Fasting as a Starting Point of Gratitude

Lecturer: Kenji Nanasawa, Representative Director of General Incorporated Association Shirakawa Gakkan
Editor: Parole Editorial Section, Yasushi Ohno, supervisor

Q:
In the G-code seminar, we are communicating a way to transcend the Galaxy or space-time, and to practice Chinkon for the Galaxy from that perspective. I think that fasting is a very useful way to reach that stage of consciousness. What fasting would you think is recommended for G-code seminars?

A:
Eating is a fundamental act in our lives. People cannot live without eating. People will be very shocked when they eat nothing for the first time in their life, even for just one day. If a person has never stopped eating, the shock is particularly great. We can say the same for fasting.

But that’s why we can feel deep gratitude for “being able to eat” and for being fed.

There is also a hierarchy in gratitude. The gratitude for “being able to eat” is different from the gratitude for the existence of God, Buddha, etc. But only by eating can we continue to live in our physical bodies. Eating allows us to nurture our body, the first level of the hierarchy of our being, and protect our life. When we accept this fact, we should naturally feel grateful for food. We realize that eating food involves a very grateful existence that enables us to live by serving as our blood and flesh.

In this sense, the act of eating, that is, taking the lives of other living beings, is the first chance for people to feel gratitude. When people are able to clearly feel gratitude through food, they can also feel gratitude for nature, the five elements consisting of the universe (metal, wood, water, fire, and earth) and the existence of their ancestors. This experience opens the door to a new level of the hierarchy.

This stage of consciousness is exactly described in the following poem that was written by my teacher.

天地（あめつち）に生かされてあり この我は 生かしてもあり この天地を
(Meaning: I, alive due to the blessings of all things in heaven and on earth, am also serving for the existence of all things in heaven and on earth.)

Only when the level of gratitude rises can you obtain true awareness: “I can't live on my own”. It is the realization that I am here now, thanks to all things and the bonds with others, and that I am alive from the benefits of all things in heaven and on earth.

Fasting will be a valuable experience as a starting point for thanking everything, not just for the maintenance of the physical body.

The G-code seminar aims to make participants experience the presence of the Galactic universe. But it is difficult to enter into the consciousness of the Galaxy and feel the life energy that fills the Galaxy. I think fasting will serve as the first doorway to open up our consciousness. When the level of gratitude for life increases and finally reaches the consciousness of the Galaxy, we will realize how respectful the heat, light, and sounds of the universe are.

Japanese Version

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Kenji Nanasawa
Born in Kofu, Yamanashi Prefecture in 1947. After graduating from Waseda University, he completed a Doctoral Program in the Graduate School of Letters at Taisho University. He developed an information processing system based on knowledge modeling of traditional medicine and philosophies and is a researcher of religious studies. He is involved in developing a next-generation system for digitizing language energies. Mr. Nanasawa re-established the Shirakawa Gakkan as a research institute for the study of the court rituals and ceremonies carried out by the Shirakawa family of Kyoto, a noble family that oversaw the Jingi, an office for religious rituals, for 800 years from the mid- Heian period to the end of the Tokugawa shogunate. He currently serves as the representative director of Shirakawa Gakkan and CEO of the Nanasawa Institute, among other positions.

He has written and served as the editorial supervisor for a number of books, among them Why Do Things Go Well with Japanese? Knowledge Modeling Inherent in Japanese Language and Culture (Naze nihonjin wa umakuikunoka? Nihongo to nihon bunka ni naizai sareta chishiki moshikika gijutsu) (Bungeisha). Also, he is the supervising editor of Three Works on the Study of Hebrew from a Shinto Perspective (Shinto kara mita heburai kenkyu sanbusho) (by Koji Ogasawara), and co-author with Koji Ogasawara of Princess Otohime of the Dragon Palace and Urashima Taro (Ryugu no Otohime to Urashima Taro).