Saturday, May 02, 2009

2009 May Message

Let Us Read and Understand The Importance of "Movement Policy"
Rev. Tetsuya Abe
Acting Chief, Hawaii Missionary Area

  On a beautiful day on March 21, a special Seicho-No-Ie Hawaii State Association Meeting was held at Jisso Center under the guidance of Rev. Yoshiko Teshigawara, Bishop of the United States Missionary Headquarters. 29 cheerful, enthusiastic, and distinguished leaders, including representatives of Kona, Kauai, Maui, and Hilo came together for the meeting. This meeting was conducted for our leaders to understand the 2009 Movement Policy. (Note: see p. 5 for the 2009 Movement Policy.) I would like to give some explanation of what the Movement Policy is and why it is necessary, because some of you may wonder why it is so important.

  Seicho-No-Ie deals with diversified issues, from our outlook on life, education, disease, and prosperity to the environment, world peace, and doctrines of other major religions such as Christianity, Buddhism, Islam and others. We can say that SNI goes with everything. There are so many ways in which the SNI teachings can be applied in this day and age. That is why International Headquarters studies the current world situations and decides what points we should focus on year by year. As a result of that, the Movement Policy is formulated and shared with our leaders and members throughout the world. This practice was initiated under the guidance of Founder Masaharu Taniguchi, and Rev. Seicho Taniguchi and current President Rev. Masanobu Taniguchi has continued it.

  Let's me use a metaphor. The sunlight is showering down on the ground. What happens if we collect the sunlight with a magnifying glass and put it on a piece of black paper? After a while, the paper starts to burn. This sunlight originally has power within to burn the paper; however, the power does not manifest unless you concentrate it. In this way, if we make a little effort to concentrate the power we already have, we can make a big difference. In this respect, every year's Movement Policy plays a very important role to unite our energy and have our enthusiasm go in the same direction to be helpful to solve the problems we are facing now. Therefore, when we fully understand the Movement Policy and concentrate our efforts in the direction the policy shows, our activities should be very helpful not only to SNI Hawaii, but also to all SNI, all humanity, and the whole universe. This is the way that pleases our loving Founder Masaharu Taniguchi, who constantly guides us from a high spiritual world with Mrs. Teruko Taniguchi and Rev. Seicho Taniguchi. That is why Bishop Teshigawara comes all the way to Hawaii every year for this meeting despite her extremely busy schedule.

  2009 is the third year of the "Movement That Grows with Nature." The significance of our environmental preservation activities as a practice of the basic tenets of the SNI teachings such as "Be grateful to the whole universe" and "Everything is a manifestation of the life of God and Buddha's nature" is growing.

  Touching upon the impact of "Movement that Grows with Nature," including Carbon Neutral Movement, on the global environment, Bishop Teshigawara, who led the meeting, made the following points:

1. There is no mistake in God's plan.
2. Live to the fullest extent in accord with the God's divine will.
3. Vitalize our movement by focusing on grass-roots activities.
4. Cultivate people who are not attached to an increase or a decrease of material possessions.
5. When we set high goals, we are following the guidance from our Founder Masaharu Taniguchi.

  As usual, thanks to Pat Wada's accurate and wholehearted interpretation, all English speakers could fully understand the guidance from the Bishop.

  Based upon the basic principles of the Movement Policy, Seicho-No-Ie Hawaii is focusing on expanding and improving our membership throughout this year. Through this movement, we will develop and improve our grass-roots activities such as holding readers' meetings, and so on. To carry out those efforts, we continually encourage our members to practice the three important religious practices - Shinsokan meditation, reading the Sutras and SNI books, and practicing deeds of love - and thereby expand our joy of faith in God.

  Last but not least, I have an important announcement. Rev. Leslie Iwatani, who has totally devoted himself to this movement for a long time as chief of SNI Hawaii Missionary Area (1995-2004), editor of Truth of Life magazine (1997-2007), and other offices, retired as an employee of the United States Missionary Headquarters on March 31. In accordance with the retirement, his appointment as ordained minister also came to an end. I extend my sincere gratitude to him for his dedication to our movement, as well as to his wife Shirley Iwatani, and ask him to continue to support our movement in retirement. Thank you very much, Rev. and Mrs. Iwatani.