Kakudo Miyamoto: Showing Children What It Means to Be Earnest

2024/03/13

I am the abbot of Ryutai-ji Temple of the Soto Zen sect in Seki City, Gifu Prefecture. Akatsuki Kindergarten is located on the temple grounds, where I also serve as the principal. As a hobby, I am also involved in powerlifting.

When I first became the principal, I frequently preached to the children about the importance of having dreams. However, when a child asked me, "Do dreams really come true?" I found myself unable to answer "They do" with confidence. At that moment, I realized I was facing the children with "borrowed words." To speak with words that are truly my own rather than borrowed ones, I felt I had to have a dream myself and make an effort to achieve it. That is how I started powerlifting.

I started around 2009, and while telling the children my dream of "becoming the strongest person in the world," I practiced steadily every day and managed to become number one in Asia. The reason I continue to strive for the world title today is because I want the children to feel that "working hard toward a dream looks like fun."

As a Zen monk, from a Zen perspective, the idea that the mind is harmonized by approaching everything with earnestness is the same whether it is play, work, or Zen practice.

In Zen, we value concentration not only in zazen (seated meditation) but also in eating, cleaning, and the daily tasks right in front of us. By approaching both things we like and things we dislike with earnestness, our minds feel refreshed after we have seen them through.

Of course, it is easier to be earnest about things we like than things we dislike. Therefore, I want both adults and children to first try the things they feel they "want to do!" This is because living honestly according to the feelings that well up from within oneself is the very essence of self-affirmation.

That being said, there will be times when things do not go well despite your best efforts. But that is okay. When things don't work out, you can rely on those around you, or you can try a new dream. What matters is the act of earnestly working toward a dream itself. In that moment, we are shining, and we should be finding joy in that time.

Let us adults be the first to earnestly engage in what we want to do and what we must do, and enjoy it to the fullest. Showing that to children is, I believe, the greatest form of education.