Hinokishin School Celebrates Its 20th Anniversary

What is meant by betrayal

Finally, I want to talk about betrayal. While we are eagerly making efforts to save others, we sometimes encounter betrayal. A man who came to see me said, “I was betrayed by someone I trusted. It was just like a dog biting the hand that feeds it.” Then I said to him, “I understand, but you should not compare the person to a dog because that person is a human.”

While we are trying to help others, if we put ourselves in a higher position by unconsciously discriminating between those who will save others and those who will be saved and look down on those who will be saved as if they were pet dogs, it is natural that we are bitten. However eagerly we may be engaging in saving others, both those who will save and be saved are equally humans. Lack of this understanding is a trap into which those who are engaging in saving others tend to fall. Unless we realize this trap, we cannot truly save others.

Let me tell you a story that took place in the old days when people could not get sufficient food. A passionate junior high school teacher was trying to get a mischievous boy back on the right track. Since the boy had no home to return to, the teacher put him up at his lodging and, because the boy was good at running, developed his ability at running. The boy finally was chosen as the anchor of an interclass relay race at an athletic meet. The teacher was very glad that the boy had changed and was proud of it. However, the day before the athletic meet, the boy stole the teacher’s pay envelope and ran away.

The teacher lost face completely by this incident, and came to see me. While he was saying, “I have been betrayed by the boy,…” I was just listening to him silently. Then I said to the teacher, “You have had a hard time! It must have been a heavy blow to you.” I continued, “But children would not do anything without reason. There must have been some reason” Then the teacher said, “I understand. I have gotten puffed up.”

But I had different ideas. I thought that the boy wanted to convey a message to the teacher like this: “You must be happy because I have been getting better. But life is not so easy. I have been betrayed by others whenever I trusted them. You cannot be happy so easily even if things have come out as well as you had expected for just once.”

I also thought that the boy wanted to say to the teacher: “Can you still love me after you have experienced that a complete trust has suddenly turned out to be a complete distrust?” or “I have been betrayed by others many times in my life, so, you teacher, how about going through betrayal at least once?” I told these my ideas to the teacher.

When the teacher realized what I had said, the boy came back. Strange enough, when we change our mind, they also will begin to change. Human beings are marvelous. They have something invisible that can communicate with each other.

I have experienced this many times. On each of these occasions, I reconsidered and realized many things such as that I was still a man of poor caliber. But thankfully, when I noticed my misunderstanding, I was able to try once again. While repeating this process, I came to be helpful to others slowly and surely. I still have an idea, however, that it is essentially difficult to be truly helpful to others.

If we hope to be truly helpful to others, we have to ponder and train ourselves through various incidents. While going through this process again and again, I think, we would become truly helpful to others slowly and surely.

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