My Address at the founder's Memorial Service

The following is my address at 24th Memorial Service for the founder of Seicho-No-e, Masaharu Taniguchi, at SNI Hawaii Jisso Center on June 14th, 2009.

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　　Thank you very much. Thank you very much for coming the founder of Seicho-No-Ie, Masaharu Taniguchi's 24th Memorial Service today. Today, I would like to review how our founder Masaharu Taniguchi thought and experienced before he received the revelation of the "True Image," the most important concept of the SNI teachings with you.

　　The founder Masaharu Taniguchi was born in Kobe, Japan, November 22, 1893. He said that he was born being protected by Sun and moon at 6 o'clock in the morning, when the moon was still shining and the Sun already started to shine in the eastern sky.

　　He had a brother and four younger sisters, however, only he didn't look like with other siblings, he said. When he was 4 years old, his aunt came his home and asked his mother to borrow him for one day when they went out shopping because he was so cute. There was no child with his uncle and aunt. However, they didn't bring him home even the following day. When his mother visited his aunt to bring him back, the aunt refused to pass him over them. It may be a unbelievable thing but it is what it was happened to them. He was raised by his aunt and uncle since then.

　　Our founder Masaharu Taniguchi felt missing his parents, but his parents were not wealthy, therefore, if he had been raised by his biological parents, he could not have taken a good education and Seicho-No-Ie would not have appeared in this world. It means that Founder Taniguchi's subconscious mind knew his destiny and mission so well and guided him to a proper course.

　　Since he felt lonely when he was a child, he cried easily. But he was a possessor of a kind mind. One day, at an examination of arithmetic, there was a question that 6 multiplies 3. He knew the answer is 18, but he wrote 21 as an answer because he thought that adding 3 to the right answer would please the teacher. He said that he confused a concept of calculation with deeds of love.

　　Having said that, as a whole, his grade was terrific. He often argued with his teacher and sometimes defeated him. Founder Taniguchi mentioned that his memory is so great that he could remember all the pages of the text books if he once flipped through them before the examinations.

　　When he joined middle school, he started to ponder why human beings are born and why we have to be good to our parents. That is because he was not satisfied with his family life. Anyway, he likes argument and contemplation and tends to mull over whatever to the finish. He thought that the more you suffer the more you lead a meaningful life at that time.

　　Later, he came to realize the wonderfulness of art and love. He entered a college on a scholarship. In Japan, a very limited number of people who had a great score is granted a scholarship. While he was studying at Waseda University, he provided a shelter to an ex-convict girl at his dormitory. He thought that if you cannot save the socially vulnerable, where there is a meaning of education?

　　The founder Taniguchi made an every effort to save the girl, despite all his efforts, she was arrested by a petty crime. The newspaper reported that a college student who was played with by a juvenile delinquent against his intention. After that accident, Founder Taniguchi's parents didn't pay for his school fees, he could not help but leave the school without diploma.

　　Then, he started to work at a spinning factory by an introduction of his friends as an intern at a very low wage. Then, he promoted to be a position to monitor female young workers. Then, he realized that those female employees had to work in a terrible environment for a long time filled with dusts all day long including night shift. In other words, they were exploited by the managers who were lazy and slept in the day time and enjoyed a party after a party in the night. He argued with a factory manager and quit that company by thinking, "I don't have to live if I cannot live without exploiting the vulnerable.

　　After that happened, he was attracted by a thought that love out of pity is not accomplish but only beauty perceived with five senses can be achieved in this world. To pursuit beauty with physical senses, he had relation with women. As a result of that, he agonized physically and mentally. Especially, mental agony was serious. His intention was not to play with women but to try to experience romance as an art, but as a consequence, his sense of repentance deepened and he had to spend a sleepless night after night.

　　Someday, a magazine was sent to him from a person of a Shinto related religion. In that magazine, there was a description that the time has come when all sins and sinners will be destroyed and the immaculate new Heaven and Earth will arrive." It was just what he sought because he agonized by a sense of guilty and sought a way to vanish all the sins he had accumulated. But at the same time, it gave him fear because he can be destroyed by God's power.

　　He joined the branch of Shinto, named Omotokyo, and became an unchallenged leader. He theorized their tenet and published a book on that. But his spirit was not refreshed. To purify himself, he tried to minimize his possessions as much as possible. All he carried at that time was a piece of kimono and a tooth brush. He poured very cold water upon himself to purify him, which is a Shinto ritual and believed to cleanse oneself, and also tried fasting.

　　Around that time, at Omotokyo, they believed that rebuilding of the world would take place in 1922 and that the members of that organization would be saved and the others would be destroyed by God's hell fire. However, what Founder Taniguchi saw in the dining room was people, who should be saved by God, took away rice from rice cooker pushing aside the others. It was a completely mess. He was truly disappointed to see the scene and thought that they must be destroyed. He also hated himself who thinks so.

　　Those days, there is a beautiful woman with a dark outlook on her countenance who sought God in Omotokyo. Founder Taniguchi was attracted by the woman and she never disappeared from his mind. She was Teruko Emori, later Mrs. Teruko Taniguchi.

　　Goddess of destiny, drew them together and they celebrated their weddings. However, Founder Taniguchi came to be suspicious about the way they collect the donation from members, how they run that organization, and even the God they believed in. Seeing her husband lapsing from faith, fear bubbled forth from her mind, Mrs. Teruko Taniguchi got serious heart attack. Seeing his new wed wife severely suffering from the symptom, Founder Taniguchi was so upset, wept bitter, and prayed to God. To be helpful to her as much as possible, he looked through the medical books and encyclopedia of medicine, and he came to become a well-informed about disease and medicine than doctor. Although his knowledge was not helpful at that time because he feared disease too much, plenty of medical knowledge enabled him to guide a sick person well after he founded SNI.

