I assume those who are new to this study of the heart may be thinking, "What does the writer mean by 'the basis of your life?' or by 'changing the basis of your life'?"
Now, to answer these questions, I first need you to consider the following.
First of all, there are two types of bases.
The first type is visible to the eye, audible to the ear, and touchable with the hand, or in other words, exists in the tangible world. Allow me to refer to this type of basis as "A." The second type of basis exists in the intangible world and thereby has no form but is able to be felt with one's heart. I will refer to this type of basis as "B."
Almost everyone currently leads their lives on the basis of "A." Without stopping to question another possibility, most of us believe that the physical world, which is visible and audible, is the real world.
We assume such roles as spouses, mothers/fathers, and children, based on the basis of "A." In addition, presidents of companies, politicians, those with other jobs, and others out of work, all lead their lives on the basis of "A."
In addition, we all distinguish ourselves from others, based on our facial appearances and other physical features. We also all have names, with which we distinguish ourselves.
In this way, the physical world is based on tangible features of the world. That is the world seen on the basis of "A."
We perceive ourselves and our surroundings based on physical features and try to pursue happiness in the physical world by finding the meaning of life, a reason to live, and a goal to accomplish during life. This has always been the same.
In the physical world, the indicator most often used to judge whether one is doing well or not is money. The most prominent feature of the world seen on the basis of "A" is that it is based on money.
People tend to think that everything will turn out alright as long as they have money. That is why people fight with one another over money, often getting themselves involved in crimes and other felonies.
In addition, people may say fine-sounding things, or what they believe is justice. However, at the end of the day, they will say, "Hand over the money," and even go to court if doing so would guarantee them more benefits.
That is the world we live in today. Everyone must be aware by now that all problems are centered around money. At the same time, we know that money will not resolve all of our issues, and we probably do not like the idea that everything is centered around money. However, everyone is interested in money, and money is something that we cannot do without.
In fact, most people likely believe they can buy almost anything with money. Most people likely believe money will allow them to lead happy lives. That is how civilized people in the modern world are today.
If there is something that money cannot buy, it must be things like people's feelings and true kindness. However, people today may even sell such things for money. Can anyone honestly say they would not sell their feelings and kindness for money?
Our feelings could be pure at first. No one would likely be thinking about betraying another at first. However, would people's relationships be maintained harmoniously even after money comes into the picture? One might say, "I would never sell my soul for money," thinking it sounds neat to say so. However, as long as one believes the physical world as being the real world, I believe one would not last long at refusing to sell his/her soul for money. In fact, I believe many people openly act in accordance with the saying "When poverty comes through the door, love goes out the window."
Another thing that we cannot buy with money is eternal life. On the other hand, in the event of an emergency, our lives can be saved with money. Those who have money can receive expensive treatments with advanced technology, while those without money cannot. So the value of our lives also depends on money.
To those who believe the physical world as being the real world, saving lives and being saved from death seem to have special significance. That is why such people seem to hate to hear about rescue attempts ending up unsuccessful.
The saying that best reflects the thoughts of those who believe the physical world as being the real world is as follows: Life matters the most.
Another prominent feature of the world seen on the basis of "A" is that wars never disappear. No matter how seriously we hope for peace, hope to be on friendly terms with one another, make an effort to holding meetings with each other, and try to find win-win solutions to our issues, in a world based on the basis of "A," putting an end to the negative energy of war is unfortunately impossible. This has already been proven by the history of humankind.
By war, in this context, I do not only mean combats that kill people in an instant with missiles and guns. We tend to think that wars are taking place in such contexts where people kill each other; however, wars take place in our hearts.
Criticizing, attacking, and trying to destroy others and radiating negative energies on one another in the process is what war is in the world of consciousness.
In the world seen on the basis of "A," it is not an exaggeration to say that we are all continuously radiating negative energies of war.
We may say, "All people are created equally"; however, as long as one believes the physical world as being the real world, all people are created unequally. Everyone does not look exactly the same; we are shaped differently, and that is only natural. We rather need to be shaped differently so that we can wrongly compare ourselves with others and feel the ugliness of our hearts. However, as long as one's life is based on the basis of "A," one would not be able to welcome the fact that we are not created equally.
In the physical world, people are different in all kinds of ways: Social status, honor, property, health, intelligence, and beauty. In real life, since everyone leads their lives based on the basis of "A," everyone would be more or less hoping to lead their lives superficially happier, richer, and brighter. That is why everyone comes to think the primary condition for leading a happy life is to be economically competitive, intelligent, healthy, and beautiful. We all make great efforts to meet that condition. We even spend our entire life trying to meet that condition, competing with others throughout our lives.
