Excerpt from “Song of the Sound of the Sea,” a poem by Hisaya Morishige.

Listening to the sound of the sea
I chanced upon a small broken piece of a pink shell in the sand
I picked it up and it was as beautiful as a rainbow
It rolled about in the palm of my hand

A resounding echo
Where does it come from?

Long, long ago, in a time primeval, far out at sea
A mysterious life form was born
It was the dawning of a new era
On this planet we call Earth
The mysterious life form changed and mutated
And in that mysterious life form, which strove to reach the oxygen-laden land
Were our most distant ancestors

Life was born, and 3.6 billion years pass
Love is born, as well as
Violence, jealousy and anger
In the name of peace and freedom
Raged a countless number of wars
Destroying the animals seeds
Turning greenery into dessert, stripping the woods and forests and polluting the land
And going so far as
To spill poison into the home that is the sea

The Earth is crying
The cry pierces the air of the 20th century, which we
With the eyes of guilty sinners
Are bidding farewell to

A sad state

Look
A spray of light spills over the horizon
Sunrise

There is no night to which morning does not come
No darkness that is not visited by light
The sky and the sea share the horizon
A canvas for a harmony of blue
There must be a similar harmony in store for people
There must be a responsibility
To share this home with all creatures
3.6 billion years of life is transmitted from child to grandchild
We are not only of a single generation!

We are standing at the door of a new century
We are readying ourselves to pass life on to the next generation
But I do not want to let it go
When the Earth still cries and is muddied so
 Soon after we have gone
Will the day come when
Without a sound, into dust
The Earth will be destroyed?
Tell me, tell me little shell

The future seems bleak to elderly people who have lived through war and the tumultuous events of the world as I have. But is it really so? I stare fixedly at the future through the eyes of an elderly person, but in my eyes, there is not the slightest hint of desire, impure motive, or worldly passion. Instead, there is the clear crystal ball of the mind with the mystic ability to see through to the future. And in the middle, it bears an image of the future over which a rainbow of hope joins the present with that future.

The reason for this is because at the very core of my heart is a germ of truth that has the ability to contact the grand cosmic consciousness, or, Something Great. And it knows that the world will not be destroyed by people, because, with no inconsistencies whatsoever, the supreme intellect and power of Something Great will lead it to release.

See for yourself. You know that all life is divided into male and female, man and woman. Therefore, in the world of the future, all men and women will, in the name of love, transcend all prejudices, grudges, and grievances and come together as one and flourish in genetic dominance. By thus commingling, you will transcend country, race, nation, and other distinctions; you will transcend religion and ideologies, biases and past restraints, and grudges. All of humankind will become a harmonious unity. That will be the true start to renewing the world.

If you believe that people will be happier by all of the men and women from around the world loving one another, marrying, having children, and creating families by which they will further there understanding of each other’s languages and cultures; and by religion and ideologies developing in the great leaps that science did because it was not hampered by prejudices and thus able to concentrate its forces; and if you can accept one another’s existence and use your intellect to sort the good from the bad; all of these things will work to the benefit of humankind.

The countries of Europe are now joined by the Euro. This unified currency, along with the unimpeded freedom of car and train travel that is now possible, with nothing but signs indicating national borders, has completely changed the way people think about their countries. It represents a model of the future for all of the countries of the world. Now the most important thing is to wake up to Oriental culture (the spirit of the Orient).

The spirit of the Orient is such that all living things in nature are interdependent. They live while preserving the delicate balance that binds them together, and there is not a single small insect that does not have an essential place to fill. If things fall out of balance, it is a sign that the whole is headed for destruction. It teaches that by accepting one another’s existence, we are promised eternal harmony and prosperity.

As long as we accept one another’s existence, a line can be evenly drawn between parties in disagreement so that compromises and solutions can be arrived at through fair and impartial discussions.

It is Occidental ideology, however, that has up to now thrown the world into the tenacious grip of war and unending battles. It is an ideology that repudiates the existence of others and leads to their slaughter, and it cannot be expected to bring future peace and prosperity to the world.
Lastly, I say this: How can a country police a world that requires fairness and impartiality, when that country possesses a national system that gives priority to itself and its own national policies and interests?