Flo Eburt

My Liberation

My diary to happiness

My only desire

be happy.

Your happiness is my happiness.

There is no happiness apart from yours.

Flo

My Liberation

My diary to happiness

May this book find its way to all people

who want to be the change they are striving for.

It is my legacy to Jan, Stefan, Sabine and Lukas.

"If I change, the world changes".

Dear readers,

this book was written about 8 months before the Corona crisis arrived. It seems to me that I had already anticipated this state of emergency when I wrote it. At that time, most people were more or less aware that a major change in our ways of life had to come. It came as a surprise that it would be in the form of a small virus. I am writing these lines at the beginning of April 2020 and I am confident that everything will change for the better after this major upheaval, and it is already becoming apparent that people are coming closer together.

and to happiness.

Publisher: Kindle kdp

Copyright 2020

Flo Eburt

All rights reserved.

ISBN:979 8555947307

11/2020

All the problems in the world would be solved

when people are happy.

It is not short-lived material happiness.

It is stable lifelong happiness.

Happy people are peaceful people.

Their disagreement

they solve it with a smile.

They look at each other

and nobody is dropped.

Happy people leave a happy world

and a vital environment

as inheritance to their children.

And because the seed for stable happiness is

planted in every human being,

and everyone wants to live happy

it only takes a small step, this seed to let it grow.

Develop the heart that can make friendship

with Everybody in natural affection.

Because I have nothing else to do.

Introduction

More success, more free time and money, more friends and possessions. More pleasure. All wishes to get closer to the supposed goal of life: happiness.
But once we are happy, we are still not right and not permanently satisfied. Why is that?
We want to experience this feeling of happiness again and again. A real addiction to happiness. Are we made for constant happiness at all?
And: What is the concept of happiness? Is there any stable, lasting happiness at all?
Philosophers and scientists have been worrying about this for over 2000 years, and nothing has changed to this day.
Those scientists who research human principles recognize that stable, everlasting human happiness must exist in everyone and that there can be no private happiness. Happiness is a condition of Nature that affects all human beings.
R.J. Davidson et al. describe it like this: "... that the practice of mindfulness can lead to .... that it predisposes us .... to greater happiness. This happiness is perhaps so deep and so much part of our nature that it is like is the sun that always shines." 8
Of course, this innate ability to be happy can be obscured by the clouds and storms of headstrong thoughts that sometimes overshadow our everyday lives. The sun always shines behind the clouds.

Every person's life plan, in every hope, yes, I would even like to say, in every human act, is always about the search for happiness that may last forever. All people wish happiness and all human actions can ultimately be traced back to the search for happiness.

Achieving this stable happiness relates to inner work. That is why stable human happiness, human life and a stable human society form a unity for all people. Healthy, happy people can only grow in a healthy, happy society.

That's what this book is about.

It will not be easy for the reader to grasp the individual topics, because years of experience and deep insights are described in a confined space.

I hope that this publication can make you curious about how this everlasting happiness and a peaceful human society can be achieved. I also hope that the attentive reader can see the real, stable, everlasting happiness in the world that shines in the bright sun and never fades away.

Because true happiness is the basis of all life.

This new society based on humanity is like the glimmer of hope on the horizon in a world of hopelessness.

I have been dealing with happiness for more than 20 years.

I hesitated for a long time whether I should publish my very personal experiences, my diary entries from the early years of my search for happiness in the Yamagishi community in the years 1995/96 and later. It is my intimate thoughts and feelings. But if you can help them on their way, I would be happy.

I stayed in the community for over 17 years, and today I am grateful for all the failures and for all the hurdles that I was able to overcome there. I am grateful for the ever-present friendship that has been brought to me again and again and that has helped me to get up again and again.

The personal names in my diary notes are fictitious.

It may be that even after reading twice, some thoughts cannot be understood.

But because all knowledge comes from the fact that it is used in practice, understanding with the heart is necessary. Understanding only comes through practice.

Even the statement about stable, everlasting happiness and a stable human society is rejected by many people from the outset, because they cannot imagine that a stable society for all people could emerge from this unstable society without war, violence and environmental destruction .

It is advisable to stop reading after each section, to reflect on the content and to try it out practically in everyday life.

This book is therefore intended as a workbook, unsuitable for hurried readers.

The more you can try out practically and without rejection, the more you will learn about yourself and your own way of thinking, so you can gradually discover the many little wonders of life and our wonderful world opens up full of wealth and beauty. The ears of the heart open to the music of happiness that vibrates in all things.

The small numbers in the text are quotations and refer to the source at the end of the book.

The book is divided into three sections.

In Part 1 you will find basic thoughts that not only form the basis for a happy human life, but for life and all of nature.

In part 2, everyday practical tips for the path to stable happiness are described. and

in part 3 you will find many thought patterns known to you that stand in the way of a happy life. They are helpful thoughts so that you remain captain on your lifeboat.

Since the diary entries contain both many fundamental considerations and my practical experience, I have assigned them to the individual chapters in a topic-oriented manner. If you would like to read them in chronological order, the table of contents 2 on page 204 will guide you.

All the problems in the world

and all human needs and fears

will have disappeared,

when people live happily.

Miozo Yamagishi

Miyozo Yamagishi (born August 12^th, 1901, died May 4^th, 1961) believed that all people are "Onebody", They want to live happily and contentedly with each other, that they form a unity and can only flourish in harmony with everything, the Japanese peasant, but also a pioneer and founder of the worldwide Yamagishi movement. He developed an effective and far-reaching method for decision-making in all areas of life and for all questions of this world (Kensan method), which is also the basis for building a human society for all people.

Kensan leads to an amicable togetherness and to harmony between all human beings.

At first glance, this may not seem possible. But if you broaden your perspective, you will see a world beyond the mutuality of today's society, unnoticed by most people, the world of love and harmony, which is still the basis in our world today and which Yamagishi describes it as the true world . It is the reality and the basis of true human life.

His Kensan method is based on the fact that the opposition, fixed views or fixed beliefs must inevitably lead us astray. The earth never stands still and everything changes from moment to moment. This means that with the Kensan method we automatically adapt to all changed situations.

His statement that all people and nature are one body has been reflected in the draft society for "Building a human society for all people, in which all people can live contentedly and happily".

Incidentally, this all-encompassing draft society is the only one I know that has actually been put into practice for more than 50 years and which, as a guiding principle, places humans at the centre of everything we do.

"Developing the heart that can think of others with natural affection" is his legacy to us.

Happiness

has its own logic

in the mind of the heart.

Part 1

Yamagishi's basic imaginations

Under the profound impression of the first atomic bomb explosions on Japan, he began to write down his thoughts and insights: How must a human society be built in which this madness can no longer happen and in which all people can live happily ever after? His insights are so profound that their basic salary is never out of date because they are based on love, truth and facts.

They apply to everyone.

Love and humanity will be the basis of the society to come.

In the following pages you can read his basic knowledge about happiness for building this happy society as well as his method how to achieve this human society in which all people can live happily and satisfied.

These texts should accompany you on your way and these thoughts, which are not new and unknown, will spread throughout the world and inspire people. That is my vision of the future.

I would consider myself lucky if there are people who use this cutlery.

Even the longest way starts with the first step, and you are a thousand times faster than others who stop.

"My only wish is that you are happy. Your happiness is my happiness.

I know of no happiness that is separate from yours. "

It is also my hope to convey the explanations about stable, everlasting happiness and the conditions that lead to stable society in such a way that the reader is inspired by something new.

The search for personal happiness is always connected with the search for happiness for all people. There is no private, individual happiness. It is very important to see that.

Happiness, this core of consciousness, is anchored in all people and all being, like the great love from which all life sprouts and which includes all people and all of nature.

The longing for happiness unites us humans. Therefore, happiness can be achieved for all people within a relatively short time, within a few generations. The time has come. The quantum leap into a new age is now.

Happiness and joy go together.

Joy comes first.

Happiness is the fulfilment.

Explore new territory

What keeps us from consistently following the path to happiness is our concern (fear?) about the uncertain future. Many people despair and then listen to promises. They give up their own responsibility and feel like a victim if things go wrong. "I am treated unfairly", "they make so many mistakes" ... It is better to listen to the assurances that say that life is becoming easier and more beautiful and better. You let yourself be lulled to sleep with full department stores, scattered everywhere.

5G should bring even more information even faster. Does it really need to be happy?

They try everything so that we do not wake from the dream of apparent security, and from the dream of supposed prosperity. It is the "bread and games" of the 21^st century. Since 2000, only the method has changed, not the intention.

But there is no endless growth, the looting and use of our planet has ended in a few generations.

Many people no longer participate. They answer their personal questions, make "efforts" to find a way into a stable future for themselves and their children. They feel, no, they know inside that there cannot be a stable, happy life on the dream side.

Their personal questions go in the direction of wanting to build a true world where there is peace and humanity. Liberated from all dreams, from all uselessness that society praises as a brave new world.

What is my real goal in life?

How must the society in which I want to live be structured? Do I want to be a person who wants to live happily and contentedly with many people?

Do I want to continue living as before?

These are fundamental questions that the searchers are concerned with. If you stay tuned, the right answer to your questions will come soon and you will clearly see your goal.

1. What kind of person do I want to be?

In which direction do I want to develop?

2. What kind of life do I really want to live?

What is preventing me from living the way I want to?

And because nobody can live on their own, the next question is waiting for an answer:

3. What should the society be like in which I want to live and grow with my children?

What can I do to create such a society?

All these questions are about a stable, solution that affects not only me and my generation and where it is not about competing with other imagination, but where happy children can also live for the children's children and all subsequent generations. How would it be to make it happen and what can I do to make it happen? The questions are not easy to answer.

We must research it together and go beyond the narrow framework in which we currently operate as singles and separated. The answers are not obvious. But together we can do it.

The world is great and her soft whispers woos your love.

Last diary entry in early June 2011

Since I left my community after 17 years of belonging, I have been in touch with other active people. I am certain that there will be more and more every day who wake up and who have set out to live in a new, bright future, who want to build themselves up with like-minded people.

You can see in today's children that a new generation is growing up that is bringing new impulses to the world and new perspectives. Who, like my generation, does not care about material prosperity, fame and glory, but strives for inner wealth.

The more like-minded people come together, the faster everything ultimately grows into a large river, which is more and more carried away.

Every river is destined to end in the sea after a more or less long journey. We find ourselves there. That is our common goal.

Just as every drop of water finally returns home from its long, lonely journey and unites with the water of the ocean.

The intellectual revolution will prevail in all areas of human life. For me, it is mankind's only chance for survival: changing the mindset of every individual.

It is a revolution that starts at the bottom and builds a new human society from scratch.

Humans need humans for their development.

Only through people does they become human.

Only through love

can they develop their love.

Towards happiness

All people want to live happily ever after. That's a fact.

All actions of people, their thoughts and actions always have in their core the desire to become a happy person, even if their actions sometimes lead them in the opposite direction. That is ignorance.

If the longing for a happy life is in all people, then this desire, this ideal, the stable happiness and joy must be in every person, indeed in all being. There is not even a separate word for the term "misfortune".

If so, you can also say that happiness is the normal state of life. Happiness is anchored in every life. You can observe this state everywhere in nature.

We want to investigate together why humans have not yet achieved happiness, have strayed from their true path.

It seems that the longing for happiness increases in people the further away they are from happiness and I have the impression that the more they want to "force" happiness, the more they do away with happiness. In our "top heavy" material world you want to explain everything with your mind. But happiness has its own logic in the mind of the heart.

Happiness cannot be claimed or acquired, nor can one conceive or “select”.

Happiness is something spiritual and wants to be discovered and lived through working on yourself. It is a journey of discovery and research, a treasure hunt to be in

Inner, because the seed of happiness is planted there and waiting patiently for you.

The music of happiness vibrates in you too. Can you hear it?

We have found that by nature all life is joy and happiness. That seems to be a natural state.

Daniel Everett described this in his book, "The Happiest People" about the Piraha Indians, who are happiest from the ground up.

People have slipped off the path of happiness with their heavy thoughts because of their stubborn ideas, which they believe to be true and correct and with which they have built their own world full of self-interest, self-centeredness and self-centered idiosyncrasies. In this world you cannot come together and be happy. Individualism, evaluation and rejection, the commitment to one, means separation and demarcation from people and usually ends in loneliness.

If you don't know the path to true happiness, you have to really explore it. With the way of asking questions and thinking and living: "Is that really the way I think?"

Only when you have learned the art of being happy can you make other people happy.

I am convinced that there is and will be true, unchangeable, stable, never-ending happiness here on earth as long as there are people, and I try to live it today, every day. Not only in the hereafter.

A path is created by walking it, and the coming society is formed by happy people.

As a further happiness

the wealth in the heart is the most important

and building society

with the happy life of people as an ideal

must on the basic idea

of human love

being constructed.

Happiness conditions

Everyone wants to live happily ever after, that's a fact.

Everyone wants to have enough food, a roof over their heads, live in a peaceful community and be in good health.

These are external happiness conditions to live a happy life, although there may be surprises there too.

There can also be no happy and stable community or society if people cannot live happily in it.

Another condition of happiness is described in the following consideration.

How and where do we humans live? For example, in cities, in high-rise buildings, isolated and away from nature, where only two seasons can be seen, namely trees with leaves and trees without leaves. We drive lonesome and alone in highly modern cars. We must work all day for rent and livelihood and with children the money and time are running out. Many parents come home exhausted and then they have no ears or eyes for their children and partners.

Our children grow up in this environment and will later shape our society. What to make of it? How should this change for the better?

You might say that nobody can live separately from nature. No one can really grow spiritually and develop healthily without other people. In the "Transition Town Movement", people tried to take this fact into account and founded living communities. The original side effect of neighbourly exchange, community and reducing anonymity is one of the most important goals. This also includes the renaturation of cities.

We humans cannot grow up and live healthily apart from nature or away from other people. We humans, all living beings and all things are inseparable from each other and to the whole nature of which we are part.

We do not only depend on each other, we humans like each other, everyone. That is natural and a fact! We are connected with natural caring!

It is not something we can look for or choose. This is our basis of life and our house in which we live! We just forgot about it. When we inflict suffering on one another, a subjective imagination of ​​us has taken hold.

It could also be said that it is a blessing to be able to work with a healthy body that never gets sick, and yet it happens that such a person is more unhappy than a physically ill person.

"As a condition of happiness, wealth in the heart is the most important thing, and building society with the happy life of people as an ideal must be based on the ​​human love," says Yamagishi.

And further:

"The meaning of happiness I am talking about is not the counterpart to unhappiness, but it is the real human life, the pleasant, purely happy life that I call it from our outlook on life.

If there is even the slightest feeling of bad luck, somewhere in my way of thinking is a mistake.

By researching and eliminating the cause of this error, the correct and true condition is restored." It goes on to say:

"Happiness is real and natural for human life. Misfortune is a mistake.

I need the word happiness for this true appearance of human life. The unpleasant life is wrong and a society in which everyone can live comfortably and contentedly is real.

" The vale of tears and grief are part of the world and it is not possible to get rid of it," such imaginations are wrong. ""

There are many people who have withdrawn themselves from their base by trying to build their own worlds according to their imaginations, in which they do not have to "adapt", or in which they make others adapt to their imagination, their world view or even to submit to them.

In today's materially oriented world, this often happens in a very subtle, imperceptible way, e.g. through manipulation of information, through advertising and television, through established beliefs, from parents, school, at work.

Every day, just a little bit.

All parties, ideologies and all "isms" (capitalism, communism, liberalism, socialism, fundamentalism, etc.) also try to create one-sided perspectives to create worldviews that are separate from reality and to lead or seduce people in this way.

There may be many different aspects of it towards the "true world", but blind belief in forbidding yourself to think and further investigate inevitably leads you away from happiness.

If for some of them these lines of thought were unimaginable, what would it be like to think about it in peace, how is it really?

Japan, November 8^th, 95

I usually use the time after afternoon nap (from 12 to approx. 1:30 pm) for walks. Sometimes the craziest thoughts - essentially doubts - are floating around in my head, which may have something to do with a deep-seated fear of a newcomer, fuelled by negative information about communities. I wonder with doubts: what if I'm on the wrong path and it's all just a facade that I see here? What if I got involved in something that is just a fantasy of a self-proclaimed guru?

What if my good nature to bring me here is only exploited and "others" enrich themselves and want to make a comfortable life on the back of the good-natured? What if it's all a big scam? You hear so many negative things, should I go again?

Stop it! I don't want to spend my days with this restless temper. It is as if foreign invisible powers have taken possession of me, control my thinking and want to push me in a certain negative direction. These thoughts just come; I can't defend myself against them.

But I can stop them.

From now on I take control of my thinking and feeling again, and all the ghost is over and the head and heart are free again. That was a good lesson for me. In the future I want to be more careful with myself and my thinking and listen more to my heart. Thoughts come and go. I let unwanted thoughts move like clouds in the sky without paying attention to them. Basically, in my heart, I am sure that the path I have taken is exactly what I have always wanted. To be free from all antiquated customs, from my stubborn thoughts, from norms of behaviour, from etiquette and so-called decency, from the "that's how you do it", "that's the right thing". As of today, I control myself!

In retrospect, when I look back today, I am amazed how often my old, deep-seated behaviour and attitudes have caught up with me. Even today I am not completely free from them, but the antiquated customs and thinking norms can no longer effectively determine my thinking. I have acquired this ability through many mindfulness exercises, and I am happy about it. I am aware that all of my old beliefs, everything that I used to internalize in thought patterns, have not completely disappeared. They are still in me, but they are no longer possessive! That is the difference! They can no longer shake me or get me off the path. It is a great deal of freedom.

In the following I would like to try to show you the stable happiness through very practical views and exercises, to illustrate step by step that it is within your grasp.

Experience and enjoy yourself and look forward to surprises.

The entrance to Yamagishi Village Toyosato.

The village in cherry blossom season.

This is how Toyosato presents itself to the visitor.

On the left the parking spaces for the adjoining residential building.

In my time, around 1995, there were over 1000 people in Toyosato.

Please take a chance to visit Toyosato and experience the wealth of no-possession. And how it works.

True happiness

can't exist on a material,

self centered level.

There is no

private happiness.

Happiness and life are ONE

There is no life without happiness.

Most people, it seems, are satisfied with the short-lived, fragile feeling of happiness that will be over tomorrow like a flash in the pan.

Are you also thrown back and forth saddened by your feelings from heavenly exultation to death? Do you sometimes even have a queasy feeling of being happy because you are afraid of "falling" into sadness and loneliness?

My life experience shows me that happiness and life, happiness and being human are inseparable and I would like to share this experience with you. You can read my "exercises for happiness" in the diary notes. Perhaps you can understand individual experiences and see how quickly you can get back on the road to happiness.

If we now dare to explore happiness, we must always make sure that the basis of our investigation is correct, otherwise the results will be incorrect. You should therefore be an attentive reader.

First, let's examine the basic relationships between happiness and being human.

1.) If we look at the guiding principle of the human being, how they really are in their basic being, we can see that they

a) wants to live with other people,

b) live a happy and fearless life

c) and wants to build a stable future for their descendants.

These are the external circumstances of happiness and the starting point of our investigation.

One can conclude from this:

2.) The real human being is fundamentally being a community being.

a) No - one can prosper on their own. We would withers spiritually and physically because we needs human beings for our development. Only through other humans does we become human. Only through the love of other people can we develop our love. Only by experiencing friendship can we be a friend.

b) For healthy mental and physical development, human beings need a healthy community in which they feel fearless and secure. For the process of becoming human, people are needed as role models.

c) True happiness is something purely spiritual and therefore cannot be achieved on a rational material, self - centered level.

d) In order to live together, structures, an organization and the inner approval of everyone are required to abide by "rules and norms of conduct". These rules can be adjusted at any time with Kensan to changed circumstances.

This is a central issue in today's communities and different principles of consensus building are being tried more or less successfully.

The Kensan method - described in detail below - is superior to all methods of decision-making that I know of because the inner consent is already the basis of Kensan. The Kensan method is easy for everyone to use. It corresponds to human nature.

Wanting to understand means

all judgments and prejudices

until the end

put aside once,

want to understand with the heart

and then judge.

Happiness seeker

We go in search of true happiness.

Now that we have developed a common basis, we can understand the following explanations.

Many of the findings listed here have only come to light through many years of experience not only from me, but from many people.

Feel free to question the individual statements, thoughts, treatises and perspectives. Check whether the train of thought is plausible for you.

I think it's worth re - reading individual sections. With understanding comes trying out in everyday life. Only practical testing of your knowledge will bring progress, as will mindfulness of your thoughts.

Reading and intellectual analysis are not enough to take a step forward!

The search for happiness concerns everyone from generation to generation. However, everyone has a deep inkling of happiness, which is why nobody can be excluded from happiness and nobody can say you don't understand anything about it. Children still know that.

The starting conditions for the path to happiness would be the same for everyone if they knew how to put aside their "parcels, packages or large loads" that many people carry around with them. So everyone has his or her own way.

Changing, changing your mindset takes time, letting go and taking off my burdens I can do immediately.

I wrote down my own experiences and my everyday adventures in the different Yamagishi villages from the beginning of my entry in Japan to the first Kensan schools in Japan in my diary. In the following chapters you can read my diary notes to match the respective topic to give you an impression of my path, my hurdles and my steps. I describe how I felt then, what I thought and felt, and what moved me, occasionally throwing me off the track. It is my innumerable preconceptioned biasses (self clinging) that I encountered during my practical work there and have repeatedly demonstrated my narrow mindset. I could easily see the burdens of others, I only see my own when they hurt. You will also experience a little bit of Japanese culture and Japanese cuisine.

The diary entries are in italics.

You have the direct opportunity to follow my career from the "apprenticeship years" to my way of life today. Pay attention to the date, you can follow my steps in chronological order with page 204

What use is it

if you only chase away

the flies from the rotten meat?

True happiness and the feeling of happiness³

These thoughts are based on a translation from Japanese, the work of M. Yamagishi

This chapter should be read very carefully several times because it wants to be understood with the ears of the heart.

It is foolish to live in temporary happiness

"Looking back over the past few thousand years, so far numerous heroes, wise men and saints have appeared and have done all they can to bring peace and happiness to mankind, but today's humiliating state of human society will still be continued.

It is really an unstable society, a world full of mistakes, full of unhappy people.

Unfortunate people press each other. They mistrust, envy, hate and argue with each other, there are incessant conflicts.

How many fools end their lives by working day after day to accumulate a fortune that eventually disappears, or by arguing with others for a high position that they will eventually have to give up.

The people should be ruled by the people!

How can a good government be created if it is put in the hands of statesmen who are in it for the money and rank? In no way will this bring about stable happiness, neither for us nor for our descendants, who are the extension of our lives.

It's like building a house on a crumbling cliff or in a dry river bed, it will surely be washed away-, or the same as becoming intoxicated with morphine, opium, or alcohol for pleasure.

Nowadays there are many people who firmly believe that happiness is the social position of living in noble houses, all family members are healthy; to have a lot of assets and savings and to be able to use others as you please. However, they cannot be confident and happy because the generation of their children or grandchildren may not have access to the same thing when they have to complain and mourn the other way round. Or because they become afraid that it will be taken away from them.

It is the superficial joy, only short-term joy for me and my generation.

Japan, February 3^rd, '96

Today we demolished the old cowshed. Now there is only the wooden frame, which will also be gone in a few days. Then a new house is built there. The demolition was a very constructive job. The materials are kept and can be used again. In general, everything is designed and constructed in such a way that it can be easily dismantled and reassembled elsewhere.

At Evening Kensan we thought about the topic: "My way of thinking about" one-body ". The idea of ​​wanting to be a public person came to my mind. How far away is that from the ordinary thinking of most people. Ever since Many people practised in private, headstrong thinking, they tried to express their personality that is limited to the ego and only to do what they thought was right, requiring approval. "After all, you know what is wrong and right". Wars have been waged, the Church has tortured and killed thousands of people for "wrong" ways of thinking, but the redeeming thought would be so simple and trivial: I MIGHT ALSO BE MISTAKEN IN MY WAYS.

