– The instruction of Goi Sensei given to Elder Saito –
Part 1: It is not your responsibility.
I don’t remember when, or who I heard it from, but I remembered being told that religion begins with repentance before God. So, I thought I would very much like to ask Goi Sensei about it when he was free.
One day, after a break in the visitors, as no one was around, I looked into the tutoring room and asked, “May I come in, Sensei?”
Goi Sensei responded, “Oh, Saito-san, do come in.”
I began to explain, “I heard that when you join a religion, the first step is to do penance, but I am a man who has lived a lot of different experiences in my life.
“In my youth, I joined a socialist movement group, and there was a time when I risked my life because I believed that there was no other way to save humanity. However, during the large-scale prosecution of the Communist Party, I contracted intestinal tuberculosis from pulmonary tuberculosis during interrogation and I was released on parole without prosecution.
“After that, I gave up the socialist movement for the time being and went into business, where I could parallel my long-forgotten filial piety, and did various things, but after many failures, I became unable to make my living in Japan, and finally went to Manchuria.
“There, starting out as a delivery boy for a confectionery shop, I worked for an entertainment agency, a shipping agency, and others, and somehow managed to open a small shipping agency in the third year. This led me to run five companies, including a trader, an electric tool manufacturer and a civil engineering company. I went through the war, defeat, and repatriation from the enemy’s lands back to the chaotic homeland.
“At the time, I had the responsibility of supporting five young children and my wife, and in the chaos of the post-war period, I could not find a decent job. I joined the ranks of black-market traders and earned my living by going under the strict control of the economic police and taking dangerous risks.
“Eventually, I joined a financial company run by my friend and became a money seeking financier and busied myself with collecting money. With the backing of relatives and friends, I raised nearly 300 million yen and became vice-president of that company.
“I then became the entertainer of customers, going in and out of restaurants, cabarets, and other places, and playing around in the red-light district, taking advantage of the entertainment of my customers. This would, strictly speaking, be a breach of trust and embezzlement.”
Interrupting me, Goi Sensei said,
“Saito-san, there is no need to dwell on such things. They are all the process where the karma for which your ancestors were responsible appeared through you to fade away in their place. It is not your responsibility.”
I had felt bad about what I had done, but it was comforting to reconsider that, from a religious perspective, they were not my fault. I later learned that Goi Sensei had taken on most of the karma I had accumulated and purified it, and I felt really sorry for him. When you come to Goi Sensei, there is no need for penance. When you meet him, he knows everything about you, even about your previous life and the lives before that. If he says he knows, it hurts our hearts, so he pretends he doesn’t know.
It was three or four years later that I cam,e to understand what it means that he always says to everyone, “When you see me, you’ll be all right.”
Part 2: It is all your responsibility.
A few years later, one day, I went to the Ikushu-an, Sensei’s private annex, and was treated for lunch by Sensei, and we were chatting upstairs when Sensei said, “Saito-san, take a good look at this photo in the newspaper.
“Here’s a picture of a camp for war orphans in Vietnam. You see a lot of pitiful children, skinny as skeletons, with only their bellies bulging. Saito-san, you are entirely responsible for these horrors in Vietnam.”
I was surprised by these Sensei’s unexpected words and said,
“Sensei, I have in no way sold arms to Vietnam, nor have I sold anything at all.”
Goi Sensei continued to say, “Saito-san, here, take a look at this third-page article. It says that the younger brother killed his elder brother in an inheritance dispute with the wealthy Nakagawa family in Takarazuka, and turned himself in. This, too, is your responsibility, isn’t it?”
“Sensei, I have nothing to do with the Nakagawa family,” I answered in surprise.
Goi Sensei continued, “Saito-san, the Prayer for World Peace comes from the Mind of the Great Divinity of the Universe who created all the worlds. Surely you know that.”
“Yes, I believe so, Sensei,” I responded.
Then Goi Sensei continued, “Even before you were born into this world, all of my disciples’ Guardian Deities and Guardian Spirits joined the Great Light Spiritual Union of Salvation in the spiritual realm, which was formed for the purpose of saving the world of the earth. Because of this relationship, you were taken to me, who is the center of the Great Light Spiritual Union of Salvation, by your Guardian Deities and Guardian Spirits and became my disciples.
“This Great Spiritual Union of Salvation is formed to realize on the earth the Mind of the Great Universal Divinity who resides in the Divine realm. So, to pray the Prayer for World Peace means to return to the center of the original Divinity of the Universe, the Great Life. Then from the perspective of the One who is responsible for the creation of the Great Universe, you will look at the entire Universe from that standpoint.”
“The essence of the Prayer for World Peace is to return to the earth again with the heart of the one who is responsible, and to reflect on the earth, and if you are Japanese, to return to Japan and reflect on the towns, your homes as the one responsible for the earth. So, the way to world peace is to realize that you are responsible for everything that happens on earth and in the universe.” So instructed me Goi Sensei.
“Thank you very much, Sensei. For the first time, I understand the great scale of the Prayer for World Peace that you are teaching us.” So I responded in great joy.
Part 3: The earth is a member of the Great Universe.
One day, Goi Sensei said to us, “Since your Tōitsu (unification) has improved, let me show you for once the vastness of the Prayer for World Peace,” and we left with him.
Suddenly I realized that we were out above the earth. Under our eyes the earth appeared like a ball.
When we went up another level, I saw a saucer. “A flying saucer!” I thought, but Sensei told me, “That’s not a saucer. That’s the Galactic System.” And I sensed that the scope of the work of the Prayer for World Peace includes the Galaxy. And in another instant, we went up again.
Then we saw a whole lot of stars. I thought they were stars, but Sensei explained to us that each of those stars is a galaxy (the Galacy is one of them). The universe is absolutely huge.
At that time, Goi Sensei instructed, “The Great Divinity is creating this Universe right now, right here, in a moment of aha. This breath, this power, is the Prayer for World Peace.”
He continued to say, “That we are praying this prayer means that we are working, as we are, as part of the work of the Great Divinity.”
“The earth is a member of the Great Universe, and if the earth is not purified, the universe is not purified. This means that if even one member of humanity is not purified, the earth is not purified. It is the Prayer for World Peace that purifies each and every one of us and the whole humanity.” So were we instructed by Goi Sensei.
Tōitsu (統一) is a Japanese word that means ‘unification.’ Byakko’s practice of tōitsu meditation aims at reconnecting ourselves with our true, divine self.
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