運命の流れに乗る:Life dancing
(English version is below.)Toshです。ボクたちは週末、能勢の山奥にあるログハウスのカフェレストランに行きます。Kotiがお店の手伝いをしている間、ボクは友だちと一緒に山歩きを楽しみます。先日、山歩きをしていたら今まで見たこともない美しい田園風景を見つけました。かなり山奥深いところで、手付かずの自然がそのまま残っています。田んぼや畑の周りには花がたくさん咲きみだれていました。「たぶん昔の日本って、どこもこんな風景だったのだろうなあ。」「こんな所に暮らしたいなあ。」ブッダは自分の前世を覚えていたといいますが、「ボクの前世は修行僧で山寺にこもって暮らしていたのかもしれない。」などと色々と思いを馳せたのでした。そしてボクはフト思いました。「この地球上に生命が宿ることは、実はものすごく大変なことじゃないか!」と。森の中にある、木一本をとっても初めは一粒の種だったわけで、その一つ一つが森の一部になっている。考えてみるとスゴイことだと思いませんか?でもさらにスゴイことは、自分がこの世に生まれてこうして毎日を生きていること。これはもう奇跡と言って良いかもしれません。何千年も前から無事にご先祖が存在したからこそ、ボクはこうして産まれて、今ここに存在している。今日、ここに生きているボクたちはみんなそうです。でも残念ながら、そう思わない人たちもいる。ボクも昔は自分のことを、「たまたまこの世に生まれた」と思っていました。だから生きていることに感謝したことなどなかったし、自分の境遇に失望して、それを両親のせいにして落ち込んでいました。ボクなんて産まれてこなければよかったと。でも自分が成長するにつれて、生かされている意味が少しずつ分かり始めると、生きていることの素晴らしさ、ありがたさ、自分を産んでくれた両親に感謝するようになりました。今思えば、「なぜ自分はこの世に生まれたのだろう」と苦しんだ時期があったからこそ、今の感謝できる自分があるのだと思う。 もっと命の素晴らしさを知りたいという「問い」、そして「乾き」があったからだと思っている。そんな風に悟る運命の流れだったのもしれない。運命の流れに乗ればいいんだ。Tosh★ ★ ★Most weekends Koti and myself enjoy going to our friends Log House Café called Kiyu.Koti usually helps out in the kitchen and also does some waitresing.I like it there very much as it gives me the chance to escape from the city and enjoy fresh air and walk in the mountains.I often walk with my Japanese friend; he also enjoys walking in the mountains as much as I do.Sometimes we walk for several hours and recently have discovered some old walking tracks that are difficult to find and don’t get used by many people.The area we go walking is in Nose,Hogo prefecture, and the favorite town is called Yamada, it has one of the most beautiful countryside I have ever seen. Mostly it is a rice growing area; also the farmers grow a lot of flowers and vegetables at this time of the year.Often I can see very old style farmhouses, they have a very unique style, and very beautiful gardens, and I sometimes wonder what life was like back in the last century before Japan became modernized. Probably like in all other countries, life would have been arduous, because even now the farmers seem to always be working hard, very back braking work!I love the peace and quiet of the mountains, and probably if I was born back in those days I would like to think that I might have been a priest, maybe living in a mountain temple, life would have been pretty tough, even for a priest.I sometimes think about past life, reincarnation. It’s entirely possible that we have lived many life times, but we have no memory of having lived before, although some people claim they remember. Once I heard someone say that Lord Buddha said that he remembers very one of his past lives.But in one sense, if you think about it, being alive on this planet means we have been an incredible success. Like if you see a forest, just think all those trees were once tiny seeds, and we only see the trees that took root and grew into being a part of the forest, but there were many seeds that were unsuccessful and didn’t germinate to become trees.Similarly, us humans are the result of an incredible miracle, because over thousands and thousands of years our forefathers and mothers, were part of being successful, and then through natural selection only the toughest and adaptable ones of the species could survive.So we are the result of successful evolution, and we have been finely tuned and evolved to have survived as we are now, today.But many of us don’t see it this way, I used to think I was born because of a haphazard random occurrences. And therefore couldn’t really appreciate how lucky I am to be born, and what an amazing opportunity it is.When I was very young, sometimes life seemed disappointing to me and when I would become upset and frustrated. I used to blame my parents for having been born, and thought my misery was there fault and I was unhappy because of them.But as I grew older and began to understand the deeper meaning of life, I then realized that I was in fact an incredible miracle, and that my parents had very little to do with me being here on this earth. But in fact it was my destiny, for I must have wanted it so badly to come into this life to learn and go on, who know where too from here, because something much grander than me is pulling the strings, I just have to dance like the puppet, and when I connect to the master puppeteer, and move in his will, and dance to his music, then life has so much joy and laughter is automatic, I can dance and sing to the divine music. Tosh