For as long as I can remember, this attachment was always an issue for myself. I shouldn't be wrong, it was considered intelligent to always know what was "right" and how to get the "right" result. If I never knew what was "right", there was always a trend opinion, which I then followed. My friend Manfred aptly expressed it once: "I still have no opinion today, I have not yet read the latest "Spiegel"". At that time, DER SPIEGEL was the best-known weekly newspaper, the trend newspaper for intellectuals and those who thought they were.

Today I can finally admit to all questions, "I don't know" or "I can be wrong", or "Maybe it's right, maybe not.

It would be a quantum leap in human history, especially with "important people", not to represent your own opinion as correct, but to think with other people, how could it be best in this situation, always keeping an eye on, maybe we could also be wrong. Not one alone or one party decides how to proceed, but everyone. The people, the people decide. Then the will of everyone, including my will, is contained in this decision. This kind of decision making is like the water in a river. It adapts immediately to the prevailing circumstances. If the river-bed becomes narrow, it flows faster, it becomes wide, it spreads to a lake, obstacles are simply flowed around. Likewise, decisions for the benefit of our entire human society could also be to adapt to the circumstances at any moment. And humanity, the natural affection of people, serves as a yardstick. With Kensan it is possible.

This is exactly how Kensan works. Without important and special people who know everything better. Without ideologies or fixed opinions, without believing. Without taking generally accepted rules, decency and moral rules into account, but only with common sense, with hearts that can think of others. It's never easier.

As a further happiness condition,

wealth in the heart is the most important

and building up society

with the happy life of people as an ideal

must on the basic idea

of human love

being constructed.

The word happiness is used in two ways. ³

First of all, my thoughts:

This essay by Yamagishi is the central theme of this book. It describes the transient and stable happiness.

All humans are naturally born with free will.

People have been given a variety of unique properties that no other animal has. The ego e.g. brings diversity and friction into the world. The real purpose of human beings is not only to give rich expression to the world through their difference and diversity, but also to advance human development. The diversity, including the ego, is the incentive to develop good things into something higher. In the history of their unique development, people have brought about abundance and abundance through the diversity of their ego. However, they have turned away from their guiding principle, their original being, to live life in cheerful coexistence in friendship and harmony and have moved into a way of life that only fulfils individual desires. The influence of the ego on the behaviour of the individual has steadily increased to this day. As a result of each individual pursuing their own happiness, people brought disharmony into the world that led to the state we are experiencing today. Therefore, unless people thoroughly review what it means to live as a human being, they will not be aware that the current social confusion was caused by a misunderstanding of what it means to have free will, according to true human Life, looking for stable happiness and harmony for all people. The leaders of our world will therefore not be able to bring the right order into the world.

The life of mankind can develop further if it is built on the pillar of the effort to live amicably with one another in love and harmony. That is the basis of happiness. The source, the origin of this world is harmony based on great love, and for the coming age we should build a society on this basis in which all people can live happily ever after.

There are many places in modern human society that have taken the form of a community, but as the community subordinates to the fulfilment of the individual ego, the ego will expand further and eventually create further contradictions. Once this state is reached, it becomes impossible for any community to exist as a community.

The word happiness is used in two ways.

"In one way, without thinking that it will crumble at some point or be accompanied by the fear that it will be swept away, firmly believing that the temporary, momentary sense of satisfaction is happiness, that is only temporary happiness. You just mean to be happy. This is called "the feeling of happiness".

Children of rich parents become beggars, the economic structure changes, and large landowners degenerate into poor farmers and have to struggle for a lifetime as underpaid employees.

Savings are turned into a sack of potatoes.

When we think of the end of the kings, whose wealth and power fell apart, it was the glory of an instant, an ephemeral dream.

That we love our children and love our grandchildren even more than our children, is because our descendants are ourselves. This comes from the social context and is an expression of love and the instinctive desire to live forever.

No matter how much we grow and thrive now, when we think about what it will be like in the generation of our beloved offspring, can we be reassured and say that it is stable happiness?

These are all just feelings of happiness that accompany us for a while, the happiness of a dream that becomes grief when we awaken.

Should we be satisfied with the fact that nothing can be done, because it has been said for ages: "Happiness and misfortune follow closely", "Happiness and glass, how easily it breaks", "Life is like a dream" , "ephemeral world", "vale of tearsl" and the like?

Is there no other way? Is this the true form of human life and the right way?

Man is certainly not so foolish and will be satisfied with it.

We can grasp true, stable happiness ourselves, which will never change as long as humankind exists.

The unshakable happy world that all people desire and that everyone can achieve will be realized. The reason why it has not yet been realized is because of the abandonment, indifference and ignorance, and also because the investigations were also incomplete and very theoretical and abstract or of too low a level.

This is primarily because there are many people who don't even know what the decisive stable happiness is, who also don't want to know.

Don't many people confuse happiness with true happiness?

However much we grow and thrive now

when we think about

how the generation

of our beloved offspring will be

can we be reassured?

So many belong to the (happiness) emotional type.

Try looking at the faces of the people on the street or the passengers on the train. Or try to investigate in depth those who throw themselves in fancy dress and are proud, are presented therefore with a luxury car or those who turn up in the newspapers, news, etc. every day, what they aim for, what they work for and whether it will endure.

Do they live in the knowledge and awareness of what real happiness is or not?

People who are happy to have made a profit, to have become a personality and then to be sad again without having to solve these fundamental questions; to have made a loss; who were good friends until yesterday and are now hostile with sparkling eyes, oh dear, they're also from the emotional race, there are also from the emotional race.

This situation is so absurd and ridiculous that you cannot watch it.

When you judge yourself, it is important to always tell whether the others or you are of the emotional race.

Among the personalities who have coloured the past and also amongst today's traders, construction workers, farmers, statesmen, officials, doctors and also among the priests there are so many swindlers and hypocrites, a whole life of sheer lies and sheer mistakes.

There are so many fools who live their lives by chasing fleeting joy.

To believe firmly that you have achieved something or that you are doing something for the world or for others, or even people who are so satisfied, then it finally becomes questionable and you realize that it is nothing more than a temporary, transient happiness was just an emotional happiness.

There is nothing more foolish than not really knowing and living human life, not really knowing yourself, not living the real way of life, it is indeed a shame for life.

There is a remarkably large number of people who are of the emotional race among those who are proud to be elected deputies or to become ministers or to accumulate wealth.

Although the needy, weak and sickly are crying next door.

To be satisfied with health, power and prosperity exclusively in your own house is too shameless, it is like congratulating and celebrating the sad fate that will fall on your house tomorrow.

Even if your own husband returns from war after escaping death, there are so many who have died and will never return. How can you be happy when there are many families who spend dark, lonely days and nights? Is it good if only one person is doing well?

There seem to be farmers who feel better when the plants on the neighbouring property are killed by storm.

These are also habits of the emotional race.

In the same way that you care about when someone fleshes their own flesh and blood from illness and cold, doesn't there arise a desire to make plans that somehow help people around the world escape misfortune?

As long as you don't get into the state of mind where you feel the pain of others as your own and your pleasure becomes the pleasure of others, the right, real, happy, stable society will not arise, happiness will not come to me.

The hostile society is cold, and in the world of mutual deprivation, one must always worry that one day - whether now or in the generation of the offspring - one is robbed and in the world of mutual killing one is also afraid that one being drafted into the war as a soldier or being killed and killed.

With the previous general way of thinking, many people think that one can be happy when it becomes rich in goods, that they are distributed fairly and when one is healthy. But in this way, true happiness is still extremely far away. You can still say that it has become rich in goods and even if they are distributed fairly, the society of mutual hatred and hostility towards one another does not dissolve.

Religions or moralists have been preaching spiritual transformations for a long time. You bring for example, poor people who are not able to make a living should be grateful by comparing them to people who have even less. They argue that poverty and sickness are a test from God, or that suffering from a misfortune is a revelation from God, etc., to worship God. That way the ignorant mass are misled. So, of course, the true, happy society cannot be realized.

The current social situation confirms this. With these methods and arguments it has not been possible to achieve true happiness.

One should thoroughly examine what is at the heart of the heart, if one greets one another with the words 'it is good, the typhoon went somewhere else', although there is suffering somewhere else because of the misfortune.

Shouldn't we stand up right now to practice sharp self-criticism and critical self-reflection, to grasp eternal, unchanging happiness and to build a peaceful world that thrives forever?

Shouldn't we say that precisely where our sense of life lies, which is why we were born?”

With stable luck

it's like love.

Love is one-sided,

unconditionally.

The start of the return to the real human. ⁷

"The so-called radical world Z revolution, which we are talking about here, can probably be called a revolution.

When you speak of the essentials, you have to consider that this revolution has the meaning to look at the essence of everything anew and that it is the starting point to develop even better in the right direction.

If you look at what led to today's conditions, you will discover too many mistakes. In this faulty society, it is as if "that is right" has been fixed in people's imaginations and has therefore, contrary to expectations, been transformed into ordinary thinking without realizing the mistake.

I think there are often points where this mistake is made that ordinary thinking is, as it were, something right, something certain.

It is the case that the universe, nature, man as such, as well as human performance do not go back a single day.

You are mistaken if you think "that's right", and it often happens that it goes in the totally opposite direction.

If we look at the guiding principle of what people are like, they should enjoy the best of health and richness of the heart, be happy and enjoy the day together.

However, even though he or she wishes to do so, even if he or she has become materially rich, he or she thinks that it is not enough and that he is not happy.

If one examines whether everyone really lives with joy from the heart, for many it is only a superficial joy.

It is doubtful whether people today, from the bottom of their hearts, live calmly and contentedly and with joy.

Why, even though they have excellent skills, can't they live as happily as they think?

What is the cause?

Why can't they be like this?

How would you have to do it to really live happily?

If you think deeply about it, the cause and origin will be found out, also the method for it will be found and through the concrete execution in practice the realization will become clear. "

Japan, January 16^th, '96

Last night was a Kensan meeting on safety at work. I have to say in advance that I used to be a security expert and worked for a trade association. My job there was, among other things, to advise and train plant managers in all questions of occupational safety.

My "well-founded technical" suggestions during the Kensan meeting were not only not accepted, not even appreciated and I was quite upset about it. After all, I'm the expert!

"How can you be so ignorant? If someone knows, that's me!", Went through my head, "It's like an insult! Where did I end up here?" I almost couldn't fall asleep; I was so angry and had to ponder heavy thoughts.

The following morning the heavy thoughts had subsided, and I could think about it with a calmer mind and put my expert knowledge aside. We have no industrial production here and the hazards here usually occur in every household or farm. Whether I was "right" or not really plays a subordinate role. I was only angry, so angry because I could not be heard, because my "expert knowledge" was not appreciated or anything, nothing more than injured vanity. My ego, it seems, has been neglected again. I guess I must be more careful with myself and recognize my thoughts in good time before they settle down and become right or wrong, criticism and condemnation follow.

The world of truth keeps everything in balance,

that is, it is love in itself.

Love and truth are the same.

The principle of love and truth, the principle of balance.

The basis for these thoughts about love in the following sections is taken from the present Kensan material, a translation from Japanese, under the title of the same name by M. Yamagishi.

The great love is a natural principle on which all being is based and according to which all being works. An afterglow of creation that warms us human beings and all being constantly and imperishably. Human love is a sprout of great love. It is quasi adapted to the limited ability of humans and flows on its own if it is not hampered by my wayward thinking.

"Looking at the phenomena in the universe and in nature, they are stable through the balance of the stars, including the universe, celestial bodies, sun, earth and moon, etc.

Neither the sun, nor the earth, nor any star is attached to anything solid, something immobile. They are only scattered in space, and although they have no fixed location, no fixed path, they have almost correct orbits and correct rhythmic movements in time and distance.

I think that in this unstable state there is this stable state is that they are balanced by attraction, magnetic force, or some other effect. Neither force measurements nor agreements have been made among one another since the creation of the universe, and it seems that each (planet) has found its own place independently through the effect of the connection with the others, without consciousness.

That is, although there are no agreements, rules, orders, or leadership, and not even norms that must be followed, there is not the slightest deviation.

I think that this truth of balance - holding - ability is the immeasurable, formless effect of love.

This right principle of balance is also called the principle of love or true principle (truth).

Love is true. The true thing is love.

You can also call it big love, infinite love, absolute love, true love.

I think that the effect of this mechanism, which keeps the balance of everything in the universe, including man, can be called.

Everything exists through the effect of love: magnetism, electrical energy, forces of attraction, material and informal things, such as gases, liquids, solids, etc. including things and effects that cannot yet be adequately explained and also the inanimate nature, which is probably without Will and without consciousness. And I think everyone has their own natural instincts.

Abilities in themselves are also revealed through the effect of love.

What corresponds to the principle of infinite love, that is, absolute love, is the truth.

What agrees with the truth is correct.

Love is without appearance, without colour, without shadow, without sound, without warmth, without light, it is neither cold nor warm. It always works, everywhere, in everything.

It is without self and without thoughts. It is powerless, limitless and weightless, it is the absolute power.

It is neither sun nor star nor moon, nor earth, flower or human. But it is nothing else than this. It is neither will nor zeal nor idea.

There is also no difference in size and weight.

It is without "me and others", without emotions (joy and suffering), without thoughts, without mind, without boundaries, without discrimination and rejection.

If there are boundaries, there is little love. Wherever you make boundaries, pain, suffering and loneliness arise.

Because you create boundaries, you try to protect them and cannot merge with the others. That means you create the boundaries yourself.

I think that absolutely all things and all people live and exist through absolute love. Nothing can separate from this connection of love.

The truth is that it is inseparable.

The world of truth keeps everything in balance, that is, it is love itself.

Love and truth are the same.

Something you can't see, something you can't feel.

You can only recognize it through the movements of the phenomena. It is the right thing, the absolute thing.

The right balance, the right love, whatever you call it, it is the absolute and everything that does not correspond to this principle is wrong.

What deviates from these principles, even if it initially looks as if it existed, is something that is based on mistakes and you provide something that actually change and is perishable.

It just seems like you can be happy about it, but you can't really be happy because, even if it seems stable, you feel fear, you may have bad experiences, or feelings of hatred or envy.

All of this comes from deviating from the principle of balance.

How about if the earth and the sun were out of balance?

What would happen if the balance of gravity and magnetic forces on Earth were disturbed?

Would people exist if the balance of air, water, animals and plants collapsed?

If the right balance in human society between parent and child, between husband and wife is torn, can one say the right couple? Can it be said that these are parents and children who comply with this principle? Can it be said that this is a stable world in which people live together?

No matter how rigid rules you set up, no matter how unchangeable agreements you make, even if you think you have promised each other marriage beyond death, if there is even a little bit of suffering, hate or fear, even yourself if you think that the world of human imaginations is flawless, I think the reason that something contrary comes out lies in opposing oneself to the truth, in oneself against the principle of opposing love, in not In line with the principle of balance and truth.

This great love is neither something to give nor something to demand. There are no rights or obligations. It works in the whole universe, in everything and in everyone. "

Japan, August 29^th, 2007

After a long break I was back in Japan and attended the Kensan school there. A lot has happened in recent years, it is slowly clearing up in me. The theme of the Kensan school was about "Great Love or the Principle of Balance". I had the feeling that this is the last piece of the puzzle that I was still missing to finally dispel my last doubts about the entire Yamagishi society design: the great world of love and security of all beings of all worlds and harmony in everything. I was in high spirits and thankful to be one of those who can help build the new world for everyone. I want to do that with all of my being. My previous concerns, "people will never change their way of thinking and that is why it does not work to build a human society", have evaporated. In the past my scepticism came to light again and again, with mistrust of myself whether this society is possible at all.

Now, through this Kensan school and through my insights from it, Yamagishi's social design has become a perfect casting, nothing I can criticize. For me, his work is now a unit in which all pieces of the puzzle fit together perfectly. They are not philosophical games of thought or theoretical treatises, but this social draft is actually feasible, no, it will even come because it is based on facts. This social design blends harmoniously into a unit in which every part and every aspect has its place, just like in nature. It originated from practice and is further developed daily by Kensan. A world arises in which I want to live, a world that I want to pass on to my children and all the children of this world. I see this as my soul path that I want to continue.

I came back to Switzerland with such a heart, with the aim of advancing not only myself, but the whole "village". Even if the reaction of my "head coach" was different than expected, nothing should worry me anymore.

As for the principle of infinite love,

that is, corresponds to absolute love,

that's the truth.

What agrees with the truth

that's right.

The effect of love²

"There is no individual without the effect of love. It is impossible to grasp the existence of love just like that.

It is impossible to express it.

Love is neither one side nor the other.

There is no such thing as the individual alone.

This goes beyond thinking because it keeps balance with something. Something invisible is love.

Something sprouted from this love, these are human feelings.

Love has no temperature and no light, and you cannot see the extent of the force that is getting going. It is like rest itself and you do not even notice that there is anything. You just cannot see love like that, you can't feel it. It is neither warm nor cold. One cannot recognize love as such.

When it comes to affection, it is like electricity; you cannot see the current as such, no matter much of it may flow. It is just like human emotions. Even if you feel them yourself, you do not just recognize the others.

However much love or absolute love may be stored and affection may sprout from there, as long as it is not expressed in words, facial expressions, postures or actions, neither love nor affection can be experienced.

Affection is the result of the revelation of love, and just as you experience the existence of electricity and electricity from devices that show the effects of electricity, you can perceive the existence of love through facial expressions, attitudes, words, and deeds.

I think that without exception all things and all people exist through absolute love. But when it comes to their revelation, I think the state as it shows in the feelings is different for everyone.

There is also the case of standstill without revelation. But I think you cannot say that there is no love because you cannot see it or because you cannot feel it.

Just as you can't see the attraction, the magnetic force, etc., you can't say that love doesn't exist.

If you think that there is no love, no affection, it is in moments when the expression of love or the flow of love stops.

But love exists everywhere, always, in everything.

People often say they love someone, but that's not because they love, but love is in existence, in life. That means it is expressed in feelings. You become aware of love where the hearts meet and you can find each other out.”

R. Tagore describes it this way:

"I believe that there is an ideal that hovers above and permeates the earth: the ideal of a paradise that is not just a fantasy, but the ultimate reality, which embraces everything and to which everything strives.

I believe that this vision appears in the sunlight, in the green of the earth, in the rushing rivers, in the joy of spring, in the calm of a winter morning, in the beauty of a face and the richness of human love.

Everywhere on earth the spirit of this paradise is alive and its voice can be heard.

It reaches our inner ear without us knowing it. It tunes the harp of our life and urges us to strive beyond finitude, just as the flowers make their scent and the birds soar their song "

Love seems to be a natural principle on which everything, nature, life, and the whole universe is based.

This principle seems to permeate everything, from the smallest atomic particle to the largest mountain, from the mist droplet to the ocean.

The whole existence, everything that appears, seems to work according to this principle.

Also in us humans, love works in each one of us. In the couple, in the children, in the whole human society.

Even if we cannot see them or feel them immediately, love is effective in every moment, always, for all times.

We feel them in the weaving of the spring wind, in the dance of the butterflies, in the sprouting of the buds after the cold winter days.

We feel it in our feelings and thoughts that go in that direction.

We can feel it when we can see the universe in the rainbow colours of the dewdrop glistening in the morning sun with mindfulness.

Our thoughts and feelings, our ability to feel gratitude are then the human expression of this great, all-embracing love.

December 18^th, '95

Human feelings

Today was friendship day. "Making friends with everything" was my theme for the day. A big day. Everything was cleaned. We also dressed up. In the morning I was in the delivery centre, putting together deliveries and covering them with dry ice where necessary.

Everyone pours into the giant Aiwakan for dinner. There is space for more than 150 people.

At lunchtime, for the first meal, there was an opulent meal:

The menu consists of

Miso - Udon soup with silk tofu,

Beef cut into fine slices and briefly fried directly at the table.

A raw egg is beaten in a small bowl,

steamed vegetables - leek, mushrooms, herbs, Chinese cabbage, grated radish and finely grated, blanched carrots with sesame oil and sesame seeds added,

mixed with soy sauce and consumed with the meat.

As side dishes, there are Udon noodles and three different types of rice.

Kaki fruits, mandarins and apples are served for dessert

and to top it all off, there are various ice creams.

In between you can drink tea (cha). Of course, there is as much of everything as you like.

During the meal brief information was given about important events and news from other "villages", about new guests. I was also able to briefly introduce myself to everyone and report about our "village" in Germany.

After the afternoon work we could go to the "restaurant" in the evening. It is a place where you can sit together comfortably, read the newspaper and where there are small snacks and pastries with coffee and soft drinks. Since all Yamagishi villages are places where no money is needed, because everything is freely available to everyone, it is still easy for us "new" people to get used to, without asking what is offered, just being allowed to take so much you want. (It was only much later that I realized that there is no permission or no prohibitions here because there is no possession either.)

Tables are set up there tonight and everyone has space. After another opulent friendship dinner, there are still performances by the children of different ages. I was moved to tears with the effort and joy with which they show their performances. Their expectant and laughing faces, their personalities and their creative temperament not only triggered tears of joy, but also the inner certainty that not only does our future grow here, but everywhere in the world, and that I give them responsibility with love and joy and can give guidance for everything, even for my future. Because one day they will replace us and be the society that we are now building. I am not worried about the future and I feel the love flowing to all the children of this earth. The world belongs to you!

I want to give what I can for this new society, for the children.

Everyone has their own free will.

It is our decision

whether we let

this river of love flow

sparingly or generously.

Heaven, earth and man come from the same source⁷

The thoughts in this Yamagishi essay are revolutionary and turn our previous attempts to explain the world upside down. In his draft society of "happy society for all people" they illustrate his central point of view, without which a further development of mankind seems to be unthinkable. Only people who unite with the heart can form a stable community and live a happy life that is pleasant for everyone. The intellectual revolution opens our eyes and heart and melts all erroneous thought patterns into it (it is described in detail in the section "The Radical World Z - Revolution). His thoughts are convincing and impressive because they are based on facts and not on theoretical ones Considerations: They are presented in a logical manner and are based on the phenomena that nature shows us. You cannot avoid its logic. They point the way to a bright world in which harmony and stable happiness must be taken for granted. Among people those who want to understand trigger the desire to be actively part of this world.

That is why I am now in Japan to start putting the revolution in my way of thinking into practice. In my previous diary excerpts, you have been able to see that it is not that easy. My internalized thinking patterns kept stumbling over and over again and I ask myself daily to be mindful of myself and my thoughts and to practice self-reflection. Today I am grateful to have had such hard "trainers" that have repeatedly pushed me to my limits. So, without wasting my strength, by demonstrating against the conditions in the world or engaging against something, I can fully commit to building this new human society.

"It can be said that all things, both humans and nature, exist as part of the universe. That is, nothing and nobody can separate themselves from them, can present and live as something independent and exist for themselves.

There is also nobody who owns something, so that everything and everyone can be used and used by everyone. That's the way it is, of course!

In the previous human society, people judged at their own discretion, with people's imaginations: "this belongs to me", "this belongs to him and that", "this belongs to the company", but whoever makes it, whoever does it "own" may, originally everything simply exists for the use of everyone.

Also, that I was born myself was not through my will. I was born through the interplay of many connections and live.

There is therefore no one in the world who was born a private person.

People are originally something "public", something that concerns all and everyone. You can also call this "public persons".

If you know this principle, the way things and people come about, then it is probably true and right to consider and treat yourself and others and everyone and everyone as "public persons and public things".

Even if, for example, someone says "that's my freedom" or "please don't take care of my things".

It’s not like that!

It is not possible to leave the way someone with the people and things that exist as "public people and things" to a person's way of thinking.

It seems that those who distinguish between public and private, regarding things that they think are private, have stated that without the consent of others, these are just their own things.

But even in such a case, regardless of what this person has in mind, we want to ensure that this person is normally used as a "public person and public tool".

It doesn't matter whether you feel that way or not, whether you see it that way or not, and whether you know one-body life or not.

If one knows this principle "all people and all things are" public persons and public things ", one shouldn't need oneself with one's own thinking".

