As One Network

[Creating the Next Society] Second in a Series: Toward a society where people can live gently and without conflict from their heart.

Masashi Ono, ScienZ Institute, Inc.




Chapter 1.

3. What is the As One Network Suzuka Community like?

Some of you may be new to the As One Network Suzuka Community.
Here I would like to give you a brief overview of the community.
In a city that could be anywhere in Japan, an innovative and never before seen attempt is being developed.
Suzuka City in Mie Prefecture has a population of about 200,000 and is a regional city known for the Suzuka Circuit, an international racetrack, and Honda. Located about one hour from Nagoya by train or car, the city is sandwiched between the Suzuka Mountains to the west and Ise Bay to the east, and has a thriving agricultural industry.
In 2001, we started an experiment to realize a society in which people can live gently and without conflict from their heart. Toward the realization of this wish, we have been accumulating research and experiments through various experiences.

Although we call it a community, there are no rules or restrictions, and there are no obligations or responsibilities. Therefore, there are no boundaries from where to where we are As One Suzuka Community, and there are no rules on who is a member of the community. Most people live scattered within an area of about 1 kilometer around the Suzuka Culture Station, which serves as the center of the community. At first glance, the way of life may seem to be the same as that of ordinary people, but in reality, people have formed relationships that are closer than that of a family, and a lifestyle similar to that of a large, close family has become a reality.

While blending into the city, various community businesses and various civic activities are spontaneously developed, related and connected to each other, forming an one community.
The company is a place where people can fulfill themselves by bringing out their individual talents.
The community is designed and implemented as a close family-like living arrangement.
Organizational management that allows everyone to act of their own free will, and an economic mechanism that requires no money or reward are being attempted.
We have also begun to create a child-rearing environment in which children can grow and develop as they are.
We also provide a place to learn about community building and living in a new world, and many people from all over Japan and the world have come to study with us.

Click here for the As One Network Suzuka Community website
Click here for the as one network YouTube channel

4 What is a society where people can live gently and without conflict from their heart?

～Why don't you just give up on such a thing as being impossible?

What do you think when you hear the phrase "a society where people can live gently and without conflict from their heart?
"It's like a religion!"
"That's an ideal, but history has shown us that there are always wars, and people always keep fighting."
"Even within a community of people with the same interests, even between married couples, there are always disagreements and fights. Conflict is a part of life."
"I don't care if you are a saint or not, as an ordinary person, it is normal for me to be angry and it is impossible for me to be without conflict. It's unrealistic to think the whole world would be like that!"
"If everyone lived by their heart, wouldn't the world be a mess?"

It seems that such voices can be heard from all over the place.
However, I am sure that those who are willing to read this article will have hopes such as "Such a society would be really nice" or "It may be impossible, but I would like to see such a society if possible," or they will agree with me and say "No, I am sure we can do it" !

Human beings have demonstrated an amazing ability to research and develop things and technologies, and have achieved one thing after another that we could not have dreamed of a hundred years ago, or even when I was a child.
We can video chat with people on the other side of the world with a smartphone, we can understand the microscopic world, and we can even travel into space.
I think it is truly an amazing ability.

For some reason, people with such imagination and creativity do not seem to be making much progress when it comes to human themselves and their society, or rather, they seem to be creating an increasingly complex and difficult state of life.
When it comes to humans and society, does the dream remain a dream?

I believe that if we could utilize our imagination and creativity for human beings and society, "a society where people can live gently and without conflict from their heart." would not be a dream.
Why is it that the wonderful abilities of human beings are not used to humans themselves and their society?

I believe this is because there is a deep "assumption," "fixed ideas," and "resignation" toward humans and society. (See Chapter 1, Paragraph 6.) This is why we have become indifferent to the ideal human being and ideal society.

"If you look at human history, there have always been wars, so humans are animals that fight. That's why conflict will never go away."
In today's chaotic society, as people grow up, they often come to perceive things in this way unwittingly.

Is this really true? Is that what humans are like?

Thousands of years of history of wars and conflicts may have led us to develop a resigned view of people and society and an assumption that "people fight" and "it is difficult to live with one's true heart".
Even if the history of conflict is like that, it may be possible to change it with the wonderful ability of human beings.
If we can rethink back to zero-point, I don't think it will be too difficult to free ourselves from resignation, fixed ideas, and assumptions.
I believe that everyone in the world truly desires "a society where people can live gently and without conflict from their heart.
I believe that human beings have the power to make this wish a reality.
For example, when it comes to conflicts, if we can find the causes of conflicts and eliminate them, I believe we can end conflicts. I believe that we can eliminate anger in our hearts and minds, and I believe that we can also eliminate interpersonal conflicts and wars in society.

As for "happiness," if we do not know what "happiness" is, and if you are doing things just to be "happy," it is like running without knowing where you are going. I believe that happiness will be realized when we clarify and clearly know what "happiness" is. (If I start explaining what "happiness" is, it will take a long time, so let me simply describe it as "a way of living without strain and in accordance with the reason of the natural world, in other words, a way of living in harmony with everything without strain and with ease, comfort, and fulfillment.)

When you read these sentences, you may think, "That's impossible," or "Don't say such difficult things".
Isn't that where "giving up" and "making assumptions" come in? I think.

I would like to take a fresh look at common sense as well as my own way of looking at things, from zero. I think this is a very important point of view. We have to put aside our thoughts of "it's impossible" and "there's no way it can be done," and reevaluate our thinking to see if it might be possible.

If we had remained in the mindset of "there is no way we can fly," I don't think the airplane would have been invented.
"I want to fly." "Maybe I can fly." There are advanced people who have freed themselves from such current beliefs and give up, and they say, "I can fly! ”
It is possible to fly--such fact was shown to the world, I believe that as a result, people around the world have changed their views.
Today, airplanes fly around the world as a matter of course, and we are able to travel freely. It has only been a little more than 100 years since the Wright Brothers' first successful flight.

