Now, let us begin the Study Session for the Divine Spark on Saturday, November 1.
First, while inhaling with the thought “Ware Soku Kami Nari,” hold your breath with “Jouju!,” and exhale with “Jin Rui Soku Kami Nari,” we will offer the Prayer for World Peace. Please keep your eyes closed until I say “Hai,” and breathe slowly and gently within your comfortable range.
There are various ways of breathing: you may inhale and exhale through your nose, or—if you find it difficult to exhale long enough through the nose—you can purse your lips slightly, open a small space in the center, tighten your abdomen, and release your breath little by little in a controlled way. That helps extend the exhalation quite a bit.
From my own experience, thirty seconds is easy; sometimes I can go over a minute, and occasionally even two or three minutes. But please never push yourself.
Now, let us begin the Prayer for World Peace.
《The Prayer for World Peace》
I just showed today’s title: it is “Toward an Encounter between the Self and the Naturally Arising Self.”
It has been a while since I last read one of my blog posts—this is the one I uploaded today.
This text will also be used in the message for “The Day of Sacred Connection,” on Saturday night, November 8.
The language in this blog is rather casual, like talking to a close friend, but when I adapt it for next Saturday night’s email introduction, I will rewrite it in polite Japanese, making it sound a bit more formal.
I will now share my screen to show the text. As you can see, the title is “To Live by Dissolving and Expanding the ‘Self’ into the ‘Naturally Arising Self.’”
Let us begin reading.
To Live by Dissolving and Expanding the “Self” into the “Naturally Arising Self”
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- The Evolution of Human Consciousness in Harmony with the Source of Life and Planetary Development
You know, we call the Source of Life that created the entire universe the Great Life, right? In contrast, all other beings are small life forms.
And we humans, as one of those small life forms, were all designed from the very beginning to eventually return to that Source of Life.
The secret behind that lies in what’s called the Human Consciousness Evolution Program, which is built together with the development of planets. Let me give you a little glimpse of it here.
1）A new planet is formed within the galaxy (in a fiery-ball state).
2．[The Dimension of the Coarsest Vibrations]
2-A）The planet is enveloped in an atmosphere to stabilize and cool its surface temperature.
3-A）Beginning with microorganisms, the evolution and creation of living beings are initiated.
4-A）Alterations are made to the DNA of apes, leading to the evolution from primates to humankind.
2．[The Dimension of Divine Vibrations]
2-B）Highly evolved divine spirits from other stars transfer to the divine realm of the Earth.
3-B）While creating bodies optimized for each level, they descend into coarser worlds (the divine realm, the spiritual realm, and the physical realm).
4-B）Humans from other stars, clad in vibration bodies that can no longer be made denser (physical bodies), suddenly appear in the material world (this world).
3）A blending of both spirit and body occurs between the migrating humans from other planets and the native humans of Earth. (At this stage, the migrating humans, as part of the planetary development program of the Universal God, begin to completely forget the memories of their cosmic divine era.)
4）The pioneering and development of the coarse-vibration world are completed.
5）Humanity reawakens the divinity of its consciousness (the memory of the cosmic divine era) and seeks ascension in both spiritual and material vibrations.
6）Humanity passes through the stage of true impasse, where old values can no longer function.
7）Aid is received from highly evolved divine spirits who materialize from advanced planets.
8）All humankind on that planet seeks to unite with the ultimate Source of Life.
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- The Seven Kalpas and the Soul’s Plan — Humanity’s Mission in This Lifetime
The detailed process differs from planet to planet, but in general, the evolution of any planet follows the stages I just listed, gradually unfolding through development and exploration.
Here’s an important point you shouldn’t miss: planetary development is directly linked to the evolution and upliftment of human consciousness.
For Earth to move beyond its current state and shift into a world of great harmony—overflowing with truth, goodness, and beauty—all humanity must come to know what the “life force that moves oneself” truly is, and seek unity with the Source of Life itself.
When you look at this from another angle, you can begin to see the deeper meaning hidden behind the idea of planetary development.
It’s that the light-spirits—divine fragments of life that have received a portion of the creative energy of the Cosmic Creative Consciousness (the Life Source)—take residence on newly formed planets, descend into the densest realm of vibration that can possibly exist, and there, through cooperation and mutual support, overcome all obstacles to establish a world of great harmony upon that planet. After fulfilling that sacred mission, they return—body and soul—to the center of the universe.