On the other hand, I believe there must be people feeling that the development of technology has made life uninteresting. Some people have chosen to actively pursue their own pace of life.
However, will leaving the cities, where they believe is full of people's greed, to live in the countryside with nature enable them to lead more interesting and comfortable lives? If asked this question, I would have to say, "No." Moving to the countryside to live with nature will not enable one to quit competing with others in one's heart. Where one lives—whether it be in the cities away from nature or in the countryside with nature—does not make a difference, because what matters is the condition of the person's heart, or the type of vibrations the person sends out to the world. The vibrations sent by the person is what makes differences in his/her surroundings. If one continues to send out negative vibrations of darkness, he/she will eventually cause incidents that will come to involve those around him/her. People seem to think such incidents just happen one day out of the blue; however, they do not. Such incidents are phenomena that do have causes. They occur wherever they do, because those places in which they occur need to undergo such incidents. When such incidents occur, we are supposed to learn from them. However, we are no longer even able to recognize such incidents as containing some lesson for us, because we have come to lead our lives far away from the truth.
We lead our lives without even wondering why we were born, what the purpose of life is, who we truly are, what kind of existences we are, and what happens to us after we die. While we are alive, we all lead our own lives. However, once we die, the world of our own vibrations will become the world in which we live.
Crimes happen even in the countryside with small populations, where people tend to be kind to one another and maintain strong relationships. Large cities, where people do not even know their own neighbors, have their own problems, which often stem from indifference. However, the countryside also has its own problems of straining their hearts to preserve old customs and practices and being exclusive to outsiders. In other words, wherever one lives, problems will come bursting out from oneself as a darkness underlying his/her own heart. Such problems will surface as long as we wrongly believe that the physical world is the real world. What is wrong will eventually be made right.
In addition, tangible objects cannot be preserved in the same states forever. Tangible objects will eventually be reduced to dust and then disappear. I believe this fact proves that the physical world is not the real world. Despite knowing that everything will eventually be reduced to dust, we have made the mistake of devoting ourselves entirely to the physical world. But why have we made such a mistake. We have foolishly and pathetically been pursuing short-lived luxurious glory in the destined-to-crumble physical world. We have been extremely foolish and pathetic.
People with weapons and ammunition killing one another is the most prominent example of wars being fought in our hearts. People at war kill each other in the name of god and justice.
I do not understand how people can kill one another in the name of holy war, but I guess that represents the condition in which our hearts are today.
We constantly radiate the energy of war in various forms, ranging from wars between nations and clans to spouses.
Each side has its own belief, opinion, and standpoint. We go to war because we each believe in such ridiculous non-existing entities as god(s), Buddha, or some other power. However, those believing in a god, Buddha, or other power think that the god, Buddha, or the power they believe in is above all others. Unless we look into our hearts and reflect on the energies we have been radiating, we will never come to understand what kind of existence such god(s), Buddha, or other powers are. Until then, we will keep seriously thinking that the god, Buddha, or the power we believe in is the best existence in the world. That is why we tend to be unable to rid of such god(s), Buddha, and powers, the believing in which has come to be one of the tendencies of our hearts.
We have been leading our lives without knowing the type of energy the tendencies of our hearts are radiating.
Because we believe in such ridiculous non-existing entities as god(s), Buddha, or some other power, even if two people with clashing interests come to agree on a conditional compromise, there will remain some unresolved conflict within their hearts. Just because the two sides reached some kind of an agreement does not mean their energies aimed at attacking one another has disappeared. Instead, both sides retain their energies aimed at attacking each other. That is why we have never been able to agree to assimilate into one, regardless of how superficially happy and rich we had previously been.
We see this greedy aspect of ourselves everyday on the news.
I believe people should already have realized that something is wrong and that they might themselves be insane. However, because we all believe the physical world is the real world, wars between ourselves that we witness on the news everyday are still not enough to help us realize that we are wrong and insane. The basis based on the belief that the physical world is the real world has been established that strong.
On the other hand, believing that the physical-world-oriented basis of our lives as being established unwaveringly strong is also wrong. Our physical-world-oriented basis of life is in fact a castle built on sand that can easily be destroyed by a blow of the wind and a shake of the ground.
Therefore, the world is headed in the direction in which changes will take place to help us destroy our physical-world-oriented basis of life. Those practicing the study of the heart taught by Mr. Tomekichi Taike call this direction in which the world is headed "the flow of consciousness." The study of the heart tells us that we need to return to our true selves who are able to feel this flow of consciousness with their heart.