Once a model is made, seeing a real-world example will make people say, "Yes, I can do that!"and people will be excited by the possibilities. Even if it is something that everyone initially gave up on as "impossible,---"

This is not just wishful thinking. Through over 20 years of research and experimentation at the As One Network Suzuka community, I have come to realize that the world we truly desire can be realized if we use our amazing human abilities.
It is not by learning a religion or special teachings or using special abilities. I believe it is possible if we use the intelligence and intellect that humans possess that has brought about so much progress like today in civilization.

To be continued

A Family Landscape...and More Than Family

Kazuki Sakai

My father, who is still working, has turned 90 years old.
He is the third generation of his family to run a small business that has been in business for 145 years, but as expected, he is going to close the company next spring, so a family meeting was called.

It was a weekday, but the train was unexpectedly crowded.
A group of people, probably on a late autumn vacation, were talking animatedly.
"・・・Please refrain from talking in a loud voice, as it may disturb other passengers.”
Timely? I couldn't help but chuckle at the timely in-car announcement.
An elderly couple in the back seat seemed to be in the middle of a trip to retrace their memories. All I could hear was the wife's voice, and the occasional exchange between the two of them didn't quite mesh.
"Darling, look! It's Mount Ontake."
"Oh!"
They seemed to be waiting for that moment, which was only visible for a few seconds, with pleasure.
"It's been decades. How nostalgic! I'm so happy just to see this view!"
" Yeah, yeah..."
As usual, the husband was a man of few words, but at this moment, they seemed to be breathing in harmony.



Looking up Mt. Jounen for the first time in two years, I walked home feeling a bit unsatisfied.
Oh well, it occurred to me that the peak should have been covered with snow at this time of year, as I had a childhood image in my mind. I wondered if it was due to something like global warming.
When I opened the side door of my parents’ house, I was greeted first by my brother, who was one step ahead of me.
My brother is two years older and works as a doctor in the north eastern part of Japan. He said that he had been working hard since the pandemic, but now that society was in a bit of a lull, he took the chance to take a week off.

When I was offering incense and souvenirs at the family Buddhist altar.
Mother called us from the kitchen,
"Come on, let's have lunch first."
My father also came back from his outing, and the four of us sat around the dinner table.
"What a shame to display such coffee cups! They are faded and dated ones that we've been using them since junior high school. You should throw them away."
My brother said, pointing to an old cupboard.
"Which one? Oh, they are valuable and so I can't just leave them. Why don't we still keep it?
My father responded.
That's why you're filling up the house with things you don't need and not getting rid of anything. ・・・・・"
My parents were not afraid of my brother's forceful argument. Listening to them in a daze, I thought to myself.
"It's been decades since our family of four has spent time together like this. My brother went to Sendai for university, and I went to Tokyo, and after that, we had parties at our home with each other's children during the Bon and New Year's holidays. However it might have been the first time since I was a child that it was just the four of us with my parents."

My brother and I have had no intention of becoming the fourth generation successor, and so we have been living away from home for a long time. As I spent a few days cleaning our home and sorting out the company, I learned that not only my mother's nephews and nieces have been very concerned about my parents and visited them frequently; they live neaby. But also judicial scriveners, tax accountants, legislators, traveling salesmen and many friends and neighbors continued to support them, .
I also got to see again many faces of my father and mother that I did not know at all, or rather could not have known, as a child. At the time, they were sad, heartbroken, and angry, but now everything has become funny, and the four of us laughed and laughed at .
However, there is still a lot of work to be done.



When I got back to Suzuka, I met Yuki Sakai and Sink Kudo, who came from Saihate Village for the community tour.
It was the first time I met both of them.
Sakai's last name is the same as mine, and our names are very similar, so I didn't feel like a stranger and started talking to him.
Then, I found out that Yuki's mother and my father's hometown were very close.
If we go back a few generations, we must be relatives.

When the interview between Mr. Sakai, Mr. Kudo, and Mr. Ono of the Suzuka community was released last month, I was strangely impressed by a passage that said, "The relationship between people in the As One community is like a family, or maybe more than a family.

What is a family?
Is the family the smallest unit of society, or does society change depending on what kind of family it is?
Even if one of the family members does something that is unacceptable to the rest of the world, it can be a bond that protects each other without blaming each other, saying that there must have been unavoidable reasons for doing so, or it can be a chain that binds each other, thinking that family should be like this.
Now, there are so many different types of families in the world today that it may be difficult to understand what they are originally.
And what does it mean to be more than a family?

After the tour of the Suzuka community, Sink said, "Everyone gets along really well. Though they are straightforward about what they're doing, they are in a very casual way."
I heard him say that.

Yesterday, the government announced that the entry of foreigners would be completely banned again, which had been eased since November 8. Ms. Jung-in, a student of ScienZ Academy from Korea, had been waiting to enter Japan to return to the Academy for a year because of this pandemic. She was scheduled to come to Japan on December 11 after going through the visa application procedures in a super express manner from the 8th, but that was also rejected by a touch. It's a pity, but we'll have to wait for the next chance.
On the news this morning, the manager of a construction company in Suzuka City said,
"This decision by the government is a blow. We accept technical interns from overseas and it's impossible for us to replace these valuable foreign workers in Japan. There will be cases where we cannot accept work."

"Why are we looking forward to Jung-in's return so much?"
In the corridor of our community hall called the Suzuka Culture Station, I was having such a thought about this, while looking a young child run into the chest of an Academy sister with saying "Onee-chan!(MY big sister)" and the Academy student looking at her with so much affection.