That journey itself is what we call the creative evolution of humankind.
And there’s one more thing I want you to know: the evolution of a planet, in any system, generally proceeds through seven great stages of development before reaching completion.
From that perspective, you—humanity now—are in the fifth stage of the process described earlier.
In the vast history of Earth, your current era stands at the very end of the seventh Kalpa.
The word Kalpa refers to an unimaginably long span of time. It’s said that if a celestial being were to gently stroke a rock four kilometers square with a soft cloth once every hundred years, and continued doing so until the rock completely wore away, and even repeated that entire process a hundred times over, that still wouldn’t equal one Kalpa.
So, being at the end of the seventh Kalpa means we are now living in the final, decisive era—the ultimate moment that determines whether humanity rises or falls.
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- Living in Oneness with the Great Whole and the State of Unity with the Divine Self
From now on, in your daily life—whether it’s family, work, literature, learning, art, politics, or even your hobbies and preferences—the way you relate to everything will begin to change.
You’ll start entering a stage where you naturally live as one with whatever you engage with, expressing its very essence and drawing forth infinite power from that state of unity.
If you’re devoted to farming, you’ll be able to nurture your crops with a love as radiant as the sun itself, from a state of oneness with nature, and thus provide sacred harvests.
If you love music, you’ll merge with the very source of melody and rhythm, becoming one with music itself—singing, playing, or composing as the embodiment of sound.
If you’re a writer, you’ll immerse your heart and body in the vibration field of Kotoba—the original realm of words—and from that place, you’ll write beautifully, almost in a semi-automatic flow.
If you work in a factory or workshop and put your whole heart and life into your craft, you’ll find that inspiration comes—ideas no machine could conceive—and your artisan spirit will rise to a higher dimension, allowing you to create truly unique work.
If you’re someone who cooks, you’ll express infinite creativity, becoming one with the life of the ingredients, and effortlessly bring forth one delicious, original dish after another.
Even in relationships with others, when you base your awareness on unity with your Guardian Spirit, you can connect with others as one with their Guardian Spirit.
That’s how misunderstandings fade away, and you begin co-creating harmonious destinies with everyone you meet.
All these things arise naturally from the heart that is one with the Great Whole.
If you are walking the path of Divine Reawakening, there is really only one thing to do:
Let the drop of divinity that is “you” fall gently into the great ocean of Divine Life—let yourself dissolve into it and live from within it.
In practical terms, surrender everything that your physical, thinking self clings to—offer it all to your Guardian Spirit. Slip into their embrace like a baby held close, and live through the consciousness of your Guardian Spirit as your own.
Then your body and mind become the body and mind of the Divine—you live as the Divine itself.
And that state, my friend, is what can truly be called enlightenment, or the consciousness of unity with the Divine Self.
You see now, don’t you?
To live in unity with the Divine Self means to dissolve yourself into the Naturally Arising Self and to live as a part of the Great Life that simply exists.
You can do that.
That’s exactly why you were born.
Thank you very much. Over the past few weeks—yes, about two weeks since the last study session—the main theme that has continued to dwell within me has been the image of becoming one with the Great Whole, dissolving my small self into it, and living as a part of that Great Being.
This awareness has been continuously conveyed to me in various forms—through different metaphors, expressions, and moments of insight or direct intuition that have come to me moment by moment each day.
This is not something that only special people can achieve. Even if one does not believe in God or Buddha, even if one has no particular spiritual belief, even those who say, “I don’t believe in any god or Buddha,” can still experience oneness with the Great Whole. It is something possible for anyone.
During these two weeks, through many specific examples, I have continually been guided by the beings of light that dwell deep within the life force.
Part of that message is reflected in the blog text I just read, but in truth, there is much more to it.
One can attain unity with the Divine Self through cleaning.
One can attain unity with the Divine Self through doing laundry.
One can attain unity with the Divine Self through walking.
One can attain unity with the Divine Self through studying.
And even, in an extreme sense, one can attain unity with the Divine Self through play.
