Myojoin is a Bhuddist temple of the Tendai school of Bhuddism, dating back to the middle Heian Period (circa 930-1068). I joined Myojoin in 1992, after training as a monk at the Tendai monastery of Hieizan Enryakuji. I have made my best efforts to turn Myojoin into a temple that matches the needs of modern times. Since becoming the temple’s 25th chief priest in 2005, I have worked to acquire specialist knowledge and skills in areas such as psychology, qigong, yoga and meditation, in order to communicate the teaching of Bhuddism to people in an easily understandable way.
In our stressful modern society, there are many people who lose their mental balance. In order to maintain mental and physical health, it is important for us to become able to purge stress and control our own minds. In order to achieve this, I widely communicate approaches and ways of thinking—for considering the way in which one should live and act, and for coming to terms with oneself—through Buddhist teachings, particularly those of “Zen” Buddhism.
Currently, in addition to running employee training seminars for companies throughout Japan (primarily in Aichi Prefecture) and lectures aimed at members of the general public, I also engage actively in lecturing activities in the United States. In March 2019, I was invited to speak at the National Foreign Languages Week at San José State University in San José, California, as a guest speaker. I gave a speech on Zen thinking and meditation.
Every time I visit the US, I feel that society is becoming more and more stressful, at a rapidly accelerating pace. In the US, people are evaluated based on performance and results. While on one hand this allows people to gain high-level remuneration while working freely, based on their own skill and performance, on the other hand bad results spell the end of everything. For this reason, the level of stress that people feel is incomparably higher than in Japan, and it is not uncommon for people to develop mental illnesses, or turn to committing crimes. The number of companies and individuals in the US incorporating approaches such as yoga and meditation as a means of alleviating this stress is increasing year by year.
The US is also a country that represents democracy and capitalism, and which is also working hard to resolve various problems such as racial and religious discrimination, poverty, drugs and gun crime. I think that the US is a like a miniature version of the world, in microcosm. I think that Japan is likely to be influenced considerably by the US in the future, and the level of stress in Japanese society is sure to increase at an accelerated pace. In order to contribute to Japanese society, too, I currently want to invest my energies into expanding my activities in the US. This is because, I am sure that I can make good use of the insights and experiences I gain there back here in Japan, too.
Another major reason is that I want to achieve personal growth. If we stay in Japan, we inevitably end up compromising and saying, “Oh, well, I guess it doesn’t matter.” We have a tendency to be too easy on ourselves, and before we know it the months and years go by, and our lives are over. I don’t want to live that way. I decided to take up the challenge of tackling the US because I wanted to continue to grow as a man of religion, to overcome my weaknesses by fighting against fear and isolation, and to attain a state of enlightenment. While it is not possible to save all people, at the very least, I want to become able to help everyone who is involved with me in some way. Rather than just preaching the truth, I believe that putting oneself on the front lines of distress and suffering and showing others how one overcomes conflicts gives greater credibility and persuasion to one’s words.
The human heart is prone to waver, but that is because the strength of our target setting is weak. If we live in a kind of vague way, doing what other people tell us to, then before we realize it our lives will end in such vagueness. Although some might say that there is nothing wrong with that, the rest of a person’s life changes drastically depending on how they choose to live. What I am trying to communicate to you all is, it is easier to live if you determine a goal or target for yourself. Set yourself an ultimate goal, based on your long-term vision, and then create many small goals or objectives aimed at achieving that ultimate goal, and work to achieve them in order one by one in order. If you do that, then you will not waver in your way of life. Also, in order to live your life consistently, it is essential to set high goals and work stoically to achieve them. Right now, around 80% of my focus is on my activities in the US, and there may be some things that I lose because of that. But I am mentally prepared with the attitude that this is the nature of my work.
I want to help build a society in which people can decide for themselves how they want to live. The more honest and sincere a person is, the more they suffer and worry over things that they need not suffer over. If we can create a rich society full of love, care and consideration, by learning that there are many different kinds of people and tolerating them, and if we can help people to naturally care for themselves and think about other people, without forcing those values onto them, then I think that we can create a better balanced world.
First, I want to work to increase my abilities following the steps along the road, and making effective use of the things that I have learned in my training so far. As an outcome of those efforts, when I have managed to expand the range of my activities in the US, I want to build an orphanage there, and to provide support for creating a brighter future for children. That is the ultimate goal of my life, and my greatest motivation.
