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"One who binds start in his life with its end and makes a step forward is a man who lives in heaven while staying in this world." is a comment that a certain westerner used to describe the life of Jesus.Jesus was not crucified only once at the end of thirty-four years of his life but the thirty-four years of his life itself was the Crucifixion. For him, everything in his life was fulfilment of the word of God that had been determined in advance. When the word of God that had been determined for him was testified by his works in his life, the human race obtained the immortal scripture. (Ekoshi回光子)
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Tokutaro Murakami(村上徳太郎), the founder of Toko Shoin (東光書院), who had seen through this truth in a ruined land of Japan suffered a crushing defeat, started to publish the monthly newsletter "Eko(回光)", and launched the Eko-movement(回光運動), a campaign calling for "Turnning the light inward illuminate the Self (回光返照の退歩)."In fact, from beginning to end, every act, even inaction, of a person's life is the fulfillment of the Word of God, and those who realize this will not have to wait for the "last days" or having to travel to the pure land , which is ttens of millions of miles away from this world, but can attain Buddhahood at onece during life. Zen Master Dogen tought us "Learn to withdraw, turning the light inwards, illuminating the Self" and recommended just to sit straight.
Eko(回光), which was first published in November 1946 by my father, Tokutaro Murakami, was discontinued with the August 1, 2017 issue due to the death of his successor and my older brother, Takeru Murakami.
I, Murakami Atsushi (回光庵返照), recently launched a website "http://illuminatetheselves.net" through Amazon Web Services, and came up with the idea of republishing occasional web/email messages called "Eko (回光)". July 31, 2023