Judging based on what exists

 You have to set a standard of truth through observing what exists. You have to judge your opponents based on their words, behavior, and activities. Do not rely on what people say but check what exists one by one in detail.

A seat does not make a person.

 There is a saying, 'A seat makes a person.' It is a proverb that if a person gets up to a position, he or she will turn into a person who suits the position. This is not true. Some have turned into those who suit the position, acting correspondingly and exercising their ability, but others do not. Seats do not make people. Those who have changed to suit the position already have the proper qualities in them.

Ignorance

 The cause of evil is ignorance. Being ignorant of right words and behavior, one has no choice but to say wrong words and act wrongly. Moreover, when one does wrong words and actions for the pursuit of one's own desires and pleasures, he/she continues to say wrong words and actions because he/she is ignorant of what misfortunes the words and behavior would bring.
 Almost every human being is ignorant of his/her own ignorance. They don't know the fact that they don't know. Don't think you'll be an exception just because not everyone does. You don't know that you're ignorant.

Way to live truthfully

 The probability that a person can live truthfully in a good environment is relatively higher. But it is too difficult to live truthfully without the teaching of an enlightened being. It is difficult to get results without knowing how to achieve them. Learning what exists through the enlightened being will make you know faster and more clearly.

Right Way (正道) and Wrong Way (邪道)

 The criterion for distinguishing Right Way (正道) from Wrong Way (邪道) is teaching. The way with right teaching is Right Way (正道), otherwise, Wrong Way (邪道). The judgment about whether the teaching is right or wrong lies in ‘what exists’.

Purpose of Life

 The purpose of our living is to gain a good self. This way can be achieved through teaching.
 When faced with words or writings, it is undesirable to have a reaction that feels like they are just plausible or vaguely correct. The contents should be clearly checked and revealed. They should clearly identify what "good self" means, and what specific teachings "teaching" refers to.

Ignorance

 Ignorance is the cause of vice. If you know, you can get away from all the disasters.

 If you do something wrong according to the fate your karma has made, you may be able to meet your desires or gain momentarily, but you end up building bigger karma in yourself.

 Knowing the things of the world properly means knowing that doing wrong ultimately leads to bad consequences for you. In addition, knowing the things of the world lets you prepare for and avoid in advance the disasters that the dark world may cause.

Truth (Fact)

 How true a person is is different from one person to person. A person with the high level of truth doesn't tell lies but says what exists. A person with the high level of falsehood does in the opposite way.

The way to the salvation of oneself

 The way to the salvation of oneself is first to open eyes to what exists, to open eyes to the principle in what exists, and finally to inform the world of it.

Understanding and Getting Enlightened

 Understanding an explanation of a problem after listening to it is different from getting enlightened about the problem itself.
 In the former case, it is not wrong to convey to others the very explanation that they understood, but it is likely to be wrong to convey one's own ideas about the matter to others.
 In the latter case, whatever ways you explain to others about the matter, it is not wrong. To be enlightened about something means to be able to see it. Because you see it, you can see and explain about it in whatever way you like.

Knowing properly what exists

 People do not seem to know how important it is to know properly what exists in the world. Moreover, most people do not try to know the things of the world as they are, but they believe in their own opinions and thoughts as facts and rely on them to speak and act.

What exists

 We call everything that appears in front of us ‘what is in existence'. We do not know what exists without verifying it. If you watch, listen to, and observe what exists, you become to open your eyes to what exists.

Words without ways

 The word, ‘you must produce good fruits’ isn’t helpful at all to those who want to obtain them. What is really helpful is to teach how to attain them.

Human consciousness is

 Humans are composed of a body and consciousness. Consciousness is the source of human activity and can also be called themselves. Humans have different consciousness respectively. They are unwilling to accept what doesn’t exist in their consciousness. People cannot accept the truth because they have never experienced it.

That which makes oneself unhappy

 No humans want to make themselves unhappy. It is their own ignorance that makes them unhappy.

Telling us to love is

 Telling us to love other people is like telling us to fertilize the ground.