Please look at infants and young children. They bring us a sense of healing, don’t they? Why is it that we feel healed when we see little children? It is because they radiate the pure light of life and live innocently, just as they are.
Many human beings, however, are bound by their likes and dislikes, their fixed ideas of what is right or wrong, and through those attachments and judgments, they say things such as “What that person is doing is wrong,” or “What I am doing is right.” In other words, they are constantly engaging in criticism, condemnation, and evaluation.
Yet, in reality, those who criticize, condemn, and judge others are not truly judging others—they are revealing that they do not love themselves, do not forgive themselves, and do not accept themselves.
The Guardian Spirits and Guardian Deities, in truth, cause us to experience these troubled feelings in order to help us realize this truth.
However, human beings on Earth often become caught in the whirlpool of those emotions, stirring them up even more, and end up trapped in mental suffering from which they cannot escape.
In truth, there is nothing bad in any human experience. Yet, according to ordinary human standards, when we watch television or read newspapers, we may find ourselves thinking, “That sort of thing should not be done,” or “That way of life is wrong.”
Such reactions are natural emotional responses for human beings. The Guardian Spirits do not say that having such thoughts is wrong.
They tell us, “It’s all right to think negatively. It’s natural to feel that way. But once you have felt it—let it go.”
And one way to release such thoughts is through “the Prayer for World Peace, seeing all as forms disappearing.”
The expression “disappearing appearance” can also be understood, as I often say recently, as “the appearance of letting go.” If one has not truly let go, then it has not yet disappeared.
Some interpret another person’s wrongful actions as “a disappearing appearance.” But in reality, no one can truly know whether another’s actions are right or wrong.
It is the human tendency to decide such things arbitrarily—to label them as “right” or “wrong.” That is the actual nature of physical human beings.
For example, when we hear that someone has hurt another through violence, or even taken a life, we naturally think, “That’s a terrible thing.” But from the perspective of the Guardian Spirits and Guardian Deities, it is neither good nor bad. They say, “It is merely a part of the journey that one must pass through.”
Imagine taking the Shinkansen from Tokyo Station to Shin-Osaka. Sitting on the right side by the window, you can see Mount Fuji just before reaching Shin-Fuji Station.
Between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka, when the train passes near Mount Fuji, it appears for a short while, but because the train moves so fast, it quickly disappears from view.
Likewise, the events that human beings experience in life are like the fleeting scenery passing by a train window—they appear momentarily and then vanish.
However, people keep recalling those scenes long after they’ve passed. They cling to them, believing that something no longer present still exists before them—and that is the source of suffering.
Every experience in life simply arises as a necessary part of each person’s journey. It is nothing more than a fleeting view seen for an instant along the way.
Humans tend to judge both their own destiny and that of others, labeling them as good or bad, likable or not. But from the perspective of the Guardian Spirits and Guardian Deities, we are told, “Do not get caught up in such things.”
That is why I believe that those who have learned about “the disappearing appearance” are fortunate people. They have been kindly taught not only why we must “let go without clinging,” but also how to practice it in daily life.
However, even when the teaching is clear, whether one can truly do it or not is another matter. The result depends on whether the person is genuinely practicing the release of attachment.
In other words, it depends on whether one has sincerely lived by entering into the embrace of one’s Guardian Spirit and seeking unity with it.
Those who have prayed wholeheartedly, “Guardian Spirit, Guardian Deity, thank you. May peace prevail on Earth,” are now the ones who can say, “I have already let go.” Others may feel, “Perhaps I have not yet been able to let go.”
Yet even this is pointed out by the beings of light: “It is not a matter of ‘good because you have let go’ or ‘bad because you have not.’ Such dualistic thinking is shallow.”
The beings of the inner realm of life all say with one voice, “Humans are constantly thinking about who is above or below, who is first or last—but none of that really matters at all.”
An extraterrestrial being once said, “Living in such a state of mind is something that only the people of Earth—those who live with physical bodies—do in this solar system.”
From the perspective of one who has reawakened divine vision, the words “Even if the timing of one’s consciousness evolution is earlier or later by two hundred or three hundred million years, that makes no real difference” begin to make perfect sense.
However, many Earthlings believe, “This body—around a hundred and some centimeters tall and weighing tens of kilograms—is what a human being is,” and they keep comparing themselves with others.
