after summer vacation.

At this time of year, I would like you to think of your own steps of the year. Please spend this time remembering the aspirations, or blueprint, you pictured in your heart at the beginning of the year, and reestablish the steps of the remaining four months.

Take a Deep Breath during Restless Days

If you have become a cog in the wheel of modern society, “busyness” must be a common state of your condition no matter what occupation you are engaged in, no matter what position you are in.

From morning until night’s rest, incessant requests from the outside world continue, and we have never-ending work that we must respond to. In addition, we have to not only respond to business demands, but also to numerous demands at home, in local communities and in various human relationships. If you are active in GLA, its demands will also add to the list.

There will be those who feel that “twenty four hours are not enough for a day.” If we do not process requests that come to us one after another, with no rest between, unfinished work piles up.

In those days, some may feel intense pressure that “I have no time to stop. If I work at a slow pace, new deadlines will mount up immediately and I may be crushed down by them.” However, the busier we are and the more demands we have to respond to, the more we are in need to pause and to take a deep breath. Close your eyes. Leave your everyday cycle behind. Breathe out slowly and breathe in quietly. Once again, take a long quiet breath out, and breathe in.

We not only need to look at the external stimuli that flow into us incessantly, but also turn our attention to our inner realm.

What am I feeling right now? What concerns me and to what am I responding? To where and how am I heading? What is my priority? Have I forgotten what I have to

respond to? What is to be protected truly? What was my original aspiration?

At the beginning, you can start with a brief period of time; even ten minutes will do. Create stillness of consciousness inside of you. From that silence, look at your current self. If you can write what you feel in words on a sheet of paper, the time will become more worthwhile.

If you are able to at will create stillness of consciousness no matter how busy you are, your life will acquire great power.

What is most important is to pose questions to the mind/heart within you and savor them.

Listen to the Voice of the Soul

Now we are in a season shifting from summer filled with intense light to autumn. We are called upon that our consciousness; our mind, that had once been directed

outward, should turn inside, and return to the origin which drives us.

questions to the mind/heart within you and savor them.

Listen to the Voice of the Soul

Now we are in a season shifting from summer filled with intense light to autumn. We are called upon that our consciousness; our mind, that had once been directed outward, should turn inside, and return to the origin which drives us.

It is a calling to listen to the voice of our soul.

There is a will that does not reach the surface of our daily consciousness, but instead is the very core of us.

It exists in the source of the demands to which we are now responding, and exists at the beginning of the flow of our times.

We must awaken the will to return to our origin.

The busier we are, and the greater the burden that we must take on in specific act, the more important it is to invoke such a will. This is because it is solely the time when we face the mind/heart and soul within us that gives us an unwavering central axis in this ever-changing world.

Preliminary translation as of September 11, 2016

GLA member-volunteers translated Takahashi Sensei’s words.
We would appreciate your feedback for the sake of our improvement.
Please feel free to write your thoughts or comments to us at:
inquiry@gla-intl.com
or mail to: International Dept., GLA
2-18-3 Kaminarimon,
Taito-ku, Tokyo, 111-0034, Japan

Thank you for your kind support.