Japan, January 9^th, '96

I had to think about yesterday a long time today. What had gone wrong with me again? Just because someone tells me something that doesn't suit me, I give unfriendly answers, my mood turns into anger. Even though I had taken the topic "Friendship First" for that day. I think I was just inattentive, fell asleep. That's why I work with the topic: "Friendship comes first" and it was really a nice day to meet everyone as a friend. I want to try this topic out in the coming days. Always with a topic that I can orientate on when I don't know what to do, when I'm back on something that doesn't suit me or when I know exactly what's right again. And another wish came up today: I will be happy to consult with the others and do Kensan.

On January 10^th I was with the beef cattle. With the theme: "First friendship" the day went really well. I was able to do the job with joy and I think some of the friendship has passed to Ritsu-san that I have worked with.

On January 11^th I was with the pigs. With the same theme: "First friendship", I was able to get rid of the emerging thoughts of evaluation and control, of ambition and arrogance today. Apparently (hopefully) they are becoming less and less important to me. Even the pigs seemed to notice my calm mind, were calm and didn't let me disturb them.

Then I helped neuter some pigs. I specifically took the topic: "Harmony between human activity and nature" and maybe got a little bit further. The basis of every animal husbandry should be, with what mind do I meet the animals? Are they outside of me or do I integrate them into my life and thinking as my fellow creatures?

If I really want to live a one-body life with them, then I must also accept the human interference in the lives of our pets. Even the castration of pigs. The only thing that matters is the heart with which we meet them. Perhaps every existence is a step in a further development, the goal of which is unknown to me. So, a pig's life could also be a chance for me to grow humanely with it. They surrender to us, we surrender to them.

The cause of unhappiness

lies in the erroneous way

to use his intelligence.

Part 2

The cause of unhappiness

The human being has a superior intelligence that other animals cannot imitate. It is the intelligence of the heart.

However, the reason why it was unable to identify the cause of its own unhappiness is because of the erroneous way in which it has used its intelligence and still uses it today.

We humans can use our intelligence very skilfully in examining things and inventing tools and innovations. It is also important, now and in the future.

But whenever we use our ingenuity, we must clearly recognize our real goal and do exactly what it takes to achieve our goal.

Because we have to realize again and again that we cannot really grasp our environment with our limited senses,

- our hearing can only produce tones in the frequency range from approx. 30 Hz to approx. 8000 Hz (old people) and 16000 Hz (young people),

- our eyes can also only perceive a limited frequency range,

- our sense of smell, taste and touch is controlled by our experiences and feelings,

we should break out of our self-imposed restriction. When we have realized that we humans are not able to really recognize the facts around us, when we realize that we can only ever make an image of the world in which we live, we will find each other. The boundaries of obstinacy and subjectivity will disappear and the natural affection for one another can flow unhindered.

The real goal of all efforts is to strive for true happiness for all people.

Humans certainly did not come into the world to pile up money and to consume nature.

Japan, January '96

In my diary I noted:

It cannot be the goal of mankind to use the earth and keep it at a low level of knowledge to spend their time with bread and games. Our goal should be to develop into people who build a human world for our children together with everyone in joy and friendship.

Now, our way of thinking and acting is exactly the opposite in nine out of ten cases.

In nine out of ten cases, it is the way of thinking to achieve the short-term, transient happiness that will last over the day after tomorrow without thinking about how I want to use my skills and knowledge to leave an inheritance to our descendants on which they can build their future.

I had only joined the Yamagishi community a few months ago when I thought about the question, "Whom do I owe my skills to?"

It was clear to me that my parents had inherited their genetic makeup for me, I have diligently appropriated the rest myself and I was proud of it.

However, since we now regularly came together for the Kensan meeting in the evening, there was also time to go beyond our day-to-day experiences to do Kensan, for example on the question, "Is there something that belongs to me?"

As I can look a little deeper today, then I have to realize that all life and all things are connected and form a large unity and "my own achievements", of which I was so proud, shrink to zero. Have I ever created something on my own? Have I not received everything I can or am given as a gift from a long line of ancestors?

My parents and their parents, etc., each had ancestors who inherited their skills. Even my ability to reflect on it doesn't come from me. Is there anything that I originally created?

Sometimes when I did something well, I was happy and proud and hoped for recognition. But now when I think about it, I find that there is no reason to be proud at all. Then it's just embarrassing to brag about it. I can be happy about that, yes. But I just used my presents, nothing more. Is that really a reason to be proud to be recognized for a special achievement? Everyone does exactly the same thing, they apply the skills they have acquired. We humans are not capable of more at this moment.

And further: What do I pass on to my children and descendants that they can use for their life? "I can't think of anything useful at the moment. I hope, only this I do.

It seems to me that we all have a job to do in life. What is my job in life? I wonder. I'm 52 now and I still don't know. But in one thing I am certain that I want to use all my strength to make our world peaceful and that people can live happily ever after. I'm not worried about "How does this happen?", It will develop and show itself when I go this way. I'm sure.

Until then I just try not to destroy anything.

First of all, I must become a person who can live happily. Bit by bit, I want to patiently clear my hurdles and obstacles on the way there.

First of all, I must become a person who can live happily. Bit by bit, I want to patiently clear my hurdles and obstacles on the way there.

This regular self-reflection not only in the Kensan meetings has always been a great help to me and I want to continue to use it on my way to happiness.

I still meditate regularly today.

One should never go down the wrong path after knowing it, says Yamagishi.

For me this means that you should first research your (life) path. This requires inner peace and impulses or help from outside. Otherwise there is a risk that you cannot get out of your own narrow horizon and turn in a circle.

It's like standing in the forest, you can only see a few trees, the view is restricted. From the top of the mountain, you can see the whole forest and the landscape around it and the view becomes wide.

Illusion: old or young face?

Illusion: vase or two faces?

All people want to live happily!

All human action

arises from the deep natural desire

to be happy

Happy human life is self-determined

If you act according to ready-made patterns of thought, then you are no longer you, then you are no longer alive, just function. Like a puppet that reacts to thread, you cling to your imaginations and beliefs or even the beliefs of others. These can be ideologies of any political direction, but also religions, they can be economic slogans that you have internalized, that can be your role model or guru, they can also be your firm beliefs about the world etc. or your book knowledge.

Don't be a believer in science throw away your clinging to information that you have stuck somewhere.

If you leave yourself to the statements of others, you let them determine yourself. It’s just like you’ve already died.

What is left of you? Your uniqueness? Of your feelings and dreams and visions of the future that you want to convey to the outside world, of your life visions?

How many people spend their whole lives clinging to beliefs and understanding others' thoughts and opinions?

Whether you demonstrate against something or speak to your children as a teacher, whether you are a politician or civil servant, whether you criticize or praise, check whether this is your own will. Have you and your life subordinated to your beliefs? Then there is no more authentic life, it just looks like this, you are like a dusty plastic flower on the table in a second-class restaurant.

Wake up! Enjoy your life because happiness and joy are part of it! They are waiting for you. Listen to the music of happiness, it vibrates in all creatures and in all things.

Remember: You are most beautiful when you are happy. And happy life begins behind ideologies and beliefs, behind imaginations and all evaluations. Do not let yourself determine. Please stay open and free to change, like life.

Take responsibility for your life and your actions, no longer be a victim, because it is your life and every day is precious.

Be mindful and be careful with yourself and your thinking.

Stable happiness is like love. Love is one-sided, unconditional. If you link happiness to conditions, it breaks. It becomes a business. It doesn't last long, it's the fleeting happiness of an instant. People who are satisfied with it have not yet woken up.

What you are looking for is stable happiness.

For this it is necessary to free oneself from the clutches of wanting, the ego. Liberation is always connected with inner work, but you are not alone. Take hold of your outstretched hands.

Yes, human society currently presents itself as if it were sick.

Many people chase ephemeral happiness and want to own it, strive for prestige, fame and honour, even though they know in their hearts that this “happiness” they want to achieve may be over tomorrow.

They are afraid that others will outdo them.

They are afraid that their big account could become worthless overnight, and yet many people spend their whole lives accumulating fame and glory, money and goods, or book knowledge.

Our children grow up in this environment.

Do we really give them everything they need to grow up and thrive on their children's souls? Do we really give our children's real needs priority over our own professional and material desires?

A corrupt youth for example, is not the fault of the parents!

Isn't it the society in which such conditions prevail that it was lost?

Isn't it time to start thinking together about how we can achieve a healthy society where healthy people can grow who happily enjoy their lives? We have enough material goods. That is why we have the privilege to explore our true path of life in relative certainty and to walk it! What are we waiting for?

We should examine whether there is only one "enemy" in the world.

Don't you think that it would be a good idea to stop now, redefine your location and plan your life and see what is really worth taking with you?

Bad Hersfeld, November '95

For me, this reorientation of my life, taking responsibility for everything in my life, began after a stroke of fate, after separation from my beloved children and after the divorce of my marriage. Messy at first, I knew what I didn't want. Then I began to see my goal in life more and more clearly: not ending my life in duty and obedience, because for me this world was finally broken.

The reorientation did not happen overnight, it took more than a year. At that time it was clear to me that I didn't want to spend my lifetime doing more or less useless work in any company or office, just to earn enough money and to wait for my retirement to finally spend my last days lonely and bitter in the old people's home . It was also clear to me that the future of humanity, including my own, lies in living together with people, i.e. in the community, beyond the material.

No one can really thrive alone. I was aware that I would like to do something for people, if possible even something on a higher level, for people in our desolate society, for the future of children. At the time, I wasn't exactly sure how that was supposed to happen, nor was I clear what exactly I wanted to do to achieve my goal. First of all, I went looking for a suitable community. Many communities that I visited had narrowed themselves down through ideologies, beliefs, through fixed nutrition or cultivation methods, some were simply against the existing society or were full of criticism against the existing conditions in the school system, in the environmental area, in the financial policy, in the Social policy etc.

It was clear to me that I wanted to get out of this confinement of the treadmill, I needed space where my visions and each of my imaginations have a place and where the life goal of the community lies more in the heart formation and in the spiritual development of the person and in the vision for one new society beyond our materially oriented society doesn't stop there. A monastery would have been the most obvious. But I'm not the type to live in secret.

By chance (?) I found the Yamagishi community, which I checked very carefully and the offered course that Tokkoh attended. That was a highlight for me. Now I was convinced that I had found the right thing. If all that I have learned here is correct, then I have finally found my home.

Shortly after the Tokkoh I finally decided to join and stayed in the Yamagishi community for over 17 years.

There I found my longing for life fulfilled in practice: there I saw the opportunity to develop into a person who has found the courage to open his heart, who can think of others and who uses his strength to build a human society in which all people can live happily ever after. It was so incredibly fulfilling for me to recognize my goal in life, to discover that there was something I had been seeking for a while, just like that, in silence, was incredible. Even today I can say that I do not regret one moment that I lived and experienced there. On the contrary, I would recommend it to anyone who wants to work on their own development, who wants to work for people, for life. I wanted to record these important experiences for myself and soon started to write my diary. And because I still have a deep desire to put my energy into building a new human society, I am writing this book.

To believe "that's right"

is in itself a mistake.

Self-reflection

About my first hurdles

Self-reflection, the topic that I looked at thoroughly at the Kensan school. The first step was to examine myself, to investigate my way of thinking, to recognize and bring to light in me the imaginations and reasons that prevent me from finding my inner peace that keep me from being really happy be and enjoy my life in the midst of others.

For me, getting out into the bright daylight means first that they want to see and examine, accept without refusal that they are part of me and my value system.

"I'm going to take a good look at you and publish it."

I say to myself:

"Think back to your last argument when you got angry. What exactly happened there?"

"Think back when you were in love and happy. What did you imagine and blazon?"

Such situations viewed from a distance, mostly unpleasant thoughts or actions, show me today how limited my way of thinking was then.

The Kensan meeting here is really and truly about finding deep within me, my imagination, my beliefs and my scale of values, to disclose them without reservation to me. And then in front of other people!

To be honest with myself and others. That was the first, easier way. I had to muster up much more courage to share my insights about my way of thinking with others. It was a big step for me to overcome shame and embarrassment and to let everyone share my imperfection.

My whole painstakingly constructed building of superiority and self-righteousness etc. collapsed in this one moment. "Now I'm nothing," went through my head. "What is left of the others of me now? What do they think about me now?"

"What is left of me?"

My decision was clear: "From now on I don't want lies and deceptions anymore, neither in front of me nor in front of others. They always fall back on me and only show me my location and my intellectual level".

From now on, I want to make a serious decision: Do I want to continue as before and hide and run around with my mask and blind and deceive my fellow human beings?

What exactly do I have to change in my way of thinking to become a person who is connected to all people in the heart?

In what situations do I judge people and situations and think I'm right?

Ultimately, my aim is to tear out my self-clinging and put it aside. Little by little, and I realize that I have a mountain full of self-clinging in front of me. I should rather ask myself: where do I have no self-clinging?

For example, in the future I want to judge with the way of thinking that I could also have been wrong with my opinion and I want to be willing to look at the situation again in an impartial way - together with other people.

This requires a clear mind and a clear direction in which I want to go.

My intention: In the future I want to strive day after day, discover my self-clinging, let go and put it aside and let others share in it.

This way I can get close to happiness, I think (hope).

The road to my current way of life and thinking was sometimes rocky and lonely, without the help of my friends and roommates I would not have been able to overcome the hurdles to my liberation.

In my early days in Japan, we met every day to do Kensan together. We exchanged our experiences and stories and told stories about which we "got stuck". That is, in plain language, situations where we got troubled, maybe even got angry. We reminded each other of what we thought and did in this situation and which "films" ran through me.

Everything happens in a fraction of a second and one seems to be helplessly exposed to these chains of thought, which become films that also come unheard of.

Today my mind has calmed down. Apparently, I didn't do my homework for nothing. Living in friendship with the people I meet in everyday life has become the norm. Thank you. Whoever.

Japan, December 11^th, '95

A group of us wants to clean the house. It is tedious, I think, and the first bad feelings are already there. In the end, I make a decision: I want to clean the washroom door and the windows and then be ready for other work. "Just tell me what to do, then I will do it," I announce. A group member stands in front of me and says "unfriendly" to my face: "Don't wait until the others tell you what to do, but work on your own initiative, on your own." He says it as if he were the supervisor here. A whole stream of bad thoughts is already beginning to flow: "Who does he think he is, he has been here as long as me and wants to give me orders"? "I'm not doing that at all." And so on, and so on...

I really don't want to have such lousy thoughts against my counterpart. But they are there! What should I do in this situation?

If I could take a closer look, look at the facts and analyse what really happened, what feelings and facts are here, there would only be so much left: Someone said to me: "Don't wait until the others speak to you, but work on your own initiative, on your own. " No more is happening. Is this really a reason to get angry? Maybe he just meant it as advice. I can’t know.

Everything that disturbs me so much comes from me, is my interpretation in the direction: He wanted to order me, attack me, criticize me or excite myself and put me down.

But I can't know what his mindset was really about.

(The next day I should have another experience with him)

In the evening at the Kensan meeting, we look at all of these experiences and thoughts of the day, which are so bad for us, and think together about how we can support each other so that these chains of thoughts do not become effective in us. None of us are unfamiliar with these thoughts and reactions, so every Kensan meeting is a great help, especially if you could tell everyone your frustration. That usually makes it easier and ends with a laugh at yourself. So, after every meeting I go to my room with new or renewed resolutions and write my diary.

The direct way to get to know yourself.

First of all: be natural! Be honest!

A person with beliefs is never natural! They can't! They insists on their principles!

If they gets angry, they mustn't show their anger, that's wrong, you don't do that!

If they feels love, they must not show their love, that is against their beliefs.

A person who knows what is right and wrong lives isolated in their world.

A person with rejection can only see the world with their blinders. Due to their limited view, they cannot really perceive the beautiful bright world in which one can be uninhibitedly happy.

If you do not learn to live according to your nature, to live authentically, you will never ever be a happy person, because that is a natural state, the culmination of natural being.

I tell you: if you get angry, be angry! Just let it be done with complete awareness. Anger must not do one thing: suffocate your consciousness - that's all!

Allow anger, let it happen, but be fully aware of what is happening to you. Stay relaxed, natural, conscious, mindful.

Little by little it disappears without effort. If you consciously allow them. If you pinch them, pressure is created in the kettle, which eventually finds its way out with a bang.

It is the same with your other peculiarities, with the imaginations that you carry around with you.

Allow your beliefs but watch them consciously. Then you will quickly notice how foolish they are at times because they hide the real world from you.

Look at your rejection and your insistence on right and wrong. With care, you will soon be able to leave this narrow cocoon in which you have spun yourself and step out into the bright, warm midday world that is waiting for you and the people around you will see what a beautiful, radiant person you are.

There are people who don't want that at all. These are the hypocrites. With them you can be sure that there is something behind every smile they show. They show their displeasure even in their smiles. As soon as they want to hide, smile all over their faces. A loud laugh only covers the inner crying. The loud speech only covers her insecurity.

A hypocrite is an unnatural person: as soon as he feels rejection or anger, he smiles, as soon as he feels fear and doubt, jealousy and resentment, he shows a smile.

A hypocrite is a perfect believer, completely artificial, a plastic flower, a mask, nothing is natural.

No hypocrite feels comfortable under his mask. Hypocrites are lonely, poor people.

It is not easy to get rid of the superfluous, to become free because you are in the company of hypocrites.

But you have to go through that!

It will take a lot of effort because you have invested a lot in this false, artificial mask. You may feel completely isolated, but this time will pass. There will soon be other situations in which your naturalness is valued, there will soon be other people who will love you for it.

I can change my thoughts, the way I think. This changes everything in me: my face colour, my facial expression, my wrinkles on my face, the way I speak, my charisma, my whole personality.

It takes unconditional willingness to look at qualities in you that are really uncomfortable for you, which is often shameful. But in the real world, there is no shame, no anger, no bad feelings, etc.

It almost always requires the help of others who can see and notice other things than I do in my self-consciousness.

Just as I don't perceive my own body odour, I cannot perceive some things about myself and in my thinking and acting. Accepting help from other people and talking to them about it or attending the Tokkoh course (see source 6), which deals with these topics, would be the next step.

Have confidence in you.

There is no one who wants to prevent you from developing or who condemns you.

Persistence in "wanting to find your way" leads to the goal!

If you really want to develop further, help comes from everywhere.

In my own experience, it becomes easier to talk to others about it from time to time, but my further development will never stop for me. It is an ongoing exercise.

"What you say to me, I forget.

I remember what you have shown me.

I understand what you're letting me do.”

Confucius

If I change my mindset

my world changes.

When my world changes

the whole world changes.

What I radiate into the world

comes back to me!

Personal responsibility

We cannot delegate answering our questions and solving our personal problems to other people. Neither politicians, princes of the church or gurus and not so-called wise people can answer our questions. We can tap into knowledge, that's ok. But because my problems are only effective in me, I am the only person who can solve them effectively. Nobody else can do that for me.

Help from others and talking to other people will help me on my way, but have to want to go the way. I am the captain of my lifeboat! If I leave the helm to someone else, they will change course for their own goals, they won't be able to head to my port because they doesn't know it! They can't do that.

That should be clear to me: I voluntarily hand it over to others. Think for example, the elections in which you vote for this or that party. With the voice you also give up your responsibility.

Please keep your voice!

Think of the many millions of Germans who voluntarily handed themselves over to Hitler and who later claimed: "We were seduced." That is not true. They allowed it!

After serious self-reflection, when I look honestly and examine, I find that I often cannot see facts as facts and do not recognize errors. Or want to recognize!

I mistake imaginations for facts, just as it seems advantageous for me.

I soon must admit to myself that I prevent my own happiness through the way I think and because of my defined strategies and thinking patterns, through my self-clinging. My problems cannot be solved by others and I ultimately make myself a victim. I find it inadmissible to accuse other people - they are always people, not the circumstances - as a perpetrator for my own misfortune.

This way my problems cannot be solved.

Japan, mid-December '95

Today I spent the whole day together with my well-known "trainer" - the young man who has already upset me by cleaning the window - together with the fattening cattle. We mucked out the stable together and sprayed the floor clean with a high-pressure cleaner. My experience cleaning windows with him showed me my way of thinking and my own bias. My prejudices against him did not make me objective and kept me busy throughout the day.

I clearly feel the will to learn my lesson. This time I didn't want to get upset, I wanted to get rid of my bias towards him once and for all. "If he doesn't want to work with me, I'll work with him", that's what I set out to do. I adjust to the situation and just do what he tells me. I thought!

In the first half hour everything went well. We planned together how we wanted to do the work and started with the mucking out. This work is not physically easy, the manure is damp and very heavy and should be loaded onto the waiting car. We soon got out of breath. And now my "training round" started:

"You're doing it wrong, do it like this!" "Do this work first,"

"No, do it like this", "Now start cleaning here first", "I'll take over the pressure washer and you can sweep away the coarse dirt with the broom". In this tone it went on all day and my good intentions melted away like the snow in the sun.

It was really a big challenge for me to say nothing about looking at my emotions and just working and doing what he told me to do. And pretend I don't mind. Even if I was just about to explode. I felt like an underpaid worker who has to labour on the construction site to avoid being fired and who is being ordered around by everyone. My mood was at rock bottom.

In the end, I held out and didn't say anything, but I certainly didn't feel comfortable doing it. Actually, he could have seen from the expression on my face that I was extremely dissatisfied.

Then, in the evening in the Kensan circuit, tears flowed and the pressure in the cauldron gradually released. I still hadn't dealt with the situation. I was so disappointed in myself that I could not master this situation with a calm mind, even though I had foreseen it. I already believed that I was no longer self-liable and could live in friendship with everyone. But now I felt dislike for my "trainer", even great dislike. And I wasn't proud of my behaviour. I was at the very beginning. What was I supposed do? Was this the right path to me?

Now, after almost 25 years, I read my diary from that time. I am happy and grateful for all my "trainers" back then who held up the mirror inexorably. I am also grateful that I accepted stuck with the many hours of training.

Personal responsibility

You probably already guessed it:

In a free, self-determined, authentic life, in which I take responsibility for my actions, a decision is required of me for a clear way of life.

a.) I choose the "me-alone" way of life and serve my ego. That's OK. Everyone can choose freely. My goal is to own a lot of material things, fame and honour, knowledge etc., or

b.) I choose the inner mindful way of life. I try to adapt to the respective circumstances and try to live in a friendly atmosphere with all people. I try to build a human world with my means.

Do you have any other space in between?

Switching between the two levels is self-deception, the back and forth between the two ways of thinking is not honest, makes you sick!

Because the material mindset is based on speculation, hypotheses and assumptions, on taking and competition, on one another, it is not real, it is unreal. It is the world of imagination. Will the value of money stay stable forever or is it based on speculation and changing? Are laws valid for all eternity or are they just temporary human work?

The spiritual way of life is based on the search for truth and the real world, on humanity and happiness, on compassion and love, on togetherness and on giving. The goal is to live a natural life and become a happy person.

That is why these two ways of thinking and living behave like fire on water. One wipes out the other. I cannot serve two masters!

Deciding not to choose one of these ways of life is a really arduous life and ultimately lets me fall asleep. Many people cannot make up their minds. Maybe that's why they're so dissatisfied. Maybe that's why so many people like to criticize and carry rejection around with them?

Working for something is constructive.

Working for peace does not mean that you want to become a peaceful person yourself?

To stand up for something does not also mean that you have to critically review your own way of thinking and acting again and again and want to change if necessary?

To be against war, against nuclear weapons, against political currents and against pollution, etc. binds my energies and only nourishes my negative thoughts and my rejection.

Rejection always creates limits.

The opposing - being is meaningless because the way of thinking that led to the problem does not change! It's a waste of love.

Only being for something promotes my life energy and creativity, overcomes resistance and fences and lets people come together. Being for something enables me to reach out to whoever and because there are no more enemies, it is the prerequisite for peace inside and outside. We want to live in the bright world of peace. This will be the beginning of a new age!

There are also people who criticize and uncover grievances, with the sole intention of bringing the dark machinations of the powerful to light. They want nothing more than to help without thinking about themselves and the consequences it can mean for them. These are extraordinary people who I respect.

If I change my mindset

my world changes.

When my world changes

the whole world changes.

What I shine into the world

comes back to me!