That is why, for over a year now, I have been saying, “Please ask yourself every day the question, ‘Who am I?’.”
Usually, when people do that, they respond with knowledge. They ask themselves, “Who am I?”—and then answer it themselves, as if playing both roles in the dialogue.
In GOI-sensei’s book The One Who Connects Heaven and Earth, there is a passage describing a dialogue between GOI-sensei and his Guardian Deity, right before he attained unity with his Divine Self. It is that same kind of dialogue you can have with yourself.
When you do this, most people first answer only from intellect: “Yes, I am a divine being.” “Yes, I am one with God.”
Then, you ask yourself again, “You say that—but do you truly believe it?”
And in that moment, the honest feelings that you’ve hidden and suppressed deep within your heart begin to surface—
“I guess I don’t really believe it.”
“I suppose I haven’t been expressing divinity through my words, thoughts, or actions.”
That is the critical moment.
Ordinarily, according to our old patterns of thinking, we tend to put ourselves down or feel disappointed: “I knew it. I’m not good enough.”
But when you start to criticize or judge yourself, hold those feelings close with the awareness, “I am divine.” This is not about the body—it’s an inner matter. You embrace yourself from within.
At that moment, you don’t need to preach to yourself or try to force a change. Thoughts like “I need to reform myself” are unnecessary.
Just hold yourself without thinking. Simply become love. Become the light of love. As the light of love, embrace the feelings that think “I’m not good enough.”
When you do this, something remarkable happens—those clusters of negative thoughts find peace and dissolve.
Observing myself, I’ve come to realize that human beings don’t truly understand through words alone. And if you try to change someone forcefully, a backlash is inevitable.
So, what is truly needed to transform human beings?
Only love. Become love itself. No other thoughts are required. Live as the very light of love.
Through this kind of inner dialogue—this sincere questioning within our hearts—we naturally come to see ourselves deeply and expand our consciousness.
Now, it’s 1:53, so we’ll take a short break and form the IN. The phrase is the same as always: “Jinrui no Shinsei-Fukkatsu, Dai-jouju.” (“The Divinity of Humanity has reawakened. Dai-jouju.”)
When we form the IN—even just once—each one of us draws down the Ultimate Light of the Universe personally. Let us do so with that awareness.
《One Divine Spark IN》
Thank you very much. Now I will switch the screen. I will remain spotlighted, and we’ll take a break until 2:10. Your cameras will not appear on screen, but if you prefer, please turn your video off during the break.
《10-Minute Break》
Hai. Ten minutes have passed, so let us resume.
As I mentioned earlier, “becoming one with the Great Existence” and “living by unifying ‘the self’ with the naturally arising Self” are things that anyone living on Earth can do.
It is not a matter of needing to hold a spiritual philosophy in order to do so.
Even people who say they do not believe in God or Buddha can live in oneness with the Great Existence.
If you place yourself on the side of the beings whom humans call gods, divine spirits, or extraterrestrials, you will clearly understand what I am saying.
Those in that world never think, “This child is good because they have religious faith,” or, “This child is bad because they do not.” Nor do they think, “This child is good because they are interested in spirituality,” or, “They are bad because they are not.”
Why? Because such things have nothing to do with “living as one with the Great Existence” or “living by integrating the self with the naturally arising Self.”
And yet many people who hold spiritual ideas, religious faith, or who try to live righteously think in a dividing way: “We are right, and those who think differently from us are wrong.”
Even if they do not say it aloud, many people live with a sense of superiority in their hearts.
I think such people are essentially the same as any kind of fundamentalist—like so-called Islamic fundamentalists.
Even if a given ideology or organization proclaims peace, love, or harmony, if the people who belong to it distinguish themselves from others, discriminate, and view things in terms of higher and lower, then look at that from the side of the divine realm.
Those in the sacred world do not say to Earth’s humans, “How very regrettable.” They do not use the word “regrettable.” They look on and think, “They still have a ways to go.”
In the spirit world closer to the physical realm, they may look at their descendants and say, “What are they doing?” But those spirits, too, are engaged in the same cycle of criticism, blame, and judgment.
Therefore, unless we graduate from all of the physical, astral, and spirit realms and our consciousness enters the divine realm, we cannot live as truly sacred humanity.
