シリーズ：モモ②「生きることが虚しく感じる時」：【法話】小池陽人の随想録

Series: Momo, the second sermon is about "When life feels empty". One day, I finished filming a YouTube video at the goma hall and was cleaning up when I noticed a young woman standing at the entrance to the hall. "Welcome to the temple. Please come in and pray." I called out as I approached, and noticed that the woman was crying. I was surprised and asked, "What's wrong? Are you okay?" The woman asked me, "Can I talk to you for a bit?" I replied, "Of course," and listened to her story. She said that she suddenly felt that her life was empty. However, she said she didn't know why. Her private life, including her work, was going well. But for some reason, she suddenly felt that her life was empty, and tears started to flow. All I could do was listen to her story. And I told her, "Whenever you're in pain or feel empty, please come and visit the temple." Since then, this has been bothering me. I wonder if there are more people today who, like this woman, suffer from lethargy and a sense of emptiness in life. In the face of suffering during emergencies such as war and disasters, even those who have a healthy body and an income that provides enough food, clothing, and shelter can still suffer from pain and emptiness. This may seem like nothing compared to hunger, poverty, and war, but this pain is just as painful. This may be because, as the woman said earlier, "we don't know the cause." The pain of war and disasters has an easy-to-understand external cause. In contrast, this pain has no easy-to-understand cause, and it feels somehow empty and unfulfilling, so you can't escape it even if you want to. The following story appears in Michael Ende's novel "Momo." Mr. Fuge, a barber, was living a relatively happy life. His barber's shop was well-received, and although he wasn't rich, he could afford to hire a servant. But one rainy day, while waiting for customers, Mr. Fugee looks outside and suddenly thinks to himself. "Is this how my life goes," he thinks. "A life of scissors, chatter, soap and bubbles. What is the point of living? When I die, people forget me as if I never existed." Mr. Fugee doesn't particularly dislike chatting, and he likes cutting hair. "But even Mr. Fugee has times when everything seems boring. Everyone does," says the narrator. Then, in front of Mr. Fugee, the "Grey Man," who steals people's time, appears. The Grey Man tells Mr. Fugee that he has no spare time because he wastes his time on pointless things. He advises him to save time. The Grey Man then tells Mr. Fugee the following: "You know how to save time! For example, do your work quickly and stop doing unnecessary things. Instead of spending half an hour with each customer, spend fifteen minutes. Stop talking nonsense. Cut the time you spend with your aged mother in half. And best of all, put her in a good, cheap nursing home. That will save you a whole hour a day. And don't keep a useless budgerigar! (Omitted) It's especially bad to waste so much of your precious time on songs and books, and even more so-called friendships. I also recommend that you hang a big, accurate clock in your shop. Use it to closely supervise the work of your servants." And so Mr. Fusey became time-saving... The existence of this gray man is the core of the criticism of civilization in the story of "Momo". Just as Mr. Fujii experienced, this shows that it is the gaps and emptiness in our hearts that attract the Gray Man. Even though you're busy, you don't feel like you're alive. Or, even though you think you've saved time, you still don't have any free time. I'm sure many of us have had similar experiences. Compared to the days when we used to do our laundry in the river, today, with our washing machines, we should spend significantly less time on housework. Thanks to trains and cars, travel time has also been reduced. And yet, people today don't seem to have any free time. The time we save is filled with new work, and we are becoming increasingly busier. What causes Mr. Fujii's occasional sense of emptiness? One reason for this may be that we believe our existence continues into the past, present, and future, and we try to recognize our own value in terms of our whole life. ■Page introducing "Momo / The Mysterious Story of a Time Thief and a Girl Who Returned Stolen Time to Humans" by Michael Ende: Ehonnavi https://www.ehonnavi.net/ehon/18229/The Mysterious Story of a Time Thief and a Girl Who Returned Stolen Time to Humans/ ****************************************** [Instagram: Koike Akito Sumadera] https://instagram.com/sumaderakoike?i... [Facebook: Koike Akito]   / akio.mikami.50   [Twitter: Koike Akito Suma-dera Temple]   / koikeyounin   [Every month, I give a sermon at Suma-dera Temple] Every month, on the 18th, I hold a goma prayer and sutra copying session from 10:00, on the 20th and 21st, I hold a goma prayer and a sermon from 11:30 at the inner sanctuary, and on the 21s...