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Spirituality-and-Work
- Hiroshi Yaita
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In today’s episode of “Healing from Within”, your host Sheryl Glick author of The Living Spirit: Answers for Healing and Infinite Love welcomes Hiroshi Yaita, a world missionary lecturer for Happy Science and speaker for Master Ryuho Okawa, a renowned spiritual leader author of the Heart of Work with a simple goal to help people find happiness and create a better world.
Hiroshi Yaita, an attorney with a business career at Mitsubishi Corporation, responsible for international trade will share ways to blossom into your calling to infuse value purpose and devotion into work that feeds your will and spirit showing how to develop a leadership mindset, work with the spirit of love, use the power of rest and relaxation for long-lasting health and vitality.
Sheryl asks what inspired Ruyoho Okawa to think about what work means to our lives. He writes, “Having faith in God—or, in other words, being grateful to the Source or Higher Power—is fundamental to doing great work. A willingness to serve a greater purpose and a devotion to God are what make it possible for us to dedicate our life to our calling.”
He goes on to write, “Most people are grateful that they have work to do. Our success depends on our gratitude and devotion to something greater than ourselves. People who are intelligent but do not achieve success behave like critics and find fault with others, but they lack gratitude or enthusiasm for their work. Gratitude to God is the driving force behind enthusiasm. It is a pity that some people ridicule those who work with gratitude to God. We should not let their sneering bother us; instead, we should stay grateful and keep working diligently to achieve success. We should dedicate our heart and soul to work, and it is what we devote our entire life to. When we finding the true essence of work find our calling, work with passion, and move forward with the guidance of heaven, we will be walking on the path to spiritual success.”
Therefore work is necessary for our continued self-development and to keep us engaged with life and learning. We are not made to just sit around and do nothing at all. We are imbued with a desire to work. This aptitude is something we are born with, not something we acquire later in life. It is a fundamental part of being human. Some animals work, in the sense that they exert themselves to survive, but, unlike humans, animals cannot break away from a fixed pattern of activities. Let me explain this using some examples. finding the true essence of work
Sea otters have complex feeding habits that are quite advanced for an animal. They dive to capture shellfish from the ocean floor, then swim back and eat them on the ocean surface while floating on their back. They put the shellfish on their bellies and use “tools” such as rocks to crack open the shells. They may look as if they are working on a specific task, but in fact they are simply using a conventional method of feeding themselves. They are just doing what sea otters do. But they never take on new tasks.
The work that we humans do is quite different in nature. We all have the ability to create something new using the unique talents that each of us has. We are capable of producing a variety of objects from a single material. We are in a blessed position to feel the same sense of joy that the Primordial God of the Great Universe experienced at the time of Creation. The essence of work is very closely related to the nature of human beings. God gave us the desire to work so that He could share His joy of Creation with us.
When God gave us work, He made sure that it didn’t end there. He made it so that we get rewarded for good work. In most cases, this reward takes the form of monetary compensation or career advancement. It can also be a spiritual joy that comes from receiving compliments from a lot of people. God could have made a system in which we would exert ourselves to work regardless of whether we would be rewarded, but He decided to let us receive compensation for our efforts. He knew that this was the key that would allow human beings to keep working forever. What if God had set a rule that the chefs in upscale restaurants were only allowed to prepare exquisite cuisine for the customers and were never allowed to enjoy that cuisine themselves? After a while, great chefs would find it difficult to continue in their profession, master culinary arts, and feel proud of their work.
We are motivated to refine and improve our skills because we are rewarded for good work. This may sound like a selfish idea, but it really isn’t. Behind this idea is God’s grand plan. He created a system, out of mercy, that allows us to savor the joy of work forever. Our work is always rewarded—but the reward may not necessarily be monetary. Sometimes, we are rewarded with a good family, a fine house, financial stability, or the freedom to try new ventures. Good work can also lead to the good opinion of others, self-improvement, and higher social status. Whatever their form good work always brings in rewards. In essence, the nature of work is to produce value. Good work is activity that creates benefits. We are compensated for our work because our actions create some kind of profit. We feel guilty for getting paid when our actions have inconvenienced others or damaged the company, because we are receiving.
Hiroshi discusses the 3 steps to devoting your life to work:
- Discovering Your Calling
- Developing a Zest for Work
- Filling Your Heart with Gratitude.