Hearing this might make you shrink back, but all of us can surely live with our divinity reawakened. While we are alive in this world, in these bodies, we will all enter the world of divinity—because that is precisely why we were born.
How we live this lifetime—our final lifetime in the Earth sphere—has been known since the distant past when we first came to Earth. We had simply forgotten.
When I say this, some may think, “I wish I could remember sooner,” or, “Why did I forget?” But remember what I said in the blog earlier: forgetting was built into the “Program of the Universal God” from the beginning.
We needed to forget our divinity and, covered in mud and sweat, pioneer this world.
But since the 2000s, that is no longer necessary. We have entered an era in which we can manifest divinity in our being—in our thoughts, words, and actions—and live accordingly.
That is because, for us, the impulse “Let me express my divinity and live it” has begun to arise naturally. I imagine it is the same for you as well, isn’t it?
Whether or not one has truly become a divine being—both in name and in reality, from both the outside and the inside—there is inevitably a time gap.
For some people, it can be accomplished in a few months, while for others it may take years—three years, five years, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, even sixty years.
But as I have said many times, from the viewpoint of the divine realm, several decades in this world are truly an insignificant amount of time—a mere instant.
For human beings, several decades feel long. If we say fifty years ago, that would be 1975. Looking back now from 2025, you probably feel, “Has that much time already passed?”
When we say “gods” or “divine spirits,” the idea may feel vague, so when you hear the words “god” or “divine spirit,” I think it’s easiest to imagine your Guardian Spirit.
That’s because a Guardian Spirit is the divine spirit who is always attached to us, staying with us constantly. It is the god closest to us.
As I said last time, some people may think, “A Guardian Spirit has the word ‘spirit’ in it, so it must not be a god,” but that’s not true—it is indeed a divine spirit.
To “slip into the bosom of your Guardian Spirit” means, for example, imagine a young father or mother walking while holding a baby with a carrier. There is a way of holding the baby so that its face faces the parent, and another way—like at an amusement park—when you want the child to see the scenery ahead, where the baby’s back rests against the parent’s chest.
When we “enter the bosom of our Guardian Spirit,” the image is like being held facing forward, embraced against the Guardian Spirit’s chest. Think of a baby kangaroo inside its mother’s pouch, poking its head out—that’s the feeling. The divine spirit that stays with us at all times, day and night, is our Guardian Spirit.
When we practice living in conscious unity with that Guardian Spirit, who is both a god and a divine being spending every moment with us, as I mentioned before, we naturally become the kind of person who, when hearing the words “The words I speak are the words of my Guardian Spirit, the thoughts I send forth are the thoughts of my Guardian Spirit, and the actions I express are the actions of my Guardian Spirit,” thinks, “Of course they are.”
I believe that realizing that you are never separate from your Guardian Spirit is the greatest secret to living in peace.
There are people who consciously live in unity with their Guardian Spirit and those who do so unconsciously—but it doesn’t matter either way. Humans tend to quickly fall into criticism, judgment, or discrimination.
Some may think, “It’s nice for those who can be aware of that. I can’t be,” but the important thing is to live as one with your Guardian Spirit, with one heart.
Everything else doesn’t matter. That’s why it’s important not to waste your mind on things that don’t matter.
Earlier I said that human experiences cannot be simply labeled as “good” or “bad,” but why do humans persist in judging—liking and disliking, calling things good or bad—and suffering in confusion?
When you truly look into your own heart and clearly understand this, you can graduate from repeating lives on that level.
Why do people suffer? There are no good or bad experiences in human life. Everything we experience is simply necessary, inevitable, and perfect.
And yet, with our physical mind, we think, “That made me happy,” or “That made me upset.” Why do humans think that way?
Don’t think of this as a general concept—think of it as your own matter. Those who cannot unravel themselves cannot understand others. Conversely, those who can unravel themselves can understand others very well.
Why do human beings suffer?
Of course, when we say “to suffer,” there are those whose suffering is deep and those whose suffering is light, but to some extent, every human being lives while struggling with worries and pain.
It’s the same for men and women, for the young and for the elderly. No one is different. Everyone lives with worries—the only difference is the degree.
