New Philosophy of Life
Written by Okada Jikan Mokichi, 1950
Just saying wisdom, there is a various kind of wisdom. There are also shallow or profound ones. Let me explain them. ‘Shin-chi,’ ‘Zen-chi’ and ‘Ei-chi’ are the best wisdom. We should dedicate so much to religious faith to cultivate such wisdom. It is because they never spring up unless a person recognizes God and has a sincere heart. In this sense, they will never fail if they work hard based on Zen-chi. They can obtain true happiness.
On the contrary, ‘Kan-chi,’ ‘Sai-chi’ and ‘Ja-chi’ are caused by evil. All criminals have such cunning wisdom. Especially, intellectual criminals such as a swindler are very good at using it. In this sense, old heroes and those who made a flash in the pan just used it a lot. I found an interesting fact. That is right wisdom is profound but wrong wisdom is shallow. You would understand it very much when looking at what kind of path bad people followed from old times to today. They intend to execute a well thought out cunning plan. However, the plan must have something missing. The missing part causes failure and their evil design is found. They fail after all. Therefore, if a person hopes for not temporary but permanent prosperity, profound wisdom must need to work. The more they have sincere hearts, the more profound wisdom springs up. For this reason, people must have a right religious faith in conclusion.
If people understand what I described above, present social evils will be easily solved. They happen because people of today don’t think about things deeply. Therefore, problems happen in various fields. For example, politicians just think of only the present matter. They take measures against a problem in a hurry just when it occurs. Their way is very similar to the symptomatic treatment of medicine. The problem happens because there is a cause that should occur. It never happens by chance. Politicians cannot raise their perspective with their surface knowledge so that they cannot formulate the right policy. That is like playing Go or Shogi. A master player can read the five or ten movements ahead. On the other hand, a poor player just manages to read a few movements ahead somehow. Therefore, they are sure to fail. People should understand that everything cannot go well without ‘Zen-chi’ and ‘Ei-chi.’ In this sense, they would know that they never acquire ‘Zen-chi’ nor make ‘Ei-chi’ work more without religious faith.
Translated by N.H.