Step 1 Discover Your Calling: How can we devote our lives to work? The first step, before anything else, is to find our calling. It is very difficult to devote our life to our work unless we feel that it is our vocation. For example, no matter how well-built a person may be, he will find it hard to imagine himself becoming a baseball player or a professional wrestler if all he is interested in is studying. If his soul finds delight in a life of study and wants to pursue an academic path, his physical aptitude will not make it any easier for him to dedicate his life to wrestling or baseball. Although finding our calling is the prerequisite to devoting our life to work, a lot of people in the world today, especially those who are doing office work, probably find it difficult to find their calling in their current job. If you feel that you haven’t yet found your vocation, don’t lose hope. You may be able to find a vocation by changing your career, so I recommend that you concentrate on finding a job that you feel is your calling. If you can believe that you’ve discovered your calling in your job—that it is your mission—then you will be able to devote your entire life to your work.
Okawa emphasizes the importance of finding our calling because when we do, we’re already halfway toward fulfilling our mission in life. It doesn’t matter how talented or untalented we feel we are. If we want to achieve great success in life, we need to find a job that we believe is our calling. Even the most talented painters will not be successful if they’re limited to doing clerical work. In the same way, the talents of gifted scientists cannot blossom if they are trained to be poets. Everybody has a place where their unique gifts can bloom.
Step 2 Develop a Zest for Work: The second and most important step to dedicating our life to work is to have enthusiasm. There are a lot of smart people in this world, but not all of them have achieved outstanding success. I had always wondered why some very intelligent people are not able to show their abilities, get paid well, or get ahead at work. So I decided to carefully watch and study some of these people. After a while, I came to the conclusion that they lacked enthusiasm. Even the brightest among us cannot improve our work skills or open up new paths unless we are enthusiastic about what we do. What do you think is the most critical element in making good pottery? Even if we have the best skills, the best clay, the best glaze, and the best design, we will not be able to produce the final product without firing it in a kiln. The fire in the kiln is equivalent to our enthusiasm for work. Without enthusiasm, we cannot produce first-class results, even if we have the best talents, best skills, and best ideas.
Ryuho Okawa tells us that Jesus Christ was able to accomplish so much because he had passion for his mission. The same is true of Socrates. He was an exceptionally intelligent person, but that alone isn’t what made him a leading historical figure. The only reason his name remains known to this day is that he was enthusiastic about his work.
Step 3 Fill Your Heart with Gratitude: The third step to devoting our life to work is to understand that some of the workings of the world remain invisible to the human eye. Some people may think that this idea is old-fashioned or superstitious, but it is the truth. There are millions of companies in the world. In Japan alone, there are at least a few million companies. Many of these companies run at a loss or barely break even and have just enough cash to pay the employees. But some of these businesses outperform others by far, develop into corporate giants, and expand globally. What is the secret to their success? Of course, it could be the diligent work of each of the employees. Still, I cannot help but sense that, above all, the turning of fortune’s wheel is at work. Whether we’re talking about a person or a corporation, I believe that the workings of good fortune are behind every success.
Receiving guidance from God or heavenly spirits is essential to a life dedicated to work. Only when we believe that we are doing a job that is blessed by heaven will we be able to devote our life to it. Receiving blessings and divine support will improve our luck, and a path to success will open before us. Having faith in God—or, in other words, being grateful to the Source or Higher Power—is fundamental to doing great work. A willingness to serve a greater purpose and a devotion to God are what make it possible for us to dedicate our life to our calling. Our success depends on our gratitude and devotion to something greater than ourselves.
Hiroshi then goes on to explain the 3 keys to understanding the chief objectives in his company.
The big objective of your work is the chief mission that your company is trying to achieve. You can significantly improve your chances of success by making an effort to quickly grasp your company’s core objective, main operations, key characteristics, and specific type of enterprise. Every industry and type of enterprise has a chief mission that defines it. For example, a real estate company’s mission is to sell property. A manufacturer’s purpose is to produce goods. A financial institution is a business that offers financial services. And a trading company trades international goods. When we have understood our company’s chief role in society, we are ready to determine our department’s role in reaching that goal.
The second key to successful work is setting priorities. If we created a detailed list of all the tasks and responsibilities that we carry out during a typical workday, week, or month, we would probably end up listing over a hundred tasks, and we may likely find that we are carrying out many of these tasks routinely, without thinking about whether these tasks are truly important. So, especially when you are starting a new job, it is very important to start each day by reviewing your tasks. The key is to figure out all the jobs that you are being assigned and then rank them in order of importance.