Some people make themselves ill because of their worries, while others cause sadness and heaviness within their families. There are many kinds of situations. Yet, whatever the situation we find ourselves in, it is simply an experience we need to go through.
Even so, people still think in terms of good or bad, like or dislike. And unless they can escape from this loop, humanity on Earth cannot reawaken its divinity.
To achieve Divine Resurrection, one must come to know oneself.
At the beginning of How Man Should Reveal His Inner Self, the essential nature of humanity is expressed clearly in these words: “Man is originally a spirit from God, and not a karmic existence. He lives under the constant guidance and protection provided by his Guardian Deities and Guardian Spirits.”
After that, it says, “All of man’s sufferings are caused when his wrong thoughts conceived during his past lives up to the present manifest in this world in the process of fading away.”
If we could sincerely accept these words—“Ah, so that’s how it is”—we wouldn’t suffer.
And yet, as a reality, even among those who have continued praying for thirty, forty, fifty, or sixty years, there are still many who live in the midst of suffering.
Those who have taken the words written in How Man Should Reveal His Inner Self deeply into their consciousness and raised them to the level of their way of life now live in a truly happy state of mind.
I personally know many such people. They all say, with one voice, “I’m so grateful I can’t express it enough,” or “I’m so happy—so, so happy!”
And those words are not false. I can tell when words are false—they have a certain insincere smell to them.
But the people who speak to me like that do so from the heart. They live in the state of mind of having completed all their learning, saying, “I am happy beyond words,” “I am nothing but grateful.”
Earlier, I mentioned that “living as one with the self and the naturally arising Self” had been the theme for the past two weeks.
There was another theme during these two weeks—a kind of reaffirmation.
Imagine your heart as a world with its own heaven and earth. In truth, there is a heaven and earth within our hearts. There is a world within each of us. The goal is to make the soil of that inner world—the soil of the heart—a ground of pure gratitude.
No matter where you dig in that soil of the heart, only the earth of gratitude should appear. That is the kind of self we seek to cultivate, and that is what we reaffirmed.
To do so, of course, means living day and night saying, “Thank you, Guardian Spirit.” But more consciously, it means “being grateful for everything” and “being grateful to everyone.”
Those who have devoted themselves wholeheartedly to this—truly as if giving their lives to it—for at least three weeks are already transformed.
However, someone once said to me, “I try to do it, but I can’t keep it up. It doesn’t last long. What should I do?”
Regarding this, there is only one answer: you must resolve deeply within yourself—“I truly wish to achieve Divine Resurrection.”
Those who have truly made that resolution will indeed persevere.
Spend your days saying “Thank you, thank you” all the time. Live with the feeling of “How grateful I am, how grateful I am.” Practice living that way. Just think of it as “practice.”
I’ve said this so many times in these study sessions that those who have been participating since 2023 might be thinking, “We’ve heard enough of that, SAITO-kun.” But my New Year’s guidance from Byakko in 2007 said, “You have too many karmic thoughts. Spend your lifetime reversing them.”
It hit the mark completely and gave me quite a shock, and for about three years I lived in a gloomy, self-pitying way. Then in 2010, my Guardian Deity appeared, saying, “I can’t stand it anymore,” and said to me, “Say ‘thank you’ to everyone. One more thing—slow down your breathing whenever you’re awake.”
At that time, around 2010, I was still rather stubborn, so I talked back. I said, “I’m good at slow breathing, so I can do that. But saying ‘thank you’ to everyone? To those people I dislike—this person, that person, those ones I can’t stand—I could never say ‘thank you’ to them even if my mouth were torn open.”
Then I got struck by lightning, so to speak. With a voice so loud it felt like my eardrums would burst, I was told, “Stop complaining and do it!” And right after that, those words were followed by gentle comfort:
“Even if in your heart you’re muttering, ‘Why do I have to say thank you to someone like this,’ it’s okay. Just put a smile on your face, make your voice gentle, and say, ‘Thank you.’ Try it.”
For all my stubbornness back then, I was either simple-minded or honest enough to think, “If it’s okay that what I feel inside and what I show outside are different, then maybe I can do it.” So I started doing it.
And by 2013—about three years later—I realized that the people I disliked or struggled with were gone from my heart.
