Hardly do I see people , men or women, with noble
spirit recently. Even in the field of fiction we can
hardly meet heroes nor heroins who have a spirit
noble enough to sacrifice themselves for love or
their idealism. Some people of today say, "No longer do we live in such an age as when people'sspirit were naive enough to rely on the religious
teaching for the basis of their living even if at the
sacrifice of materially wealthy life or pure enough to satisfy spiritual happiness with little material
comfort. It looks that lust has gripped our mind so
entirely that their reasoning-power has gone numb enough to give priority money more than
health.
Mother Teresa
Every day I open the newspaper expecting to findwarm articles covering the act of noble spirit only
to fall into despair. I know that we are all born with selfish disposition but not long time ago we had such figures as Gandhi , Mother Teresa and so on. Never do such an age come back again?
Sri Lanka
Japanese monks wearing yellow robes in their
temples at the foot of sacred mountain in Kandy,
the old capital of Sri Lanka for one month. The
Japanese monks were so selflessly devoted to their
belief that they kept recklessly traveling all over
the world with little possession for religious mission striking a little drum . They were literally
leading a self-denial life. Half way through my stay
the pioneer of their religious organization , Rev.
Fujii Nitatsu, a candidate of Peace Novel Prize,
happened to come all the way from Japan at the
age of 98.
shocking words of pioneer
by him. Towards the end of the discourse at midnight he said to his followers almost shouting " If you are not ready to live a life poorer than that of beggars in India, you are not entitled to do religious activity,nor my followers . I have lived for 98 years only for the purpose of reviving Buddhism in India where Buddhism was born. Last year an young Indian man came to our temple asking me to accept him as my follower. I was very moved."
A string of Tears
When he said so, I saw a string of tears rolling down on the cheek of an old monk who bore all
kinds of mental and physical hardships. He was
a man of noble spirit. Since then I almost gave up
the hope to appearance of a person with noble
spirit.
Still noble spirit exist
But only a couple months ago HE came along with
half wort out T-shirt in an old car. He is a 79 year-
old- years volunteer. He became famous for finding
a boy who lost his way in the mountain after a big
group of self-defense force had looked for the boy
for nearly a week in vain. What is great about him is his unchanging modest attitude towards people's praise . When he was offered by the family of the boy concerned to take a bath in their house, he merely said, " Your kind offer is more than enough" He kept refusing mass-media's interview.He carries everything necessary for living in his car, sleeping in the car, cooking himself and so on.He says , " To be helpful to people in need is his reason for his living. He has been leading such a sacred like life for more than 15 years without expecting anything in return.
Noble spirit still exist
He is a junior high school graduate because his family was too poor to give him higher education.
But his spirit is much nobler than that of any critics or scholars who play the role of goodhearted human beings on the side of people in need. The only pleasure he enjoys in his life is to take a free open air bath with local fellows. He has a heart warm enough to share sadness with people in trouble.To know his kind of existence makes me feel that life is not still too bad. His name is Obata Haruo.
