About our peace movement. - Let's achieve world peace using picture books !
People hating each other is more than enough! Wars/killings are even worse!
We want world peace! We want to get along well with everyone with big smiles,
spreading the ring of Wa (harmony) in each person's heart, families, communities,
nations and the earth.
We can surely build up such a peaceful world. We surely can!
I would like to explain about our peace activities to those of you who are emphatic and compassionate with such a dream.
Table of Contents
#Why picture books are used to achieve world peace
#Journey of 'Peace Picture books'
#Our goal and history
Why picture books are used to achieve world peace?
Let me explain point by point why we use picture books to establish peace in the world.
What matters is to reach people's minds
At first, I would like to explain how important it is to work with people's hearts.
It might seem merely a matter of common sense, but unless I go through this,
I will not be able to explain why picture books are used for global peace.
-Let's say, there are tragedies such as violence, murders, terrorism, massacre or wars.
Such happenings easily jump to the eyes and tend to attract people's attention
a lot. The mass media beat their drums loudly, saying, "Thousands of people's
lives are lost!"
However, such a physical appearance (a blasted building or the death of thousands of people etc.) is really just a result, no matter how horrible the tragedy is.
The true/root cause of tragedy exists in nothing but the mind itself.
What kills people may be an explosion of a missile or a bomb, but what
orders the explosion is someone's mind. As a matter of course, you may
find the root cause=motivation of any sort of violence, hate crimes, murders,
terrorism or wars within human hearts.
Also in the case of man made poverty or starvation, the volunteer works which deal with only these happenings (eg. International volunteer service of food delivery) are nothing more than 'symptomatic treatments'. ( I am NOT saying this kind of international volunteer organaizations are not needed. )
No matter how many times you repeat symptomatic treatments, unless people's minds do not change, you cannot really change the world. On the contrary, if people's minds change, the world changes. From this aspect, to work with people's minds is crucial.
Furthermore, it is too late to work with the human mind after bombs or missiles have been fired, in
order to protect people's lives from these attacks.
You need to reach someone's mind before he/she orders to fire the weapon.
(In this aspect, I believe our movement 'Wa for the earth' clearly draws a line from other peace movements
which quickly start at the beginning of the war and finish at the end of the war.
This means, we won't forget wild times in peace. -Japanese proverb)
I referred to terrorism or wars but all other man made tragedies including
rapes, burglars, domestic or other violence, hate crimes, racial discrimination,
child abuse, thefts, homicides, suicides, illegal drug use, or any type
of suppression, discrimination and confrontations can be prevented
by working and changing people's minds.
If the human mind gets chaotic,
any kind of police or military force cannot stop these tragedies.
Please imagine a policeman is allocated one by one to every person
in your country. It is impossible to do so, of course, but even if we assume it
is possible, you may clearly see that nothing is solved by this.
First of all, if a policeman's mind gets confused, a strongest gang comes into existence.
If the mind of the commander of military forces falls into disorder, a horrible genocide is born.
In order to cut open the road to change the world and achieve Wa (peace, harmony) on the earth, you need to value each person's mind (not by hatred or accusation
but by the spirit of Wa (peace, harmony)) and work with people's minds. This
sort of steady effort seems to be a detour but actually it is
a shortcut, if not the only pass, in order to change the world and achieve
eternal peace/Wa on the earth.
Difficulty in reaching people's minds
"It is understood that people's minds are important. It is also understood that to work with people's minds is important. However, people's minds do not change. To begin with, it is impossible to persuade others."
Such an opinion does exist. Certainly the human mind does not change easily.
It sometimes shuts like a shellfish, and is sometimes as rigid as a rock.
On the other hand, it is a fact that the human mind changes very easily and frequently.
If it did not change, there would probably have been no poetry in the world.
This means the human mind is changeable and it is not impossible to work with people's minds.
However, even if we say it is not impossible, it is very difficult to work with someone's mind if they are stubborn.
I would like to explain about this difficulty a bit more.
Contradiction that those who do not need read and those who need do not read
I have a long international business career, and my cross culture experiences have given me various awarenesses which I had not been able to see before.
There are certain things which only come into one's view by experiencing a different culture.
One such thing I became aware of was the influence of good and evil in the human psychology and its awful danger.
I think the danger is extremely serious, but on the other hand, there are few who are aware of the risk of good and evil.
'Why does everyone leave such dangerous things as they are?'
This was my initial feeling.
Fortunately or unfortunately, there are only a few people who understand the risk of good and evil. If something is not done to solve this, world peace would never come into existence forever.
There would be no peace in people's minds. I thought that someone had to speak out.
If nobody says this, I would. -This is why I started to write my book, Good and Evil Addiction.