Practical Change rather than Being Impressed

 The important thing to think about after reading Carnegie's autobiography is not to be impressed by the book, but to be like him.

Judgment about Opponents

 Most people do not care what kinds of things their opponents have done and judge them according to whether they were against their opinions or not.

Truth, Justice and Happiness

 In a society where truth and justice are ignored, there are cases where the promise that diligence, frugality, and honesty are the way to happiness is occasionally disregarded.

Happiness

 Happiness is not temporary satisfaction. Happiness is obtained in the situation where you are neither hungry nor lonely and have a bright mind. Diligence, frugality, and honesty are the way to achieve happiness.

What exists and Destiny

If you know what exists, destiny has no power. If you know what's going on around you and live accordingly, you can escape your own destiny.

Faith and Enlightenment

Faith doesn't solve everything. Faith without enlightenment can be harmful.

Reincarnation

Reincarnation refers to the phenomenon that everything in the universe makes itself exist through its own activity. Not only human beings but also what exists in humans exists through reincarnation.

A compentent person and a genius

 Competent people are raised but geniuses are from themselves. And Competent people have knowledge but geniuses possess wisdom.

How to bless what exists

You can bless what exists only when you know what exists. In other words, if you want to make good results on things that exist in the world, you must first know them.

To be oneself is the goal of life?

 I asked a man who had been teaching kung fu for over 40 years.

 "What is the purpose of your life?"

 "It's to be myself."

 As so-called intellectuals try to teach people the way of life, they often say that people should find themselves or be themselves. It sounds plausible at first glance, but it is nonsense.

 We are ourselves. We don't have to be ourselves or go anywhere to find ourselves. The crucial thing is whether we can see ourselves. It is important to see how exactly we can see facts as they are, how well we can distinguish right from wrong, and how diligent, frugal, and honest we are.

Doubt and confirmation

The beginning of a response to what happens to you in your life is doubt and confirmation. There may be people who respond in this way without knowing it for themselves, but you may be able to respond better by remembering the two words.

Doubting means not trusting or denying the object. After the process of confirmation, you can believe it or deny it. The question is how accurate the results of the verification are. You should check in all possible ways, but still be suspicious of the conclusions drawn through such a process, and look at the post-implementation trend.

True Education

 True education is giving enlightenment that enables people to see and understand what is in existence.

Ignorance

 When humans do not know, human thinking can cause them to do anything. That is, when humans do not know, it causes wrong thinking. The thought is like that of an animal, except that through consciousness it is possible to transform thinking into action.

Resolution and Reality

 People think easily. 'I'm going to live right from today.' The moment they think so, they really believe they can. But that doesn't really happen.

 For example, just because those who don't know mathematics decide to solve math problems from today doesn't mean that they can. Just because farmers who don't know farming very well decide to start farming well from this year doesn't mean they can. If you want to do something, you have to be someone who can do it.

 Evil comes from ignorance. People don't know that if they do bad things, they end up with bad results. They want to do good things, but they don't know what is good and how to do it. To do right things, they must learn ways to do them and practice them with will and effort.

Wrong Criteria for Judgment of Value

 What are the criteria for judging whether something is right or wrong?
 One of the most popular criteria in reality is statistics. It is the judgment that more people are right. Another criterion is a judgment of a group of people in power or of one person, such as a dictator. Another criterion is the blind belief in transcendental existence or idealism.
 The above criteria are subjective and relative. The problem is that people believe their standards are absolutely right. When cases occur where their their criteria do not match reality, they distort or ignore reality. Naturally, they do not know whether such distortion or disregard are problematic. In this way, absurdity continues to accumulate in the world.

Society and Justice

 Human society can thrive through right human activities. And through justice, the right human activities can be more active.

What is love

 Not being able to answer what love is means not knowing love.

Justice and Society

 What is essential to the survival of human society is justice. Justice can be compared to the source of power which drives a car.

Justice is the light in a society

 The difference between acting in the dark of night and acting in the light of day is the same as the difference between living in a society without justice and living in a society where justice exists.

