Well, let me start by exploring the meaning of words again.
Numbers always start from small to large as it goes “一 (one), 二 (two), 三 (three), 四 (four), 五 (five), 六 (six), 七 (seven), 八 (eight), 九 (nine) and 十 (ten)”
“一 (one)” is a beginning, “二 (two)” represents an encounter (with friends and marriage couples), 三 (three) is a relationship / getting together (with families and organizations and so on), “四 (four)” is death and separation (with parents and relatives and so on). Also “参 (three)” represents getting together in zen (禅) as well.
A course of people’s experiences in the life can be represented with these numbers up to four. However it’s still not completed. Because the next letter of “四 (four)” is composed with the □ (square) that has “八 (which means expansion and happiness)” inside it, it means that the happiness can be limited as it is in the closed square (frame).
“五 (five)” represents the five senses. Human makes full use of these five senses to gain knowledge (I’ll explain about the five senses in detail in other parts). After obtaining knowledge, “六 (six)” comes next. Doesn’t it look like it’s having a “亠 (lid)” on top of the “八 (eight)”, does it? It’s still not completed as it has the lid on it.
“七 (seven)” represents the achievement (success). Then “八 (eight)” comes next,
which represents glory. The important part is actually after this stage. I think that Japan is actually somewhere around this stage. In other words, the “glory” can point out a situation in which we are living a cosseted life. It’s a stage when the people’s advancement stops. For example in the case of athletes, it’s a stage when they get stressed about not getting a better record, even though they try harder. They just can’t get a better result…..when they are stuck in this situation, they suffer from it. So the real hardship starts at this point.
“九 (nine)” which represents suffering starts then. For example in a company, it’s a time when they can’t produce the next hit product and business performance grows at a sluggish pace, so then people look back to the past glory and think that it was a good time….. It’s a situation when you go back and forward between八 (eight) and 九 (nine). When laying “8” down on the side, it turns ∞ (infinity). Doesn’t it look like we go around the same place over and over in this stage? When we go beyond the九 (nine) without going back to the past, “八 (eight)”, we can go to new stage of “十 (ten)”
Is it possible for us to get to this stage…?
To the new stage that we can get to by going beyond our sadness from, for example, the Great East Japan Earthquake and so on.?
When we go beyond九 (nine), there is a light…
This is just an aside but Japan was to be called “八島 (yashima)” or “大八洲 (oyashima)” a long time ago. It has “八 (eight)” which means the “glory” in the words. It seems like that such a small island was meant to prosper. It’s something mysterious, isn’t it?
