Today, Master Idaki Shin’s piano concert was held at the NPO KOMA Guesthouse. The guesthouse was built specifically to house the piano that was created for Master Idaki Shin. The sound of the piano penetrates the building, and the building itself resonates deeply, creating a space of extraordinary resonance in which the sound reaches the body directly. Each and every note is the sound of life, the sound of the entire universe, and this is a place where it becomes starkly apparent, whether one likes it or not, how one’s life is being lived. Today, I felt with absolute clarity that I must stop living in a state that places a burden on life. Through Master Idaki Shin’s concerts, I have been freed continually from a state in which a burden was placed on life, and this has enabled me to continue living until now. Yet I deeply reflected on why I cannot stop living in a way that burdens life and instead live as life works naturally. Every life in nature works to continue living. Today, I swore in my heart to change the condition in which I cannot do the most natural thing: living in accordance with the workings of life. When my own life is burdened, it also places a burden upon the life of others and upon the life of nature. If we bring our lives fully alive and live in accordance with the way life works, both people and the life of nature can live fully and shine. If each person were to stop living in a way that burdens life and instead lived so that life flourishes vibrantly, then everyone could live happily. Today’s concert at the Guesthouse was a moment in which I came to recognize this obvious fact.
Later, in the evening, we held a gathering at Koma Gallery Café in Yasaka for “Keiko Koma’s Story” and a meal with everyone. In the space of Koma Gallery Café, enveloped in a profound stillness, the delicious dishes prepared for us, overflowing with a sense of the season, made the time we could share around the table feel truly abundant. I will cherish the feeling that arose naturally within me, “How wonderful it is to have somewhere to return to.” When there is a place to return to, we can once again turn outward and go out into the world. And I felt that it would be nice if we could all meet here again, and I expressed this in a poem.
Beneath the Yasaka Pagoda, with the souls of my ancestors present and watching over us, I was deeply happy and grateful that we could gather together and share a meal. Thank you very much.