Relatioship between Justice and Law

 Making many laws in a society without justice rather makes life hard for people in that society.

Effects of Words and Behavior

We must know how our words and behavior affect ourselves, our future, and our society.

Consciousness

Before a society collapses, people's consciousness in the society gets deteriorated first.

Ignorance

 The cause of evil is ignorance. Your ignorance makes you deceived and deceive others.

How enlightenment is attained

 No matter how much you want to enlighten yourself, if you cannot understand and accept truths, you cannot attain enlightenment.
 For example, no matter how much you want to solve a math problem, it is not easy to solve the problem unless you understand and accept the formula and solution involved through teaching and practice.

Be enlightened!

The phrase, 'be enlightened' means ‘do things, knowing what exists in you.’

Knowing or Not knowing

 The difference between the life where you live knowing and the life where you live not knowing is enormous. The difference between knowing properly and the illusion of believing that you know properly is even greater.

Activity and Karma

 Everything in the world comes to in existence through activity. Even karma cannot exist unless it is active. The way out of the control of karma is to restrain its activity.

Good Things and Karma

 People have been educated to do good things, but they can't do good things because karma.

Whose fault?

 When deer eat dew on grass leaves, they make antlers, and if poisonous snakes eat the dew, they make poison. Is it the fault of the serpent, or of dew?
 If a right person learns good teaching, the person makes good progress, but if a wrong person learns, the person commits hypocrisy. Is it the fault of teaching or the fault of the wrong person?

Mistake and Karma

 No matter how much you want to do well, if you make a mistake because of your big karma, you will build even bigger karma.

Karma and Enlightenment

 The way to be free from karma is to cause good things to come into being in you by making good karma for other people. Meanwhile it is nearly impossible to build up good karma without enlightenment.

Conscience and Justice

 'Conscience is the light that brightens oneself, and justice is the light that brightens society.'

 People with great consciences can see their words and actions for themselves, because the light shines on them. They can see what they say and do, so they can refrain from saying bad things and do good things. People with small consciences cannot see their words and actions because the light that shines on them is very weak. Because they cannot identify their words and actions, they act on their own desires and feelings. 

 A society with great justice has a bright light that illuminates it, so members can see what's going on in it. What's happening in society is revealed as it is, so bad things don't happen easily, and they can be identified easily. In a society of small justice, the light that illuminates the society is so weak that what happens is not confirmed. It is dark and invisible so bad things happen easily. Identifying bad things that have happened is also very difficult.

Right Life

 Just because those who have not lived right lives decide to live right does not mean that they can live right. It's as if a man who is 172 centimeters tall cannot live that way because he decides to live 180 centimeters.

 The difference between above two is that they cannot change their heights, but they can change their life. The problem is that most people are indifferent to life. Even if they are interested, it's too hard to find a way to change life. And even if they learn the way to change life, it is too difficult to actually do it.

Karma

 If those with big karma hear truths, they come to have repulsion. Those who don’t have big karma become dubious. Those with small karma become delighted. -Lao-tzu

How karma is made

 When someone who doesn't know what they're doing wants to teach others or solve others’ problems, that's what creates karma.

Cause and Effect

 You must not forget that what you do is the causes of all the results which you obtain.

Spiritual Growth

 While your body grows through the energy of food, your consciousness grows by the things that exist within you. In other words, what you see, hear, and go through will build up in you, resulting in spiritual change.

Happiness

 Happiness is the state of no hunger, worries and loneliness. The requirements for happiness are diligence, frugality and honesty.

Destiny

 Destiny is a phenomenon in which things that exist in you appear. Destiny comes at birth, but you can change it as much as you like. Destiny is created by the law of cause and effect, and the destiny created continues to exist within you and governs your life.

