Gratitude for a tree stump on Granchester Meadows
At the moment I’m on my summer leave and so have a lot more time than usual for wandering about and reflecting about how the world is and humanity’s place in it. And, on Wednesday, despite the very drizzly weather, I decided to take a slow walk over Grantchester Meadows to Grantchester itself. I say a slow walk because I was very tired yesterday and so, unusually for me, on the outward trudge I took advantage of the tree stump you can see in the picture above to sit down, have a short rest and a munch on my rather lovely, just purchased, award-winning, Cornish Pasty. Anyway, I was very grateful for the stump’s presence on the path, and as I got up to walk on, I gave it a thankful nod.
When I got back home later that afternoon, after drying myself off and getting a warming cup of tea, I sat down to carry on with my current reading about Konkokyo (金光教) (see also this helpful introduction by Seth Carter). Especially to an admirer of Spinoza — as I am — in whose thinking God-is-Nature and Nature-is-God (deus sive natura), Konkokyo, born out of Shinto, is a fascinating, liberal and free “new-religious” Japanese tradition, and it was one my own key spiritual influence and exemplar, Imaoka Shin’ichirō, thought very well of. Indeed, he helped bring them into both the Japan Free Religious Association (日本自由宗教連盟) and the International Association of Religious Freedom (IARF). In an address delivered at the Worship Service of the national meeting of the Japan Free Religious Association, October 30, 1983, Imaoka-sensei said the following, which was what caused me to begin to look into the Konkokyo faith in the first place:
“As you read in my Statement of Faith [or Principles of Living], there is no mention of God. It is a creed without a God. I have faith in self, in other people, in society. There is no God in my creed. However, if one believes that the universe is religion, then if it is necessary to use the word ‘God’, I see no objection. Then man is God, society is God and the universe is God.
The founder of Konkokyo, Kawate Bunjiro, pointed out that the kami is dependent on the adherents and the adherents are dependent on the kami. It is understandable how the adherents are dependent on the kami, but it is not clear how the kami is dependent on the adherents unless one realizes that the founder meant that the kami and the adherents are inter-dependent. This can be interpreted as meaning that God depends on the believers, and the believers should be worthy of this regard.”
Now, last week, as part of my researches, I was in touch with the headquarters of Konkokyo in Japan to ask whether I could obtain from them their primary texts/scriptures, the Kyoten. They kindly said yes, and in addition to sending me a couple of small books by post, they promised to send me by email PDFs of the five volumes of the Kyoten. Well, they arrived in my inbox this morning, and whilst having my morning cup of tea, I begin to look through the final volume called Gorikai III and, suddenly, my eye alit upon this saying:
“Those who practice faith should feel grateful even upon rising from a tree stump on which they have sat and rested” (GIII: Konko Kyoso Gorikai, 31).
And then, shortly afterwards, the following saying jumped out at me:
“Faith begins with a fortunate encounter and a twist of fate” (GIII: Konko Kyoso Gorikai, 49).
Interesting, eh . . .
And now, for your pleasure, I paste a few other photos from my drizzly, but deeply enlightening and uplifting walk.
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