Horizontal Truth and Vertical Truth consist of two out of three main points of Seicho-No-Ie teachings.
Horizontal Truth is the statement that everything created in the phenomenal world (world that we can capture through our physical senses) is the reflection of our mind. For example, Mary has a father who drinks all the time, and once he is drunk, he becomes violent and hits her mother and Mary. Due to that, Mary decides to leave home and marry someone. Her husband does not drink at the moment that they get married, but after a while, he starts drinking and behaving in the same way as Mary's father. So Mary gets divorced, and remarries. And this process continues... Mary wonders: "I am so out of luck'". SNI says that this situation happens because in Mary's subconscious mind are recorded the scenes of childhood, and these scenes repeat in her life in the same way that a recorded situation projects the film on the screen over and over again. The "drunk husband' and father", that she captures using her five senses, are projection of her mind, and they will not go away unless she changes her own mind (which creates all these images).
Vertical Truth is the statement that the world, which really exists, is the one created by God or the Grand Life, and is Perfect and Harmonious. Existence in SNI terminology is not the attribute of things that we can perceive with our physical eyes. Existence means the property of never changing, being eternally constant despite the fact that the appearance changes. For instance, water is H2O, We can say that, independently of the form (ice, snow, liquid water, juice, milk, etc), water exists if chemically we found the component of H2O in the observed thing. Let us give another less tangible example: love. Love is the feeling that someone and I are one. This is a real . But we cannot see it with our physical eyes. In the Western world, people express their feelings sometimes by saying to one another that they love each other, or giving them expensive gifts. However, many people from Eastern culture will not demonstrate this feeling explicitly and even though there is no visible sign, love is there.
How to solve any problem in our daily life:
There are three ways to solve problems in our life: a) by using the Horizontal Truth; b) by using the Vertical Truth; c) by mixing the both Truths.
The Horizontal Truth says that everything in our (phenomenal or visible) life is reflection of our mind. If we change our mind, our (visible) life will change. There are some mental laws and if we learn how to use these mental laws appropriately, we can deal with any sort of problem easily. The mental laws are: 1) What you recognize will be manifested. We can clearly understand that when we have plans to buy something. For instance, if you decide to buy a condo, you suddenly start looking only at condo's advertisements (something that you even didn't notice a month ago, when you didn't have this plan in your mind). In the same way, if you recognize that someone is bad, you will only see negative things about that person. 2) What you give is what you receive. If you smile to a person, the person smiles you back. If you have not done many things for others' happiness, you cannot expect to feel happy too. We sow a seed and we harvest it later. 3) What you delineate clearly in your mind will happen. It does not matter if it is a positive or negative thing, if you talk, fear, think about it constantly, that situation that you constantly think will occur in your life.
So if you want to solve your problem using the Horizontal Truth is important that you think only about positive aspects of people, things and circumstances, no matter how bad are them (in the visible sense). Put your mind away from sad news, disasters, negative people, negative environment. Read positive books. Watch inspiring videos. Be surrounded by people who constantly look at the bright side of life. And then, start recognizing aloud the positive aspects of everyone and everything, praise people, say positive things about yourself, and with that, you start changing your mind, and specially your subconscious mind.
The Vertical Truth says that only God (or Grand Life) exists, and only goodness, beauty, harmony, abundance, health exist. But we cannot see this perfect world (or True Image world) with our physical eyes or with another of our five senses. When we close our physical eyes, meditate affirming the existence of this perfect world (the True Image world) and contemplate this perfect world with our spiritual eyes, suddenly this perfect world starts appearing in the world of the five senses (phenomenal world). That is why SNI emphasizes so much the importance of practicing the Shinsokan Meditation. This is the way that we can be in tune with the Grand Life, and forget the limited world of the five senses, and be connected with the unlimited, infinite, boundless world . Then, the infinite and unlimited powerful being, who is each one of us, will appear in this world.
