The Golden Rule of Life

Recently we have released “Daily Word from Sontoku Ninomiya*1” and “Daily Word from Shushin-kyoju-roku*2”, so that we have released 6 books of this Daily Word series in total.
After finishing the edition of sayings of the 6 old sages, there is a feeling of amusement that is swelling silently in my heart. This is a feeling that all the words of the 6 masters of life boil down to one thing:
　　What matters for flowers is fragrance.
　　What matters for people is personality.
　No matter how gorgeous and glossy artificial flowers may look, they don’t have the charm to really attract people. Likewise, no mater how capable a person may be, the person is not attractive as a person, if the person is arrogant and unbearable.
*1 Sontoku Ninomiya (1787-1856) was a prominent 19th century Japanese agricultural leader and philosopher. He was born to a poor peasant family but became a great landowner through hard work. Even to this day, he tends to be regarded as a symbol of hard work and perseverance.

*2 “Shushin-kyoju-roku” is a book containing lectures on life delivered by an unparalleled educator Mr. Shinzo Mori

　First of all, you have to create yourself. Refine a person, or yourself respectably, and become a person with the fragrance of virtue.――What the 6 sages talked about throughout their lives are condensed into this one point. This is exactly the most important principle of life, the principle that you can be sure your life is absolutely fine if you comply with this, or the golden rule of life.
　Then, how is it possible to create yourself? What the 6 sages said can be largely summarized by the following 3 things:

　The first thing is to be determined in your life. Unless you are determined, you will never start your true life. The old sages preach this point repetitively.
A fisherman in Okinawa once said,
“When I make a determination to go to a pelagic fishing ground, winds blow, the sail bustles, and waves start to ripple. However, if I am not determined, winds will not come to my ship.”
The same thing can be said about life.
　The second thing is not to be arrogant, and be humble, respectful, and modest. A person who is humble when out of luck, becomes arrogant when things start to go well. This is the common down side of human beings. However, when a person becomes arrogant, Heaven pulls the carpet under the person. There are countless examples of this case.
　The third thing is to be sincere. Sincerity is the best virtue of human beings that old sages cherished the most.
　If I were to add one more thing, it would be “endurance”. By continuing for long periods, the golden rule of life will become rock-solid.

　Lastly, I would like to introduce Sontoku Ninomiya’s poem on virtue.

　　Both my parents and their parents are inside me. Love myself, respect myself.

　Your life is not your own possession. Your life is the life continued for generations including your parents and their parents, in an unbroken line. Your life is there because the flame of life has continued without interruption even once. In your body, the flame of continuous lives of millions or tens of millions of your ancestors is burning.
You have to profoundly consider that you are the crystallization of such precious lives, and have a way of living by loving yourself and respecting yourself.

⇒　Chichi WEB (Japanese version)