Prayer for Love and Mercy

 So, how can I talk about Christianity without opening a Bible once in over 15 years? Actually, there's no way I can do something so crazy, I'm trying to write this, but where should I start? I've been forgetting more and more, and while I say that love is all that's left, isn't the God of the Bible a strict one? Especially the Old Testament. Hmm, I suppose that's true, but in the end, love is all that's left. In other words, God's strictness is the strictness of a strict father, a strictness that comes from love, backed by true love. When I think back to my childhood, my father was strict. But looking back now, I feel like it was because of that that I am who I am today. Looking back as an adult, I'm actually grateful that it was strictness born out of love. I've pretty much forgotten that strictness now, but what I still remember is offering my firstborn to God. I thought it was a cruel request from God, but the moment I was about to kill my fi...

 So, I was able to move from Shinran to Christianity easily, but since I'm a textualist (as I was with Buddhism), I decided to start by reading the Bible. But Christianity is convenient, isn't it? Like Islam, it has a well-organized set of original texts. Buddhism apparently attempted to compile the Buddha's teachings in a collection of Buddhist scriptures, but even so, the volume is so vast! It's impossible to keep track of it. So, when I thought about talking about the Bible, I knew I couldn't do something so pretentious, and I have no desire to do so now. But back then, whenever I read the Bible, I would find myself constantly reading only  "God will save you." This was troubling. No matter where I read it, it always said  "God will save you." That "you" refers to all of humanity. Fortunately, I'm sure that all of humanity includes me, so when I personally read the Bible, I hear  "God will save you." And at that moment,...

 So, if, as Christ said, it's harder for a rich person to enter heaven than for an elephant to go through the eye of a needle, then who will enter heaven: a rich Christian or a modestly content Buddhist? I thought about this and came up with the answer: "Both can enter heaven." God is merciful, after all. Buddha is, of course, merciful, too. So what about Christ's words? They are simply true. Isn't that a contradiction? No, it's not. The key is, all you need to do is get an elephant through the eye of a needle. Surely God could do it. According to those physicists who keep confusing us with complicated ideas, the universe began as a speck smaller than an atom. Who would have thought that this incredibly vast universe was just a speck smaller than an atom? When I read the book, I thought, "Hmm, I see," conceptually, but the other day, while walking along the Tama River and looking out over the Kanto Plain in the distance, I imagined this landscape con...

 I've been saying I'd go to Christianity for a while, but it's been getting delayed. Shinran was a good bridge to Christianity. Thinking about it, maybe this was God's guidance. Or perhaps Buddha's guidance? Looking back, I feel like Shinran was preaching within Buddhism the Christian concept of original sin, such as the theory that the evil person is the true vessel of existence, and telling his disciples, "I am an extremely evil person." I don't know if that's what they were referring to, but "Shinran's teachings are Christian!" There seem to have been people who say this, and I think I even saw a book with a similar title somewhere. Some Buddhist scholars also seem to say that Shinran's teachings are unique even within Buddhism. The same goes for Amida Buddha, who is seen as the atonement of humanity, and Jesus Christ. Perhaps that's why, when I went to Christianity after following Shinran, his teachings made perfect sense ...

 For some reason, I just read Toyoko Yamazaki's "The White Tower" (a socially conscious novel about medicine) recently, and my wife, who apparently watched the TV drama the whole time, recalled a scene in which a lawyer who supports the underdog has to move out of his office because he can't even pay the rent. After laughing at his poverty, she suddenly asked, "Are all good people poor?" Come to think of it, all the "good" doctors and medical scientists in "The White Tower" are poor. A prime example is Assistant Professor Satomi, who lives in a cramped apartment complex despite being a doctor. In contrast, the doctors and professors who own luxurious mansions are all portrayed as vulgar, obsessed with money and fame. It seems like this is the natural outcome when written by socially conscious author Toyoko Yamazaki. She was a former newspaper reporter, so it must be true. "Good people are poor. Rich people are bad." This reminds...

 Investing takes over your heart. And your heart is no longer turned toward God (Buddha). That's what it comes down to in a nutshell. It turns out that money is humanity's greatest enemy, or rather, its trap. No wonder it's Iblis's (the devil's) signature move. Now, I'll leave the topic of investing here. I feel like talking about Shinran again, so I'll continue. When asked what to do if you were attacked violently, Shinran I think he would have said, "Just run away." In other words, "Run, run, run away." That's what I remember writing something like that before. Maybe it's Shinran's influence. If the enemy attacks you with force, just run away. "Of the 36 strategies, running away is the best." This is an excellent tactic. To begin with, Buddhism is absolutely pacifist. When you read the early Buddhist scriptures, you'll see that monks always look down when they walk. The reason for this is to avoid stepping on s...