How Do You Live?

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How Do You Live?

Highlights

Still, as long as we held fast to the thought that our own planet was at the center of the universe, humanity was unable to understand the true nature of the universe—and likewise, when people judge their own affairs with only themselves at the center, they end up unable to know the true nature of society. The larger truth never reveals itself to them.

The things that you feel most deeply, from the very bottom of your heart, will never deceive you in the slightest. And so at all times, in all things, whatever feelings you may have, consider these carefully.

Still, just because we must always be ready to look at ourselves that way, that doesn’t mean it’s okay to ignore the fragile spirits of those in poverty. At least, Copper, until the day that you have stood in the place of the poor and tasted the bitter pain of poverty and then stood up to the world time and again, without losing your confidence, you are not qualified to do so.

How for tens of thousands of years we piled effort upon effort to advance at last from our primitive life in ancient times to our current civilization. But today, the fruits of those labors are not awarded to everyone. I’m sure you’re saying, That can’t be right. You’re correct. It’s wrong for sure. We are all human beings, so if we can’t all live a life that is really human, something is wrong. A society that doesn’t allow that is wrong.

That you extend your talents in leaps and bounds and become a person truly useful to the world!

And what about you? What will you create? You take many things from the world, but I wonder what you will give back in return?

But between the people who produce things over and above what they consume, and send them out into the world, and the people who don’t produce anything and who do nothing but consume, which are the great human beings? Which are the important human beings? If you ask yourself this, it’s not much of a puzzle, is it?

But people can forget their fear if a heroic spirit burns within them. Courage grows in a person, higher than any barrier, and then even your precious life becomes less precious. I think that’s the most fantastic thing. People becoming more than people.

To charge right at the things that are painful and difficult, break through to the other side, and take pleasure in that—don’t you think that’s truly fantastic?

I truly believe that to die this way, moved by this kind of spirit, is a way, way greater thing than to live a long but lazy and aimless life.

The world is full of people who are not bad, but weak, people who bring unnecessary misfortune upon themselves and others for no reason but weakness. A heroic spirit that’s not devoted to human progress may be empty and meaningless, but goodness that is lacking in the spirit of heroism is often empty as well.

Without the memory of those stone steps, I wouldn’t have been able to encourage the good and beautiful things in my own heart to grow to become what they are now. If I didn’t have that memory, I might not have realized for a long time after how each and every event in our lives happens once only and will never be repeated. How we have to work to nurture that which is good and beautiful in our own hearts.

[…] if your regrets help you to really learn and essential thing about being human, that experience won’t have been wasted on you. Your life afterward, thanks to that, will be better and stronger than it was before. Jun’ichi, that’s the only way for a person to become great.

If a rightful ruler loses his throne, he will think himself unfortunate and be sad that he has no throne. He will be sad for his present self, because he who should have a throne now has none.

So although there’s no doubt that everyone wants to avoid physical pain, in this sense, it’s something that we should be grateful for, something we need. Because of it, we know thata a failure has occurred inside us, and at the same time, we also come to know exactly what the natural state of the human body should be.

It’s because we think I didn’t have to do that or It was within my power to do this that we are battered by feelings of regret. If we didn’t have the power to follow the voice of reason, why would we taste the pain of remorse?