by Sensei Eugene Imai, Director of Shinji Shumeikai of America

Last month, Kaicho-Sensei (Hiroko Koyama, President of Shinji Shumeikai) came to the United States. I was privileged and honored to accompany her during her tour in Los Angeles and New York. She met with several leaders in the three main areas that Shinji Shumeikai has been focusing, that is Art, Natural Agriculture, and Spirituality. Kaicho-Sensei strongly believes that in order to reach our goals to realize Heaven on Earth, we need to work together with other organizations that have the same goals. So on this trip, she met with world leaders who have been doing a wonderful job in those areas and tried to learn as much as possible. I was fascinated to witness her openness, her humility, and her eagerness to grow and flourish. I do believe that under her guidance Shinji Shumeikai will become a truly global organization. We can work with many other organizations, hand-in-hand, to reach our common goal.

Of the several organizations that Shinji Shumeikai has begun to work with, I would like to talk about the Rodale Institute. Actually, the founder of this institute, J. I. Rodale, and our founder Meishusama (Mokichi Okada), back in the 1940's acknowledged each other's work and now in 1998 both our organizations are about to reach an agreement of mutual partnership. I am very happy about this. There are many things I like about the Rodale Institute and I think we as individuals and as an organization can learn from each other.

First, Rodale does not make enemies. They do not finger-point against people or organizations, no matter how wrong they are. Instead of cornering or accusing others, Rodale makes an attempt to invite them to the table of discussion where they can feel safe to express themselves to try to find mutual solutions. Rodale is very generous in their support of other people and organizations, treating them with respect even if they appear to be totally wrong. They want to approach others in the spirit of cooperation so that eventually, they believe, everyone will reach the same conclusions. For example, those farmers who use chemicals which poison the crops and then sell these poisonous foods to consumers: Instead of accusing them of being criminals, Rodale invites them to their experimental farm to see how grains can be grown and harvested without chemical fertilizers, or pesticides. The farmers can see with their own eyes that they too can do experimental farming on their own land, which they are encouraged to do with Rodale's support. Rodale is trying to educate and encourage transformation through experience. So their approach is to invite people to experience their methods first-hand for a deeper understanding. I think this is wonderful!

Secondly, Rodale always begins small and expands gradually. They have been working as a partner in Senegal for the last ten years. This project is very successful now but it began very small. They initially invited about six farmers to experiment with chemical-free methods on their own land. Rodale explained to them that they only had to use a portion of their land to try farming without chemicals. From this experiment, there are now many, many farmers doing it.

Thirdly, Rodale will not go anywhere unless they are invited. This is incredible. Unless they are invited, they do not go. When the timing is right, people are ready to listen. Their goal is to assist more people to eat healthier, nutritious foods so they have developed a global project in which, to-date, they are working in partnership with three countries: Senegal in West Africa, Guatemala in Central America, and Russia. They also wanted to have a partner in Asia. With Shinji Shumeikai's invitation, Rodale came to Japan and after mature consideration, they are about to make their decision; that is, Japan is their fourth partner and Shinji Shumeikai will represent Japan. We are so honored to be accepted to work in partnership with Rodale. "Do they know we are a spiritual organization?" In Japan there is bias against us and we are regarded as a very unique and strange organization. Yes, Rodale is aware of this but they are confident that we will accomplish our mutual goal and that is to share Shinji Shumeikai's non-chemical farming methods with the general population in Japan, including the government. In fact, Rodale itself was regarded as a group of crazy people at one time. Just 18 or 19 years ago, somebody in the US Department of Agriculture suggested that the government seriously look into the organic farming method, and the person was fired. So, the US government, not too long ago, was very closed to organic farming. Therefore, Rodale believes that even though the Japanese government is closed to organic farming, they will understand eventually. That is very encouraging because Shinji Shumeikai itself does not think that understanding will come easily.

Rodale has been focusing upon scientific research in the last decade or so, but about three years ago they started focusing their efforts on education. Beginning this year, education is their number one priority. I think this is also great for Shinji Shumeikai. I am very happy to see education not only in the area of Natural Agriculture, but also in art and spirituality. I believe our world is depending upon our youth to lead us into the future, and education is how we pass on to the next generation.

Some people are very skeptical about Rodale's partnership with Shinji Shumeikai. They commented to me, "We are paying for them to come to Japan to set up their program to expand their reputation and take advantage of us." I totally disagree with this point of view, knowing how Rodale has been supporting Senegal in West Africa. Rodale has proven they are only interested in becoming a catalyst for positive change, not dominating other countries. In fact, after ten years in Senegal, the Senegalese have been very independently active in researching, promoting, and developing their own non-chemical farming system throughout that country. So Rodale is seriously considering leaving Senegal because the Senegalese are capable of supporting their own farmers.

Rodale will support Shinji Shumeikai to share its wonderful knowledge with the people in Japan and other Asian countries. So it is very important for Shinji Shumeikai to trust Rodale and to become unselfish. We must consider how it will benefit not only Japan but also the entire world. If Shinji Shumeikai thinks only of our organization's benefit, we will fail. And even though we believe in Meishusama's teachings, we have to be courageous, objective, consider the facts, and discuss them openly with other people who do not know anything about Meishusama's teachings. We have to be able to explain it logically. This is our challenge. This is new thinking and somewhat threatening to an organization like ours, but with Meishusama's help and Rodale's support I think we can do it.

Another fascinating area is the collaboration with the Interfaith Center of New York whose president is the Very Reverend James Parks Morton. Kaicho-Sensei met with Reverend Morton for the first time, last month in New York City even though he had already visited Misono last year when he participated in The World Interreligious Gathering of Prayer for World Peace Symposium at Mt. Hiei. As he shared his personal story with Kaicho-Sensei. I was listening carefully and was deeply moved by his personality, commitment, actions, and accomplishments. I would like to share his story with you. He attended Harvard University as an architecture student but in his fourth year, he was moved by a young priest's experiences who was working with the poorest of the poor. Young James Morton felt challenged and totally inspired so he decided to become a priest. He is an architect priest. After graduation, he studied theology and moved to Jersey City where a lot of poor people reside. At the same time his future wife, Pamela, was also interested in working with the poorest of the poor through a different avenue. They met, married, lived, and served together in Jersey City for seven to eight years because social issues are their main interest. Then they moved to Chicago where he served as Director of an urban, national ecumenical retraining program for troubled clergy. In 1972, he became the Dean of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and served there for 25 years. While at the Cathedral, he was introduced to a new social idea, ecology, which became one of the central themes in his ministry. Art was his passion and he used this passion as the main vehicle to communicate with people, even when he was in Jersey City working with the poorest of the poor. At the Cathedral, he combined the elements of art, social issues, and ecological issues, in his ministry and it became a renaissance hub with a lot of exciting events going on all the time.

About one year ago, Dean Morton retired from the Cathedral and he created his own organization called The Interfaith Center of New York. Through this organization he continues to assist various religious and spiritual organizations in helping each other reach their goal of making the world better. I am very excited about Shinji Shumeikai's future relationship with Reverend Morton and I am sure that with his help we can begin working with other spiritual organizations. Reverend Morton and his wife, Pamela, are going to visit Misono and the Miho Museum in late April, where they will participate in a symposium whose theme will be World Peace through Art, Nature, and Spirituality. This is so exciting and wonderful!

FROM SHUMEI MAGAZINE, VOL. 211, MARCH, 1998