Mindfulness is a way

Different perspectives

You can look at the world from different perspectives. The way I look at something is crucial to my judgment. The effects that come from it are decisive for my further life.

The material view sees the material side of the world, focuses on owning. All thinking and acting are done on the basis of material advantage. Humans and nature, friends and relationships are factors that I can use for my interests. Even my own being and my health are subordinate to this view. In science, politics and business you will find these people who strive for fame, honour, power and prosperity and ruin their lives and health.

The spiritual level of the world, the world of living together, the search for truth, love and affection and joy, about human happiness, security, experiencing the many miracles around us, etc., can be seen through glasses of material thought not see. They rate this spiritual world as a disturbing fantasy, as secondary or unimportant. All of this remains largely hidden from the representatives of the material mindset.

The spiritual view considers mankind and the world as creation on the spiritual level and did not arise from the accidental coming together of the suitable substances, which form connections with each other, which then become a cell. All of these substances must have been created at some point. By whom or by what?

I would like to call this creative energy love. Everything comes from her, lives and is interwoven with this love energy. Everything has its roots in love and only lives through it. Not only we humans, but also the "inanimate" matter.

"Matter is frozen love energy" and "the material world is the world of illusions," they say.

How is it really?

We want to examine this question below.

Whatever the truth, everyone is invited to choose one of these two worlds. I am not at all concerned with evaluating these two perspectives as right or wrong, with good or bad.

It is important to consciously choose a path.

You cannot switch back and forth between the two paths without being damaged. This leads to hypocrisy, opportunism, self-deception and ultimately leads to an unhappy life. We humans cannot serve two masters in the long run without harming our minds and our health. Sooner or later, double spies will be exposed.

I could be wrong, but I think we humans are spiritual community beings who are endowed with a heart full of love. This spiritual perspective and way of thinking opens the door to the true world, to the limitless world as it really is!

Freed from the material limitations in thinking, freed from the innumerable inhibiting thoughts of the ego and the imaginations about having - having to, about my knowledge, my abilities, my ambition, my pride or about "wanting to be right" and having to enforce it etc. And also freed from all scientific hypotheses, from beliefs, we can immediately feel and experience the miracle of life without having to reject the material, because it is a pleasant matter of the world.

With the spiritual point of view, the world opens up in its immense diversity, shows us its wealth, its wonders and its unconditional dedication to life.

We feel this great, all-embracing love.

Isn't that a liberation in thinking? Doesn't a door to happiness open here?

What would it be like to investigate anew from here and research how it really is?

In the following we want to move closer to happiness, with the knowledge from what has been said so far and with the inner certainty that I myself carry the key to happiness. I started looking for the right lock to match.

I myself carry the passe-partout for all the doors that were previously closed to me.

Pay attention: if you turn the key in one direction, the door opens, turn in the other direction, lock the door.

Mindfulness is the key with which you can open all doors.

Fortunately, everything you need to know ....

You already know everything about it.

Now it's up to you to get up and walk upright, powerful and radiant without losing sight of your goal. Try it in your everyday life, there are many people who agree to hold the mirror up to you. This is your guide for your way.

Japan, November 13^th, '95

In the morning I visited another "village", the name has been dropped. Many chickens are kept here too. My topic from my "old world" about animal welfare is still with me. I brought the emotionally charged topic of animal welfare back then from Germany. "How many square meters of meadow does a chicken need to be happy, and at what temperature does a chicken feel comfortable, etc.? I was still thinking about chickens on the green meadow in my head. During the final Kensan I asked my companion how much would be necessary to appropriately keep a chicken. He gave me a pioneering answer for my way of thinking: "It is more important for the chickens how we humans treat them, with what heart and inner attitude we take care of them. That is more important than feed ".

Little by little a completely new world opened up to me, a new perspective from which I had never seen my fellow world before, a perspective that I could not have thought of before.

Isn't it the case that the chickens don't necessarily feel good when they have a lot of space or when the stipulated temperature limits are kept in the barn? Perhaps you feel comfortable when the length of the drinking trough measures 7 cm per chicken? You can't make chickens "happy" with it!

I wonder, with what attitude do I actually meet the chickens, yes, all animals? How big is my distance from them? For me, this new insight became the key to a changed perspective, a yardstick that I want to use from now on for all living things, of course also for my fellow human beings. Often it only takes a small change in perspective. Suddenly everything becomes easier, the whole life becomes simple and with the heart you can understand immediately.

When you try to use Kensan

it happens quite often

that basic parts,

that formed the foundation

were faulty or

because everything is evolving, outdated.

Mindfulness is reflection on the moment ¹

"A large part of human problems and personal suffering arise from carelessness, recklessness, hastiness and lack of control.

A single moment of reflection would often be enough to prevent widespread harm.

Pausing makes it possible to grasp that crucial moment and, as it were, to record in slow motion where my thoughts in me, still to be shaped, are not yet fixed to a single idea or a single thought. That is the moment in which I can still weigh up and influence my action or change it. "With mindfulness it succeeds.

Mindfulness consists of the elements CONCENTRATION - INSIGHT - LOVE.

With conscious mindfulness, you can slow down or even inhibit and reverse the transition from "checking my options" to "choosing a solution".

"Such a slowdown is of crucial importance, as long as disturbing thoughts have a strong spontaneity and try to assert themselves immediately.

By slowing down or pausing, hastiness in word and deed is prevented. This prevents strife and suffering.

This slow motion gives me time to consider whether an activity or opinion is necessary or advisable in the given situation. "

Mindful pure observation takes place in the present. In the "Here and Now".

How much energy is wasted through fruitless longing for the past, through a senselessly chatty ‘ruminating’ old past banalities as well as through futile useless remorse!

How many powers are bound by thoughts about the future, such as hope and planning, fear and worry!

The past has passed and cannot be brought back.

The future is closed to us.

The thoughts of the past and future form the main material for the semi-conscious daydreaming, for my clinging to imaginations. They are the main material for our fears, which are projections into the future.

They are daydreams, meaningless, nothing more.

As soon as there is no need or no impulse for purposeful thinking and acting and thus a spiritual vacuum threatens, these daydreams like to take control of my thoughts and lead a life of their own.

They become films whose subconscious screenwriter and director I am. "

Mindful observation shows the many blurred perceptions, the unfinished thoughts and the suffocated feelings that stagger through my consciousness every day and form a growing pile of rubble in me.

Taken individually, these fragments and layers of rubble of the mind are weak, but in their summation and over a long period of time they gradually impair the sharpness of my mental functions and the malleability and flexibility of my consciousness. "¹

For this reason, real life can only be lived with mindfulness.

Mindfulness is life and life is mindfulness.

Mindfulness is taking place in this moment, right now, now.

The restless mind is hidden in these moments of mindfulness. However, he cannot bear this for long and therefore he reports as soon as my mindfulness wears off and starts immediately with his inspirations, film sequences and daydreams.

Wouldn't it be worthwhile to practice mindfulness? A full day of mindfulness, once a month, gradually more often. It is an excellent exercise to end daydreams.

Our inner world is full of unpleasant impressions, failures and conflicts, just of collected, unprocessed imaginations and new ones are added every day.

Man knows from his own bitter experience that he is often not strong enough to consciously classify each of his thoughts in imagination and fact, in daydream or reality.

He knows that he cannot have everything in his environment as he would like, and that his imaginations, drives and passions, moods and fantasies all too often gain the upper hand in his thinking and in his actions.

The help that one receives from other people can be of crucial importance - such as help through education and instruction, through human concern, material and practical personal support.

Growing mindfulness can make people receptive to the lessons that come from things themselves and from nature. You will begin to be amazed at the miracle of life and the caring love of our mother nature, which provides us with everything we need to live and be happy. We can use everything freely; however we like it.

If we learn to see this, then the little things of everyday life and the simple, familiar processes in nature will become teachers of deep wisdom.

If you slowly learn to understand this silent language of small and simple things, then confidence in my own spirit and in my hidden riches will grow. Then my personality can fully develop, and my innermost heart begins to sing.

Exercises with mindfulness

If you see how life gains clarity and lightness through the simplifying influence of mindfulness, then you will gradually be able to dismiss all unnecessary lifestyle habits and needs.

It is really a process to enjoy.

# the mind is able to observe itself. He comes to rest through inner calm and balance.

When the mind comes to rest, the body also comes to rest. When the body comes to rest, healing can begin, at all levels.

# Direct your attention exactly to what you are doing and only do this and nothing else, that is mindfulness: by keeping this one thought alive, you practice fully and fully with us on the activity you are doing.

There is nothing more important for you at this moment!

At first glance, that seems silly and banal. Why should I attach so much importance to something as meaningless as peeling potatoes?

But that's the whole point: the fact that I'm standing here now doing something is the wonderful reality.

I live. I feel myself

I feel my life, I follow my breath and I am fully aware of my presence, my feelings and thoughts and my actions, my human presence.

This awareness gives me inner strength and prevents my thoughts from being thrown back and forth like a bottle in the waves of the ocean. I enter the world of reality and can see the world of facts. There is nothing left to shake me

Therefore, if we think of something else in our work, if we want to finish, we hurry up, as if my work was superfluous, then we don't really work, we just function.

If we look closely there, we are not living at this moment. We are unable to recognize the miracle of life. B. or my manual skill. We just indulge in the restlessness within us.

If I stand at the workbench with this attitude, no work of art can be created.

So, if we can't even work consciously, then we're probably not able to drink a cup of coffee. Then we drink the coffee, but we keep thinking about something else and are not aware of the coffee we drink.

Think about our daily meal. Our mother prepared it with love, and we gobble the food without thinking about her love.

So, we make every day our life that is so beautiful and full of miracles and full of love and happiness.

What am I living for?

# The wonder of walking on earth….

Every day we take part in a miracle: the blue sky, a tree, a flower, a butterfly, children's eyes, our own eyes….

Everything is a miracle. When we set every foot on the earth with mindfulness while walking, knowing that I can live in a wonderful creation, at such moments my existence is a unique and mysterious reality.

Have you ever thought about how it works that you move your little finger? Isn't it a miracle that it just happens?

# If we tackle our tasks ...

then we need a calm mind and self-control. If we are instead guided by trouble (rejection) and anger, our work has little value. Mindfulness is the miracle with which we are in control and can always rearrange, re-adjust and let happiness happen.

This is how mindfulness works. It is the miracle that makes our absent-minded mind whole again, so that we can really live every precious minute of our life

Life is full of miracles. You can discover it anywhere.

# If you can see yourself in your neighbour,

the seed in the tree,

in your sweater the whole human family, indeed the entire universe, then you have learned to see and to live.

Every bite of food contains the life of earth and sun. The whole UNIVERSE is contained in a piece of bread

# Mindfulness means life.

Mindfulness is the living thing in us.

If there is mindfulness, there is life.

Mindfulness frees us from our imaginations and thoughts that have taken us somewhere.

When mindfulness touches something beautiful, it reveals its beauty.

When it touches something painful, it transforms it and heals it.

Mindfulness "normalizes" our way of thinking.

Mindfulness releases us from our self-clinging.

Mindfulness gives us life and lifetime.

Our work is only life if we do it with care. Otherwise you become a person who lives as if he was dead and our work is useless for us and for others.

In that way mindfulness becomes the key that opens the door to our happiness.

Acknowledge "healing" and "unwholesome" thoughts indiscriminately and equally! Take them in your arms and welcome them.

Then put the thoughts that you don't want in your basement and lock them and no longer care about them. Every thought you waste on them makes them stronger.

# We are our thoughts and feelings!

All the thoughts we express, everything we say is within us and is part of us. They are the products of our imaginations.

Our imaginations have nothing to do with reality, with the world of facts!

Our imaginations are generated by ourselves. We got the suggestion from outside.

They are not in us from birth. When we are born, we are still as clean as a blank slate.

If I want to get rid of my unpleasant feelings and imaginations, no one else can do that for me, that's my job. If I change my perspective, my scale of values, they can disappear.

The point of view is the place from which I look and judge the world, the problems, the people.

The perspective forms the basis for my happiness in life. It is crucial for healthy or sick life.

There's nothing foolish

than human life is not really

knowing and living

not really knowing yourself

not to live my real way of life,

it is a pity for life.

Adopted views of life

I align my whole life according to my imaginations and imagination. That's a fact. I act accordingly, although I do not know whether my imaginations will lead me further towards happiness and satisfaction.

You say that's normal, everyone does it? How else should you do it?

Remember: solutions based on such subjective, discoloured imaginations and limited perceptions must sooner or later lead to problems that need to be repaired.

Old problems lead to new problems, an apparently hopeless cycle that I can observe everywhere. Both when growing up our children and in environmental policy, even when preparing our food.

Even if I have learned to think and act in my own way for years without thinking about it, and even if my problem-solving strategies that I have developed have solidified into beliefs over the years, this does not mean by any means as we can see everywhere that they necessarily lead to the goal. I should check my mindset and change it if necessary.

I should accept my limited ability to perceive, with which I cannot recognize the things in my environment and with my senses. Only then do the boundaries between us melt and we can meet from human to human.

Everyone knows that. Neither age nor gender is an excuse!

We copied our way of thinking from our parents and teachers, etc.

We have adopted the way we solve problems from others. If we don't reflect and discover our own way and live according to it, who are we? Copyists?

The earth does not stand still for a moment. Everything is in constant change. Then why should I stop?

Life is change. Life is adaptation to the given circumstances. Everything that cannot adapt is lost.

When I change my mindset, my world changes.

When my world changes, the whole world changes.

What I radiate in the world it comes back to me!

It is worth reflecting and I can change my mind at any time.

It's like driving a boat across a lake. You set the destination, head for it and keep your sights firmly on the destination. Even a rough storm cannot lead the boat off course.

If you leave it up to currents and wind directions that change again and again, the boat will be driven here and there without orientation.

Like in real life.

My thoughts

are the basis of my actions!

Knowing that is especially important.

What is the basis of my way of thinking?

If the foundation of my thinking and acting on which I build my house, my life, it is in danger of collapsing from the start. As long as I have not found my never-missing path, as long as I continue to adhere to only my ideas and make them the basis of my actions without thinking, my life will remain complicated. I become more dissatisfied and it seems as if I don't want to know my true goal in life at all, as if I lose sight of my longed-for happiness in life, as if I would rather live a life out of canned goods.

In relationships, at work, with friends, etc., my problems grow because I don't know what I want. I don't see any way out either. Who takes me seriously? It is as if I want to remain in this apparently hopeless state, often combined with the feeling of fear and being delivered at an unjust fate. As if I had accepted my fate and resigned. I set up a reasonably cosy corner in the dead end of my life that I no longer have to get out of. My life consists only of duties and obedience and "must". Because I am so indomitable and hold on to my ideas, there is no hope of a happy life that I could enjoy. "It's all pointless, basta".

Because I have allowed my subjectivity to shape my life, I am in this unfortunate situation.

Knowing and remembering this is extremely helpful. From here I always see the light on the horizon.

I can let go off the fixed idea that things must be as I recognize them with my senses, and accept that they cannot be grasped with our senses, and that we cannot understand facts as such. We can only make an image. We only perceive them as stored memories, experiences and informations. All of this doesn't take place in reality, but in my head. Everything is stored there that I have stored in terms of emotions, norms, good and bad, beliefs and ways of thinking, that is, what I have determined. In unreflected everyday life, these stored thoughts are evaluated as if they were facts, i.e. really present. So they can easily become the basis of quarrel and anger because they are connected with emotions. Through mindfulness we recognize our error, we become aware that it is only a matter of thought and quarrels and anger finally disappear from the earth.

From now on and with this knowledge, I take responsibility for my actions and my whole life.

With this knowledge we recognize our own limitations and our transience and are able to meet each other as human beings from human to human. We recognize that we can only live and develop together.

I "normalize" my thoughts, it means, I check them in the world of facts to see if they last. My actions become "normal", I become "normal", my children can now also grow up "normally" and family life also becomes "normal". Nothing stands in the way of happiness.

It also affects my charisma, my facial features, my dealings with other people, it has an impact on everything, even on society. If I'm dissatisfied, it's because of my way of thinking.

When I have grief and suffer, it is because of my way of thinking!

When I'm worried and scared, it's because of my way of thinking!

If I think that others are pushing me aside or that I am unloved, it is because of my way of thinking!

When I'm sad it's because of my way of thinking.

There is no one I can blame for my way of thinking. It is time for me to face this fact and review my way of thinking.

I'm my lucky smith!

"It would be sooo easy to achieve my happiness in life.

If only I could let go ".

I can let go immediately, as the children say.

Why am I holding on?

Japan, late December 1995

What is the basis of my way of thinking?

I've been asking this question every day since I've been in Japan.

How do I actually think?

I only notice that something is wrong with my way of thinking when I tease other people. Otherwise I consider myself a "good person". But I really want to find out, so I recap:

# I get annoyed when I feel that someone is giving me "orders" when I think I should (or must) do something. Obviously I can't stand that. Immediately I feel resistance and criticism, and bad feelings arise.

# I rate everything negatively: the workplace - "it is not set up sensibly!"

the tools for working: "they are impractical!"

"it is unsafe this way" "It's so messy!" " Who damaged it?", The work itself: "this work is not useful", "poorly prepared", and so on.

People, I judge by their appearance, what they say, how they behave, my criticism stops at nothing and nobody ......

# When I do something, I want to be good at what I do, better than the others around me. This is probably because I want to be praised and patted on the shoulder: "Wow, you did it well!"

# When the work is done, I evaluate myself, usually better than the others: I was faster than the others, did more, worked cleaner, etc.

# If others do something, I definitely know something to complain about, such as "awkward", "senseless", "slow", "dirty", "unnecessary" etc.

# There is a "village shop" here in Toyosato, where you can just buy everything for free (you have to say better, you can just take everything there, "pick it up", because in reality there is no property). The "saleswoman" (also the word does not fit, it is probably more a consultant) releases the goods that you choose in the desired quantity and you go out again without paying. This is really very unusual for me and I have to be careful not to take things with me that I don't actually need.

When I think about it calmly and attentively, I realize again that in the real world there is no money and no possessions. There is only "making friends" with everything that is, and I want to actively help to build this friendship world with my limited strength. I am very clear about that. At the moment.

These different programs that are running in me all have something to do with my past. Can I ever let go of them?

Anyway. Poking around in the past doesn't help me either! All of these unloved thoughts and reviews come automatically and unrequited. There is nothing I can do about it!

Or is it?

From now on, I want to work on seeing the facts and being mindful of what actually is.

It continues in the diary

The way I think is the key to my happiness.

How do I want or have to think to be a happy person?

What is my real goal in life that I want to achieve in practice?

To find out, I should answer the following questions now:

What kind of person do I want to be?

How do I want to meet my fellow human beings and my environment? And finally:

What must the society or community I want to live in be like?

Today I am aware that I can change thoughts. I can even let go them immediately.

It takes time to change my mindset. I want to take it in any case!

In the future, I should therefore watch my thoughts carefully.

It is important to let that mindset grow in me that makes me happy and to recognize and set aside the elements that prevent this. We have dealt with this topic repeatedly so far. Such a resolution is now my primary life's work. In theory, I know all of this. My problem is to do it in everyday life, at work, etc.!!

For me, the desire to check my thoughts with care and, if necessary, to change myself, was evidently low at the moment. From now on that will change for me! That is my goal!

For those readers who can clearly imagine in which direction they want to go, the appendix lists some “realization formulas”, walking aids, with which you can address your topics (e.g. recognized obstacles in your way of thinking, in your evaluations and in their behaviour pattern ... etc., which you would like to change), can try them out practically. Pay close attention to what thoughts are making their way to the surface and how they influence your behaviour.

“Realization formulas” are “characteristics” that lead to helpful thoughts and self-knowledge. They were valuable aids for me during my stay in Japan and are still on my way to this day.

Depending on how strict you can be with yourself, what meaning you give these principles for your spiritual development, use them daily, for a week or make it your annual topic.

These realization formulas sustainably promote your intellectual development.

When I am mindful, they are my teachers and they reveal my less helpful thoughts. Then I can look at my thoughts in peace and put them aside, if necessary.

Should I lose direction on my way, with the help of the realization formulas I can orientate myself again at any time. And since there are no mistakes in the real world, everything is an important experience for me. Life in mindfulness knows no wrong ways, everything is life experience, everything is helpful.

Isn't it time this new society

that each of us yearns for

that everyone wants

to build together?

It's not exactly our life's work

that gives meaning to my life?

When I change, the world changes

Toyosato, December 21^st, '95

A special pudding is made in the pudding department. For me it is the plastering department. You should clean in the most impossible places and only with clear water!

"It's completely pointless. The old dirt sticks to it," I think. And there's a lot more going on in my head. My resistance grows and I don't start polishing happily because I feel like an exploited auxiliary worker. I'm just mad!

It helped my heart that a woman helped me wash the dirty rags I could give her off the ladder. She also helped me move the ladders. That only reduced my mood of helpers a little. Tonight, I told about it in the Order Kensan and finally recognized my preconception bias here. I could see that the pudding department is also a good place to learn and study. "If you feel like doing something, it's easy to do something. Getting pleasure is also easy". What are my resistances, why do I have to evaluate myself and my work so negatively? What do I record and why? I realize that poking around in the past is pointless. There is so much unprocessed. But I live here and now, have become a different person and only today change is possible.

Overall, I feel that the development in me is proceeding in small steps and does not end in a waiting loop or dead end. I start to be more careful with myself and to watch my thoughts and moods more carefully.

The next morning, I help the daily production in the pudding department to pack approx. 2600 pudding cups. An employee comes and shows me how to do it. The last 40 cups in particular must be sorted in the correct order! It is exactly right otherwise not everything fits in the box.

What was going on in my head about objections, better suggestions and the resistance:

"I don't do it like this !!!" It's good that I don't speak Japanese ...

"What do I really want? I'm on my way", I tell myself and can gradually normalize my resistance. Thank God.

After that, the work runs smoothly, my mood has normalized.

When I initially wished that the time in Japan would be over quickly, now I don't mind staying here any longer. There is still so much for me to do. The environment in which I can live helps me a lot in my wish of personal growth.

Everyone who lives here is on his way and it is comforting to learn again and again that I am not the only one who feels and wants to overcome his resistance and the involved difficulties.

"When I change, the world changes"

Isn't it high time that we, the people we set out to use our strength for our own happiness, for the happiness of our children and children's children and for the happiness of all people, come together and advise each other on how to build a stable human society in which I myself and every single person can really live happily ever after, in a world friendship world without environmental degradation and without wars?

Let's think together about how it should look and be organized and how we can achieve it in practice!

Yes, it is my deepest wish to become such a person who can do that. I want to live for that.

For example, young people have to try a lot to find their way. But if they destroy themselves by drugs or bulimia or if they devastate things, then you can say they don't know who they are, do not know their human origin.

You didn't come into the world to destroy. But you cannot blame them for being like that, nor for their parents.

Isn't it our society in which they grew up that made this development possible? Did the favoured circumstances create these undesirable developments?

Isn't it this new society that each of us yearns for, that everyone wants?

Isn't that precisely the purpose of life that gives my life meaning to work for the good of all?

No matter how I look at it, when I do something out of love for other people, I'm happy. Anyone can try it out in a simple way.

And this happiness cannot be imagined, this happy society can never be achieved with the conventional material way of thinking, neither by politicians nor by other social dignitaries and organizations. As long as people's mindset doesn't change, nothing can change in society!

The New Society is being realized by people like you and me. From the base.

It is up to each individual to choose this path to happiness, of their own free will.

There is also nobody who can do it for me or for you.

I want to do it practically, on my way to becoming a happy person so that this human society can become a reality.

Only happy people help each other without borders, are peaceful and give their children a human world.

For many people, at this crucial point, where they review their mindset, their deadlocked mindset intervenes, which denies this opportunity to change their mindset and themselves from the outset. It doesn't even seem worth the effort to think deeply about it, to research it and to try it out in everyday life.

It doesn't cost anything, and you can only win!

Because they cannot imagine the magnificence of this human society that will surely come, they portray it as a delusion of lost world improvers.

I am not the only one who has set off.

This Kensan method

is a unifying force

without learning narrowing theories.

