More Horizontal Ties!
My initial reason for making Shorinji Kempo in Japan was that I wanted to make something like the Chin Pan organizations that existed in China. Their members ran from governors to rickshaw runners, from construction workers to solders. They held improvement of the nation (the people) as a common goal, and the organization's purpose was to help one another. Amidst Japan's defeat in the war, I believed that the future recovery of Japan could only come about through the Japanese people's realization of their identity and through their mutual cooperation, and so I set about making such an organization.
We should work for the capacity to act as regional units or as organizational units when things come up. Strength only for oneself is a mistake. At the least, make a group of people around yourself that can mobilize each other. Don't get intimidated, and don't shy away. I don't mean to win, but I absolutely believe in not losing. The organization is for that purpose. But there is no people as incapable of this as the Japanese That's why I say, you need to have more horizontal ties. It's not about what you gain or lose. At the very least, don't you think you should defend your own organizations and help your comrades? I would like to raise all of you to be the core of this. If there is none of this for you in it, you had better quit Shorinji Kempo now. It's meaningless.
(October 1969, at a instructors seminar)
