New Philosophy of Life
Written by Okada Jikan Mokichi, 1950

In religions, Buddhism is particularly divided into two groups; Mahayana Buddhism and Hinayana Buddhism. Mahayana literally means ‘Big Vehicle’ and whereas, Hinayana means ‘Small Vehicle.’ These meanings have been regrettably not well understood until today. Here, I give my view.

‘Big Vehicle’ originally means great nature, which shows how all things should be created and raised. Therefore, everything is included in it. In this sense, I don’t mention Mahayana Buddhism but a broad-minded principle to explain ‘Big Vehicle.’ The broad-minded principle applies to everything such as religion, philosophy, science, politics, education, economy and art. Not only them, but it also applies to war and peace and even good and evil.

Observing carefully how things work, we can find that all things have their own natural ways of being. By following them, everything goes well. If a person can understand this principle, they are truly valuable as human beings. Therefore, if things go out of the way, problems must arise. They never fail to meet obstacles and finally stagnate or fail. In this way, creation is enabled if things make sense but destruction occurs if they don’t. That is the reality of this world. It is like a train. It moves on when it gets on the track but it doesn’t when it gets off.

For this reason, all things either perish or live, which never happens by chance. Everything happens for a reason. This also applies to thought. When it is biased to the left, the right-wing in thought appears and vice versa. We should move on without being biased to one side. That is just the same as driving a car. In this sense, various isms are born as needed and destroyed as necessary; capitalism, socialism, communism, conservatives, progressives, activism, passivism and all the other sorts of isms. Religions are, of course, not the exception. They appear for a reason. Nevertheless, most people judge them from their own point of view. Except for the religion that they believe in, they are apt to consider others a heretic. They cannot see the forest for the trees. They just see things through their own small eyes. In the sight of God who governs this world, humans are just making a mountain out of a molehill. He would think how small they are and laugh bitterly.

Everything is naturally selected if they are not needed for human beings. On the other hand, needed things cannot be eradicated even if humans try to do them. For example, a new religion or thought appears. Even though it looks like a superstition or an evil way to human eyes, it will develop if needed for human beings or will perish if not. So, we should leave it natural to some extent. The more religion is put down with human power, the more the degree of its development increases if it has true life and value. This good example is Christianity. Its founder Christ was convicted but Christianity has flourished. It clearly shows what I described above. Modern people are narrow-minded and their views are very narrow. Therefore, I wrote this so that people would notice their mistakes.

Translated by N.H.