Kensan is a tool

of great importance,

that leads to a happy life.

The Kensan Method⁷

1995, the year I joined

The Kensan method is the central part of the everyday life of the Yamagishi community. (I have not yet joined, not yet part of this community. I still feel like a stranger here and apart. But I notice that I am building this distance myself, because the people around me do everything to make me feel comfortable. )

Everything is regulated here with Kensan, all of life.

Startkensan if we want to start working.

Ordnungskensan, at work, when questions or discrepancies arise and when the work is finished and order is made in the head and impressions and experiences are processed and exchanged.

Specialkensan when there is a need to talk about technical issues.

Simply by emphasizing my experiences, my tension, which has sometimes built up through unpleasant events, is released. For me it is an exercise in mindfulness, through which I can look at my own way of thinking and maybe change it.

It is up to you whether you work at all and with what intensity. Everyone has free will and because a person can basically not do more than he is doing at the heart of his or her heart, everyone determines their own pace. Both when and how intensively they want to do something want. That is the principle of voluntariness. Everyone does what they can, whenever they want. So people's hearts can easily get together.

With the traditional way of thinking about "slackers and lazy bones etc.", it can easily be concluded that organization and practical work cannot work in this way.

I tried it and it works! If someone feels uncomfortable or does not come to work, another steps in, voluntarily. No reason is asked and no tally list is kept.

Yamagishi explains:

"It seems, however, because the thorough scientific research into happiness has remained immature and lagging behind, that its essence cannot be grasped, and that there is as yet nothing demonstrable on the side of theory and practice.

As for the scientific stance in both the natural sciences and the humanities, there is in the case of the Kensan method (a method developed by Yamagishi, see also under “www.tokkoh.ch, a seminar that leads to your own heart”) an epoch-making difference in the research methods used by the previous scientific circles and by society.

I think that since everything is examined with the scientific attitude, it has been quite often the case up to now that fixed things from the basic scientific theories etc. were left as they were and examined with this way of thinking.

The Kensan method, however, since it focuses on the flawless, examines, examines again, always changing the point of view, except for the foundation that forms the core: Are these scientific theories or even the material foundations, which have so far been proven, right or wrong? Aren't they one-sided?

Are they based on baseless assumptions?

In everything, but especially in the psychological area, the generally accepted theories should be checked again!

For example, something once fixed that is believed by a multitude of people is fixed in the imaginations as if it were absolutely right. "That's right!"

To check this again is apparently unnecessary or it is as if you had stated that you could not or should not be allowed to.

However, when you try to use Kensan, it happens quite often that basic parts that formed the foundation were faulty or because everything is evolving is out of date.

Because it is something that an apparently superhuman person has thoroughly studied and understood, it will probably not be easy to understand with the intelligence of an ordinary person. Because it is a fact that a lot of evidence had to be made, it is fixed as flawless.

However, if you check with Kensan, you can easily prove a gap even with such fixations, and discover and correct crept errors.

The inner attitude of this Kensan method is the view that all people form a "one body" and that all people are inseparable. Because the Kensan method eliminates everything that separates your thoughts, you meet in friendship in unity. There is no conflict with each other and people's hearts can come together. "

Yamagishi adds:

"How the Kensan Revolution of Mindset:

With the Kensan method, you try to re-examine whatever it is because you don't know if it's wrong. Fix nothing, that is the way of thinking of the Kensan method.

If this revolutionizes the way of thinking, one thing at a time is believed to be one mistake that has been believed to be correct.

One would also have to say that the revolution of the intelligentsia is to switch from the fixed-minded to the non-fixed thinking, from the narrow ego perspective to the global mindset.

Because in the dry world of intelligence you can absolutely not thrive without affection and love, and thinking together also comes to a standstill, it is absolutely necessary to clear aside all the limits that you have built up and a feeling of love and with an open heart To create harmony so that the Kensan meeting becomes a meeting of friends. A meeting where you like to exchange your thoughts without reservation and everyone can benefit from it, and because you support each other you can move forward in unity. "

At another point, he explains further about Kensan:

"Kensan is the reverse of religious thought, which believes that this or that is absolutely and by no means right and best, just believe it and get others to believe it.

Kensan is thinking of progress without fixation, always reflective, always for the best, advancing for the real as it is at the moment, but always investigating with the thought that whatever it is could be wrong.

You may say that it goes without saying.

But I wonder if the thinking of almost everyone is based on fixed ideas.

Kensan is something like the opposite of clinging to ideas or behaviour, cramming the opposite of his way without considering that I could be wrong.

It's about not using a mindset that overruns the other.

Therefore, listen to the claims of others with a sincere listening attitude and ask yourself what he wants to say, think yourself into him and want to feel him.

In this way, this Kensan method becomes a force that unites all people, without learning limiting theories, in order to then apply them with great difficulty.

The inner attitude of this Kensan method is the view that all people form a "one body" and all people are inseparable. Because the Kensan method eliminates everything that separates your thoughts, you meet in friendship in unity. There is no conflict with each other and people's hearts can come together. "

In the Kensan meeting we sit together in a circle, eliminate disturbing thoughts and meet in friendship. It's going to be a meeting everyone is happy to come to. Because there is no mistrust and no opposition to one another, hearts can become one.

If you think

that there is no love, no affection,

that is in moments

if the expression of love

or the flow of love stands still.

But love exists

everywhere, always, in everything.

We are on the way

The truth is that we do not live in this world through our own powers, but that we are given life and we are allowed to live within the great mechanisms of the universe. Therefore, we humans naturally live an existence in accordance with the laws of the world that we have apparently forgotten. We humans are unable to change the creative powers of nature.

We grew out of great love and are returning there. The return to our origin, to the guiding principle that is imprinted on us humans, is the starting point of the thoughts that lead to the building of the new human society for all humans. They should be the foundation for powerfully following the practical path to happiness and love.

a lifestyle:

1. Pay attention to the perspective.

Depending on the aspect from which I look at a problem, I come to different results.

2. Develop a modesty that comes from the heart.

Demonstrative humility repels people. It's hypocrisy. The call for recognition!

3. The world is already a paradise today.

I can see the Garden of Eden we are allowed to live in and the wonders that surround me. What is there to criticize?

4. I make sure to see the world of facts and do not let my thoughts turn to the world of the dark night.

Landmarks for a mind connected to the heart:

1. Forgiveness.

I forgive myself and all people. There is no good and bad, no wrong and no right. All events in life are experiences on our way of life. There is no rejection or condemnation.

2. Gratitude.

Isn't it a gift to feel gratitude? It is pure joy.

3. Compassion for myself and all people and things.

Compassion melts all resistance and criticism like ice in the sun.

Giving good thoughts has a very sublime and profound effect. It works most sustainably. What I give comes back to me. It enters the human field¹⁰ and spreads across the world.

Our real enemy is

never a specific person.

Our real enemy

is a certain way of thinking

and this mindset is

that causes so much suffering in the world.

Thich Nhat Hanh

One family

You and I, all of humanity, we are all children of nature, created and shaped from the same material.

Aren't we all breathing the same air?

Aren't we all warmed and nourished by the one sun?

Aren't we living in the same house of Mother Earth that gives us a cosy house and home, food and clothing and everything we need to live and grow happily?

Aren't we all eating from the same plate, aren't we all drinking from the same cup?

Don't we all have the same dream of finally enjoying life together in peace, satisfaction, security and happiness?

If we pause and reflect, are we not already living in a paradise, all of us, together as one large human family?

Aren't we all together a great human body that could only develop its shape and its abilities and progress through the cooperation of all and has so far produced great achievements that show the high level to which humanity has been able to develop to date?

It is my life that is anchored in all life!

Don't we feel the pain when others are bad?

Shouldn't we spontaneously help other people out of need?

Aren't we happy when others are happy?

Doesn't the suffering of others also become our suffering?

Many people are persecuted or suffer from hunger or live in areas where the war is raging.

Aren't we feeling with them?

Do not we all wish that the leaders in our world finally act according to their real tasks, see their true role, namely to create circumstances so that people can live together happily and contentedly?

Their mistake is nothing more than sliding down to the level of the material thinking, which they have made the basis of their actions, from which all wars and all troubles in our world stem.

And if people come to us from this need, don't we want to help spontaneously? Support them, so that they and their children can grow up in a better, more peaceful world?

It's not just people in Europe who think that way, people feel like that everywhere in the world.

I often ask myself, how do people come to deny their inner essence so vehemently, to devote themselves completely to the material I-alone thinking, to pursue one another and to harm other people?

How did it come about that they got off the path and sometimes act beyond all humanity?

How do people get to shamelessly exploit other people and nature?

Thich Nhat Hanh⁵ says: “I would like to invite you to look deeply in order to recognize the real enemy.

He is never a specific person.

Our real enemy is a certain way of thinking and it is it that causes so much suffering in the world.

We should take the opportunity to sit, calm down, to recognize the real enemy within us and to look for ways to overcome it.”

If you expose this destructive way of thinking in yourself, you can change it. Blaming other people for my misfortune is the expression of helplessness, of ignorance.

Japan, January 18t^h, '96

Yesterday and today we were harvesting oranges again. Yesterday was beautiful weather and we harvested over 240 containers, a really good harvest. I saw a piece of paradise. This wealth!

And everything is free, everything that nature gives us, even the joy of being able to enjoy this abundance and pass it on to others. Isn't it a mercy to feel gratitude?

When man gives what he can give and organizes everything well and prepares the ground and his heart, nature always does its best.

It always does, according to the conditions that prevail. That means. for us humans who study conditions that are necessary in this situation and do this with the heart that wants to become one.

It is adapting to the cycle of life. Perhaps that is our destiny: to become one; wataschi wa anata - anata wa wataschi desu. From this point of view, oranges and humans are mutually dependent. It is not clear who needs whom more. We need each other.

We should think carefully about

whether not all of our actions

serves only one purpose,

namely to be happy

to live together happily.

The world is one

We all live together in a single and unique world and through the inseparable connection of the individual people - cells with each other, we all form together, together a human unity-nature unity, a "one body" with Mother Earth and everything that lives on it.

There is no part in this unit that can detach itself from it. Although this connection is not noticeable for most people, it is still there!

Each individual part can only exist thanks to the harmonious interaction of all parts. Do we want to move this thought for ourselves and our life within us?

Isn't it reassuring to know that I am not alone, that I am safe and supported and embraced of all?

Japan, January 19^th, '96

Today Kensan was intense with all new arrivals. The topic: "What do you want here, go back home". A provocative topic that really stimulated deep thought: What do I actually want here? I had asked myself this question many times. Critical whenever something went wrong according to my imaginations. Or if I couldn't let go of my reviews (I like that, it doesn't; that's good, that's bad ...). With my thoughts I fell back into my old pattern of "ownership" and into my old way of life. Life with the Yamagishis then seems strange and arduous to me, and gloom and doubt attack me.

With this challenging question, all heavy thoughts and doubts are now blown away. Because the answer is clear: I want to be a happy person.

I want to live in friendship with everyone else and move forward.

I want to build a happy society with everyone and create a new world for my children.

I want to free myself from all my self-clinging and finally:

I want to become a public person and let myself be needed and I want to do everything I do with joy, without effort. That is my goal.

"First friendship", with this attitude I want to meet everyone. The goal that I don't want to lose sight of.

"Go back home", I clearly notice that the old home no longer exists, is dissolved. Where I had built my ties, where I used to be at home, that's no longer possible. My home is wherever I am and where I am right now, so here in Japan.

And something else came to light on this topic: when will I fly back to Germany and where will I really be needed? I want to give myself to it fully and let myself be used for whatever, serves to rebuild the new society.

I no longer allow myself to be deterred or distracted from the large mountain of my "legacy (self-clinging)" that is present in me. I have recognized my path; I want to go steadfast!

I have patience with me. After all, it took years to build old Adam. It takes time to change the mindset into the "new life".

The true world:

"Subdue the earth" is the Creator's request not to become dominated by the material side of life, is it not?

Neither money nor possessions, prestige or fame, neither appearance, age or physicality.

Because of our common spiritual basis, we humans also have a common material basis for our physiology. These similarities start with the genetic code.

All people on earth have 46 chromosomes.

The difference in skin and hair colour in the DNA, in size growth and body shape is so minimal that it is not yet sufficiently well known in every detail and much can be attributed to the environmental influences. The basic cell structure of humans, animals and plants is the same.

Our own cell structure, its system, is even identical to the cells of all animals and plants! Isn't that a miracle?

It is said that the difference between human anatomy and pig cell structure is almost identical. Yes, even the potato should have as many chromosomes as humans!

All life works according to the same, wonderful principle of harmony, which we can also call love.

And this principle is so complex, the mechanisms of life are so miraculous that they will ultimately remain closed to the human urge to explore our material world.

Therefore, it seems very unlikely that life, especially that human beings from a Darwinian series of "trial and error" could have arisen accidentally. But that is still the standard teaching at universities today.

There is no coincidence that people with their great creative and social skills, just as little as all of creation.

Despite these many similarities, we all come from the same source, many people believe to be better than others, to have to rise above other people, to have to exclude other people, because of the skin colour, because of their believe of God or their descent etc. etc. etc.

These people turn their backs on happiness.

Isn't our world a whole? Aren't we all living together in paradise right now?

Those who exclude others, exclude themselves, disturb paradise and suffer.

Let us assume from now on that this one-body view is a basic principle on which all life on earth and all nature is based.

Everything seems to exist according to this principle and to work naturally according to this principle.

Everything that a single "part" effects has an impact on the whole, the state of the whole has an effect on every single part! Just like our own body:

When we have injured ourselves, the whole body feels this injury, apparently “every cell knows about it” and all cells, every part of the body and every organ tries to help that this injury is healed so that the whole body is healed.

So, if we are seriously looking for happiness and want to live happiness, then we, even part of this great unity, should not exclude anyone from it, not even ourselves.

Even if we reject someone, we distance ourselves from happiness.

We are part of one large, global body. Humans and nature are parts of this body.

Living this is the most important condition of happiness.

The world is one. It is not divisible!

The human body one. It is not divisible!

All nature is one body and is not divisible.

Just like nature, life is not divisible.

To live is to live. Every moment.

Rediscover the wonder of life every day. This is life.

Some people say running on water is a miracle.

Isn't it a miracle to go?

How many million impulses and reactions in our body are necessary to put one foot in front of the other?

Sufferers describe that the lack of a toe alone makes walking difficult. Or do you perhaps know how many impulses are necessary so that you can move your hand for the many daily tasks? Isn't everything a miracle?

Do you know how it works to move a finger? Check this out for yourself and say how you do it, very specifically.

It just works, but how do you do that?

Life is the harmonious interplay of all body functions and parts, including the brain, which enables us to happily prepare food for the family or go for a walk in the forest, hear the birds chirping, to be touched by the beauty of the trees and the deep Feel the peace that surrounds me in the forest.

I feel the soft forest floor under my feet, amaze at the big trees that have arisen from a tiny seed, see the lush green of the leaves and the deep peace calms me and heals my mind.

A forest walk in mindfulness becomes a great experience and just walking consciously and moving becomes a great miracle.

Doesn't bother you, the tranquillity of nature. Listen and enjoy their whispers that woo your love.

I can only experience such a moving experience if I live consciously, if I stay completely with myself with my attention, if I open my heart to the many impressions and feelings.

If I can see the seed in the tree, then I also see the miracle of life that works in everything. That is mindfulness. Living carelessly means only being blind and deaf.

So, every action becomes something special, a ritual! That is mindfulness. And mindfulness is life. ¹

That is mindfulness. And mindfulness is life. 1

The paths to happiness, however different they may seem, are the same for everyone.

After all, they all flow into one big sea, where we all find ourselves.

The fact that everyone has a different approach to achieving his happiness and everyone has more or less trouble in one or the other practical exercise is in the nature of everyone.

Japan, January 14^th, '96

Yesterday we were in Nanki-Mihama, a village about 3 hours' drive from Toyosato, to harvest oranges. On a break we did the ocean, the Pacific! a stop.

For the first time on the Pacific, on the other end of the world! There was a special feeling of joy in me. At least I had to put my feet in the water, I owed it to my joy.

Then we went to the "orchard". They have about 22 hectares of citrus fruits, mandarins, oranges, grapefruit and a few lemon trees. The weather was summerly warm, the air was fresh from the sea and the trees were full of oranges. A beautiful, unusual sight that I could enjoy. The rich nature gives us humans.

All we have to do is accept the gifts. We have to find out what that means for us.

We ourselves, with our great abilities, which we often leave unused, often do not accept gifts, even those that are hidden within us.

Such thoughts go through my head when I see this. We, no, I still have a lot to learn. How much more does nature have for us when we start to see, when we learn to deal with it? We humans are so immeasurably gifted that no one in the world has to starve or freeze.

I want to change that from my place! But if I do not change my old way of thinking, all efforts are probably useless.

Another picture arises in me: oranges and people are mutually dependent. Without the people here, there would be no oranges. Means, the oranges here need people and people need oranges. Who uses whom here is not as clear as it appears at first glance. In any case, it can be assumed that it is an aspect of the unity of man and nature, from "I am you - you are me".

With this picture in my heart, I could happily harvest oranges all day long. The other people around me were also cheerful and relaxed, telling stories at work or humming a melody. Even if I didn't understand the language, I felt deep satisfaction and connectedness in and around me.

My topic came back to me: "Harmony between people, human actions and nature."

I realized again that we are not individuals. I live with everything that is together in this one world! Individualism is simply an invention of the restless human mind. Individualists want to set themselves apart, from nature, from people, animals and plants. Because they are afraid? What is the individualist afraid of?

The human species has skills that other animals do not. We have free will with which we were born. Nevertheless, our penchant for "I - alone - thinking", for individualism, which obscures clear thinking and makes us unfree, seems coupled with the special abilities of our minds to lead us to the brink of catastrophe and even self-extinction.

Further in the diary: The limits of senseless growth have been reached, now people need new information to secure their own existence. For me, Yamagishi's findings mean that there is an alternative that not only enables people to survive safely, but also a quantum leap in the direction of human development. And this is practically carried out here in the villages. You don't need a degree or doctorate to do this. And after all the signs that I experience here in Toyosato and in other villages in Japan, this development is practically taking place in large steps.

The one-body view is in my opinion the most important aspect that is sought in the alternative scene in Germany and which is not found or not yet practiced in most communities. It is the revolution in thinking.

"If I change, the world changes".

This thought of the wealth with which nature gives us humans continues to weave in my head the next day.

What use is my personal little happiness and joy if people around me live in misfortune?

What can I do in practice to ensure that my happiness is transferred to others and that they too become happy? That's my question.

Maybe we can learn something from animals about our social behaviour, from ants or bees or from dolphins or whales or from everyone. Everywhere it is about the survival of the species, each individual finds his place and works for the well-being and survival of the whole and enjoys it at home in the community. Perhaps this is basic information, some knowledge in nature that is hidden in humans. Great projects can be realized together, as our prehistoric ancestors showed us: the pyramids in Egypt, the buildings of the Mayas and Incas in Peru, the stone figures of the Easter Islands, Stonehenge and other souvenirs of our ancestors in many other places around the world. It was, however, a community effort!

It's a shame,

not knowing your own life

not knowing yourself

It's a shame,

not knowing his mindset.

Isn't it a shame about life?

Japan, November 12^th, '95

In the large village of Toyosato, where I have been for a few days, I have been graded into egg-picking in the large chicken coops designed by Yamagishi. The stables are adapted to the natural needs of the chickens. They have sun during the day, are protected from the weather and predators and can scratch their natural needs with a special soil litter. The chicken families are no larger than approx. 20 chickens and one rooster, there are 4 families per barn. As a result, the chickens can live according to their nature, do not experience any stress and in addition to the egg blessing they give us, a high-quality dry fertilizer is also created over time.

When collecting eggs, I should pay attention to whether a chicken wants to breed. This chicken then no longer lays eggs and is therefore locked in a special cage for 2 days, then the brood frenzy is over, and it lays eggs again. I feel "sorry" for these chickens and try to persuade myself not to. This concerns me all the time and I wonder, is it right to put the chicken in the cage, should I stand up to my friends who have experience in keeping chickens? I myself have no idea about chicken life, I don't know the chicken language either.

On the other hand, I feel that we humans and all beings are connected and that I want to look after the chickens with such a heart.

In the end, I can trust the experience of others and simply let go of my imaginations of right and wrong. I just give it a try, put the chicken in the cage and want to see how I feel about it.

After all, even in the cage, the chicken is not separate from me and part of the big picture. Togetherness, everyone at their own level and everyone as best they can. Also, the plants and the cereals that "give themselves" as feed and the vegetables and fruits that serve us as food, and the fungi and bacteria, our little helpers in the soil everywhere. That is the harmony of life in which we are embedded. We can freely use everything in nature. Why shouldn't we humans also do what only we humans can do and be mindful of animals and plants? To meet other people with love and compassion, but also take our place in creation and develop and grow as human beings?

Isn't it really responsible dealing with our one-body, with everything that is: humans, animals and all of nature?

The biblical word "subdue the earth" comes to mind and in my mind it can only mean one thing: do not let your material feelings, thoughts and imaginations rule you, not your desires nor lust or addiction. Everything has its meaning and its place; everything has its time!

This wealth that surrounds us is a gift to use with care. Therefore, do not make yourself a picture that dominates you, but look at the world and everything as it really is, as it is visible to you as a fact.

Let's do Kensan about it, knowing that I could be wrong too.

I think we humans are spiritual beings.

The mental point of view and way of thinking

first opens the door to the real world,

to the world as it really is!

Am I the architect of my own happiness?

What prevents me from being a happy person, what prevents me from living a happy and contented life together with my children, my partner, my neighbours and everyone around me, with all animals and everyone Planting, I see myself again and again in situations where I reach my limits: I am in a dispute with my partner, there are differences of opinion, with the boss, with the neighbours or friends. I feel like "I have to fight back" against unfair evaluations etc.

I experience myself misunderstood and my feelings and imaginations and thoughts as something separate from the rest of the world. It is like a kind of optical illusion of my consciousness because at the same time I painfully perceive my own limitations. I want to be a good person. It can feel like loneliness or abandonment.

For example, I hear (evil) words and interpret them. "Now he has insulted or accused me". I immediately feel hurt and have heavy, accusatory thoughts. My pulse is accelerating. I notice that something is working within me that I cannot clearly name. I feel it all over my body. I get restless, can no longer think clearly. "It" wants to take me off the path or "force" me to take actions that I want to undo later when I have come to rest.

Or, the neighbour scolds me or the boss reprimands me, my partner argues with me, etc. That always makes me feel bad, it makes me restless, sometimes even angry.

The physical process is quite simple and unspectacular: Sound waves reach my ear and are picked up by my auditory organ and converted into words and terms. Now I start to analyse the terms and according to my value system I have built up, the word gets a meaning. Only now the chaos begins in me. This process runs automatically and very quickly.

At the very beginning of this process, there is a short moment in which the decision to act is still formable, in which I can still choose whether I want to react in this way or whether I want to hold back.

Objectively there is no reason to be restless. Nevertheless, it is like a compulsion that increases my pulse rate, suddenly makes me act carelessly or paralyzes my clear flow of thoughts or makes me sad.

I feel angry or offended. suppressed or misunderstood. Just because I think I've been insulted. But I don't know exactly! Maybe my counterpart wanted to express something completely different, or he was in an angry mood and couldn't help it.

There are countless imaginations that I can make myself unhappy with just because I believe it. But I do not know for sure.

But even if it was the intent of my counterpart to "insult" me or to provoke me. Is an aggressive response from me absolutely necessary? Does the behaviour of my counterpart not only show me his inability to gain control over his moods? Do I have to participate?

The opposite in my imagination also makes me act carelessly:

I feel superior to others, progress professionally because I outperform others, maybe push them aside.

I am successful in finding a partner.

I earn a lot of money, can afford anything.

I have a large "circle of friends" etc.

These two levels of feeling, the hurt, the inferiority etc. on the one hand and the "success", the pride, the superiority and the high spirits and the apparent "happiness" on the other hand disappeared immediately when it was in the other Direction goes. This makes it clear to us that we are in the unreal world of imaginations. The world of our imagination conjures up images in us that do not correspond to reality, to the world of facts.

