This is Kohanbito as Lake Man.
(1) How I came to have such spiritual view of life
In the previous article#4, I explained about my requirements that I force myself to have in my daily life. That was asking myself to keep specific mental attitude based on my spiritual view of the world. And I also explained about the contents of my pray.
In there, I explained that there are “common truth” that I can find out in many different teachings or in many different religions. And those are human being as children of God, the idea of life tree of God (world tree), Karma, and reincarnation.
This time, I would like to explain you why I started to think those points (human being as children of God, the idea of life tree of God (world tree), Karma, and reincarnation) are common truth and why they are so important little more.
By the way, I am not a psychic. So I am not capable to speak and communicate with holy spirits so that my selection of thoughts is not the results of what angels directly guided me. Please note that.
But there is a strong belief in myself that the ultimate God must be the one who teaches reasonable and universal and fair truth. From that point of view, I imagine that the ultimate God should be the one who loves and cares this universe and mankind as his loving creatures and as parts of himself. And I assume that he is the one who strongly wishes all his children (mankind) love each other and care each other and respect each other because he is the father of mankind. And I assume that he must be the one who enjoy watching the growth of his children with care and mercy. And since this ultimate one is the God with fairness, he may be the one who gives us an universal teaching which is true to anyone, true to any races, true to any colors, and to any sexualities and to any eras and to any places. And his teaching should give everyone equal chances to try anything. And from the point of view of fairness, this ultimate God should admit Karma because each of us should be responsible to all actions each person has made. And he should admit reincarnation because mankind needs multiple lives to have chances to offset their Karma and mankind needs multiple lives to get more experiences in order to become much higher being like him by gaining more understanding about mankind, this world & universe, and about God. And I assume that the teaching of this ultimate God must be common and universal truth that we can find out in many different religions and philosophies and teachings.
And I assume he is capable to provide solutions to conflicts between some religions and he must be capable to answer to all basic and important questions such as meaning of life or how the world was started or such a things.
From all those points of view, I concluded the ultimate God must be the one who teaches us that mankind are all children of God, mankind are leaves or branches of life tree of God (world tree), Karma, and reincarnation.
As you may noticed, the process I took to conclude the character of the ultimate God is easy and simple so that anyone can do. But that was the ways I actually took to come to this conclusion.
(2) Common truth in many different teachings
I said I suppose the teaching of ultimate God must be the common teachings that we can find out in many different teachings and in many different philosophies and in many different religions. From that point of view, since we can see all those 4 kinds of teachings such as “mankind as children of God”, “the idea of life tree of God (world tree)”, “Karma”, and “reincarnation” as the common truths in many different teachings and religions and philosophies, we may be able to say that ultimate God must be the one who admit all those 4 kinds of truths and his teaching should include all those 4 kinds of truths.
First, regarding the teaching of “mankind as children of God”, we see this teaching in almost all religions except religions of desert such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Christianity see Jesus as only child of God but. Especially, thoughts which are close to pantheism (seeing holy spirits everywhere) such as Indian religions like Hindu, Greek Philosophies like Plato, Idealism of Germany, Romanticism, Theosophy, Anthroposophy, Shinto, new religions in Shinto, Buddhism including the Lotus Sutra, and the new ages admit this teaching. So I think it is fair enough to say that the teaching of “mankind as children of God” is one of common and universal truths.
Secondly, regarding the teaching of “life tree of God (world tree)”, some people call it space tree but, this life tree of God, we can see such a teaching in Nordic mythology, in middle east like Egypt or Mesopotamia, of course in Kavala, or in Indian religions, in Chinese religions, middle and south America like Aztec and Celtic. We, each human being is like a leaf or a branch of the huge life tree of God. So, we may be able to say that we are parts of God. It is close to the teaching of “mankind as children of God”. So I think it is fair enough to say that the teaching of “life tree of God (world tree)” is also common truth.