But my soul’s learning didn’t end there. I remembered that around the early 2000s, when I was on the bus to Fuji Sanctuary, senior members—elder sisters and mothers—often said to me, “You’ve been praying for world peace since 1980. Why don’t you become a lecturer?”
At that time, I was still sharp-tongued and said things like, “What are you talking about? Look at the lecturers! There aren’t any good ones among them. If that’s how they are, I’d rather not be one.”
It was as if I spat upward and the spit fell right back onto my own head. I was criticizing others, but in truth, I was speaking about myself.
That’s how I was, but around 2016 or 2017 I finally thought, “Maybe it’s time I became a lecturer,” and in 2017 I entered the lecturer training program.
I remember it was December 10, 2017, at the graduation ceremony of the training. Masami-sensei was there, placing her hand on each person’s head and filling them with light.
She said aloud, “I have taken in all of your energy,” but in truth, she was bestowing upon us a very special light.
At that moment she said, “Now listen carefully and remember this well. You are the very first lecturers who have received the Divine Spark.”
After that, in September 2018, NAKAZAWA-san announced through the Peace Letter that he was starting something called “Emergency Zoom Prayer Meeting.”
I already knew that before then, he had been doing something on Skype, but I wasn’t interested at all and just ignored it. However, when it came to this “Emergency Zoom Prayer Meeting,” for some reason, I felt, “I must join this.” And from that point on, I somehow began participating every day.
I saw that NAKAZAWA-san was having trouble every day with the same Zoom operations, and I thought, “It would be easier if he did it this way.” But since he kept repeating the same steps day after day, I eventually sent him an email suggesting, “I think it would work better if you did it like this.” That was how I started helping him.
That same year, NAKAZAWA-san had also created a homepage using Yahoo’s free website service. When Yahoo decided to discontinue its free service, I told him, “That’s such a shame. Since I have my own blog, why don’t we move your homepage there?” So during 2018, we built the “Shira-Fuji Homepage,” which I later deleted after NAKAZAWA-san returned to heaven.
In 2018, NAKAZAWA-san repeatedly said to me, “I’d like to introduce you to everyone on Zoom, SAITO-san,” but I always replied, “I’m too shy, so I’ll refrain.”
However, toward the end of that year—between December 2018 and January 2019—he began suffering from a persistent cough. When I spoke with him on the phone, I asked, “Isn’t there someone among the CWLP researchers who could take your place as the leader and let you rest?”
At that time, the thought of stepping forward myself never even crossed my mind. I firmly believed, “I’m not the kind of person who stands in front of others. I belong behind the scenes—that’s who I am.”
So I asked, “Isn’t there someone among the CWLP researchers who could do that?” and he said, “I’ll ask around.” From that day on, I started receiving a flood of emails from him saying, “They declined,” “Another person declined,” “Declined again,” “Declined again.”
When that kept happening, I realized, “Soon it might come to me,” and I had to brace myself for it.
On January 27, 2019, during my lunch break from work, I spoke with NAKAZAWA-san over Zoom—like a video call—and he said, “You’re the only one left, SAITO-san. I’m counting on you.”
Since I had already prepared myself mentally, I immediately answered, “Hai, understood.”
Later, my wife asked, “Are you really sure you can handle it?” But I explained to her that I had absolutely no desire to “take the spotlight” or “be in front of people.” My only thought was, “I want NAKAZAWA-san to rest.”
Then, in February 2019, I led the IN for the first time in front of everyone.
I’ve told this story many times, but when I stood in front of people to form the IN for the first time, since I had never done it before, I was so nervous that my knees were trembling so hard I could barely stand.
I stood there for about thirty minutes, unable to stop my knees from shaking. I think those who were participating at that time probably noticed it.
After that, I received many warm encouragement and support emails from senior sisters and mothers across the country. Thanks to that support, by the third or fourth time, my knees stopped shaking, and I was finally able to lead the IN.
But this is just the outer story—before all that, there had already been an exchange between our Guardian Spirits that prepared the way for me to assist NAKAZAWA-san.