Everything I feel there is so fleeting and maybe tomorrow it will be forgotten.

In a few days I will no longer know why I was sad. What was the reason why I argued?

Surely everyone knows such or similar imaginations and feelings and images.

This clinging to your own imagination,

this belief in one's own value system can be called self-clinging. It is clinging to the ego that tells me what to do or not to do. It clings to the correctness of my own thinking and my value system.

I'm certainly not really happy in such situations.

Isn't it time to examine these processes deep inside of me:

- so that I can get to know myself better and create order in my world of thoughts and feelings?

- so that I can better understand my special way of thinking?

- so that I can carefully examine my value system.

With the goal of changing my mindset towards "I don't really know if I'm right with my opinion, what is it really like?"

It takes time and patience to change my mindset

I can let go of my way of thinking right now.

That's a fact.

Why am I holding onto my way of thinking?

What is it that is forcing me

to cling so strongly to my thought patterns?

This is one of the central questions in everyone's life.

If you can answer this question completely, you have found direct access to stable, permanent happiness.

Your facial expression changes, your perspective broadens and you begin to perceive the music of happiness, which vibrates in all things, in you and in all of nature. True freedom begins here. You think I'm exaggerating?

Japan on December 1^st, '95

At the start of the Kensan school - this is a place where you can learn more about practicing Kensan - we were able to write down an impression of our previous experiences and our expectations.

Then the first round of Kensan began. Under the "pressure" of my previous life experiences, I wanted to present everything I show about myself and what others should learn about me in a particularly positive way because I wanted to be included in this community. So, I played my role as one who ended up studying. I played my role as someone who knows a lot and definitely knows how it is right or wrong, knows how to do it right. I, the person who oversees everything, in short, I played my part. I was able to formulate everything quite well and was even a little proud of myself. My companion, who translated for me, noticed this very quickly and asked me, "How are you going to do Kensan if you don't expose and publish your real thoughts and feelings, what really moves you?"

This has deepened me. For me it was like being exposed in public.

"I have such great inhibitions about disclosing my true feelings and thoughts to everyone."

But how do I want to get rid of my self-clinging if I continue to cultivate my ego with my self-presentation? When I think I'm good, it means that others are not as good as I am. Isn't that really stupid of me to think so?

Slowly, little by little, I became "braver" with the publication of my thoughts and feelings, and the more authentic I became, the more freely I felt and the closer I got to the other participants.

This Kensan meeting was a central turning point in my further life. Be authentic! First of all. My theme.

If I change my mindset

my world changes.

When my world changes

the whole world changes.

What I shine into the world

come back to me!

Love is the root of all life.

Love and mindfulness awaken in us humans compassion for all creatures, because it enables us to feel our own failing nature and fills us with wonder, awe and gratitude to be at home in this perfect creation.

It enables us to listen to the sounds of happiness that vibrates in all life and in all things, in nature and also in you.

Only love can teach you this mindfulness and bring you awareness to hear the wonders of the world with which she wants to open your heart.

Love enables you to be grateful.

Isn't it lucky to feel gratitude?

Love and happiness belong together, are inextricably interwoven. Happiness is a principle of life.

Everyone wants to live happily! All doing arises from the deep, natural desire to be happy.

Japan, December 16^th, '95

How about my "I" with myself? I've been asking this question for a few days. Perhaps my ego is pushing to the fore now because it is afraid to be completely abandoned in this environment and therefore keeps reminding itself?

Then where's my "I"?

What is left of me when my ego is dissolved? That sounds threatening.

First of all, I can say that no matter what I imagine, everything is as it is, regardless of my imagination or my wish.

How is it with me if my "I" is only my illusion that only exists in my imagination, in my thoughts and feelings?

When my mind is just a trick in my brain to function and survive? If the brain were nothing more than a stimulus - reaction mechanism? Comparable to barking a dog against a stranger? Or the blooming of a flower in spring?

What if my will to dissolve my ego, combined with my current knowledge and the associated changes in my thinking and acting, which affects my whole life, only opens up my true human being?

It could serve as proof that our whole life is based on illusions, orientating on illusions.

But if we change our point of view and base our thinking on the facts and think with the intelligence of the heart, our value system changes and then our whole life changes.

From people who chase money and fame to people who turn to spiritual life, who want to live in friendship with everyone, open their hearts and let love flow. Is there anything more important?

It is a pioneering approach, but for many people it is incomprehensible and therefore cannot be implemented.

Doesn't social development always go beyond changing the way of thinking of individuals?

I think there is no other way for the future of mankind than this: "If I change, the world will change". It is, what I will begin now.

When the limitations of the ego are no longer there, people can live freely and happily again, plan their future and move forward together. That seems to be a natural law. Apparently, this natural principle also seems to work in animals. Perhaps this quantum leap has already reached us unnoticed?

We humans can and must use our intellect, which can reflect. Then a happy life is normal. Animals can do that naturally.

I think of a book about the fall of Atlantis. It seems that the Atlanteans lived without the limits of the ego. At some point, however, they must have become unfaithful to this principle, the ego expanded, and a conflict developed, and the empire crumbled. What is written about the trials of priests in ancient Egypt sounds similar.

A face is nothing more than the sum of self-clinging.

The "I - alone - thinking" is always lonely and dissatisfied and always wants more.

Our way to happiness is to crucify this "I - alone - way of thinking"!

The ego takes. Love gives.

Here the paths fork. One way leads to happiness in the bright sun, the other in the dissatisfaction of "wanting something" and then "wanting to be more" and then "wanting more" and afterwards .... The ego is limitless.

All BEING states

like love, compassion, mindfulness

and finally awareness

are strong energetic states

of the ONE BODY WORLD,

in which we are at home in reality.

Love is more

You cannot give or take love piece by piece. You can let it flow if you open your heart and put aside all opposition and rejection. This means that it flows on its own and you hinder its flow if you close your heart. The further you open your heart, the stronger the stream of love becomes.

It is noticeable but not physically visible, it is everywhere and permeates everything and nobody can understand it and reason cannot prevent it.

It is like an inexhaustible source of energy, like a battery that has stored an unlimited amount of power that does not run out, no matter how much power is released.

Love is the BEING state. That is life in itself. Love is harmony and harmony is love.

This reality begins with "dematerializing" in thinking, begins with listening to yourself to be able to listen to everything, begins with mindfulness to activate respect and compassion to live it.

Love begins to flow with mindfulness.

All states of BEING like love, compassion, mindfulness and finally awareness are strong energetic states of the ONE BODY WORLD in which we are actually, ALSO AT THIS MOMENT, at home. Nobody can prevent it, the ONE BODY WORLD,

in which we are actually at home. Nobody can prevent it.

"One body" means that man and nature and everything that is form an inseparable great unity. Everything is connected to everyone and everything is dependent on everyone.

All of our feelings are sprouts, branches and leaves of this great, universal love. You can also call them God because God is love. Because the concept of God is so pre-loaded with imaginations and fixed ways of thinking, I would like to stick to the term "love" instead.

Our longing is the longing for this primary reason for unity. Our "unpleasant" feelings such as anger and hate etc., our torments, hardships and fears and also our grief come from doubts about it, come when love is invisible, imperceptible to us.

Smiling is a way to approach love, such as singing, dancing or painting.

Opening your heart and becoming "vulnerable" is another.

If you are really in the unit, you cannot be hurt at all because "being hurt" is just an illusion.

This is the first step towards freedom.

The first big step towards happiness is overcoming material thinking, which also means eliminating the separation between people and nature and breaking down the walls around me.

Because I was careless, they grew unnoticed, little by little. Now I can perceive my lashed mindsets, my beliefs or victim roles that I have slipped into. These are the walls around me. They seemed insurmountable to me today.

But when I started to remove the first stone from it with the will to tear it down once and for all, I suddenly noticed how dilapidated the wall is. It just breaks down and I have a clear view of real life again.

Personal happiness can be done and planned!

I am the only one who prevents it. I am also the only one who can make it happen for me!

Happiness grows with love, mindfulness and awareness, from which compassion naturally springs.

The free will of man is a gift and an expression of love. So, my will becomes mindfulness and awareness. Both properties are constructive and overcome all limits. Then love flows from the heart, it becomes the source of constructive thinking. Love is constructive.

At this point we recognize that my happiness, love and my one-body life form a unity. Without love or without one-body life, there can be no real happiness.

All of these insights are useless if I do not implement them in everyday life.

Let us become friends and because there is nothing else to do, we make a living along the way, we build a house together, we cultivate the field ...

(This was the topic under which I experienced the 14-day Kensan school. Full of enthusiasm about what I experienced, I wrote the following entry in my diary.)

Switzerland, January 9^th, '98

These 14 days of Kensan school made it clear to me where I am now. I have become a little bit more transparent, the We has moved closer together.

My path has become clear again, it will be interesting.

How seriously do I really mean to get rid of my self-clinging in order to be a person who is at heart at heart with everything that is, whatever happens, with whoever? Without rejection!

It was the most intense thing I've ever known about one-body life. So deep, so honest, so human, so clear and simple and yet so far from me.

Once again, I have deeply noticed that I am a person full of self-clinging, who must always act according to his own way of thinking, as if under pressure. Who defies the opinions and wishes of others with the old way of thinking: "I want to assert myself!" or "I'm better". It seems to me that the annual topic is best for me:

"1998 - Without self-clinging, basically one heart "

I just hung it up in the bedroom so I wouldn't forget it. That's how I see it every morning when I get up. It should remind me of my promise to me every day.

I would like to write down some of the priorities of the Kensan School straight away:

The topic "performances" ran through all Kensan rounds of the Kensan school. Most of it has been forgotten again, but I can clearly feel that the core remains somewhere in me.

I experienced the first highlight in the Self-Clinging Kensan. As if a curtain had been torn down, I clearly felt I can really let go of all my self-clinging and "normalize" myself, indulge in the great river.

Whenever a situation becomes strange, when I feel uncomfortable, insecure or want to run away, I want to stop. I seriously check my lashed thoughts, even splinters of thoughts, and publish them at the upcoming Kensan meeting. Whatever it is. That is my firm resolution for the future. If I can do that, I can get rid of all my self-clinging. Only then can my true self come out permanently. What does it look like?

I want to use my workplace as a place where I can try it all out. I want to test myself and my way of thinking every day, again and again.

I never want to get tired or fall asleep again.

"Let's be friends and because there is nothing else to do, we build a house together".

With this sentence in my heart, I want to enjoy 1998. I would like to prepare my current job so that the young people who come to us from other "villages" can grow. I don't want to talk them into their work and leave everything up to them so they can get started and try it out. Do not criticize or blame or incriminate them, secretly or directly. They should be able to try everything out themselves and make mistakes, that's how they grow.

In the Possession - Kensan, a world was shown to me that was previously closed to me. "It doesn't belong to anyone" was the theme.

I had already let go my material possessions when I entered the community. The furniture and the car were now used by others. That was not a hurdle for me.

But not my ownership: I had given up all of my "possessions", that is, everything I had in terms of material, but in my thinking it had passed into the "possession" of the village. There was a new "owner" for me. I certainly hadn't given in to the world of no possessions, the world without possessions.

There is no possession in the world of facts. Things are used by people for a limited time, then they change users again. I had never seen it that way before.

But what moved me even more, all of my standards, with which I have judged and rated everything so far, are based on ownership! My judgments in "Good" and "Bad", in "Right" and "Wrong", sprout from ownership. My pride in my knowledge and ability is nothing more than ownership. I want to let go of it as soon as possible and release myself from this confinement of desire and possession. Ownership prevents that I can merge with everything, that I can really make friends with everyone. If I can really let go of my ego, how rich and friendly will my world be? I no longer have to pretend, no longer pretend and lie. I can enjoy everyday life as I really feel at the moment!

Growing with everyone.

If something happens, I can laugh, nothing happens, it's good too. The real self can come out, it wants to get in touch and become one with everything.

At heart I am one. That's how I feel now.

I am aware that this process will not end overnight; maybe it takes the rest of my life to do that. It doesn't matter!

Place myself in the world of rich hearts.

"Let's be friends, and because there's nothing else to do, we'll keep a few chickens or bees."

Why am I here in this community, I wonder? But not to work! I want to develop into a real person who can live "one body", who wants to grow and prosper together with the others.

I never want to forget this thought in the future!

I want to use the environment in which I can live, the workplace, the village and the people and the connection to them to take the steps that move me forward, namely to track down my self-clinging, to clearly recognize the underlying way of thinking, let them go and then change my mindset.

"Man is a part of the whole that we call the universe, a part limited in space and time. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as separate from everything else - a kind of optical illusion of consciousness. This deception is a kind of prison for us, limiting us to our own preferences and affection for a few close ones. Our goal must be to free ourselves from this prison by expanding the horizon of our compassion until it encompasses all living beings and all of nature in all its beauty. "

Einstein

Little Love

Many people use the energy of their love quite sparingly by restricting their love to a small group of relatives, friends and family. The idea of ​​universal love seems inaccessible to them because it seems superhuman and unreachable. We are all born out of it, it is in us, it is our source. Every little spark arises from this love, which we can grow into a great flame, if we feel it inside, from this source of universal love.

The little love in us humans flows out into our surrounding.

It is our decision whether we let this river flow economically or generously. We could let it flow generously on all sides, because the stream of love does not dry up.

If he troubles me or tires me, it wasn't true love but selfish.

As long as we block the free flow of love within us, we tend to impose limits on our immense love energy and limit it.

This happens for many different reasons: it is socially recognized to limit love to your own family and friends and to leave the rest of humanity outside, etc.

Of course, this happens from the idea that we have to protect ourselves. We think we make ourselves vulnerable and therefore try to prevent possible injuries and keep fears and worries away from us. Maybe also because we have bad experiences with love within us. But that could not have been love, e.g. Sympathy, infatuation or desire.

All of these experiences and errors are part of human life. They are part of growing.

The bigger our circle, to which we extend our love, the more love begins to flow. All-encompassing love and compassion take the place of egocentric, tiny love.

Love connects, it is a great healing power.

It brings opposites together and makes differences common. When we let love flow in our hearts, we naturally share this deep love with other people. It can be felt in every gesture, in the facial expression and in the posture.

When I try to free myself from this principle, when I try to separate myself from great love, my problems begin, I become dissatisfied, the grief moves in and finally I even get sick.

When many individual elements in a community get sick, the whole thing finally gets sick, like a living body.

"A human being is part of the whole, we call this universe, limited by time and space"

Einstein

Because a lot of people

can't imagine

the magnificence of

this new human society,

that will come for sure

imagine it as a fantasy

lost world improver.

The radical world Z revolution⁷

The following treatises and quotes reflect basic statements from Yamagishi's oeuvre. Since they are scientific, in-depth texts, they are not easy to understand and require special attention. In addition, when translating from Japanese, care was taken to translate as literally as possible, which resulted in a rather bumpy German text, the reader is additionally faced with the arduous task of working out the meaning of the text.

Then you need a conscientious reflection on how the insights from the texts flow into your daily life and how they can be put into practice. Since every person has only a limited view, those who want to continue working should exchange imaginations with other people and talk about their insights. I recommend it. In the loneliness of a single life, far-reaching insights that lead to a change in the way of thinking are extremely difficult to achieve. Very few succeed.

Shortly after joining the community, I was lucky enough to go to Japan for a few months in a sister village.

My goal for Japan was to become a happy person. That should mean for me, I want to put aside everything that prevents me from being happy, such as e.g. my pride and my arrogance, my rejection, my judgment, my.... There are so many idiosyncrasies that hinder me, they all flow into my big ego.

Instead of criticizing, etc., I want to practice mindfulness in a friendly life with all people and things. And in compassion for all beings.

I want to practice opening my heart whenever I notice that I am closed. I know that this task will take several years, if not all of my life. But in the end, I have to start if I want to go my way to becoming a happy person. So why not today?

That is why I started to keep a diary to write everything that is difficult for me in my everyday work at work or in dealing with other people or things, events that do not fit into my world view and cause my criticism or what I do in my everyday life in the village of Toyosato I noticed my way of thinking.

October 31^st, '95 Arrival in Toyosato

"I don't know what to write first.

Is that supposed to be a community?

That should work without a boss or guru and without money? I don't see anything that reminds me of communities in Europe, that reminds me of temporary or lack of money. No "junk" in hidden corners. The houses are also up to date inside, each with air conditioning, clean and well maintained. People meet with friendly faces. Here is a real wealthy village. The village street has just been finished, the last paving stones are still being laid, everything should be ready for the upcoming major world exhibition.

It is really impressive, an entire village in such splendour. Everywhere you meet people who greet each other kindly and look relaxed and happy.

In the afternoon we want to help, the new ones, to pave a path.

That doesn't seem to me to be well prepared. I will be there at the agreed time. There is only one man on the construction site, who obviously does not really know what is planned. (And already my criticism begins: what a bad organization ....).

Stop it! I want to do my best and just get involved with everything and be needed and get paving stones. It works very well at first, for two people who have just arrived and are laying the stones. But within a short time 4, 6, 10 people come to join in and after 2 hours the way is done. Relaxation is provided in the early evening. There is a large bath house, the Ofuro. For the first time I can take a Japanese bath in the hot water, approx. 42 ° C and even more, in which you carefully enter after cleaning your body. Simply to enjoy! The hot water relaxes all tensions of the day. Even the heavy thoughts have disappeared and the mind is set to "enjoy". You can simply hand in dirty laundry, the next day it is clean and ironed and folded up in my compartment.

Relaxed and cheerful, I then go to the large dining room, called Aiwakan, for dinner.

Soup with mushrooms,

Miso - ramen soup, there is today.

Served with steamed sweet potatoes with apples,

Daigaku,

with salad, vegetables and

there is a choice of fish,

grilled crabs,

Meat and

three different types of rice.

For dessert, I use frozen yogurt instead of fresh fruit.

There is as much of them as you like.

The next day I visit the village shop where everything is free and I can take as much of everything as I like without paying! There is no cashier! There is only one woman who will advise you if you have any questions. I cannot believe that! There's definitely a catch, isn't there?

It is truly a functioning community in which everyone does their best for the common goal and everything is based on voluntary action!

For me, outsiders really cannot be believed. It's just too much: I immediately think of a fake, just a show. How is that going to work in the long run? Everything free! No possession! I can't get myself amazed.

In the upcoming Kensan meetings, we should learn from Yamagishi's texts how this community, which has the goal of building a human society for all people, should experience:

Everything starts with me.

First, review my mindset.

I want to work actively on that.

The revolution of the intelligence is

from the mindset with fixations,

to change the mindset without fixation.

The Revolution of Mindset⁷

"In my diary entry, a few days after my arrival, we had just finished setting up the" World Exhibition of Yamagishi Villages:

Toyosato, November 5^th, 1995

I want to do something slowly. I have now arrived and got used to it, the jet lag has been reduced - now I can start. From 6 to 8 a.m., we rearranged the booth from the village in Australia in the world exhibition. Now the visitor has a better impression of the "village" there. (From all villages worldwide, contributions to the world exhibition are shown, about their life and work). I notice. that there is no difference between the people and the structure of our "village" in Germany or Switzerland. Basically, doesn't it matter where construction work is done or in which "village" I will work? I ask myself. It is a liberating feeling. I can live anywhere. There is no more important work in Germany or no less important work there. All my actions contribute to building the new society. I felt this for the first time while cleaning and packing vegetables this morning. There was a clear feeling of harmony between me and my surroundings, between vegetables and people, there was nothing important or unimportant. Everyone and everything have their place. If the construction of the new society can take place in this way, if this mind becomes the basis of daily life, then the people who are not allowed to live here will not be able to close themselves off from the new society in the long run.

It is contagious. Just as it gripped me: the friendliness and love towards all villagers and guests can be felt, but also the task that I want to fulfil and also the self-revolution that I want to implement towards myself. You can feel a constant growth everywhere and with everyone.

I really enjoy the daily evening bath in the Ofuro. First you clean yourself thoroughly - soap and shower well in a large, pleasantly warm room. You can also soap each other's backs. Then you climb into a very warm bath, approx. 38°C to 42°C. There is room for many here. After the bath you are pleasantly relaxed and for relaxation of the mind you can still sit in a relaxation room with a view of nature. Pure wellness. It's like a cure foliage, with the difference that you prescribe the applications yourself.

The revolution in thinking can be felt everywhere. The mindfulness with which you meet opens your heart. Making friends with everyone and with everything is recognizable everywhere and is often a topic in the evening Kensan rounds. In this way, with this heart, the building of happy society for all people as described by Yamagishi can take place. If this becomes the stable basis of daily life, then our environment, the people around us, will not be able to close itself off from it in the long run. It's just contagious, just as it caught me. I am so glad that I found my way to the Yamagishis my age, that I dared to take the plunge into the "cold water" and to change my life again. A completely new world has opened up for me. But I'm only at the beginning of my path and don't know if I'm not going to give up. Now I'm excited about everything. Just a flash in the pan?

Friendship and affection, love, all this opens the heart, also my heart and my personal task that I have set myself for the coming years, namely to become a person who wants to live in friendship with everyone and everything, promotes my human Growth, I think. The young people here in particular fill me with joy and confidence.

I'm even a little jealous of them because at 20 they want to go the way I started when I was 50. My legacies sometimes weigh heavily on me and are sticky and clingy. But I found a solution: love. Hopefully I won't forget that.

Yamagishi says on this:

"The reason why this Z-revolution of thinking is a revolution is that by starting to think with the revolution of thinking, switching to thinking based on the Kensan method is the main thing.

With the Kensan method, whatever it is, you try to re-examine something that you don't fix absolutely not because you don't really know if it's wrong.

Also investigate something that could be fixed as safe and good, whether there is not something better, in which you try to think of new things, find out better things.

If the Kensan way of thinking is revolutionized in this way, things that were previously believed to be correct will be discovered, corrected and checked in practice one by one.

One would also have to say that the revolution of the intelligentsia is to switch from thinking with fixation to thinking without fixation.

Discover these through Kensan and recognize that this is the cause, which creates great obstacles for the actual guiding principle of man and creates confusion.

Through the Kensan formula, both this stubbornness and its destructive effects are discovered and dissolved one after the other. The attachment quickly subsides, the confrontation and the dispute between the people dissolves, and human society naturally emerges.

First of all, the complete dissolution of the stubborn imaginations, to name the revolution in the burning out of selfishness or the revolution in tearing out self-clinging, is perhaps more apt and easier to understand.

The radical world Z revolution is the revolution of the intelligence, which completely removes the stubborn imaginations from the world and dissolves selfishness.

If you put aside stubborn imaginations and burn out selfishness, you can see everything as it really is.

It goes without saying that one does not try to insist on the old state, but rather examines again and again whether it could be wrong that new and different inventions are created and that in everything the revolution of the way of thinking is carried out, progresses and develops.

Errors are continuously detected. If you discover mistakes, it is about doing Kensan immediately and thinking about causes, methods, etc. and putting these findings into practice.

So far, the damage caused by self-denial, self-clinging, self-interest, selfishness etc., by self-will and selfishness has been proven and many methods have been taught and effort taken to eliminate them with a fair amount of emphasis.

But the headstrong imaginations and selfishness could not be removed and erased. So far, people's mindsets have not changed.

It is the state in which it is difficult to remove the causes of confrontation and strife between people. It is the causes that prevented everything from moving forward and the numerous causes of physical and mental illnesses, even anger and confrontation and war, which until now have not been eliminated.

The Kensan formula makes it easy to get rid of self-clinging, at least the effects of anger and confrontation are easy to control and that one after another people who do not get angry are self-evident.

Even those who think that they have become happy on their own are wrong. It is truthful that the others all, the people of the whole world, live in friendship and with joy.

Alone with right and duty, structure and system, physical health and material wealth, not all problems can be solved.

As a further happiness condition, the wealth in the heart is the most important and the building of society with the happy life of people as an ideal must be built on the basic idea of ​​human love.

As long as it doesn't, you realize that you cannot live a true, happy lifestyle. You can think about the method of doing it.

One understands both the principle that world-wide, happy human life arises from it, and the method; and by uniting the mind and power of all, it is put into practice which it wants to bring to such a state.