Next is, we see teachings of “Karma” and “reincarnation” in Indian religions such as Hindu and Buddhism, in Taoism which was influenced by Indian religions, in Theosophy, in Anthroposophy, in Greek Philosophies like Plato, and ancient Celtic. And it was accepted in modern Europe as well and in new age and in new religions. Some say that even in ancient Christianity, reincarnation was admitted but at Second Council of Constantinople in 553, it was officially denied and it was erased from the bible. The reason behind it was assumed that it might bother for the church side to have more power and more authority to believers if they allow believers to have the idea of reincarnation. If it is true, I think it was wrong and sinful decision. Because without it, chance of life for us become only one chance for each person, and if it is so, it is just unfair. In Japan, since Buddhism is so popular, “Karma” and “reincarnation” are naturally accepted by Japanese people, and Jodo shu of Buddhism may also helped those ideas to be localized in Japan. So I think it is fair enough to say that the teaching of “Karma” and “reincarnation” are common and universal truths.
(3) Fair and reasonable teaching
Next is, I said above that the ultimate God must be the one who teaches us fair and reasonable truths. Even from that point of view, I think all those 4 kinds of teachings such as “mankind as children of God”, “the idea of life tree of God (world tree)”, “Karma”, and “reincarnation” are fair enough and reasonable enough truths.
I assume there are thousands of Gods on this planet. Like Shinto says, they might be Gods of eight millions. Some might be good and kind Gods and some might be bad and mean Gods and some might be God of envy. There should be different characters and different personalities in Gods. But if we talk about the ultimate God who is a superior one among thousands and who is like a creator of mankind or such existence in the global scale, the ultimate one should be the God who teaches us reasonable and universal and fair truths with mercy. And his teachings should be true to any races, any sexes, and any people in any eras. If you try to imagine how the ultimate God is like, your God might be the one who is very kind and very fair and with full of mercy to mankind, right? I have same the image as yours too. And if we think that way, he is not the one who hates mankind, and he is not the one who only loves and cares a specific race unfairly, we know there was such a God in desert who does that. But the ultimate one should be fair and kind to anyone. Of course, there should be some exceptional and special cases. For example, to realize his plan to create new civilization, he sends many angels to a specific area to create and start new civilization but that is the special case. In general, his teaching should be universal and it should be fair and kind to any one in any place in any eras. And it should be full of love to mankind.
If that is so, this ultimate God should not be the one who sees mankind as sinful existence, and he should not be the one who sees us as target to be destroyed, and he should be the one who does not enjoy putting us in fear and anxiety all the time(unless warning is necessary), But instead, probably, he should be the one who sees mankind as his loving creatures and as his loving children, and he might be the one who enjoys watching us to growth and getting closer to him.
So, he should be the one who loves us, and he must be the one who treat us as children of God.
And he should be the one who sees us as leaves or branches of a huge life tree of God which is actually God himself. So, each of us are leaves of same tree, so we are all connected, and we are all brothers and sisters. So we should loves each other and we should respect each other because we are all parts of one big tree. It is easy to imagine that he teach us such a truth.
So, I believe the ultimate God loves to teach us “mankind are children of God” & “mankind are leaves of life tree of God (world tree)”.
And also I believe that the ultimate God should be the one who loves to teach us “Karma”, and “reincarnation” as well. If he is not, then such a God is so cruel and unfair and untrustworthy. Why I say that? Let me tell you why I think so. For example, supposed, there is an unhappy lady who was not good looking and was born in a poor family and grew up in the town with a lots of criminals and bad people, and she had no jobs, and lived very quietly but suddenly she was killed by a burglar and cursed the world and God when she died and she went to hell.
On the other hand, suppose there was a happy lady who was good looking and was born in rich family and grew up with a lots of love from her parents, and grew up with good friends in peace and married with a good kind man and raised two nice kids and had a wonderful family experiences and died in peace with no regrets and went up to heaven. If the life is only once, and if the evaluation of her soul to go to hell and being burnt by the fire in hell forever was decided just by only one time’s life, then this unhappy lady above is so poor. And if you compare the life environment of the unhappy lady and the happy lady, it was so different. The unhappy lady was in such a horrible circumstances which tends to make her soul so negative enough to let her go to hell. On the other hand, the happy lady spent her life in good condition and her soul was full of satisfaction and appreciation so that she could went up to heaven. It was easier for happy lady to go to heaven than unhappy lady. So if the life is only time, the unhappy lady was so poor and if the God is OK with such unfair situation, I cannot trust such a mean and cruel God. So if we deny reincarnation, the God becomes such a horrible existence.
