Regardless of how we have lived our lives to this day, and regardless of personal will, our lives have been woven into the fabric of destiny and the Law of Cause & Effect. Amid these circumstances, in my view, our goal should be to refine ourselves, and to develop a purer mind and a purer soul.

To refine the mind is to refine the soul. Rephrasing, refining the mind raises personal character. The result is an enrichment of human nature, and the creation of a more pure humanity. My wish, for when the end of life approaches, is to have raised my soul into something even just a little more pure than it was at the time of my birth, to have a pure mind filled with kindness and consideration.

However, despite the desire to refine the mind in this manner, the truth is that human beings have a lot of difficulty putting this concept into practice. Nevertheless, I believe that even the mere action one takes to raise one's character, to turn one's mind and soul into something higher through repeated effort, is itself something to be esteemed.

Ehime Civic Forum (August 6, 2014) Summary