Those in whom such a desire is burning and who are active in its practice are members of the radical World Z revolution. "

Part 3

Attachment

The following chapters list some aspects that could prevent a happy life. They are created by the ego and the ego only exists in the imagination. It is the pattern of thinking that most people are familiar with that cause grief and worry for many people. I met them too often and uninvited on my way.

The uncountable hurdles and walls became visible, which I built up and internalized during my spiritual development into "adulthood". It is the pattern of thinking and evaluations, imaginations and personal standards of value. The first thing to do is to recognize and investigate: Do you need an "update" today or can I delete it entirely?

Almost all of my walls are the patterns of thought that were encouraged by society, parents, school, politicians, etc., but which I saved in me.

Such and similar statements about important and unimportant things, right and wrong, about poor and rich, black and white, about intelligent and stupid are generally recognized and are practically taught in schools and universities. They are anchored like indispensable pillars in the ideological building of our society. Because I have accepted and internalized them, they also determine my current thinking and acting. The time has come to examine what is right for me and what I can correct or deliver.

The mindset of ownership, which dominates this society, takes the central place, also for me.

The mindset of ownership,

that dominates this society,

occupies a central place.

It's like a curtain

that prevents the view of the real world.

Mindset of ownership

Japan, December '95

First of all, I want to see the different ways of thinking and imaginations people have about owning - from my visibility and the different thinking patterns of material thinking on blankets. Yamagishi says that ownership is a mistake and does not belong to the truth. True is a life in harmony with all being and that means a life in "without possession". This aspect was a personal issue for me, and I connected it for many years because my old thinking patterns were so "sticky", came out again and again and persistently hindered me. Again and again I found myself doing it, and again and again I made up my mind, how do I actually deal with ownership? And because possessiveness is everything else, the ego was so fond of it, also the pursuit of recognition, praise, fame and honour, for titles and high positions and of course the greedy pursuit of lots of money and possessions and with pride, if any of these became this , became how it became with envy, anger and anger, rights and demarcation when it was ironed, was, or humiliated by others. My ego is always happy to be in the middle. These patterns of thinking are not foreign to me and were monitored by my directional companion.

I have often not seen the miracle of life and life that I wanted, and certainly not enjoyed it. The productive gardens and fields, the beautiful apartments, the friendly people around me, the good food, also in the restaurant and especially the village shop, where everything is free. Everything bears witness to those who surround me and the miracle of life, that everything and everyone belongs and thrives without our intervention and that we may live in wealth and prosperity.

Sometimes I visited the village shop without taking anything with me because I was ashamed of my greed. I wanted to become a person who would like to live with all people in the wealth of the "without possession"!

Another way of thinking that also arises from material thinking was distrust of this community.

"What happens to me and where do I stay if this Yamagishi community is a fraudulent association and just exploits us all as cheap labourer?" (At that time there was a poison gas attack by the Aun sect with fatalities on the station area of ​​Tokyo and many sect members allegedly knew nothing about it. This incident fuelled my suspicion. "Do I know everything that is going on here in Toyosato, in the Yamagishi community? ".

But the people here meet me with an open heart. I feel that it is only up to me and my way of thinking that I also treat people with an open heart. All baboons and doubts melted away like snow in the sun. A wonderful experience that still helps me today to overcome boundaries against my fellow human beings, to take the first step and to shake hands.

Illusion/Mindset of ownership 1)

Ownership thinking is an idea that pretends that you could own something, that you could become really happy through possession (we live in the world of imaginations) and gain security for you or your family through material goods: a house, a big bank account or a high retirement pension could offer you real security.

Also fame and honour, knowledge or title are something that makes you happy and could offer you security, are something that "belongs to me" and nobody can take it away from me.

Many people have such imaginations. They tempt you to stop thinking about your life. Is this material well-being really important for my spiritual, human growth and well-being?

What consequences does this way of thinking have on the development of my children, who know nothing else than wealth and abundance?

What is really important in my life?

Many generations have had to experience painfully again and again that the material is transient: unrest, layoffs, inflation, etc. happen again and again, are not utopian and let our possession melt away overnight.

A heart attack ends in a minute, years of tough efforts to achieve fame and honour or high income.

Not to mention the war.

A single bomb will destroy all of your possessions in a second.

Nevertheless, many people want to own as much as possible and forget to live. Many are obsessed with it and waste their entire lives striving for it day after day and do not come to rest.

To me, this material striving, a striving for recognition, a longing for a loving hug seems. We all remember the tender caresses of our mother and how we enjoyed them. When we got older we turned our heads when the mother wanted to stroke our hair. That was uncool, although we secretly enjoyed it.

And today we are adults and have no mother substitute. And still find it uncool to show our feelings. Instead, we prefer to show off our skills and / or possessions

The attentive reader has noticed that ownership is always only my "I-relatedness", my well-being. All thoughts revolve around me, the sun circles around the earth.

Shouldn't we take the path that we, who are allowed to live in abundance here, make efforts that all people have enough to live on? That we show our personality that is able to think of others. And then:

Shouldn't we strive for a long-term, all-encompassing way of life that considers not only me, my family and my close surroundings or just my generation, but all people on earth and all of nature? Shouldn't we think of our beloved children, who want to live in an intact in nature, in a healthy environment and for all in a healthy family in the future?

Illusion/Mindset of ownership 2

)

Who owns the stars? Who owns the water, the earth, the air?

Who owns the flowers, the bees and the sun's rays that enliven everything?

Are my children mine?

Is there just a little bit I can own?

Is there anything that I can claim for myself because it was created entirely by myself and only out of me?

Is there really anything that can be owned by someone?

Who gave me my life, my body?

Who gave me my stature, my thoughts and my mind?

Where does my knowledge come from?

Is it really all mine, should I own it?

Illusion/Mindset of ownership 3)

Nobody originally owned anything. Everything was used by everyone at will, as in nature.

But little by little, a society developed in which there were people who believed they had something and believed it, often with violence, and circumstances encouraged this way of thinking.

The illusion of possession, promoted by the circumstances, prevailed more and more and today there are many people who believe that possession is the most important thing in life. Many take it even more important than their lives.

And because this illusion "possession" is always associated with the fear of not owning anything or losing "my possession", many today live in a world of widespread fear.

Ownership and fear go together like the right shoe and the left shoe.

Don't necessarily look to America to see that fear has become a political control.

Money as a means of payment is very practical, undisputed.

Isn't it a fact that money is nothing more than embossed metal, printed paper, combined with the illusion of "owning" something?

People with such illusions can easily be led and seduced. Coupled with the illusion of such freedom, which is nothing more than the opposite of the lack of freedom of enslaved peoples, our current Western social, democratic and financial system is an ideal tool to keep such people dependent by promoting illusions. It is nothing more than the mentality of a modern slave attitude.

And the whip is the constantly renewed incentive to consume that many people cannot or do not want to avoid.

Even newer, even better, more convenient, even cheaper, more. 3 pants for the price of 2.

This mechanism is easy to penetrate and works quite well at the moment.

Possession seems to be like a drug, addictive and nebulizes the brain.

A person who is attached to something cannot think freely, cannot be free.

Illusion/Mindset of ownership 4)

Is there even a single being in nature that "owns" something?

In nature everything is freely available, and everyone can use everything as they please.

The apple on the tree e. g. can be picked carefully and kept for the winter but can also be eaten by the cow or inhabited by the worm. If it falls on the grass, snails come or our little helpers in the ground, fungi and bacteria let it become earth again.

Isn't it also the case that whatever we are using was originally given for free by nature?

The raw materials for the house, the oil for the heating, the clothes, the food, but also things for the convenience of life: the raw materials for the car, the plane, the television, the chocolate or the glass of wine. Even the raw materials for the atomic bomb are available free of charge and we can use everything freely.

Everything is originally free and no being and no one in nature "holds out his hand" for his "achievements" and demands something.

Only we humans do that. Only we humans build fences and draw boundaries.

Can someone explain to me how it works, that someone "owns" something that was not owned before, that he can say "I own it"?

A fish e.g. who swims freely in the sea suddenly becomes the "possession" of the fisherman just because he is caught in his net?

Isn't that really grotesque and ridiculous?

How is that possible?

How does this work? What kind of system have we humans built for ourselves, which constricts us like in a corset, which takes the air we breathe?

Or the oil that is freely stored in the earth?

The oil companies pump it out of the earth, pollute the environment and still ask for money, isn't that weird?

The fruits and vegetables, the eggs, the honey or the milk, everything the animals give us and even the meat, their lives, don't we get all of this for free?

To maintain this artificial system of ownership, extensive law books have been drawn up and new ones are added every year. These are shackles with which you hold each other captive.

In the new human society that is sure to come, they will dwindle to an accumulation of letters.

And you think that leads to chaos?

The chaos is in your head, you are so caught up in this way of thinking that you can no longer imagine anything else.

Illusion/Mindset of ownership 5)

To believe that the knowledge that I was allowed to “acquire” is mine, is really foolish.

Didn't I get it free from my ancestors, from my parents and teachers?

And didn't I have the facilities and skills to acquire this knowledge for free?

My thoughts, imaginations and visions, where do they come from and do they really belong to me?

Artists, musicians, scientists, people with special skills can help other people and give them great pleasure with their talent.

But does their qualification really belong to them?

Couldn't they just acquire these skills and develop further, based on their abilities and the inherited and then applied talents, to implement these skills with the knowledge that our ancestors have accumulated and developed for us to date? And of course, also supported by the circumstances and the environment in which they were allowed to grow up?

Great artists, geniuses, extraordinary people, isn't that all an expression of the high level of development of humanity, which also wants to develop further with my accumulated skills? And isn't it a matter of course that they make their skills available to the world?

What do I pass on to my descendants?

In no case is it all due to an individual, is it?

The mindset of ownership is just an apparently indelible notion that most people chase after like children like soap bubbles. Even if they burst, you don't give up and you continue to run like a hamster in the wheel of life. To see that makes me sad. Isn't it a shame not to appreciate and live your own life?

Illusion/Mindset of ownership 6)

Material thinking is life in duality.

In material thinking, all of my values ​​are on the yardstick of ownership. The basis of my life direction is wanting to own.

This determines my thinking and acting.

It is based on these imaginations and on my scale of values, which I have built on ownership, i.e. on: good and bad, on success / failure, on money, reputation, possession, wealth, fame and honour, on knowledge and power So-called wisdom and enlightenment, but also according to physicality and performance, according to youth or age and accordingly I judge myself and my fellow human beings. I divide into "bad", "beautiful", "ugly", "like and dislike" etc. and set rigid limits in our great beautiful free and unbound world. I close the paradise that is my real home.

Rejection, hatred, religious and political fanaticism and finally war and environmental degradation etc. can only spring up on this ground of ownership.

Our society works - e.g. At the moment it seems to be still quite good - at this level of material madness.

But there are new problems every day that bring us ever closer to the brink of a global change that will surely come if we turn away from life and keep dancing around the golden calf.

People in this material world are certainly not really happy.

Every day, every hour offers the chance to change our minds, to change our way of thinking.

Because all these peculiarities of human thinking are only about my everyday practical life, i.e. my happiness and my life, I am ultimately the only one who suffers from my self-made circumstances.

It takes more courage to change your mind than to insist!

If you can adapt to the natural conditions that surround you, you are on the way to happiness.

Adaptation is a natural principle.

Do you want to go in search of happiness?

"The road is so arduous and almost unreachable," say many people.

These are your brain's excuses.

The path to happiness is the path to normalcy.

Even a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. And if you think you're slow, you're a thousand times faster than the one that stops.

"All my knowledge will pass away

my deeds will live on for a while

but my love

that I brought into the world

remains."

About book knowledge

Japan, December 15^th '95

From my own painful experience, I have probably written this topic for myself from my current way of thinking. In my diary notes I repeatedly read how proud I was at the time of my "great knowledge" of my "academic education", of my "technical and manual skills" etc. and I always read about my tendency to gain recognition to have to move to the foreground again. When working together in the field I always want to be the first, just be better than the others. It was like a compulsion that kept pushing me to show my friends how good I really am. Whenever I was mindful, I could get off my high horse and normalize my mindset.

I was particularly sensitive when I was criticized, or something did not work as it should. Then I immediately wanted to explain and make believable that the "guilt" for this is not mine, in a way that I wanted to "apologize" like. It was so healing for my "injured" mind that we could talk about it in the Kensan group in the evening. That helped me a lot. When I let my day's experiences pass me by with a calm demeanour, I was dissatisfied with myself and my way of thinking, and I resolved again and again that I should no longer take my obviously overpowered, perhaps injured ego as seriously. "With mindfulness and together with everyone else into the new day" is the name of my sentence for the next day.

Today I must smile about it and at the same time I'm happy to live in a different world, so to speak. In the world of happy togetherness. That opens my heart and my smile is contagious to my counterpart.

When I think about how it could happen to be so fixated, to have to assert myself, etc., from my point of view today, I behaved more "normally" at the time. To be successful, to prevail, to be better than others, these were the usual ideals in my day for most of the population, including me.

I was z. B. the only one in our village who had graduated from high school. And was proud of it. After completing military service, 18 months later, I was already a lieutenant in the Bundeswehr. It was exceptional and I was proud of it.

Studies and various jobs in industry, all required performance that has been tested through countless exams. Assertiveness and, of course, active loyalty to the company's goals, proven through overtime and commitment to the company, were the prerequisites for the ascent on the chicken ladder of success, of promotions. Critics can say: "You shouldn't have participated." Yes, that's right. I wanted it that way. Out of ignorance!

About book knowledge

A person who knows too much is an almost unsolvable case. He knows without knowing anything.

All kinds of theories, ideologies, imaginations and information, just book knowledge, have accumulated in his head.

But all of this is nothing more than mental ballast, it is not a blossom.

The book knowledge is not gushing out of himself, he has gathered it from everywhere, because everything strange, everything that does not come from myself, from my experiences, my life is nothing more than waste, is dead garbage. Throw out your book knowledge as soon as an opportunity arises.

Only what you experience is alive, only that which blooms from yourself is active. Only what grows and is expressed in you is alive, is authentic is creative and radiates your warmth.

Always remember to avoid book knowledge because it becomes a trick of your thinking; he is hiding behind your insecurity and this is not eliminated by book knowledge.

And the more you entrench yourself behind your knowledge, the more ignorance and darkness there is deep inside, deep inside in your centre, at the actual source of your being.

A person full of knowledge, full of book knowledge, has almost completely buried themselves in their ignorance, nothing penetrates them, their sources, their hearts.

It is very difficult, almost hopeless for them to find their hearts. They have lost contact with their hearts.

A seed must find fertile soil to grow and flourish.

It's very easy to get addicted to more and more knowledge, it's like a drug like marijuana.

Drugs also give you an insight into something that is not there, something subjective, your films, your imagination.

And because the logic of the head prevails in knowledge and one builds on the other, a cyber world is created in which you have made it comfortable so that you do not get touched by real life. You have become unassailable, nobody can hold your hands on the water, and you don't even notice that nobody really wants anything from you anymore.

Life could be problematic because you don't know anything about it. That is why you have built your walls around you.

Don't be a fool! Logic has never brought a person to the truth and a rational mind knows only a gimmick.

All discussions are childish and pull people apart (-discutere - split, cut up). Life exists without discussion.

Anything against it just wastes your energy.

Your well-founded criticism will only take you further away from your friends.

The truth doesn't need evidence, it needs nothing more than your heart.

It does not need any arguments, but your love, your trust, your compassion and your willingness to accept it. You must open your heart to dance to the music of life.

Let your love, let your compassion flow, full of mindfulness and awareness. And with a smile.

"When someone has accumulated a lot of knowledge

and if he can't put this knowledge into practice, it's as if he doesn't know anything, right? "

"All my knowledge will pass away, my deeds will live on for a while, but my love that I have brought into the world remains."

Your thoughts

are the visible mirror

of your innermost,

take it seriously.

Thoughts about thoughts

Thoughts have their roots in the informations stored in the brain, i.e. in the retrievable knowledge, in the skills, in the trained, in the emotions, memories etc. They express themselves in the form of ideas, imaginations, emotions etc. and ultimately become actions. The way you act is determined by your scale of values. Thoughts are usually stimulated by impulses coming from outside. These can be found everywhere in your area and rush like a motorcycle gear that rushes through a living area through your brain.

They do not belong to me or to you. At first, they can be found all around you in the room as "information energy".

They roam the world and buzz through your head. Depending on the readiness of the brain to receive and the evaluation of the stored information, they will find a resonance point in the head. Then they dock and swing and are now tangible in the form of a thought. So far everything happened unconsciously. This is the moment when my mindfulness should be active, when I can decide whether I want to pursue this thought further or whether I want to pass it on as an unpleasant thought.

But once the thought has established itself, it begins to work. Depending on your values, you hold this thought. It is strengthened by resonance and if you have missed the moment when thoughts are still ineffective and malleable, they will finally force you to act. Sometimes even actions that you regret afterwards.

If you can just let them move on with mindfulness, they will not receive any “strength” and will remain ineffective.

You can also deliberately bring about the same docking process by e.g. looking for solutions to a problem that concerns you right now. You let yourself be "inspired". Then you are open to all thoughts because you are neutral and only want to work on this one problem because you are aware.

* Your thoughts are the visible mirror of your innermost, take them seriously. They show you your way of thinking.

* Recognize wholesome and non-wholesome thoughts indiscriminately! (No rejection, no assessment in "good" or "bad, evil" etc.)

* When they take shape, they start to work, then we are our thoughts and our feelings.

* So do not refuse anything, whatever kind of thought spreads in you. Whoever rejects their thoughts and feelings, rejects themselves!

* Take it in lovingly but lock it in your basement. Remember, there are no escape-proof locks for thoughts! They will come back.

Be aware! Before you put your thoughts into action, make sure that you really want it.

Because the thought takes a little time until it has blossomed into a conviction that leads to an action. Use this short time before you act.

With mindfulness, it becomes child's play.

* Stop nagging and rejecting or criticizing and evaluating people or things.

The world is the way it is. It is definitely not what you would like it to be and you do not change anything through your rejection or criticism. On the contrary, you make yourself dissatisfied.

* Trust in your inner knowledge creates the inner space in you, where freedom and love can grow. Just as doubt restricts you, trust opens all closed doors. The deeper your trust in your inner knowledge, the more you support your own development and your possibilities. Simply put, staying anchored in trust means choosing to always follow the mind of the heart.

If you make this connection to your inner knowledge the basic principle of your actions, you will always make the right decisions. And the nice thing is, the more you follow your inner knowledge and follow it, the more you build trust.

You know, thoughts have strength. The more you are anchored within your Inner, the more intensely your thoughts affect other people in the world. They strengthen the field. Be deeply aware of your positive thoughts. "When I change, the world changes"

Nevertheless, be prepared to check everything again and again under all circumstances, so that you do not go astray. The brain always wants to take control of your behaviour! Be mindful and stay captain on your life ship.

A person without rejection

drives across the ocean of life

and reaches the saving harbour with pinpoint accuracy,

always paying attention

that no water gets into the boat.

Rejection

Japan, January 1^st, '96

New Year is an important holiday in Japan. It is celebrated with festive clothing, decorated rooms and a feast. I also dressed in a kimono and was able to take part in a tea ceremony, a very solemn act, with music by an artist with a one-sided string instrument (Kokyu). These are unusual but expressive sequences of sounds for my western ears.

The feast before was again sooo rich, I cannot remember in detail what was there. The individual courses were served by young women in festive kimono robes. This was exceptional for the many "guests" and underlined the festive mood. Of course, there were fish in many different variations. The whole festival was very impressive, especially thanks to the engagement of the colourful kimono - women who always smiled kindly and exchanged the empty bowls. Everyone was trying to make life as pleasant as possible for me and the human warmth was clearly noticeable to me. Then we were invited to visit the village. Everywhere you felt the will to build. New houses and stables have been built. Roads and paths were created. Even large trees were transplanted and turned the newly paved street into an avenue. Moving forward together shone from the faces of the young people. Here a village grows up in the wealth of the "no possession" and it seems to me that it is so easy to take part in cheerfulness there. If only I could just put aside my old, stuck patterns of evaluation and assessment - often it is pure condemnation.

The subsequent graduation Kensan particularly appealed to me. The conclusion: If I have clear thoughts that correspond to the truth and have a clear goal in mind, then it is easy to work together with everyone to build a new human society for all people. The perspective from which you look at life is extremely important!

Where do I want to look!

No matter what I have to do, I want to be that kind of person. I imagined that.

A tea ceremony

takes place according to a fixed, solemn ritual whose roots lie in ZEN.

The festively dressed guests are led into the tea room and greeted with hot water and light, often sweet dishes. Sake is also served. The tea is then prepared by women and stirred with the bamboo tea whisk until a firm foam is created. In the background, a shamisen (Japanese long-necked lute) often plays soft melodies, strange to European ears. Otherwise there is silence in the room for inner contemplation.

We were dressed in festive kimonos for the tea ceremony, which creates a festive atmosphere. But inexperienced Europeans cannot walk in the matching wooden sandals. Caution, risk of tripping.

shogatsu (お 正月), the Japanese New Year is one of the most important festivals in Japan, has been celebrated for centuries and has developed its own unique customs.

The Japanese eat a number of special traditional dishes on New Year's Day. These include miso soup, mochi, sticky dumplings made from rice that are served with vegetables, sweetened red beans or many other ingredients, tuna, boiled seaweed, salty fish eggs, also raw fish, sweet potatoes and pickled radishes and Vegetables.

For dessert there is fresh fruit, strawberries and ice cream and of course a photo with all the villagers is a must.

The making of the mochis is always a special public event.

If I allow myself to be led away from my path after the first bump and I give in to my doubts and criticism, change my perspective, can I achieve the great goal of becoming a person who can live in friendship with everyone? It is as if the lightness of life leads me to another, darker, difficult world in which it is difficult and tough to survive everyday life. And I can just ask myself, what world do I want to live in?

I also feel that I can freely decide how I want to shape my future. Without rejection!

Patience my heart, exercise patience, I'm coming.

Rejection

Do you live with rejection?

Rejection is the sharpest sword you have thrust into your heart. It will ultimately kill you if you don't know how to handle your rejection.

If you pull it out with care, it will hurt a little bit because you change your mindset. Then you will be able to look more freely and develop the liberated look for the beauties and wonders of life. Your field of vision broadens and you can hear the music of happiness that vibrates in all things.

If you stay with your half-empty glass, your way of thinking will destroy your whole life because you restrict yourself with the blinders of rejection and you will die dissatisfied.

A person without rejection travels across the ocean of life without letting the storms and waves of life take them off course, always making sure that no water gets into the boat and reaches the saving harbour with pinpoint accuracy. They can open their hearts and see people and things as they really are, full of love and compassion.

Rejection is the seed in the ground on which quarrel, anger, hatred and finally war sprout. It always starts with rejection.

Rejection is generated by the ego and is a fruit of material thinking.

The growth of rejection within you happens very sublime, imperceptibly, step by step. Because even a drop of water is water and it spreads more and more in you. That happens very subliminally.

You only notice when you look carefully, that you find yourself beginning to judge again. Then you grab all and everything. You might even feel very clever about what you are criticizing, you may even think it is intelligent.

Our society holds criticism in high esteem, and critics are considered to be highly intelligent. But criticism always comes from judgment, from rejection.

It has already firmly established itself in you. You have built an entire building and proudly present it to your followers.

Don't be an egomaniac, don't do a one person show. Do something for others and not for your ego.

With mindfulness and love you can easily normalize yourself again and give up your rejection attitude. So please be careful, pay attention to the beginnings.

As soon as you feel rejection within you, encase it with your love, accept it lovingly and focus on the beautiful things in life.

Rejection never disappears from your thoughts. As long as you take care of them, you will never achieve true happiness and love.

Criticism and rejection characterize today's society, in which inequality, injustice, oppression, environmental degradation and finally wars are celebrated. Don't join in. Mindfulness is the key to salvation.

Don't allow rejection, don't nag,

accept what the situation is and look from there, look for solutions, move on and look for new ways.

"It goes without saying that reality is not the way I see it," or "It goes without saying that it has nothing." From there, there is no "it must be that way!" or "it is next to it!, it is wrong ".