The third key to becoming an outstanding worker is creating and improving relationships with the people we work with. Nurturing good relationships with our superiors, subordinates, and other colleagues is essential to running our jobs smoothly and achieving results, because work is never accomplished completely by ourselves.
There are 3 ways to understanding human beings more deeply. It is impossible to succeed and advance at anything all on your own. It is vital to your success to have a big enough heart to take many talented people under your wings and gain their support and commitment. Then, leave the rest of your future up to heaven, and do not worry about what may happen when they advance ahead of you. If it happens, it happens. You will be ready to accept whatever fate holds for you. But as long as you are their superior, you will devote everything you have to extracting every ounce of their abilities to the fullest. As you work to develop good relationships, You will understand people more deeply: Learning about and understanding human beings—how we think, act, live, and relate with one another—is a crucial element in mastering the third condition for a successful career.
First, we can learn from our own experiences. We can learn lessons and gain insight about people through our interactions with others.
The second way is to find someone we respect to follow as a teacher and learn from that person how to cultivate accurate insights and develop acute observation skills and keen perceptive abilities. This allows us to gain the wisdom necessary to accurately assess people and events.
The third way to learn about human beings may sound obvious: it is to read many books.
I would like to mention four kinds of books that are more useful than others.
First, biographies of great historical figures contain stories about how they made a name for themselves, so a good biography can be a bible of success.
A second genre to read is history, because knowing the past helps us foresee the future. Studying various historical events, how historical figures coped with them, and the outcomes of their actions enables us to foresee the problems that are likely to arise in the circumstance we will face in the future.
The third type of book to read is literature and poetry, which teaches us what touches people’s hearts. Different things motivate different people. Some are motivated to take action by intellect, others by reason. But I think the strongest incentive is emotion. To motivate many people to take action, we have to engage them emotionally. Developing an interest in literature and art is a vital step toward understanding the feelings of others.
There are the 3 conditions of leadership and true leaders face adversity selflessly. First, we must believe in our own luck. And to believe in our luck, it’s essential to feel that God protects us and rejoices in our work. If you find that God is too big to think about, try imagining how your ancestors or the founder or previous CEOs of your company would feel if they looked at your work. Do you feel a sense of joy and blessing coming from them? That feeling is essential to attracting good fortune.
Having faith in God—or, in other words, being grateful to the Source or Higher Power—is fundamental to doing great work.
TRUE LEADERS; While many people become frantic and think mostly about protecting themselves when they face tough problems, true leaders stay composed. They do not suddenly turn fierce and begin oppressing people whom they fear could be out to strip them of their power. No matter how misunderstood true leaders are, they carry on calmly through difficult times. While they wait for circumstances to improve, they continue to develop themselves so they will be prepared when the next opportunity to show their abilities comes along.
Hiroshi tells us about the Happy Science Movement and its spiritual educational political and non-profit divisions. Happy Science has grown from its beginnings in Japan to a worldwide organization with over 10 million followers. The spiritual workshops and Okawa’s many books are based on the Principles of Happiness Love Wisdom Self-Reflection and Progress and are open to people of all faiths and walks of life Okawa is committed to the spiritual growth of others enlightening the world to Spiritual truths and expanding our capacity for love and compassion.
Sheryl and Hiroshi have discussed the joy and purpose of work as a divine exercise in living life with finding your calling, a zest for living and gratitude for learning and loving.
As Okawa states, “The business environment has undergone drastic changes over recent years. This has led to a growing sense of uncertainty about the future and an increasing demand for clearer guidelines for succeeding at work. This book The Heart of Work outlines a philosophy developed at my organization Happy Science. It is my sincere hope that a greater number of people will learn and master this philosophy of work and that this book will help them achieve true success.
Ryoho Okawa, Hiroshi Yaita and Sheryl, would ask you to remember your soul being and the gifts of Spirit that reside within….Okawa wrote.. We all have the ability to create something new using the unique talents that each of us has. We are capable of producing a variety of objects from a single material. We are in a blessed position to feel the same sense of joy that the Primordial God of the Great Universe experienced at the time of Creation. The essence of work is very closely related to the nature of human beings. God gave us the desire to work so that He could share His joy of Creation with us. We are intimately connected to the energy of creation and each other and success in life and work depends mainly on holding onto that truism.