But if the ultimate God admits reincarnation, we can have completely different way of seeing one’s life. First, since our life becomes multiple in the process of reincarnation, we can see our life could be good or bad or poor or rich, man or woman in the process of reincarnation. So we can take balance in many lives in the process of reincarnation. Then it is very fair.
And if the purposes of reincarnation are to brush up and deepen our souls through many life experiences so that we can learn more about ourselves, more about people, more about this world and more about God. Then, if those are the purposes of life experiences in reincarnation, then living in such a horrible environment like unhappy lady is not that bad. Even we can say the life of unhappy lady could be much better life than the life of happy lady because unhappy lady can brush up her minds more through many mental conflicts in such horrible life, and her soul can be deepen and she will understand more about weaker existences in society and she can become kind enough to share sympathy with those weak existences in society with sense of mercy. So, horrible life becomes much better and beneficial for the growth of one’s soul than spending life in happy and easy life if we admit reincarnation. That is completely opposite way to see the life condition. So, from those points of view, I am sure that ultimate God is the one who admits reincarnation.
And Karma as well, from the point of view of fairness, the idea of Karma which believes that all the things you have done(good or bad) will be returned back to you in time is very fair and reasonable idea. We do not need to have special people who can be out of Karma so that they can be forgiven by God even they do bad things to others. We do not need such as exceptions. It is much nicer and fair to have all the people are under the same rule of Karma and no one can escape from it. So that everyone becomes responsible to his or her life. That is fair and reasonable. So, I suppose the ultimate God is the one who accept and teaches the concept of Karma.
As a conclusion, as I have explained above, by going through the thoughts above, I concluded that the ultimate God might be the one who is a God with full of love to mankind and who gives us reasonable and fair teachings. So I conclude that he might be the one who teaches 4 kinds of teachings such as “we are all children of God”, “we are all leaves of life tree of God (world tree)”, “Karma”, and “reincarnation”.
(4) Ultimate God in modern Japan
In the previous part, I have explained about my image of ultimate God.
There, I said that among thousands of Gods, I supposed that the ultimate God is the one who teaches reasonable and fair teachings. And I supposed the ultimate God is the one who loves and try to take care his creatures or his parts such as mankind and this universe. And I said that the ultimate God must be the one who defines mankind as his children and he also sees us leaves or branches of the life tree of God (himself), and since we are all connected as one big tree, we should love and respect each other, he should teach such importance of love. And also, I said that the ultimate God must be the one who gives us the teaching of fairness, so that he should be the one who teaches us Karma and reincarnation as well.
And I also said that he must be the one who can provide the answers to those difficult questions such as why religions wars exist or what is the meaning of life or how this universe has started or such.
Actually, if I tell you the truth, fortunately, there is a religious leader who can meet all those aspects of the ultimate one who teaches those 4 kinds of teachings such as “we are all children of God”, “we are all leaves of life tree of God (world tree)”, “Karma”, and “reincarnation”. And he is such a great religious leader who can provides even much wider variety of teachings with wider recognitions and with wider view of the world. And even now he is continuously sending messages to us to lead us into the right path in this difficult era. And he is also a well-known author of many bestselling books every year in Japan.
I have been influenced a lot by this master and I have been thinking to myself that I am so lucky man because I could meet his teachings in same era.
His teachings covers not only about spiritual world but also politics and economy and justice in this complicated world in this era and recently he has started to teach us more about universe.
His teachings are so various which can cover almost any themes that people who live in 21st century should know, so that just by reading his books, we can understand the backgrounds and reasons behind problems we are facing in the world now. He is such a great religious leader. I do not tell you here who he is, so I let you imagine about who I am talking about. But if I say he writes many books every year in Japan, then you may understand who he is so easily.
Please go to book stores to find his books. They will explain you about how the universe has started, the meaning of life, layers in spiritual world, and any answers to many fundamental questions anyone wanted to ask. He is such a great person.
I hope this article is beneficial for you.