If there is no "must" and no assessment, there is no rejection of anything. It is the state of "accepting it as it is now."

If I don't like the state, I have to change it. If I can't, I have to accept it the way it is.

Because I'm hungry, I eat.

Because I am tired, I rest.

Because it's dirty, I'll clean it up.

Because I'm hungry, I eat.

Because I am tired, I rest.

Because it's dirty, I'll clean it up.

Because it is not enough, I multiply it.

Because it's tight, I keep going.

Because I'm late I'm hurrying.

Because it broke, I patch it up.

Because it hurts, I treat it.

Because someone is sick, I help them to get well.

Because it's not good, I'm doing better.

Because it's too hot, I cool it.

Because it's too cold, I make it warm.

Because it's bad, I'm doing it well, etc. etc. ..., there are only reactions in which you act like a reflex. As simple as that.

If you look closely at everyday life from here, the starting point becomes clear and the difference to the root of the conventional way of thinking emerges. It is a happy life.

Either I do something with the idea, "oh, that's wrong," then I do something to avoid it, or I start with "it is self-evident that there is nothing" and accept the situation as it is.

Those are two worlds!

Do I want to live with the mindset “it goes without saying that there is nothing” or with the mindset “it goes without saying that there is everything”?

Do I want to live with the way of thinking: the glass is still half full or with the way of thinking: the glass is half empty?

When you say, "accept it as it is," there may be people who say that it doesn't change anything because there is so much misfortune and trouble in the world.

But if you try to take the position of "it goes without saying that nothing is taken for granted, accept it as it is", you can clearly see that misfortune and problems arise precisely because it is in today's human world did not come to "it goes without saying that it has nothing, accept it as it is".

How about because in today's world the fundamental attitude of rejection, "this is wrong, you have to" start with the thinking of "accept it without rejection as it is" and to change the current situation upside down to face and walk it into a bright world without rejection?

It starts with a change of mindset that does not even make the mistake of thinking with fixations.

We support each other

because oneness and unity

this is the real basis of our lives,

we are born from true love.

About my skills

Everyone has skills that are different from the skills of others. They are neither better nor worse.

My skills are a gift to me from my ancestors, my parents and my teachers and role models.

There is nothing that originally came from me alone:

My teachers gave me my knowledge.

I inherited my skills; they were increased by a long line of ancestors.

I was able and able to develop my skills, solely based on my inherited skills with the help of my teachers.

My emotional skills were given to me by my parents, my teachers and the society in which I was born.

If I take these facts to heart and on the basis that I am embedded and live in my social environment, I cannot reject anything or anyone, I can not rise above anyone. With gratitude I can enjoy my life with all my fellow human beings. This has nothing to do with humility but is based solely on an insight into the world of facts. That is normal!

I can move forward with everyone without pushing a single one aside or ignoring his will.

We support each other because oneness and unity are the real basis of our life.

What great, irresistible, societal power emerges from this insight?

This is the beginning of the new human society. There is no one to give orders. Nobody stands higher or lower. Everyone strives to advance themselves and others in their environment in their human, spiritual development. High strives for higher. It starts in kindergarten.

Children learn easiest from children. They no longer have to grow up as lonely single children, exposed to the peculiarities of the parents, but come together with many children and experience the day together in a suitable child-friendly environment.

The school will also change completely. There will no longer be teachers in our current sense. Children and adults together will teach the children in the "classes" in subjects and skills that the older children have chosen themselves. Adults also do what they feel like doing and can cultivate and expand their skills. Since the monetary system no longer exists, money is only used as a kind of exchange good, so all people who are involved in managing money today can pursue their real skills. Because it is not worth accumulating goods, because everything is free and freely available to everyone in abundance, there are no thieves and the prison guards can again be in the fresh air and enjoy the sun.

Law books are recycled to newsprint and the armaments factories can make agricultural machinery and people can live without fear. You can go wherever you want, because the artificial national borders will also disappear and will only be names for the region. Travelling will be pleasant because passports and exchange of money and border controls are no longer necessary. The military can fulfil its real, real task, which is to protect and help people, e.g. in earthquakes or severe weather disasters. It supports the farmers in the harvest and helps wherever it is needed.

The best thing about this upcoming society is that no one is forced to participate. Everything is based on the free will of each individual human being. Nobody is expropriated or pushed from his post. Even those who hold a high office or so-called dignitaries do not have to worry because, as I said, the free will of every individual is respected. To this end, Yamagishi has drawn up a concrete social plan that is already being put into practice in various places around the world.

Do you think I'm exaggerating and telling fairy tales?

Do not watch any news programs or read a newspaper. Then open your eyes to our children and young people who are looking for truth and happiness and want to test their skills. They will sometimes disregard fixed norms and laws, which seem to be indispensable for our society, and to break new ground with incredible ease. This is criticized by many, but these attempts can lead to new perspectives.

There are more and more who listen to their hearts and no longer allow themselves to be restricted by the traditional thinking pattern and soon the whole world will be like this. Adults with a youthful mind can understand that. If you don't like this world, I would like to know the reason.

Children learn from children the easiest. In the community, they no longer have to grow up as only children, at the mercy of their parents' circumstances and peculiarities, but come together with many children and experience the day together in a suitable, child-friendly environment.

The most important is, they are happy.

I will show you the way to be free.

Hate, anger, greed, fear,

Jealousy, revenge, defiance

are imaginations

that only arose in my head

and only there and only from me

can be silenced.

Anger and hatred, fear, rejection and jealousy or envy

These are all feelings and imaginations that I have acquired, mostly unconsciously, during my life. I don't think a new-born has these imaginations yet.

Depending on how consciously I live and how much space I give these feelings (imaginations), they totally affect my life. Depending on how consciously I deal with my imaginations, I can enjoy my life completely freed from them or be completely absorbed by them. Then I may even be forced by you to do things that I do, e.g. B. even regret after an anger attack afterwards.

Viewed from a different perspective, it is energies that want to be lived. If I let them become strong, they have a strong effect on me and sometimes cause big problems. If I redirect them into positive feelings, my life will be joyful and easy. Like everything, these imaginations have their basis in the big one

Love. I need it to learn.

People who cannot put anger and hate, fear, rejection and jealousy aside need our compassion and care. They give us the opportunity to show our love.

Anger and hatred, rejection and jealousy are like siblings who have been sent to the world and cannot find their way to love. Some come from the past - anger and hate -, others from the future - fear and jealousy -.

Neither the past nor the future can be a warm home for them, because both the past and the future are pure illusions that humans cannot really grasp. Because everything that is, the reality, is now, in this moment.

Anger and fear are more of a cry for help, an indication that I am on the lookout and do not yet know my real life and do not yet live my life.

If I live in mindfulness, these companions become old acquaintances to whom I show the cold shoulder. Why reject them or even fight them? You are part of me. If they were rejected, they would only increase the pressure in my "cauldron". You can't fight illusions because they don't exist as facts. Hold them lovingly in your arms, but do not pay any attention to them. This would only strengthen them.

Remember they are not real and therefore not understandable.

If I live in mindfulness, they can no longer harm me!

I will show you the way to be free.

Hate, anger, greed, fear, jealousy, revenge, defiance

etc., are imaginations that only arose in my head and can only be silenced there and only by myself. They are the unloved companions of my strong ego.

No matter how strongly your imaginations guide you, there is a story that I would like to tell:

"One hard-working monk goes to his master one day and tells him," Master, I would like to be enlightened. What do I have to do? "

"Well, that's easy," the master replies after some thought. "You just don't have to think of monkeys."

With this information he goes home and spends the next time meditating in his house.

First of all, it is fine if he meditates on this topic. But then the first monkey sneaks in. He can still chase him away. But little by little, there are more and more. He can no longer sleep without thinking about monkeys and they also follow him during the day. Annoyed he finally goes to his master and says to him: "Master, I don't want to be enlightened anymore, please free me from the monkeys." "

The brain cannot "not think" about something. It cannot. So, if unpleasant thoughts arise, greet them e.g. with: "Ah, there you are again", but then put them aside and then pay no further attention to them.

Love is the basis of life and the magic formula to silence these "ghosts". Just when I think of other people with love, they have disappeared, like the smoke from the chimney. When I think of others, my ego has also disappeared. It is as if I am immersed in another world that exudes comfort and warmth.

Anger and fear become ineffective when I live mindfully.

When I watch myself like a stage director with anger or fear in me. I look closely at what anger or fear do to me. What feelings arise in me and what reactions do they trigger?

Only one thing I shouldn't do: let my feelings become effective in me, so that they take me in, occupy and dominate me and force me to act like a puppet. The conscious acknowledgement that they are and work in me is crucial. Healing begins from here. Fear and anger begin to lose strength and after a few exercises, they become ineffective and the more I live in love, they are suddenly gone, dissolved.

Japan, January / February '96

Anger, fear, rejection and all the other unpleasant imaginations work in most people and certainly also in me. In the early days of my stay in Japan, I made a firm decision to be a listener first and to want to learn. This made me stress myself and suppressed all my emotions and feelings that went in the direction of anger or fear etc. But the more I resisted it and suppressed the emotions, the more urgently they wanted to get to the surface. After a tiring day, they finally made their way to light in the form of tears and exhaustion.

In my diary dated January 8th, 1996 it is noted:

Everything went wrong today. It started after getting up. I was supposed to go to the Shitake Mushrooms Department today, but I didn't know where the houses were, and I relied on going with the others. "They know about it and show it to me," I thought. But they were more ready than I was the morning after getting up and left immediately without waiting for me. Because everything happened so quickly, I forgot to turn off the light in the bedroom and my roommate had to continue sleeping in the light.

So I ran after the two and finally found the Shitake house after a long search. As soon as I arrived, Nakamura told me in a harsh commanding tone what I had to do and how the mushrooms had to be picked. Already my mood sank into the basement and I was annoyed about Nakamura because he gave me "commands", I was also annoyed with myself because I always fall for the same pattern and get annoyed.

Then we went to the dairy. But even here it didn't go smoothly for me. After a little word - scuffling with Umeda, we should put 36 glasses for the butter - the butter is filled into glasses here - properly on the filling machine. I placed 6X6 glasses on the roundabout when he suddenly arrives and with a wave of the hand tosses the beautifully placed glasses and tells me in a "command tone" how to do it correctly. "He is just as new to the dairy as I am and just want to make a name for himself!" I think. I am completely perplexed; my old patterns appear again and have a firm grip on me again. I don't want to put up with it any longer!! I am terribly angry with myself that I have to be angry. I am annoyed with Umeda. An almost absurd situation. But what should I do? I could snap at him to relieve my frustration and let him know I'm not going to put up with it anymore. But I don't want that because I'm showing that I'm angry. And I definitely do not want that!

In the afternoon I was assigned to the vegetable section. We should clean, weigh and bag lettuce plants. My mood was still restless from the morning and again I worked with Umeda, who criticized my supposedly dirty work. I couldn't accept that at all and told him, certainly not very kindly, that he should do it himself. Only my neighbour's advice to be "more teinei", which means "cleaner" but also "friendlier", brought me back to the world of facts. What had happened: Umeda just said a few words to me and they unbalanced me and made my pulse beat faster. Whether the words were friendly or unfriendly or whether it was a command tone, this interpretation only came up in my head. I really don't know how it really was! After all, my daily topic was: "Make friends with everything".

At the Kensan meeting in the evening I could only tell my experiences with tears again, I was so shaken by the feelings of my day-to-day experiences. And I was also ashamed of my tears, because a 50-year-old man doesn't cry! "What should the others think?" I'm apparently a hopeless case.

The essence of life

and also the nature of love,

human urge to explore remains closed.

Life connects us humans

into a single "one body" being.

About life

I think there is only one life on earth. It is life itself.

Everyone and everything does not live out of themselves: humans and animals, plants and earth, one can also count the "inanimate" nature. Life is a gift of love that works everywhere, in everything. It has no separate existence.

The life of the 7 billion people on earth is one human life. The life of animals and plants is one life. THE LIFE.

It is the life that was born of love and only exists with it.

The essence of life and the essence of great love remain closed to the human urge to explore.

Life connects us humans to each other to a single "one body" being and connects us with the life of the whole nature.

To live this life with awareness means to live with this inner knowledge. To experience every moment of my life means to be mindful. To be mindful means to live.

Reality cannot be cut into pieces, so that separate, independent realities exist. Life is also indivisible.

If you e.g. Understand the reality of a sweater, then you will see that everything is contained in the sweater itself: the sun, the earth, the plants and animals, the people and machines that made the sweater and everything that is related to human life, including food and also the machine manufacturers and the raw materials for manufacturing the machines.

Whoever looks at the sweater and can see the universe in it is a person who can see, is a person who truly lives.

We are life and life has no limits, it can be found everywhere. Life is everywhere and life is indivisible. Life is reality. Life is love.

So, there is probably not my life or your life, but life is the form of existence.

Life works in all things. Do you want to understand life?

My deadlocked ways of seeing and thinking, my imaginations and judgments about life and all of nature, prevent me from seeing the world as it really is.

The world is definitely not how I would like it or imagine it to be.

If I start examining her for what she really is without my imaginations, I will take great strides towards happiness.

When I can see life, I begin to see what happiness has in store for me. Because life and happiness belong together. When I recognize, I start to act.

Happiness is life and life is happiness.

There is not the way to happiness.

Happiness is the way!

Through constant exercise in mindfulness

you can work it out.

I think,

it is the goal of our lives,

to achieve stable happiness.

It leads to infinity.

Realization formulas

Realization formulas for whatever are to be used actively for all areas of human life. They serve for human awakening, awareness of one's own location and practice in mindfulness. Experience the day attentively, check your own way of thinking with the willingness to return on your way at any time if it is lost.

With these concrete implementation formulas, there is a suitable implementation formula for every problem in life, I would like to give you a very effective tool if you want to go the way to happiness.

"May my happiness become the happiness of all people, easily and simply strive for the real thing." Enjoy the day with this way of thinking.

The following suggestions are experiences that came from my own experiences on my way to happiness.

Please be careful with yourself.

There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way!

You can't buy happiness; you can acquire it.

Through constant exercise in mindfulness you can work it out. I think happiness is the goal of life for us humans. Everyone wants to achieve stable happiness.

These formulas are intended for this.

For constant use. And as Kensanthemums.

Because your way of thinking has so far blocked your path to stable happiness,

because your imaginations mirror something that is not there,

because your patterns of thinking tell you what's right and what's wrong and hinder you

because you are a believer and restrict yourself. . .

you should be careful with yourself and your thinking and recognize unpleasant thoughts early on, before they have settled and become effective. These realization formulas help you with this.

The practical approach: choose a topic from the realization formulas that fits your current personal topic that you are currently working on.

Which topic would you like to resolve and put aside?

An example:

Can I record everything with "YES" and do everything? or,

can I live in friendship with everyone?

Which situations can you not answer with "yes"?

What feelings come up?

Be attentive and honest with yourself!

Pay attention to your thoughts, feelings, moods etc., pay especially attention to your inner dialogues.

Everything else comes by itself. That sounds easy, doesn't it?

With all inner unrest, please make sure that you always remain the spectator! Don't let your emotions grasp and shake you. If it does happen, consider it an important experience on your way. Observe yourself critically, like a stage director.

If you are afraid, always do exactly what you are afraid of and the end of your fear has come. It takes a little courage, but fear shrinks like the balloon you stabbed.

Always do exactly what you basically want in your heart.

What do I really want?

In the end, freedom beckons.

It is a great help if you hang your memorandum for your inner work legibly where you notice it every day.

It's best to go to the bedroom, where you can see it getting up in the morning.

It is also helpful if you get used to making it clear to you every morning, immediately after you wake up: How do I want to experience the day today?

It doesn't take longer than 1 minute.

It calms your mind and makes you cheerful to experience the day with an open heart.

Hear your thoughts and pay attention to them, they become words,

to actions

to habits

character traits,

to your life path.

Choose them carefully, just let unwanted thoughts drift away like the clouds. Give them to the clouds.

Once again:

Realization formulas are for practical, active testing in all life situations in which you are currently, especially when you are with other people. You can discover most of your resistance there.

That way you will gradually get to know yourself and understand your way of thinking better and know very well which imaginations you want to let go and where you want to change your way of thinking. In unclear situations, ask yourself: "Do I really want to continue living like this?"

"Do I really want to think like that?"

Check your goals again and again.

A lot of material will come together within a month that you should also make about Kensan.

You can also write down all your thoughts in a diary.

Simply bringing your worries and problems into broad daylight, or discussing them with others or writing them down is enough to alleviate them or even to let them go.

If you continue with the exercises, your problems, one by one, will eventually shrink to insignificance.

When I started to get to know my ways of thinking in the community in which I lived, I wrote my problems and thoughts about them into my diary every day. When I read the records today, I am amazed and delighted which way I have been able to walk to date and what I could let go of, and I am extremely grateful for that.

The realization topics

There is a suitable realization topic for every situation in life. Here are just a few topics that should help you on your way to recognize and correct your thoughts and imaginations. Find situations in which you want to grow.

1. The other person is my mirror. Can I accept what I see?

2. Can I build a warm relationship with this person?

3. I stand up for the happiness of my child, for the happiness of my wife, my neighbour, for the happiness of all people!

Is there rejection somewhere in you?

4. Is there anything I can own?

What am I holding onto?

5. Can I listen to what this person is saying with my heart?

6. It takes time to change, I can let go immediately. Can I really let go of my unwanted thoughts now?

7. Don't complain! Can I accept what I see?

8. What prevents me from being happy? Do I see my blockages?

9. Things have an order and I only go forward after know how not to err. Do I know it?

10. When I'm annoyed, laughing and realizing what a fool I am.

(There is nothing to get angry about.) Can I laugh at myself?

11. There is nothing that is difficult. It just seems difficult. If you feel like it, it's easy. Getting pleasure is easy too.

12. I always tell the truth!

The described realisation method for everything, supports the revolution in thinking, can be applied in all areas of human life: in politics, in business, education, religion, by men and women, students and schoolchildren, old, retired people, including the sick and disabled can start with that.

Even in the relationships between those who have been hostile so far, even soldiers, politicians and beggars can make this great change in their thinking and help create this new human society.

When a person changes, it means that their point of view and way of thinking has changed. Even their facial features and health change.

Practical application of realization formulas means getting closer to happiness, step by step.

"And when a stone comes, stand on it and shout:" I'm not going to give up "!

Source

1 Thich Nhat Hanh "The Miracle of Mindfulness"

2 from M. Yamagishi, 1954, “The Principle of Love and Truth. The principle of balance "

3 from M. Yamagishi, 1954, "Two Happiness, True Happiness and the Feeling of Happiness"

4 Rabindranath Tagore, "Gitanjali"

5 Thich Nhat Hanh "Love means living with an open heart"

6 Course: Tokkoh, the course for happiness, showed the author the world behind the facades of his own way of thinking and opened the way to his heart

Information at: http://www.tokkoh.ch/

My verdict: highly recommended

7 Thoughts and quotes about M. Yamagishi: "The

radical Z revolution "

8 R.J. Davidson et al. in Psychosomatic Medicine, No. 65, pp. 564-570

Picture credits: The cover picture, "Children span the world" is provided by the author. The other pictures are spend from the Yamagishism Community

The author

Flo Eburt,

Born in 1941, studies in natural sciences, then civil servant and environmental IT specialist,

Self-employed entrepreneur, trainer. Married, 5 children.

His practical work left him with the inner search for "Who am I really?" and "What do I really want to do with my life?" became more and more urgent until he finally joined the Yamagishi Happiness Association after a long search and lived there for more than 17 years.

There he finally found what he had been searching for so many years: all of life, both practical work and “free time”, were devoted to the goal of getting to know yourself and your own way of thinking, you to "normalize" in order to become a "free" and happy person, for the purpose of living in a friendly and contented way with all people. This is the Base for a happy society.

"It has been the most important years of my life and I am grateful for everything that I was able to experience."

Since then he has been researching human happiness and human thinking.

"All problems in our world arise from people's erroneous way of thinking", this is the finding of his long-term studies.

His creed: “Happiness can only be found within me. If I can't feel it, I'll check my mindset and normalize. "

In this sense, his work continues unabated even today. A never-ending process for Flo.

"When I get angry, laughing and realizing what a fool I am."

How is it really?

With everything, that is the central question

which does not tolerate covering up

and penetrates to the bottom of your heart

and all the secret there

and hidden thoughts

wants to uncover.

Postscript

This book

- wants to show a basis for building a stable human society in which all people can live happily ever after.

Even though the road to a new society seems to be very obscure, almost impossible, changing the mindset of every individual is the only way to do it.

That is my vision.

This new human society, in which all people can live happily ever after, is not a theory or the birth of a worldly way of thinking, but it is very practical to experience today when you visit one of the "Yamagishi villages" in the world.

(The author will be happy to give you the locations of the villages)

There people have been trying to build this new society step by step for more than 50 years. Based on the path shown here, it is possible to advance this new society based on humanity.

Imagine this: The first generation of children who can grow up in this healthy environment will be able to pass on a healthy way of thinking and living to their children. In this way, human society can emerge within a few generations.

Even the most beautiful words remain words and have no effect if they are not lived. If some things are incomprehensible to you, do not judge prematurely, try to understand until the end.

The structure and organization of this new society are already in several places around the world, including in Japan in practical testing.

The basis of this new stable society is humanity, unity and love, is the search for truth and its realization with Kensan.

It is a revolution in the way of thinking that aims at something absolute, at something true and genuine, and leads the mindset of our existing society, which is upside down, to absurdity.

How is it really?

This is the central question in everything that cannot be covered up so that you can penetrate to the bottom of your heart and uncover all secret and hidden thoughts and thereby open your door to the heart. It is the search for the truth, for the inner core in every person and in all things. Without relying on dogmas, fixed opinions or beliefs, it wants you to penetrate to your inner core and carry everything outwards. Nothing can burden you anymore and the free flow of love and creativity begins to flow in you. Life becomes pleasant and happy. In this state you can connect with everything. That is the effect of Kensan, and happiness accompanies you.

For outsiders, this may sound incomprehensible, perhaps even ridiculous, the expressions of a child's mind.

For theoreticians, these explanations may have come from wishful thinking, but they should not be taken seriously.

How is it really?

What for example is the heart at the centre of all action?

What is humanity?

What is my real me?

How about the unity of man and nature? .... QUESTIONS about questions that will occupy you in the future if you really want to live.

Real life takes place inside and not outside, a world full of love and security opens here, which is not unknown to you because you come from it and because you want it yourself.

You just haven't dared to think in this new way, to look at people and society as they really are from the bottom up. You just didn't dare to take your longing and yourself seriously. Isn't it so?

"Only the wisest and the stupidest cannot change," says Confucius

I would like to answer all the people who want such a new society based on humanity to answer the practical questions. I also like to come to your community. if that helps you.

I am very aware that my level of knowledge and skills are shallow and shallow. I have no special qualification, position or reputation, so I do not want to instruct people on the topics covered or describe them as absolutely correct. They are just a suggestion that can be researched practically by you on right and wrong. I want to shake hands with people who think in this direction and want to go in the direction of happiness for all people to achieve the common goal. This is the reason why I publish it.

Imagine all the people, walking hand in hand .....

(www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=imagine+john+lennon)

If you are longing for a new, human society, give this book away. It conveys the basic thoughts for a happy life.

Please visit the course Tokkoh, which opens your heart to this heart world that has been waiting for you for a long time. http://www.tokkoh.ch/

Flo Eburt

When one dreams alone

then it's just a dream.

When many dream together

it is the beginning of a new reality.

The following titles also belongs

to these series of books

Happiness is within you

About the art of becoming a human being

( in German)

at amazon.de

ISBN 978 19804 19495

The whisper of the world woos your love

Man and nature are one

(in German)

at amazon.de

ISBN 978 17289 93492

May all beings of all worlds

be happy and peace on earth.

May all heads of state of the world

become true role models and leaders.

May Mother Earth

stay kind to us

and our planet is a place

of happiness.

I like the seed

of happiness and joy

find in me, touch

and may I develop the ability

nourish and grow it every day.

A meditator's prayer