Danger of wrong knowledge

 Knowledge refers to information, understanding, or skills gained through education or experience. There is much knowledge in the world that has been accumulated through history. The problem is that there is a great deal of wrong knowledge.
 In general, people don't take wrong knowledge so important. But it is not too much to say that these people's way of thinking is a fatal mistake. Misleading knowledge can be likened to obscured, blurred or colored glasses that are forced to wear. Distorted glasses make people have a wrong understanding and wrong judgments about things of the world. Words and actions made on the basis of such distorted understanding and judgment destroy themselves, others and the world.
 In light of the reality that is happening all over the world, we can see that the above statement is not wrong.

Source of destiny

 There is an inherent property within oneself and a difference in the degree of understanding depends on that property. It is the source of one's destiny.

Enlightenment

 To live without knowing about enlightenment is the abandonment of your future and to give up getting out of your karma which makes yourself unhappy.

Life

 To live without knowing about life is to live, abandoning oneself. However, there is neither anyone who teaches about life nor anyone who desires to learn about it.

Reality Distorted by Tool

 A tool is a means or method for achieving a goal. In a broad sense, various disciplines, thoughts, and ideologies are tools, too. In order to do something well, you need to have the right tools for the situation.

 However, in today's society the role of purpose and tool is reversed. For example, some politicians are distorting facts in the world in order to plant their way of thinking and ideologies in the world. In the relationship between reality and way of thinking or ideology, the right way is to correct the way of thinking or ideology according to the reality. But they are distorting reality to keep the justification of their way of thinking or ideologies.

A source of trouble

 A man consulted about his troubles.
 "I drink and go home late, and when I go home, I fight with my wife and my children. If I don't drink, I go home early and get along well with my family. What should I do?"
 Is this a trivial problem that doesn't even bother you? Or is it really a serious annoyance to find the answer?
 Too simple a problem for some people could be a very complex problem for others. What on earth makes this difference? This question will also be simple for some, but impossible for others to answer.

For better yourself.

 Know your truth.
 Doubt and confirm.
 Your words and behavior determine your destiny and future.

The wise and the unwise

 A true person says.
 "People do not recognize their false words and wrong behavior."
 Hearing it, those who are wise look back on their words and actions,
and those who are not wise nod in agreement with the fact that people other than themselves are truly so.

Falsehood

 Although you don't want to or endeavor not to tell lies, it does not mean that you can avoid telling lies. Because you cannot see a fact as it is, that is, you cannot see the truth, you have no choice but to lie. You should not think of lies easily. Lies ruin not only you and your opponents, but also your surroundings. But most people don't want to admit this.
 People don't think they can follow the prowess of professional players or the skills of master craftsmen. This may be because they know that they do not have the talent of professional athletes or master artisans, nor do they spend much enough practice. But why don't people realize that they can neither see things as they are nor avoid telling lies?

Unique but incorrect understandings

 When people meet things of the world, people have their own distinctive understanding of the things, whether they recognize it or not. It is only natural that their own unique selves, made by what has happened to them in the past, have different understanding respectively.

 However, apart from the matter of the diversity of such understanding, there exists a matter of whether or not each understanding is right. The bigger problem is that most people mistake their understanding as the right answer. The much bigger problem is that some people say they admit such mistaking, or even advocate that such mistaking should not be made, but do not realize that they are actually making the same mistake.

Fundamental, Ground, Environment, Result

 All things in the world consist of four things: the fundamental, the ground, the surroundings, and the result. In the light of 'law of cause and effect', which is the basis for creation and change of all things, the fundamental, the ground, and the surroundings are the causes and effect is literally the result.
 In the case of soybeans, for example, soybeans are the fundamental as seeds, land is the ground, and such things as sunlight, moisture, temperature, etc. on are the surroundings. These three create new results, newly harvested soybeans. The same is true of humans. A soul (the fundamental) creates a newly changed soul (the result) through the activities of life in the ground (teachings) and in the various surroundings (home, social, national, period, religion, etc.).
 If there is anything desired, there should be the causes (the fundamentals, the ground, the surroundings) which can produce the thing (the result). The problem is that people don't know much about the three things: the fundamental, the ground, the surroundings. Even if they might know the words, it is not easy to recognize them correctly.