Dare to become bolder at changing suddenly!
We live amidst complicated circumstances which are changing all the time, every instant. In such an era, no one thinks that there is any value in weaponless combat techniques, and the kind of people who do spend all their time on that kind of thing are low life, so goes the conventional evaluation of society.
Now, those of you in leadership positions who want to call yourselves "sensei," won't you reflect once again on how you live, the way you think, and what you're trying to do? Or, for people who want to be teachers of a martial art and who think that that itself is enough, it would be fine with me if you would just quit Shorinji Kempo right now. I'd feel much better without such petty people. You should know for the certain that people who take things will not even give the time of day to people like that. I myself, in times past, could certainly not have been called an upstanding man. But, when I set out to gather people and talk about how human beings should live and exist, my standpoint and environment as Kancho (head) required character and self awareness, and it came about that I had to strive to change myself.
Trying to make oneself a person of character is, certainly, restrictive and difficult. Feelings of desire to do something rather bad or to cheat someone can sneak up from your heart and overtake your mind on occasion. However, what happens is that the teacher in you that can say such seemingly impressive things to young people calls a halt to that other self. The long and short of it is, you're pressed, you feel embarrassed, you try to become earnest, and gradually you get better. That's pretty good, don't you think?
As a human being, it's impossible to be "godlike, perfect and unflawed." What's more, I'm not demanding perfection of you all. However, at the very least, I would like to request once again that whatever you say to your students, please carry it through in your everyday lives, and don't become the kind of people who impose demands only on the young.
Even if you were terrible bad at first, from this point in time won't you try to become better as you move toward the future? Human beings change, and it's boring if you don't change. Even caterpillars don't stay caterpillars forever, no? As long as they don't die along the way, one day they definitely become butterflies. The time is now to for you, shed your skins to become butterflies! For human beings, the possibilities of having your eyes opened by something must be much more common. If you thin, "It'll happen someday, in its own time, so just give me tie," then you'll end your life that way. It's always the worthless ones who, although they're just fooling themselves, say pompous lines such as, "If a man changes so easily, it looks bad," or "I'll pursue my own path by myself." But if suddenly it hits you, you were wrong, you became aware of yourself, you felt something and you change quickly, there's nothing to be ashamed of. Dare to become bolder at changing suddenly, changing today.
(at graduation ceremony of Busen Bekka, March 1971)