While I was writing this book for the very purpose of letting the people in the world know the danger of the illusion of good and evil,
I knew that those (=good and evil addicts) whom I wanted my book to be read by the most, would never read it.
This is because the illusion of good and evil makes the mind stubborn. Seeing as good and evil addicts tend to have rigid hearts,
they will never take my book. Even if they read it by chance, what
they will read is letters only and they will refuse to understand its true meaning.
On the other hand, those who take my book, Good and Evil Addiction, out of their own will are the people who are not good and evil addicts, or, if so, who are only slightly affected.
In other words, those who are in need of the message the most, stand where the message is most remote. Those who do not need the message as much stand where the message is closeby.
Sarcastic contradiction exists here.
How to solve this inconsistency is what I had been thinking of over 2-3 years while I wrote Good and Evil Addiction .
What I imagined was people with their eyes and ears closed. I do not mean people who have physical disabilities, but those who have mental sickness who depend on the illusion of good and evil .
The question is how to send the messages to them and let them know the risk of good and evil .
They are the people who close their eyes and ears. They are walking towards a cliff. If we leave them as they are, they will drop from the cliff. They have an illusion that people are devils and so they are killing people.
How can we appeal the risks to the minds of those whose eyes and ears are closed?
Sensitivity of those who have good and evil addiction
There is plenty of criticism to a simple good and evil dualism concerning concrete events (for instance a war etc.) in the world.
Many of those criticisms are often very rational and logical.
Once people open their hearts and read/listen to these criticisms, the road to mutual understanding will surely be opened
and they can be aware of the risks of good and evil dualism to a certain degree.
However, many people in the world seem to depend on the illusion of good and evil, more or less.
People tend to protect their interpretations of the world, and this tendency becomes much stronger with good and evil.
(If you are interested in the reasons behind deeper psychology and why it is so, please read Good and Evil Addiction. )
Therefore, those who have the tendency towards the good and evil addiction normally do not read or listen to different views besides their own.
How does this happen?
When they need to touch on certain thoughts/opinions, they only read the first part carefully. Then they only focus on judging whether it is similar to their own opinion and if it has a similar criteria of good and evil or not.
Once they make a judgement like, 'Oh, this writer's thought is different from mine,' they shut their minds immediately. They ignore the opinion as 'it is evil' and they simply stop reading it or start looking for errors.
As seen in the above, many people retain a stiff mind (i.e. having mental illness of good and evil addiction), keep suffering the endless conflicts of good and evil by themselves, keep attacking those who have different opinions from theirs and keep killing other (nations') people.
Picture books as a means to appeal to people's minds
How can the mental wall of good and evil addicts be crossed?
How can you pass the message that 'There is a cliff before you,' to the people who close their eyes and ears from the beginning?
What has come to me at last was a picture book as a tool for extending this message.
Picture books have several advantages as a tool for passing a message,
which other media do not have. I will explain these merits.
To lower the mental wall
Few people get upset by receiving a pretty picture book as a gift. It seems obvious if you compare this to other media.
#For example, opinion advertising in newspapers.
Many people can see the ad so it could be very effective in this aspect. However, the chance that those who have different opinions will read it might not be so large.
When those who believe that justice has been served by war see a protest advertising of pacifism, they do not normally read the contents. They may say at a glance, "How stupid!" but that is all. (By saying so, we appreciate the fact that many people can see opinion advertisements, and we may consider using it in the future ourselves.)
#For example, handing out leaflets
With regard to handing out flyers, I think that those who have the same opinion may support it,
but others who have different views probably just throw away the leaflets into a garbage bin.
#For example, a demonstration parade.
Let's suppose that you want to oppose a war and want to pass your opinion to
other people and have a demonstration parade. Do people who support
the war think about what you want to say by seeing the parade on the news?
Most people will frown, tsk, and change the TV channel.
In other words, the message is hardly passed to those who have dissenting views.
(To avoid any misunderstanding, I am not criticizing that these acts are at all meaningless.)
However, in the case of picture books for children, not many people have the same attitude, such as "Is this fellow's opinion the same as mine?" or "Does the writer have the same good and evil judgment as I have?"
This means a picture book has the chance of being read from the beginning.
Quick to read
If it is a thick book, the chance of it being read until the end is smaller, even if we successfully got people to begin it.
In this respect, a picture book has generally only a small number of pages, and the number of words is minimum. Therefore, the chance of it being read until the end is much higher.
This means the message that is intended to be passed on can surely be received in a short time.
Needless to say, it is necessary to devise an expression that will convey messages in a small number of words.
Persuasive power of pictures
With regard to the message that we want to pass on to people in the world,
the danger of the illusion (misunderstanding) is a very big theme.
A picture book is an excellent tool for expressing the explanation of illusions.
