The "Prayer for World Peace" of All Religions Emanate From One Universal God -- by Rev. Shinobu Nagata, Chief of Spiritual Training Department, Seicho-No-Ie Uji Temple(translation from NETWORK HOZO, October 2001 issue No. 90)

It was around at 21:40 p.m. on September 11, 2001 in Japan when the tragic events occurred in the United States. NHK news suddenly switched to the satellite relay broadcasting and showed the World Trade Center buildings in New York City. The buildings were horribly gushing out the murky smokes. Right after that, the second aircraft crashed into the building.

I intuitively realized, "It must be no other than some kind of serious incident." The newscaster started reporting that it was the terror attacks. I couldn't say words as if something gloomy thoughts heavily hung over in the bottom of my consciousness.

Dr. Masaharu Taniguchi, founder of Seicho-No-Ie, pointed out in his book, To a Completely Free Life (p28), that the earth is the living entity. When the powerful explosions like those of atom bombs underground damage the etheric body of the earth, the earthly passions and destructive emotions that come exploding out from within the astral body erupts uncontrolled to the surface of the earth. Then when earth's etheric body becomes torn, causing it to fail in its job of controlling and rendering harmless the explosions of earthly passions, man also fails to cover up and suppress the explosion of his own earthly passion, as a result of which such passions appear on the surface in the form of his words and actions. I might be intuitively shocked by the terror as if it opened a huge airhole in the bottom of consciousness of humankind.

Repeating of the terror and the retaliation never solve the problem. Hatred, conflict, jealousy, anger, etc., alll those antagonistic emotions between ethnic groups, races, and religions would erupting out more in the future?

That night, I reaffirmed that I should practice "Prayer for World Peace" more earnestly. Then I prayed. We should gather more and more spiritual brothers and sisters to give prayer. I wished more and more people in the world to know the Seicho-No-Ie teachings, "Child-of-God Man", "All Religions Emanate from One Universal God."

I received an e-mail message from a Seicho-No-Ie member in Boston.

"The memorial ceremony for the victims of the attack of World Trade Center was conducted in New York Yankee Stadium. It was not just a memorial ceremony. The leaders of every religion located in New York expressed their condolences and offered loving words for those beleaved families by quoting words from their sacred books. Then they gave a prayer, "God Bless America, God Bless the World" wishing for peace in people's mind and in the world in united mind. People gathered throughout from Catholic, Protestant, Greek Orthodox, Jewish, Islam, Hindu, etc. All people came to the ceremony to give prayers with their leaders transcending the racial and religious differences. Those leaders gave 20-30 min. prayers and speeches.

The prayer with Islam accent, prayers with accents other than English accent. Everyone closed their eyes and shed tears. The prayer transcended race and religion was now dispatching from Yankee Stadium. CNN broadcasted this ceremony for more than three hours. I couldn't stop crying while I was watching TV. Each spoke about "God" and "Love." All were the same despite their ways of expressions were different. I assume this ceremony led many people to deepen their understanding about other religions.

It was exactly the gathering of 'All Religions Emanate from One Universal God'. Although the horrifying terror was a start, I think there had never been such an occasion when every religion paid respect each other and joined other prayers. It was exactly the historical memorial ceremony. I sincerely wish the United States will take a bold leap through this incident and at the same time, the band of each religion will expand toward the world to bring out the true international peace. And I wish to promote further the International Peace by Faith Movement based on the International Spiritual Training Seminar in New York where the gathering of the 'All Religions Emanate from One Universal God' was realized."

There had never been the time like today when the "Prayer for World Peace" is realistically wished for. The 21st century is the "Century of Light" and the "Century of Grand Harmony." Humankind is surely taking the course in the Light.