Let me use a metaphor to summarize this idea. In winter days, it is common that the internal part of a car windshield becomes full of water making the visibility bad. We can solve this problem in two ways: 1) by using a cloth to clean the droplets (Horizontal Truth) (i.e. using our own strength) or 2) by using the air conditioner which evaporates the droplets (Vertical Truth) (i.e. making God or Nature do the job for us).
God (or Grand Life) has created this universe. If we observe nature, we can easily see how perfect is the world created by the Grand Life. We should not worry with anything, because the same energy which creates this universe is inside of everyone. If we know how to use properly our mind and if we constantly are connected with God, only positive and bright facts will appear in our daily life. Let us start today by smiling, being grateful to everyone and everything, revering the life existent in all people and in all things, not wasting anything, helping others without receiving anything back with totally unselfish love, and keeping our mind tuned only with positive videos, messages and readings. I am absolutely sure that any life will change for the better.
There is a Brazilian song that I really like: "Tudo é uma questão de manter a mente quieta, a espinha ereta e o coração tranquilo.", i.e. Everything is a question of keeping the mind quiet, the spine straight and the heart tranquil.
May God (the Grand Life) bless you with many 'miracles' in your life. Please do not forget to share them with us! Thank you very much! Thank you for reading the article until here! :)
Sachiko
Sunday, November 16, 2014
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Remembrance Day
For various decades, every year on Remembrance Day, Seicho-No-Ie Vancouver Centre lays wreath on the cenotaph of Japanese Canadian veterans at Stanley Park. Therefore, tomorrow in the cold morning, we, members of SNI, will be there as usual. Normally who lays the wreath on the cenotaph representing Seicho-No-Ie is Tom. But, exceptionally in this year, he cannot make it. He is on his way to Japan, and I will have the privilege to do it in the formal ceremony.
Life has many mysteries which we cannot explain or understand. And we all need to find meaning in our lives. And Remembrance Day this year has a special meaning for me, because in 2014 I am bringing the wreath to the Japanese Canadian veterans representing SNI, and also this year I became Canadian citizen! I believe that there is a special reason for me to come to Canada and become Canadian, and I will do my best to make my contribution for the betterment of this great country.
"Be grateful to the blessings from your country. (...) Be grateful to those who serve you." (Nectarean Shower of Holy Doctrines, pp. 3-4): this is what we learn at SNI. If we can enjoy this beautiful and united country, Canada, it is due to the lives of many soldiers who sacrifice themselves for something beyond their own interests. This is unselfish love.
We do not want more wars. We hope that we live in peace, and all starts with each one of us. If we see the goodness of every human being, no matter his or her race, religion, sexual orientation, opinions, then we build harmony in this world. If we pray, our prayers will fill up the universe, and the feelings of hatred will disappear. When we change, the world changes. Let us pray for the souls of the many soldiers whose noble lives will be among us tomorrow, for the world peace avoiding that other lives be lost, and for each one of us to see only love, beauty and goodness in every single person who we meet in our daily life.
Thank you very much, Canadian veterans!
Sachiko
Saturday, November 8, 2014
Saturday, November 1, 2014
The perfection existent inside us
The environment that surrounds us is the projection of ourselves. Dogs cannot contemplate the sunset, like humans. We, human beings, are able to appreciate art, poetry, literature, music, nature. And, we can only do that, because the sense of beauty is inside ourselves.
In the same way, we also have the sense of goodness when someone tells us a story of a good deed made by a person. Our hearts are filled with the idea of justice and goodness.
Our true nature is perfection and unity, and that is why we aim to reach this sense. The advertisement companies are aware of that, and that is why we are bombarded by commercials that show products and services associated with beautiful, happy, rich people. Then, we purchase those products because we are touched by the images.
If we did not have this sense of perfection inside ourselves, we would not be persuaded to search for the acquisition of perfection through the purchase of objects. However, despite the constant consumption of things it seems that this desire for perfection continues and it is insatiable. Why is the reason for that?
