Make friends who would help you out in a jam
I began Shorinji Kempo with a deep desire to make shared happiness and an ideal world right in my own backyard. What should be difficult about this idea of trying to build in one's own neighborhood a society of fellow human beings, friends, and neighbors who can benefit each other. While mastering the techniques I learned in China may be tough, having students learn how to think for shared happiness while teaching them techniques that only get more interesting the more you do them - this is what Shorini Kempo has done and what it is working to keep doing. Going it alone is no good. Don't you think you should help out and offer each other friendship? Make some good friends; why not? Making statements like these, Shorinji Kempo has expanded. From the beginning, I used to say that there was no point in joining Shorinji Kempo alone, so bring along a friend who matters to you. I demanded that they come in pairs or, I used to tell them, I wouldn't let them join. I meant someone who they'd want to rush off and help if the kid were in trouble, and someone who'd feel the same way about them. How about you today, is there anyone around you that close to you? Raise your hands. Well, not too many. Life without friends who would come running when you're in trouble, whether you asked or not, and without friends for whom you would rush off to help, a life like that is awfully lonely.
I learned this the hard way in the war. Japan lost and lost again, and even after the war was over Japan's soldiers didn't try to build horizontal ties. Infantry was infantry, artillery was artillery, and they were all split apart and avoided efforts to build any cohesion. The reason why was that the feudalistic habits of vertical divisions had existed for so long that everyone was trained to see their neighbors as a kind of enemy when they were from a different outfit. I have seen enough of this amidst the extremities of war and amidst the processes of ordinary life to make me sick. The mere ability to jump back together when there's a fight or when you're all being insulted, or coming together only to stand up outsiders is not good enough. There are now about 400 college Shorinji Kempo branches, but just as a minimum, what do you think about getting together about once a month with fellow college kenshi from your area and holding joint practices? That way you would get to know each other's faces, become friends, and if something came up you could either enjoy it together or help each other out. That is the kind of change I want from you! No matter how much physical strength one may have oneself, it is meaningless alone. You are old enough; it's time you got this through your head!
(March 1977, from a sermon at college branch training camp)
