.
To make others remember what has been given to them is not education. To make others imitate what has been given to them is not education. The creative force which invents, discovers and begins something new—the welling-out (release) of this force is education. Creative force! That is the in-dwelling Divine-nature. Creative force results from the development of the Divine in us.
Education means to bring out from within. It does not mean to infuse from outside.
Let the divine seedling (bud) within the heart of everyone sprout and nurture (develop).
Energy/strength/power/force which equally everyone has would entirely develop.
I do not teach from outside, but wait for coming out from within.
It comes out from within.
Just by giving a little hint, we (children) develop freely from within.
The foundation of all education is love. Even a weak-minded person or insane can be transformed by the education of love. This love is not the one whose opposite is hate, but the love that is like sunshine. Like all things arise because of sunshine’s nurture, human beings achieve their personality and their Divine-nature is developed by the education of love.
With love, we can bring out spiritual wisdom and power in anyone.
I don’t mean love as the opposite of hate against others.
The essence of the Divine and the Buddha is love. One who is filled with love recognizes the Divine and the Buddha.
If we could clearly understand what is love, it acts on behalf of Seiza.
Love is the transmission of one’s character. Children become wicked because mothers spoil them. Pestalozzi loved many children, but none of them became wicked. On the contrary, all of them became excellent.
Pure love is the essence for education (nurturing people). This impersonal love has no specific object. Selfless and universal love is like sunshine that illuminates on all. This comes from the innocent (mushin) not the calculating mind. In the New Testament, God’s rain falls equally on the righteous and sinners.
(Okada-sensei praised Rousseau’s and Pestalozzi’s education of character.)
(Recorded by Sahoda Tsuruji, Kyoto)