Kohanbito as lake man.
(1) How I came to have such spiritual view of life
In the previous article#4, I explained about my requirements that I force myself to have in my daily life. That was asking myself to keep specific mental attitude based on my spiritual view of the world. And I also explained about the contents of my pray.
In there, I explained that there are “common truth” that I can find out in many different teachings or in many different religions. And those are human being as children of God, the idea of life tree of God (world tree), Karma, and reincarnation.
This time, I would like to explain you why I started to think those points (human being as children of God, the idea of life tree of God (world tree), Karma, and reincarnation) are common truth and why they are so important little more.
By the way, I am not a psychic. So I am not capable to speak and communicate with holy spirits so that my selection of thoughts is not the results of what angels directly guided me. Please note that.
But there is a strong belief in myself that the ultimate God must be the one who teaches reasonable and universal and fair truth. From that point of view, I imagine that the ultimate God should be the one who loves and cares this universe and mankind as his loving creatures and as parts of himself. And I assume that he is the one who strongly wishes all his children (mankind) love each other and care each other and respect each other because he is the father of mankind. And I assume that he must be the one who enjoy watching the growth of his children with care and mercy. And since this ultimate one is the God with fairness, he may be the one who gives us an universal teaching which is true to anyone, true to any races, true to any colors, and to any sexualities and to any eras and to any places. And his teaching should give everyone equal chances to try anything. And from the point of view of fairness, this ultimate God should admit Karma because each of us should be responsible to all actions each person has made. And he should admit reincarnation because mankind needs multiple lives to have chances to offset their Karma and mankind needs multiple lives to get more experiences in order to become much higher being like him by gaining more understanding about mankind, this world & universe, and about God. And I assume that the teaching of this ultimate God must be common and universal truth that we can find out in many different religions and philosophies and teachings.
And I assume he is capable to provide solutions to conflicts between some religions and he must be capable to answer to all basic and important questions such as meaning of life or how the world was started or such a things.
From all those points of view, I concluded the ultimate God must be the one who teaches us that mankind are all children of God, mankind are leaves or branches of life tree of God (world tree), Karma, and reincarnation.
As you may noticed, the process I took to conclude the character of the ultimate God is easy and simple so that anyone can do. But that was the ways I actually took to come to this conclusion.
(2) Common truth in many different teachings
I said I suppose the teaching of ultimate God must be the common teachings that we can find out in many different teachings and in many different philosophies and in many different religions. From that point of view, since we can see all those 4 kinds of teachings such as “mankind as children of God”, “the idea of life tree of God (world tree)”, “Karma”, and “reincarnation” as the common truths in many different teachings and religions and philosophies, we may be able to say that ultimate God must be the one who admit all those 4 kinds of truths and his teaching should include all those 4 kinds of truths.
First, regarding the teaching of “mankind as children of God”, we see this teaching in almost all religions except religions of desert such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Christianity see Jesus as only child of God but. Especially, thoughts which are close to pantheism (seeing holy spirits everywhere) such as Indian religions like Hindu, Greek Philosophies like Plato, Idealism of Germany, Romanticism, Theosophy, Anthroposophy, Shinto, new religions in Shinto, Buddhism including the Lotus Sutra, and the new ages admit this teaching. So I think it is fair enough to say that the teaching of “mankind as children of God” is one of common and universal truths.
Secondly, regarding the teaching of “life tree of God (world tree)”, some people call it space tree but, this life tree of God, we can see such a teaching in Nordic mythology, in middle east like Egypt or Mesopotamia, of course in Kavala, or in Indian religions, in Chinese religions, middle and south America like Aztec and Celtic. We, each human being is like a leaf or a branch of the huge life tree of God. So, we may be able to say that we are parts of God. It is close to the teaching of “mankind as children of God”. So I think it is fair enough to say that the teaching of “life tree of God (world tree)” is also common truth.
