Travel with Masaru

Word 150

No matter how often those around you say, 'There are bad times, and there are good times,' or 'Life is not all bad,' there can be times in life when you cannot climb out of the depths of unhappiness. At such times, it is good to turn your heart toward the 'good,' half by force, and deliberately. For example, try to name three things from today that were 'good' for you, or that made you 'happy.' However small they may be, that is fine. In doing so, there grows within your heart the ability to turn your eyes toward 'the blessings that already exist, though you have simply not noticed them.' Once that happens, before you know it, you will have climbed out of the depths of unhappiness.

Mount Mikasa, behind Kasuga Taisha in Nara. The envoys to Tang China prayed here for a safe passage before setting out. Thirty-six years after sailing to China, Abe no Nakamaro is said to have composed a poem about the moon over this mountain before boarding a ship for home. On the waiting evening, the night before the mid-autumn moon.