| A Second Life |
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| — This Is Your Last Chance — |
Human society is now undergoing astonishing transformation as the collective intelligence of humanity is applied across countless fields.
As a result, while standards of living continue to rise dramatically, the expansion of social inequality advances just as rapidly.
And in that widening divide, the darkness within the human heart is being exposed.
The energy erupting from the distortions of an unequal society is immense.
Can so much darkness truly exist within human consciousness?
The reality emerging before us is so disturbing that it becomes difficult even to believe we are all members of the same human race.
The hidden world of fear, greed, resentment, and obsession will increasingly reveal itself.
The age ahead will lay bare the endless ambitions and ugliness that have always existed within humanity.
The wave of digitalization is transforming human society at extraordinary speed.
And alongside it, at equally extraordinary speed, the darkness within the human heart is also surfacing.
In such an age, what thoughts will guide your life?
And with what state of mind will you eventually face death?
Life surrounded by computers and robots certainly provides us with comfort and convenience.
It is also true that if those systems malfunction, our daily lives can come to an immediate halt and cause tremendous disruption.
Even so, digitalization has already become indispensable to modern life, and it will continue transforming society at tremendous speed.
As long as we regard the world of form as reality, it is only natural that we seek greater convenience and greater comfort.
Computers and robots will undoubtedly become more deeply integrated into our lives and continue reshaping the way we live.
Smart systems will increasingly organize our living environments, and robots capable of movements ever closer to those of human beings will continue to appear one after another.
Within this flow of digitalization, comfortable and convenient lives will certainly be provided.
But does that mean we will truly experience joy and happiness?
No, it does not.
The more humanity pursues comfort and convenience — the more society becomes systemized on a massive scale — the more harmful consequences will emerge alongside it.
Even if an age arrives in which万能細胞 (pluripotent stem cells) are created and highly advanced robots become commonplace, unforeseen problems will inevitably continue to arise.
And true human happiness will remain impossible.
No — it cannot be achieved that way.
Furthermore, no matter how advanced computers become, they will never be able to fully uncover the depths of the human heart.
This is something we must come to understand.
Even if increasingly convenient, comfortable, and efficient living spaces are created, and even if advanced medical technology dramatically reduces mortality rates, the joy and happiness produced by such progress cannot truly connect us to genuine happiness.
Why?
Because such happiness is temporary.
The moment circumstances change, it changes as well.
The joy and happiness we experience through the world of form always contain something hidden beneath them.
They are never pure joy alone or pure happiness alone.
Attached to them are fear, anxiety, and attachment.
That is why the state of the human heart can overturn at any moment.
Surely you understand this.
Depending on circumstances, a person who was once happy can suddenly fall into despair.
If one seeks happiness in the world of form, then naturally, when that world collapses, disappears, or changes drastically, the heart also changes.
Can happiness that exists only under such unstable and uncertain conditions truly be called real happiness?
True joy and true happiness should not change according to circumstances.
Joy is not something that fades away, disappears, or grows distant.
Nor should happiness and unhappiness exist as two sides of the same coin.
Of course, once we understand what we are centering our lives upon — and what standards we are using — it becomes understandable why the happiness people experience fades away or is always accompanied by unhappiness.
Somewhere within yourself, you may already sense how fragile such happiness truly is.
And yet, will you continue spending your life pursuing things you already know to be fleeting?
Do you believe that this endless pursuit of temporary happiness is simply what life is?
No.
There is another way of living.
There is a way of life through which one comes to know a joy and happiness that never change, no matter how circumstances shift.
In other words, to discover true joy and true happiness — that alone is real life.
And true joy and true happiness cannot exist in countless forms.
If they are truly "real," then they must be one.
That is why I sincerely hope that you, too, will seek this way of living.
And how can one do that?
That is what I would like to speak about from here onward.