Next is, we see teachings of “Karma” and “reincarnation” in Indian religions such as Hindu and Buddhism, in Taoism which was influenced by Indian religions, in Theosophy, in Anthroposophy, in Greek Philosophies like Plato, and ancient Celtic. And it was accepted in modern Europe as well and in new age and in new religions. Some say that even in ancient Christianity, reincarnation was admitted but at Second Council of Constantinople in 553, it was officially denied and it was erased from the bible. The reason behind it was assumed that it might bother for the church side to have more power and more authority to believers if they allow believers to have the idea of reincarnation. If it is true, I think it was wrong and sinful decision. Because without it, chance of life for us become only one chance for each person, and if it is so, it is just unfair. In Japan, since Buddhism is so popular, “Karma” and “reincarnation” are naturally accepted by Japanese people, and Jodo shu of Buddhism may also helped those ideas to be localized in Japan. So I think it is fair enough to say that the teaching of “Karma” and “reincarnation” are common and universal truths.
(3) Fair and reasonable teaching
Next is, I said above that the ultimate God must be the one who teaches us fair and reasonable truths. Even from that point of view, I think all those 4 kinds of teachings such as “mankind as children of God”, “the idea of life tree of God (world tree)”, “Karma”, and “reincarnation” are fair enough and reasonable enough truths.
I assume there are thousands of Gods on this planet. Like Shinto says, they might be Gods of eight millions. Some might be good and kind Gods and some might be bad and mean Gods and some might be God of envy. There should be different characters and different personalities in Gods. But if we talk about the ultimate God who is a superior one among thousands and who is like a creator of mankind or such existence in the global scale, the ultimate one should be the God who teaches us reasonable and universal and fair truths with mercy. And his teachings should be true to any races, any sexes, and any people in any eras. If you try to imagine how the ultimate God is like, your God might be the one who is very kind and very fair and with full of mercy to mankind, right? I have same the image as yours too. And if we think that way, he is not the one who hates mankind, and he is not the one who only loves and cares a specific race unfairly, we know there was such a God in desert who does that. But the ultimate one should be fair and kind to anyone. Of course, there should be some exceptional and special cases. For example, to realize his plan to create new civilization, he sends many angels to a specific area to create and start new civilization but that is the special case. In general, his teaching should be universal and it should be fair and kind to any one in any place in any eras. And it should be full of love to mankind.
If that is so, this ultimate God should not be the one who sees mankind as sinful existence, and he should not be the one who sees us as target to be destroyed, and he should be the one who does not enjoy putting us in fear and anxiety all the time(unless warning is necessary), But instead, probably, he should be the one who sees mankind as his loving creatures and as his loving children, and he might be the one who enjoys watching us to growth and getting closer to him.
So, he should be the one who loves us, and he must be the one who treat us as children of God.
And he should be the one who sees us as leaves or branches of a huge life tree of God which is actually God himself. So, each of us are leaves of same tree, so we are all connected, and we are all brothers and sisters. So we should loves each other and we should respect each other because we are all parts of one big tree. It is easy to imagine that he teach us such a truth.
So, I believe the ultimate God loves to teach us “mankind are children of God” & “mankind are leaves of life tree of God (world tree)”.
And also I believe that the ultimate God should be the one who loves to teach us “Karma”, and “reincarnation” as well. If he is not, then such a God is so cruel and unfair and untrustworthy. Why I say that? Let me tell you why I think so. For example, supposed, there is an unhappy lady who was not good looking and was born in a poor family and grew up in the town with a lots of criminals and bad people, and she had no jobs, and lived very quietly but suddenly she was killed by a burglar and cursed the world and God when she died and she went to hell.
On the other hand, suppose there was a happy lady who was good looking and was born in rich family and grew up with a lots of love from her parents, and grew up with good friends in peace and married with a good kind man and raised two nice kids and had a wonderful family experiences and died in peace with no regrets and went up to heaven. If the life is only once, and if the evaluation of her soul to go to hell and being burnt by the fire in hell forever was decided just by only one time’s life, then this unhappy lady above is so poor. And if you compare the life environment of the unhappy lady and the happy lady, it was so different. The unhappy lady was in such a horrible circumstances which tends to make her soul so negative enough to let her go to hell. On the other hand, the happy lady spent her life in good condition and her soul was full of satisfaction and appreciation so that she could went up to heaven. It was easier for happy lady to go to heaven than unhappy lady. So if the life is only time, the unhappy lady was so poor and if the God is OK with such unfair situation, I cannot trust such a mean and cruel God. So if we deny reincarnation, the God becomes such a horrible existence.