What I mean is, those type of illusions, which are sometimes hard to understand if they are written in words,
may often be very obvious if they are illustrated as a picture.
Of course, being comprehensible becomes an essential requirement, when
you are dealing with people who are not as open minded.
Moreover, a picture book, which is made from easy words and pictures, doesn't choose the reader.
There is a possibility that it is understood by even children and the majority of people.
Comprehensibility is absolutely necessary to have world-wide appeal.
Why are the picture books needed to be presented as a gift?
In addition to this, we are planning to present the picture books free of charge in this peace movement.
Why is it necessary to be free?
It is because that those who need the message cannot reach it unless we
send it to them from our side. Though our picture books are open to the
public on the web free of charge, unless one uses a computer and trys to
read them actively, he/she will never read them.
This means that there is little chance that those who have good and evil addiction will read these picture books on the web out of their own will.
Conditions of the picture books
There are some conditions for the picture books in order to heal the world and spread the spirit of Wa(harmony etc.). I shall also explain about this.
To avoid nominating a specific group and making criticism
It is necessary to avoid naming and blaming a particular group of people so that the message may be expanded to the world and be received by people as "awareness".
Frankly, it is a shortcut to criticize a specific group in
order to obtain the other people's empathy. However, if you do so, those who are criticized will shut their minds.
This means, the message will never be passed on to people ('s minds) who need the message the most.
To rephrase this, we would return to the world of good and evil.
Therefore, no matter how angry we might be, no matter how strongly we need to clench our teeth,
I do not think that we will name specific people in this movement.
This caution applies not only to avoid an actual criticism but also to avoid being misunderstood
that "The true purpose of the message is for criticising/attacking
someone". To avoid this, I believe we need to make use of our best efforts.
To associate with a concrete case
Simultaneously with the above, although these picture books are based on a philosophical foundation,
their purpose is related to the real world. They have a mission of expanding Wa/peace/harmony to the real world.
For this purpose, though there is a risk of conflicting with what is mentioned above,
it is preferable for these picture books to associate with concrete cases to some degree, I believe.
"Neither specific people are named, nor blamed, but it never ends in an abstract story,
and the readers can associate with concrete cases easily."
I think that this kind of 'balance' would be ideal.
The message needs to be condensed
I do not think I need to explain this. What matters is what the message
is and how it is expressed. We need to dig out its real essence, naturally.
I have been making my best efforts to achieve this, but it is very much appreciated if you give me
your opinions or thoughts.
In passing, we have made Magical Glasses as the events of another planet for this purpose.
 I've come from another planet.
Let me visit your home |
To look 100% harmless at first glance
Needless to say this, I do not think I am writing harmful picture books, but at the same time it is necessary to put a strong message in it.
You need to shout out loudly if someone is walking towards a cliff with the risk of falling off.
However, if this person thinks he/she will be shouted at, he/she will not start reading it.
Therefore it may be necessary to disguise the picture books as just ordinary ones at first glance.
To be high quality to some degree
With regard to the picture books on this web, we have prepared PDF files for printing.
If you want to pass on the messages in these picture books, you may print them and mail them out.
Also, as anyone can read the picture books freely on the web,
I hope the messages will spread to some extent by this.
In particular, if the picture books are used for education at school or at home,
messages such as the danger of the illusion of good and evil will spread steadily to the world.
However, these peace messages cannot be passed on all over the world by
this method only. This is because there are people in the world who shut their minds as
I have already explained.
We need to send them as a gift actively from us.
Of course, it is also possible to print picture books on your PC, staple them and present the hand made ones to someone.
This will surely have some positive effects.
However, I am afraid this is not enough.
This is understandable if we imagine the feelings of those who receive a hand made picture book.
1)A hand made picture book, which is made from a bunch of stapled papers, has been mailed from someone.
In this case, the receiver may probably respond like this;
"Hey, what's this rubbish? What a nuisance it is!"
2)A picture book, of which quality is equivalent to those in a book store, has been sent by someone.
In this case, the receiver may probably respond like this;
"Oh, what's this? It is surely not a wish book but looks like a real picture book. Let me see."
For this purpose, we believe we need to make picture books of which quality are of high enough standards.
This is why we have ordered a professional illustrator to rewrite the pictures.
To avoid taboos
The audience of the picture books are readers from all over the world. People of various cultures may read them. Therefore it is necessary to avoid the taboos of different cultures as much as we can.
It is also an important consideration that the theme is not misunderstood by the people with different back grounds, though it is very difficult.
So, in a nutshell, these are our reasons why we use picture books for world peace.
We need your help.
(To the page of Ask for volunteer)
Our peace movement in Japanese （平和の絵本の運動について－世界を平和に）
