It has become hot again. Leaving Tokyo, we took the Chuo Expressway for the first time in a long while and drove along the road leading onto the Shin-Tomei Expressway. A place name that I had often heard my father say caught my eye. As I looked at the landscape of the mountains and the river flowing through the valleys, I was reminded of my childhood. And I began to think about life. Then, all of a sudden, I had an experience that felt like awakening to the realization of what world I had been living in until now. I realized that I had been living in a world of the past. The world I experience at Master Idaki Shin’s concerts is a world without past, present, or future, without beginning or end, a world without time. In that moment, a light of hope for living is kindled within me, as I feel, “In this world, I can live.” Recently, when living in the world of the past, I have often felt the end coming into view and my heart growing darker. I have continued to think of how I might change this somehow, and the moment I suddenly became aware today, the physical sensation I had experienced at a concert—crossing a river and soaring high—returned to me. I am filled with profound gratitude to Master Idaki Shin, who continually expresses something through improvisation at his concerts so that humanity may survive and that we may have experiences of continuing to live. I cannot help feeling that I have wasted so much time, but when one realizes something, it is time. I felt a deep desire rising within me to live, from now on, at the center of a world that transcends time and space, where I can live together with all people, wherever I may be. Suddenly, a wind passed through my heart. It was a wind carrying the bright light I had not seen for a long time. My heart has begun to move, and a sense of excitement is being born. Recently, in his lectures and concerts, Master Idaki Shin has been speaking about the beginning of Koguryo. The depth of my life has begun to awaken. I physically sense that there are things that have been covered in darkness, hidden, and confined for so long. From now on, without hiding, without pretending not to know, and without deceiving myself, I sincerely wish to live so that I may express the truth of Koguryo just as it is. This is the beginning.
As we traveled toward Kyoto, the silhouettes of the mountain ranges illuminated by the setting sun had always seemed to reflect the shadows of history and its sorrows. Today, they reflected the future. The patterns of the clouds, dyed pink, showed a bright future. My heart is forward-looking, and going beyond time and space, it’s the start of living in one soul. For this, I am deeply grateful. Thank you very much.