I later came to understand that a few months before the “Zoom Emergency Prayer Gathering” began, my spiritual self was taken by my Guardian Spirit and Guardian Deity to visit the Guardian Spirit and Guardian Deity of NAKAZAWA-san. There, my own Guardian Spirit explained to NAKAZAWA-san’s Guardian Spirit and Guardian Deity:
“My child believes that it is enough to be connected only with GOI-sensei and Masami-sensei. He thinks that as long as he attends the main Byakko events, that is all that matters. He believes he doesn’t need fellow practitioners, and that attending meetings is out of the question. He holds such a narrow, biased view. The era of the Divine Spark is truly approaching, but if he remains like this, he will be of no use at all. Please train him under your guidance.”
After those words, both my Guardian Spirit and I bowed deeply.
In this physical world, that inner exchange manifested as my feeling of “I should help NAKAZAWA-san.” Later, I understood the meaning of the words “please train him.” Suddenly, I found myself interacting with over a hundred people.
At first, it felt as though someone who had been quietly living in the shadows was suddenly dragged out into the open street. From then on, I had all kinds of interactions—with people by email, by phone, and in person—and I was once again being refined through human relationships.
Even though I thought I no longer felt like or dislike toward anyone, I still encountered people who made me think, “I really don’t like this person,” and I was forced to confront myself again. I think the peak of that was in the spring of 2020. During that time, the most intense challenges in human relationships all came at once.
Everyone involved was a member. I kept thinking, “They’re members—how could they act like this?” and inside me, a storm of criticism, blame, and judgment began to rage.
When I wondered, “What should I do about this?” I suddenly remembered something I had heard in my early twenties from GOI-sensei:
“It’s never anyone else’s fault! What are you doing, always blaming others!”
It was from a talk given during the early 1960s, around 1962 or 1963, when GOI-sensei often delivered very strict teachings and Lao Tzu’s presence was strongly revealed through him.
I had named that old recording “The Truth of Personal Responsibility” and loved it deeply in my youth. I recalled it vividly then.
And I thought, “I see now—it’s not anyone else’s fault. The cause lies within me.” So I began to look deeply into my own heart. The deeper I went, the darker it became.
Then, as my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I began to see. In that inner darkness, I found a version of myself sitting dejectedly, unforgiven by myself.
At the same time, I also found, perhaps shown by my Guardian Spirit, the part of me that was not forgiving myself. Once you grasp the key to this kind of introspection, insights begin to come one after another.
In that way, I discovered both the “self that felt unloved and dejected” and the “self that did not love.” I found within me both “the self that did not recognize its own divinity” and “the self that was not being recognized as divine.” It was like discovering within myself two separate and opposing sides—victim and perpetrator—living in duality.
The moment I thought, “So, it was the existence of these opposing aspects within myself that was manifesting as unpleasant feelings toward others,” the feelings of dislike and aversion I had toward certain people completely vanished. It probably didn’t even take a minute.
After that, no matter what anyone said to me, I was no longer shaken. Because it’s never someone else’s fault. Whenever I feel something about another person, the cause always lies within me.
By clearly grasping that truth at that moment, I stopped blaming others from then on.
Since September 2023, I thought, “Maybe not many people will be interested in this kind of story,” but I decided to start a study session to share this experience.
I actually hadn’t intended to talk about this personal history today, but I ended up speaking about myself. It’s now 2:59, so I’d like to conclude here.
Finally, I’d like to join everyone once again in performing the Divine Spark IN and bring down the Ultimate Light of the Universe. The words are the same as always.
Those who are standing—please grip the floor firmly with your toes, as if you are grasping the Earth itself.
Those who are sitting or kneeling—please imagine that your hips are the soles of your feet, and that through them you are connected with the Earth. When we form the IN, the Light from Heaven pours down upon us abundantly.
So as you receive that Light from above and the energy rising from the Earth, imagine that your body serves as a luminous conduit—a radiant pipe—through which Earth’s energy flows upward to Heaven and Heaven’s energy flows downward to Earth.
The Light of the Divine Spark IN that we form enters ourselves, of course, but also radiates throughout the entire Earth via the CWLP diagram of the Fuji Sanctuary. Please form the IN with that awareness.
《Perform Divine Spark IN once》
Thank you very much. With that, I would like to conclude today’s study session. Everyone, thank you sincerely for taking the time out of your busy schedules to join us. Now, I will turn on everyone’s microphones.
《Bye-bye Time》
This concludes today’s Prayer Meeting. Thank you very much.
The End.