But if the ultimate God admits reincarnation, we can have completely different way of seeing one’s life. First, since our life becomes multiple in the process of reincarnation, we can see our life could be good or bad or poor or rich, man or woman in the process of reincarnation. So we can take balance in many lives in the process of reincarnation. Then it is very fair.
And if the purposes of reincarnation are to brush up and deepen our souls through many life experiences so that we can learn more about ourselves, more about people, more about this world and more about God. Then, if those are the purposes of life experiences in reincarnation, then living in such a horrible environment like unhappy lady is not that bad. Even we can say the life of unhappy lady could be much better life than the life of happy lady because unhappy lady can brush up her minds more through many mental conflicts in such horrible life, and her soul can be deepen and she will understand more about weaker existences in society and she can become kind enough to share sympathy with those weak existences in society with sense of mercy. So, horrible life becomes much better and beneficial for the growth of one’s soul than spending life in happy and easy life if we admit reincarnation. That is completely opposite way to see the life condition. So, from those points of view, I am sure that ultimate God is the one who admits reincarnation.
And Karma as well, from the point of view of fairness, the idea of Karma which believes that all the things you have done(good or bad) will be returned back to you in time is very fair and reasonable idea. We do not need to have special people who can be out of Karma so that they can be forgiven by God even they do bad things to others. We do not need such as exceptions. It is much nicer and fair to have all the people are under the same rule of Karma and no one can escape from it. So that everyone becomes responsible to his or her life. That is fair and reasonable. So, I suppose the ultimate God is the one who accept and teaches the concept of Karma.
As a conclusion, as I have explained above, by going through the thoughts above, I concluded that the ultimate God might be the one who is a God with full of love to mankind and who gives us reasonable and fair teachings. So I conclude that he might be the one who teaches 4 kinds of teachings such as “we are all children of God”, “we are all leaves of life tree of God (world tree)”, “Karma”, and “reincarnation”.
(4) Ultimate God in modern Japan
In the previous part, I have explained about my image of ultimate God.
There, I said that among thousands of Gods, I supposed that the ultimate God is the one who teaches reasonable and fair teachings. And I supposed the ultimate God is the one who loves and try to take care his creatures or his parts such as mankind and this universe. And I said that the ultimate God must be the one who defines mankind as his children and he also sees us leaves or branches of the life tree of God (himself), and since we are all connected as one big tree, we should love and respect each other, he should teach such importance of love. And also, I said that the ultimate God must be the one who gives us the teaching of fairness, so that he should be the one who teaches us Karma and reincarnation as well.
And I also said that he must be the one who can provide the answers to those difficult questions such as why religions wars exist or what is the meaning of life or how this universe has started or such.
Actually, if I tell you the truth, fortunately, there is a religious leader who can meet all those aspects of the ultimate one who teaches those 4 kinds of teachings such as “we are all children of God”, “we are all leaves of life tree of God (world tree)”, “Karma”, and “reincarnation”. And he is such a great religious leader who can provides even much wider variety of teachings with wider recognitions and with wider view of the world. And even now he is continuously sending messages to us to lead us into the right path in this difficult era. And he is also a well-known author of many bestselling books every year in Japan.
I have been influenced a lot by this master and I have been thinking to myself that I am so lucky man because I could meet his teachings in same era.
His teachings covers not only about spiritual world but also politics and economy and justice in this complicated world in this era and recently he has started to teach us more about universe.
His teachings are so various which can cover almost any themes that people who live in 21st century should know, so that just by reading his books, we can understand the backgrounds and reasons behind problems we are facing in the world now. He is such a great religious leader. I do not tell you here who he is, so I let you imagine about who I am talking about. But if I say he writes many books every year in Japan, then you may understand who he is so easily.
Please go to book stores to find his books. They will explain you about how the universe has started, the meaning of life, layers in spiritual world, and any answers to many fundamental questions anyone wanted to ask. He is such a great person.
I hope this article is beneficial for you.
Kohanbito as lake man.