Billionaires are People Who ‘Wants to Transport a Great Number of People by Ship’

It’s a difference in the strength of thinking.

That strength of thinking is in the end, the difference between the people who think ‘I just need to get on the boat and row myself’ or ‘As long as my family and I can manage’, and one who thinks ‘I will make as big a raft or as big a ship as I can, let a great number of people onto it, and transport them to the other side’.

Ordinary people think it is enough to have a boat that is not one made of dried mud, one that will not sink, and one that will reach the other side, or one that their family can fit into. This is the obligation that ordinary people have.

In days gone by, billionaires were people who hoped to ‘carry a great number of people in a large raft’. In these days, billionaires hope to ‘transport them in a big ship’. That is one difference.

A Spirit of Valuing Happiness and the Feeling of Sharing It

Furthermore, as for the things we must always do in our religious life, it becomes interesting once one starts making money. However, when this happens, I would like you to go back to your origins and remember the concept of the three acts of happiness – valuing happiness, sharing happiness, and happiness planting.

Making money means that happiness has come to you. When that happens, it is firstly important to save some of the wealth that has come to you (valuing happiness).

Even if you think ‘I have come into money so I should just spend it all in Namba (the entertainment district of Osaka) (audience laughs), you should suppress those feelings – ‘No, wait. There are things I want to invest in and donate to. I will ignore these feelings of wanting to fritter away the money in one night, and go to a coffee shop and just get over it’ (audience laughs) – this is valuing happiness. Even waiting until your children are accepted into school rather than buying something on a whim for them could be valuing happiness. In this way, we must have the spirit of valuing happiness.

Then there is ‘sharing happiness’. When luck is with you and you are making money with income coming in, you should think ‘Ah, I shouldn’t just keep this for myself’, but rather share a little bit of your bounty with others.

In the olden days, if you made a lot of food for a celebration, you would share it with your immediate neighbors – that kind of thing is sharing happiness. It is the state of mind in which you try to share something if something good happens to you that others don’t have.

Or it could be sharing your thoughts for success, if it’s not money or a physical item. If your company succeeds, it is talking about some of your success stories, such as ‘things went well when we did this’, or ‘we got repeat customers when we did this’ or ‘things got a lot better when we used these kinds of greetings or provided service in this way’.

Ordinary people want to hide ‘why they succeeded’. You may want to hide it and take it to the grave, but teaching these things to other people is ‘sharing happiness’.

With the ‘Spirit of Happiness Planting’, Success Will Go On and On

In addition, ‘happiness planting’ is the act of ‘not keeping everything for yourself if things are profitable, but giving back or donating a part of it back to the world’.

This could be done anonymously, but I think it is good if some of it is known. Most companies in America donate at the least about 1% of their profits. Furthermore, people who become politicians or presidents etc, or their wives, give their time, effort, and/or money to public arenas unrelated to their normal jobs such as voluntary activities on their days off or in the evening. I think that kind of thing is important.

If you make money, you should give a little to the degree you think appropriate – you should have the state of mind in which you make donations to places to which you have connections. This could well be the religion you believe in, but it could extend to other things too.

So in that way, if you have the state of mind in which you think ‘once I have saved money, I want to use it to do something good’, then I think you can say that your success will go on and on.

Thus, when you become successful, you must not forget to think about the concept of the ‘three acts of happiness’ always. If you can remember these, I think one can say that your potential for success to continue will be greater.

It Is Important for Religious Groups to Contribute to Specific Charitable Activities

It is important that success does not remain temporary.

It is common for temporary successes to turn into failures quickly. Sometimes there will be someone who becomes very famous and very rich, and then several years later you’ll think ‘I wonder what happened to them?’ and find out that they’re in dire straits now.

There have been several recent cases where people have become very rich, and then they have been sent to prison. However, this is also a warning for others. ‘Everyone feels satisfied if the person being sent to prison is someone who has made money easily while everyone else hasn’t and is suffering – that’s why they catch those types of people. That’s what’s happening.

Happy Science tries as much as possible to expand its activities in a range of areas. While raising money is necessary for the activities we wish to carry out, we also try to conduct other activities little by little. We have education projects for children, and activities to save those who have truant or disabled children. We do a range of activities overseas, such as helping people who are victims of tsunamis and earthquakes.

It’s important to start having that mindset. People in the world tend to judge others on only specific actions, so it is the act of showing people the activities that you do. I think you probably donate to the Happy Science organization, and as an organization, I believe we have an obligation to show you that we are using those donations for charitable activities.

If you can remember the concept of the ‘three acts of happiness’, then success will follow.