Principles
The
principles of Shorinji Kempo have their base in "people" and
"peace."
The value Kaiso placed on "people" was transformed by his
experiences around the time Japan was defeated in war, and afterwards
when he examined social changes he established a way of seeing that
would examine the "quality of the people" involved.
Also, Kaiso hated war, the symbol of all of humanity's foolishness,
he loved peace, and he sought for the development of a real peace for
humankind. Moreover, he contended that "countries and society must
transform by the improvement of human hearts and by peaceful means."
To make that hope reality, he set as goals "the enrichment of
people and the establishment of ideal places" when he created Shorinji
Kempo.
What this phrase, "the establishment of ideal places," means
is the building of societies that, while free of wars and conflagrations,
are bright and plentiful both physically and spiritually.
Then, the meaning of "Shorinji Kempo's enrichment of people"
is the educating of people who can live their lives as described below.
| (1) People who can live with faith in their own individual potential. |
| (2) People who can guide their lives from their own standpoint. |
| (3) People who can act with consideration for the happiness of
others. |
| (4) People who can act with justice, courage, and compassion. |
| (5) People who can lead lives of cooperation, making community
with strangers and acquaintances alike. |
One of Kaiso's sayings is, "half for one's own happiness, and
half for the happiness of others." This is a representative principle
of Shorinji Kempo, and expands on the phrase, "self construction
and happiness for self and others."
"Self establishment" means being able to realize the nobility
of the wondrous potential one possesses, to have a standard for how
human beings should live, to possess the confidence to build on oneself,
and to be able to live a life worthy of pride.
"Happiness for self and others" means recognizing the existence
of both oneself and others, and living in a way that consistently seeks
the improvement and development of oneself as well as others and society.
Now, throughout the world there are many people practicing Shorinji
Kempo. At this very moment, there are groups of people enjoying a workout
together in various dojo.
I have listened to some of these people talk about Shorinji Kempo.
"My future is changing because of Shorinji Kempo." "Shorinji
Kempo is a part of my life." "I know people who I can call
friends and who call me their friend." Some say they've learned
to value people, others that they've learned to enjoy relations with
people, and so on in a multitude of impressions of how Shorinji Kempo
has affected kenshi's lives.
As you can see, many people speak not only about the technical side,
but about the way it affects their way of life, and we can consider
this to be one of the big reasons for Shorinji Kempo's expansion.