Our true nature is spirit, and all the qualities that we search - love, harmony, prosperity and others - have spiritual nature. We are convinced that all these qualities are outside us but this is not true. We were already born with all we need, and more we extract these qualities from ourselves to be shared with the world, more we maintain a joyful and happy life. We need to recognize more that we are perfect beings in essence. No matter how is the appearance of ourselves - if we feel unhappy, unlucky, unhealthy or unloved, we should not believe that this is our true nature. More we recognize that behind what our eyes see, there is a perfect real self that nobody around us knows yet, there is a well inside us with great qualities and infinite potential, more we can expand our capabilities and make us and others around us happy as well.
In the Canadian news this week, we hear sad stories about abusive relationships. In the end, this type of relationship there is no winner, no matter how are the consequences to the abusive person. The only way that someone can be removed from a sad past is not by acknowledging the bad person and the bad events, but by moving forward to where there is light.
We cannot make a dark room visible by bringing more darkness to it. Only if we bring light to the dark room then we can change the existent place into a brighter one. In the same way, we should cultivate thoughts of love, peace and harmony in our hearts, when we are filled with sadness and hatred. We should read inspiring books that brings us hope and happiness. We can lose material things in life, and we can always get them back; but we should not lose our spiritual self. It is important that we keep control of our mind and make ourselves the perfect being that we really are. Besides reading positive and inspiring books, it is important to practice meditation. This makes us connect with our perfect being and hear our inner voice which is the voice of the Grand Life (God).
Once we are fulfilled with the spiritual food by the 'light' coming from positive readings and meditation, we will face our daily life with optimism and hope, and all our decisions will be thoughtful and positive to everyone, because we will make our perfect self finally manifest in the way he or she is supposed to appear in this world.
Sachiko
In the same way, we also have the sense of goodness when someone tells us a story of a good deed made by a person. Our hearts are filled with the idea of justice and goodness.
Our true nature is perfection and unity, and that is why we aim to reach this sense. The advertisement companies are aware of that, and that is why we are bombarded by commercials that show products and services associated with beautiful, happy, rich people. Then, we purchase those products because we are touched by the images.
If we did not have this sense of perfection inside ourselves, we would not be persuaded to search for the acquisition of perfection through the purchase of objects. However, despite the constant consumption of things it seems that this desire for perfection continues and it is insatiable. Why is the reason for that?
Our true nature is spirit, and all the qualities that we search - love, harmony, prosperity and others - have spiritual nature. We are convinced that all these qualities are outside us but this is not true. We were already born with all we need, and more we extract these qualities from ourselves to be shared with the world, more we maintain a joyful and happy life. We need to recognize more that we are perfect beings in essence. No matter how is the appearance of ourselves - if we feel unhappy, unlucky, unhealthy or unloved, we should not believe that this is our true nature. More we recognize that behind what our eyes see, there is a perfect real self that nobody around us knows yet, there is a well inside us with great qualities and infinite potential, more we can expand our capabilities and make us and others around us happy as well.
In the Canadian news this week, we hear sad stories about abusive relationships. In the end, this type of relationship there is no winner, no matter how are the consequences to the abusive person. The only way that someone can be removed from a sad past is not by acknowledging the bad person and the bad events, but by moving forward to where there is light.
We cannot make a dark room visible by bringing more darkness to it. Only if we bring light to the dark room then we can change the existent place into a brighter one. In the same way, we should cultivate thoughts of love, peace and harmony in our hearts, when we are filled with sadness and hatred. We should read inspiring books that brings us hope and happiness. We can lose material things in life, and we can always get them back; but we should not lose our spiritual self. It is important that we keep control of our mind and make ourselves the perfect being that we really are. Besides reading positive and inspiring books, it is important to practice meditation. This makes us connect with our perfect being and hear our inner voice which is the voice of the Grand Life (God).
Once we are fulfilled with the spiritual food by the 'light' coming from positive readings and meditation, we will face our daily life with optimism and hope, and all our decisions will be thoughtful and positive to everyone, because we will make our perfect self finally manifest in the way he or she is supposed to appear in this world.
Sachiko
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