　　After that, our founder Taniguchi quit that Shinto branch. He started to learn and research various eastern and western religions, philosophies, literature, and others in the world. He once followed a well-revered religious person of Japan, Rev. Tenko Nishida, and pondered what is life, what is God, and what is a human being. He theorized his ideas and published a book. In his book, he denied the omnipotent creator of goodness that created this world, ---- this world means a phenomenal world in a SNI term, and he described that this world is created by delusion. The perfect existence that is already saved exists within us, however, since this existence is only a possibility that can be developed after a great amount of efforts and spiritual trainings in the far-distant future, that idea is not dependable and reliable in your actual life, he said. Reflecting upon his anxiety, his health condition was constantly bad.

　　His contemplation kept on and on and on. Next, he came up with a notion that denies the creator of this phenomenal world. If God created this world, a world of scramble, filled with contradictions and killing, it is God who is to blame. He should not be deserved to be called God, the founder Taniguchi thought. He wrote a noble titled, "Judging God." However, just before the book was published, Kanto Great Earthquake happened, and all the books were burned as if they were annihilated by God. It was August 25, 1922. All his efforts seemed in vain.

　　The founder and Mrs. Taniguchi managed to survive from that calamity, they stayed at Mrs. Teruko's home in Toyama, an area along Japan Sea and then moved to Founder Taniguchi's parents' home. (Parents here means adopted parents. He called them as parents.)Their lives were filled with conflictions. He wanted to be a strict vegetarian, but to his parents, it was ridiculous to behave so in such an urgent situation. More than that, Founder Taniguchi's income was a very small. Since he only could earn a little income by writing some articles to a magazine for psychic research he had to ask financial support to his parents. His parents were very frustrated. They raised him from when he was 4 years old, invested him so much, and expected him to take a good education and to be a decent man of good profession. However, he caused a love affair while studying at college and quit, and he could not earn his own bread and while talked about a ideal world. To them, he is like Don Quixote. Their mental conflicts took form as disease of their new born baby, Mrs. Emiko Taniguchi.

　　Being squeezed between an ideal and actual life, he further continued contemplation on God, life, human beings, and others. One day, an English book, titled "The Law of Mind in Action" caught his eyes at a secondhand bookstore. It was one cent and he bought and read it at once. In that book, Hen wick Holmes wrote that the creator of this world is our mind, and the creator God is a creative energy. He was very delighted to find the Creator again because he once denied the existence of creator and didn't gain peace of mind.

　　He had still a hard time at that time. His parents' frustrations mounted more than ever and kept on complaining about his laziness. But he thought there should be a good way for both of them to lead a happy life. According to the book he read, since this physical world is a reflection of our mind, he thought that he should be given a good profession if he envisions that hope. He sat quietly, contemplated, and envisioned that an appropriate profession is already given.

　　After one month passed, he found a piece of newspaper. His parents never subscribed to newspaper for the sake of economy, it was there by accident. Since he entrusted all to God, he didn't try to see a job introduction page instead read a novel in the paper. Then, he coincidentally found Wanted ad for well-paid translation job. He applied and was employed by that comany at a higher salary than he expected.

　　Everything went well except for the health of his family. His daughter suffered from pneumonia and his wife severe colon disease. He understood that their diseases are a reflection of his mind, however, even if he knew that principle, he could not help but worry about his wife's and daughter's severe illness. Can you remain unperturbed when other family members suffer from serious illnesses and it is human nature, he thought. He kept on contemplation. One day, he sat and put his hands together quietly and meditated to receive a revelation of truth. Let me quote his writing:

One day, I was meditating with eyes closed and hands held in prayer in the hope of receiving a revelation of the Truth. Perhaps it was coincidence or perhaps it was God's guidance, but at that time I happened to think of the words, "matter is at once emptiness," which is a phrase out of the Buddhist scriptures. Then out of nowhere, a voice like a huge wave, low but intense, soft and yet overpowering, came to me:

"Matter does not exist!" the voice said.
Then, I wondered whether my mind existed.
Instantly the voice replied, "The mind also does not exist!"
"If there is no mind, does that mean that there is nothing?"
I asked the owner of the voice once again.
"There is the True Image!" the voice replied clearly.
"Then what is the True Image?" I asked.
"The True Image is God. What exists is only God... only the Mind of God
and the manifestation of the Mind of God. This is the Truth."

　　I believe you know how he got enlightened and started our movement. I will not touch upon that today. What I want to tell you is that the Truth he disclosed is not a product of coincidence. It is a result of all his experiences and studies with all his might, and providence of God. When his contemplation reached the climax, revelation of Truth inundated to him and he emphatically declared, "Man is a child of God," "There is no sins," "Disease does not exist," and "All religions emanate from one universal source."

　　Needless to say, after he recieved God's revelation and started the SNI movement, illnesses and misfortunes never came close to his family and their parents - children relationship truly improved. Especially, his father, actually father-in-law became a admired Regional Lecturer and healed peoples' illnesses and solved their problems. He called his son, actually son-in-law, as sensei, sensei, and was said that he read Truth of Live series more than 77 times.

　　Please read the founder Masaharu Taniguchi's books over and over again, and also read Rev. Seicho's and Rev. Masanobu's books and articles, which are another forms of Truth revealed by the founder Taniguchi. By doing so, we can understand the greatest teachings we believe in the world correctly. Thank you very much for your attention.