"Become a person upon whom others rely"
Shorinji Kempo's symbol, the manji, is a shape to represent the harmony of heaven and earth, yin and yang, and vertical connections and horizontal connections. As our symbol stands for these things, our relations with others are not merely vertical. There are those above, oneself in the middle, and those below. With horizontal relations too, having oneself in the middle and others on both sides is good. As those relations spread outward, connections go out infinitely in both directions.
People try to set their sights only up or only down and thus end up rejecting all manner of things. While great grandson try to live their own lives, great grandfathers try to make them do just as they are told, but it's not possible. Even one's own child never really does as they're told. Gathering together the children of others and after only one half to three years of teaching Shorinji Kempo expecting them to do as you say - that is asking a bit much.
Even I have never asked such a thing from all of you. You happened to find yourselves in agreement with my policies and have come along with me, which is fine, but if I were to order you when to turn left, and when to turn right, that would not be good. Shorinji Kempo leaders need to have the same way of thinking. What is wanted is not people who will do as they are told, rather raising people who will listen to others is what we seek. It's a matter of becoming a person who people want to listen to.
(October 1969, from howa at a leader's study session)
The construction of the dojo is proceeding smoothly toward completion. You know, just to make something like this, you need to know how to deal with people, and that means knowing where to find the tsubo (pressure point) to help you have the job done. Just a little while ago they were putting in the foundation posts, but the building is on a mountain. So if things aren't done just right, the posts get out of place and break. Unsupervised crews will just go on to the next post and leave the broken one as is. But the construction boss on site practices Shorinji Kempo. So he said, "You're going to build a dojo, aren't you? I'll take care of it." And when a post broke we got a second one put down beside it.
I never asked him to do that for me, but even without my asking he wanted to help out. Those irrational personal feelings like wanting to do something for someone helps you out; those feelings carry a lot of weight.
I can tell you all with pride that although we have put a lot into the work here, we have never forced things. Everyone gave of themselves, and as we were all enjoying the work we managed to build something. What do you think of building something like this around yourselves? If you do you'll find that your life can really change. At the very least, don't you think you should try to become a person for whom your family, your parents, brothers and sisters will think, "I'd really like to do something for him" Wouldn't you like to be a person who they trust?
(October 1969, from howa at Hombu Busen)
