Knowing Someone can be the turning point of your life
Today is a regular training camp; so there are probably some of you here at the behest of your seniors, who came because you just couldn't get out of it. Despite any such circumstances, however, you have paid a good sum of money to come all the way down here to Shikoku. Such being the facts, think of it as part of your personal fate to be here. Or perhaps mere chance or something you had no interest in can become the start of an unexpected new encounter... Maybe it would be good for you to think about things this way, once in a while. No matter what else the circumstances, you are using your precious money and time to come here for us. Given that, even if it's just for a few days, we all want to square off with each other in earnest.
Two or three days ago, one of my students came to call on me. He came to tell me that after having arranged meetings with dozens of women, he had finally found a marriage partner. I smiled and said, "That's quite an accomplishment," but his face was serious.
He quoted, "When you meet someone and start to spend time with them, if there isn't some kind of vital element that just clicks, then that most vital part of the relationship cannot last between you," then said, "I was struck by those words of yours, and so I have your influence to thank for this marriage." No matter how much he was influenced by me, his having dozens of potential marriage partners was a surprise. Nonetheless, the chances that bind people together are truly a matter of deep mystery.
As I said before, there are times when the acquaintance of only a few hours can be a relationship that will change your entire life. On the other hand, from the time we are first aware of our surrounding, daily we meet many people, teachers, friends, and colleagues, without anything ever growing out of it. you may be thinking, "yes, I have known people like that," but find that you can't remember their names or even their faces. In the end, it is as if you passed them by without ever stopping to meet. Really, that kind of acquaintance is far more frequent, isn't it? But today, here, it can be the former rather than the latter. I would like this to be one of your "acquaintances with value."
Perhaps this is a bit exaggerated, but existence as a human means never knowing when you are going to die. Moreover, when beings mutually unsure of when they will die gather together on a certain day, at a certain place, in pursuit of something, then shouldn't we try to make it significant? Precisely because we live our lives without knowing when we will die, we should hold today and tomorrow as precious and strive as hard as we can for that something that we know we love. So not just for the purposes of today, but also so that you may live your lives thusly, I hope you will try to feel the significance of that meeting of human being with human being. I have often told you to live half for yourself and half for others. The reason is that in making my way through the harsh realities of my days, I believed that as long as I was alive, I ought to live to the full, without regret. And that thought is one of the ways I found to live thusly.
(March 1972)
