About Faith
Q: Often there are quotes from the Bible, are you a Christian?
A: I'm sure there are many definitions of Christian, but probably not Christian by most definitions.
I sometimes quote from the Bible, but that is only because I quote from books that say good things, and not only the Bible, but Drucker, the Analects, or Konosuke Matsushita are all recognized the same way in my mind.
On the Reality of God
We do not deny the possibility of the existence of a transcendent, but we are agnostic as to whether it exists or not.
I feel that it is an unreasonable assumption that a transcendent looks like a human being or communicates to a human being in the language used by humans.
I have a strong discomfort with the idea that humans are the most superior species (and therefore the transcendent is like us).
Q: What is (religious) faith then?
A: The least misleading word in the context of the world would be "Buddhist."
There are various kinds of Buddhism, but first of all, in the classification of Exoteric Buddhism ⇔ Esoteric Buddhism, Exoteric Buddhism is the most important.
In other words, if the choice is between "the teachings are written down" and "the teachings are not written down," I take "the teachings are written down.
This is because what is not written down is more likely to be distorted in the process of transmission than what is written down.
However, it adopts the "sokushin satsuma" philosophy that is characteristic of esoteric Buddhism.
Sokushin Seibutsu: The idea that it is possible to attain enlightenment in this life without leaving one's body.
It is called Seibutsu because of the idea of "becoming a Buddha" by attaining enlightenment, but I consider "France" to be an undefined term.
Enlightenment is not a dichotomy of "got it" and "not got it".
I agree with Hakuin Huizuru that "the wisdom of the great is eighteen times as great as the wisdom of the the small]".
Even if we feel we have attained enlightenment, there may be further enlightenment, so the path of seeking enlightenment must continue until death
We do not believe that happiness comes only from chanting some kind of incantation, mantra, or Buddhist prayer.
We believe that the idea of being saved by simple, mindless work is meme for dumb people and is harmful.
We need to make the right effort to use our brains.
One of the means to enlightenment is vipassana meditation (contemplation).
This is the training to observe things as they are.
Many people associate the word meditation with "not thinking, becoming nothing," but that is samatha meditation (cessation), which is different.
For example, you look at Twitter, get miffed, and try to argue with it. By the power of reason, you "see" this as "I was provoked to anger by Twitter, and I am about to post in response to that anger," and you think "Anger is a poison, and it will only create [suffering," and stop the act. bitterness https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%8B%A6_(%E4%BB%8F%E6%95%99)]" and to stop the action is vipassana.
So, to use a modern term, cognitive therapy.
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