1st Head Priest stated at a monthly Dharma meeting, “The source of peace is none other than my own true encounter with myself.”


    
    2nd

Head Priest stated at a monthly Dharma meeting, “Where Dharma friends recite the nembutsu, there begins our future.


    
  3rd Head Priest said at a monthly Dharma meeting, “You may tell a lie to help others, but never to protect yourself.”
  4th Head Priest said at a meeting, “Regarding the Buddha, first you feel with your body, then you intellectualise.”
5th Head Priest said to a young priest at a morning assembly, “My Dharma friend, it has been decided that you are now to enter a temple far away. You will become one with the earth there, won’t you?”
6th Head Priest stated at a morning assembly, “When you feel gratitude towards others you may still retain a sense of self. When you feel gratitude towards the Buddha and a sense of repentance, then you will find yourself at peace.”
7th On returning from her home in the countryside, a girl student said, “I realised that I had been trusting my own feelings. Now I understand that what is most important is to do for the doing throughout our daily lives.”
8th A Dharma friend who died recently once remarked, “Although I understand that every moment is a parting, those who come to visit me leave saying, ‘Get well and come home.’ How sad only to be concerned with this world!”
9th Head Priest said at a morning assembly, “The Original Prayer is received first by your body. Mental understanding follows later, quite literally with hindsight.”
10th A teacher of Gagaku music from the Imperial Palace stated during his lesson, “It is not enough for you only to like music or Gagaku music. Unless you are rooted in Buddhist spirituality, your Gagaku music will not be genuine.”
11th A Dharma friend said at a monthly meeting, “Until today I have been looking at ‘peace’ from outside. Now I understand that the source of conflict lies within myself. It is rooted in my despicable existence, ignorant and hateful.”
12th A Dharma friend said at a monthly Dharma meeting, “The Goichidaiki-kikigaki is a skillful means that comes towards me ever more closely. Realising what an ignoramus I am, inconceivably my mind became peaceful.”
13th Reverend J. said, “I feel that the existence of a taya house gives life to its surroundings.”
14th A junior high school pupil’s impression of Gagaku music: “As the sounds of the sho (free-reed mouth organ) first caught my ears, everything else stopped suddenly for me and I was transported way beyond the realms of this world.”
15th A junior high school pupil’s impression of Gagaku music: “Although I was hear it for the first time, I felt as if I had heard it before. Could it be that an ancestor of mine once heard it? I feel very peaceful listening to the music.”
16th A junior high school pupil’s impression of Gagaku music: “I feel as if I were back in ancient Japan.”
Head Priest said, “It is at the very moment the selfish mind is banished that Infinite Life starts to work. What until now has been but a mere object or shape begins to speak to me.”
17th
Head Priest said, “It is at the very moment the selfish mind is banished that Infinite Life starts to work. What until now has been but a mere object or shape begins to speak to me.”
18th
19th A Tibetan high priest said, “Peace is nothing else than the settlement of my own mind.”
20th Professor Shin Hyeon Ha said, “Japan’s partner in the 21st century will be Korea. What is important is for those two countries to get to know one another and for this the first essential is to know oneself”.
21st A student who took part in the Spring Training Session gave his impressions, saying, “Have I up till now been doing what I should? Have I been helping people? I was given the time to think about these things during the session.”
22nd From impressions voiced by students who took part in the Spring Training Session: “The Buddha-dharma should not be simply an object of intellectual understanding. It is important for us to feel it in our hearts.”
23rd From impressions voiced by students who took part in the Spring Training Session: “Confessing my weakness has given me peaceful stability of mind.”
24th From impressions voiced by students who took part in the Spring Training Session: “I had fallen into a state of self-abhorrence through excessive self-introspection. However, on hearing the words, “Love yourself,” I felt all my anxiety evaporated.
25th
 From impressions voiced by students who took part in the Spring Training Session: “I was confused about the difference between what it was to be frank and what it was to be selfish.”
26th A young priest said, “The lamentable situation in the world today was created by trying to force one’s opponent to admit their errors. I now understand that what is important is that I should admit my own errors.”
27th Head Priest said at a meeting, “In order to turn your illusions into boundless energy, just listen to the Dharma and do not attempt to conceal the truth about yourself.”
28th Head Priest said at a meeting, “Rejoice or grieve with all your heart! If you can do so, it is the result of your attainment of birth [in the Pure Land] in daily life.”
29th
 The mother of a young man attending an introspection session said, “Twenty?nine years of my son’s life have also been twenty?nine years of looking into myself in the light of the Buddha.”
30th Guest speaker at the Spring Training Session, Professor Shin Hyeon Ha, declared, “True spiritual exchange begins from knowing oneself, knowing others and taking responsibility for all one does.”

31st

A follower of the temple said, “On our pilgrimage to India I felt as if my stubborn mind had been melted away.”