Every day is new, a fresh beginning
| —o0o— |
Today I’d like to bring before you a thought strongly related to the one which I explored with you last week, namely, that for human beings — creatures “who give a damn” — reality bottoms out, not in brute, cold, naked facts, but in mysterious and wonderful facts always-already clothed in meaning. The conclusion was there is nowhere else for human beings to live except in meaning.
OK, hold this thought in your mind for a moment as I turn to an insight I’ve been gifted thanks to my recent engagement with the liberal, free-religious, Shinto tradition of Konkokyo. In many Konkokyo places of worship you will find a small plaque upon which is written “nichinichi ga sara” (にちにちがさら), “Each day is new.”
This saying can at first sight appear to be platitudinous, without any profound, life transforming power. However, thanks to the Konkokyo church leader, Takasaka Kentaro (髙阪健太郎) [see below for the full, original text], I began to see the powerful and transformative way it is understood within Konkokyo life and practice and I think that the creative, inquiring, free and liberative spirituality (jiyū shūkyō) we are trying to practice here in Cambridge Unitarian community would benefit from adopting a similar understanding of the saying, “Each day is new,” “nichinichi ga sara” (にちにちがさら).
Whenever anyone asks him what this means, Takasaka-sensei always begins by saying, yes, at a basic level, it simply says “every day is new, a fresh beginning.” But he then immediately adds that what makes every day new or fresh in a truly profound and transformative way “is a sense of wonder (驚き) for the small, familiar things we encounter.”
To help draw this idea out more fully, Takasaka-sensei turns to another Konkokyo teaching which, at first hearing, might seem to contradict this. The teaching reads, “one who keeps their mind on kami [the divine] should not be surprised (驚いて). Whatever big events may occur, there should be no surprise (驚くこと) at all.” Superficially, this teaching seems to be ruling out the possibility of wonder.
However, when we look more closely at what Takasaka-sensei is implying, it seems he is pointing to an important distinction we can make with relative ease in English, namely, that between “surprise” and “wonder/astonishment.” To help you get an initial grip on this distinction, consider the fact that almost no one today is surprised by the fact that from ourperspective on Planet Earth the sun “rises” in the morning, and “sets” in the evening. But, despite this lack of surprise, few of us can avoid being filled with wonder/astonishment when, thanks to certain atmospheric conditions and/or the geographical setting, the sunrise or sunset is, to us, breathtakingly awe-inspiring.
As Takasaka-sensei notes, in moments such as these, “when we catch our breath (はっと息を呑む), a breath that overflows with awe (おおっと溢れる息) — this is the breath of life.” To which he immediately adds that, “joy (喜び) without inspiration (感動), and inspiration (感動) without wonder (驚き), cannot exist.” However, as he further notes, if and whenever we begin “to take everything for granted and lose our sense of gratitude, we’ll never encounter a truly new “sara” (さら) [or freshness] in today.”
Takasaka-sensei then concludes by saying,
“If we look upon the small changes of each day as the awe-inspiring (畏れ多き) work of kami (神) [the divine], we can live at peace without fear or wariness of what may come. For everything is an occurrence within kami’s (神) grace (おかげ).”
So, to conclude, the two profoundly transformational points I take Takasaka-sensei to be making are as follows.
The first is the need to learn not to be SURPRISED by anything that happens in the world — regardless of whether it’s stuff we feel is good for us, or stuff we feel is bad for us. We should not be SURPRISED by these things because all things that happen is simply kami doing what kami does or, perhaps, nature doing what nature does, just as we see happening in the unsurprising example of the rising or the setting of the sun.
And the second transformational point is, that when we are able to live in the world UNSURPRISED by the things that happen, this does not mean that we are now living in a world without WONDER or ASTONISHMENT. This is because every breath — whether it is the gasp of breath at some awe-inspiring idea, event or scene, or whether it is the mostly unnoticed breaths we are taking all the time — every breath is an expression of something new and fresh, the quite literal in-spiration of creative life itself that is the always-already wondrous and astonishing, but somehow never surprising, action of kami or nature.
I hope that you can see whenever a person begins truly to feel this wonder and astonishment in every thing, even in the small, familiar things we encounter and the unconscious breath of every moment, then that same person has truly begun to understand the profound meaning of “nichinichi ga para” (にちにちがさら), that “every day is new, a fresh beginning.”
—o0o—
Below you can find the original Japanese article by Takasaka Kentaro (髙阪健太郎) which is followed by a tentative English translation done by me with the help of ChatGPT, DeepL, and a continuous consultation of the wonderful online Japanese dictionary at https://jisho.org/. Corrections from competent Japanese readers very warmly welcomed!
「ここに書いてある『にちにちがさら』とはなんですか？」そう言ってお結界脇にある青銅の置物を不思議そうに眺める方がいました。
「『さら』とは新しいこと。毎日が新しいという意味ですよ」同じ質問を受けるたび、いつもそうお伝えするのですが、毎日を新しくするものは、このようにいつも目にしているものへの小さな驚きであると私は思う。
それは「心する者は驚いてはならない。これから後、どのような大きな事ができてきても、少しも驚くことはない」の教えと矛盾するようだが、決してそんなことはない。
はっと息を呑む、おおっと溢れる息。それはいのちの呼吸。感動なき喜び、驚きのない感動はあり得ない。何でもあたりまえに思い、有り難みを感じなくなったら、真新しい「さら」の今日など出会えるはずもない。
これから何が起きるのかと怖れたり身構えることなく、日々の小さな変化に神の畏れ多き働きをみていれば安心していられる。何事もおかげのなかでの出来事なのだから。
“Every day is new” (にちにちがさら nichinichi ga sara)
Church Leader, Takasaka Kentaro
“What does every day is new (にちにちがさら nichinichi ga sara) mean?” someone once asked, curiously examining the bronze ornament by the altar.
I reply that “さら (sara) means something new. It means every day is new, a fresh beginning” — I always answer like this whenever I’m asked this question. But I think what makes every day new or fresh is a sense of wonder (驚き) for the small, familiar things we encounter.
Although it may seem to contradict the teaching that “one who keeps their mind on kami (神) [on God-or-Nature], should not be surprised (驚いて). Whatever big events may occur, there should be no surprise (驚く) at all,” yet it isn’t a contradiction at all.
That moment when we catch our breath (はっと息を呑む), a breath that overflows with awe (おおっと溢れる息) — this is the breath of life. Joy (喜び) without inspiration (感動), and inspiration (感動) without wonder (驚き), cannot exist. When we take everything for granted and lose our sense of gratitude (有り難み), we’ll never encounter a truly new “sara” (さら), [or newness/freshness] in today.
If we look upon the small changes of each day as the awe-inspiring (畏れ多き) work of kami (神) [or God-or-Nature], we can live at peace without fear or wariness of what may come. For everything is an occurrence within kami’s, (神) [or God-or-Nature’s] grace (おかげ).
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