Miura Quotes
categorized by topic:
Crisis of the Soul
"Back in my room I thought hard. Although my spine was being eaten away by tuberculosis and I stumbled as I walked, we had been blind to its presence simply because it had not appeared on the X-ray. If this ignorance had continued, might not all my bones have been affected? I certainly would have died.
And then I thought, 'The same could be true of my soul.' Maybe I did not realize my heart was being eaten away or how infected I was, simply because I was unaware of my sin. I found this thought very frightening.
My mind was made up. I had come to an end of myself. I wanted to clinch my decision by being baptized as soon as possible.” (The Wind is Howling, p.110)
Spiritual Hunger
"There are people, of course, who will not commit themselves to a life of faith even though they have heard about it, been invited to church, and gained some understanding of Christianity. They are like the people who, with stomachs stuffed so full the skin is drawn tight, cannot put another bite in their mouths no matter what delicacies are laid before them. They do not need to be told, 'This is delicious.' They know how tasty it is but they are so gorged that they cannot lift even a morsel to their lips. They have forgotten what it feels like to be hungry.
But if they feel no hunger, are they not well enough off as they are? I believe not. Gelatin or even water will satisfy one for a while, but their nutritious value is too low to sustain life. Something like this is true of the life of the spirit as well. If one is in love, if one has abandoned himself to bowling, if one gets engrossed in activities of various kinds, he may get along for a while without becoming aware of the hunger in his soul. This too is something man is capable of. Though what he lives by is insufficient, he can keep going-- and even take satisfaction in his way of life. But does not the satisfaction he feels resemble the sense of satiety one gets from filling his stomach with gelatin or water? As I said in an earlier chapter, is it not more authentic for one without faith to feel a sense of crisis than to feel happy that he perceives no emptiness in his own soul?" (Miura, "The Church of Christ," translated by David Reid, Japan Christian Quarterly V.38, Fall 1972, p.226)
Life and living
Life is as full of material to learn from as a gravel road is full of stones. Not having gone to school is itself something to learn from. So are poverty, a weak constitution, failure, a broken heart, ignorance, prosperity, and adversity. If you have the will to learn from it, anything can be teaching material.
(Kodoku no tonari, Next door to loneliness)
Words
“Fujio, you seem to think that as long as you don’t say anything, you won’t hurt anybody. But you hurt me deeply by your very silence.”
(Zanzô, Afterimage)
While a change to the heart cannot be accomplished by gun or sword, one line of a poem may lodge deep in a person’s heart and stay alive forever.
(Waga seishun ni deatta hon, The books I encountered in my youth)
Lies and Illusions
In the mirror, Takie’s face looked a bit distorted. It didn’t even look like her face. It was a face that only Takie was familiar with and accustomed to seeing there, but it wasn’t her real face. Just as words reflected in a mirror will be backwards, people tended to believe and live as though their inversely reflected images represented the way they looked to others. Yûko knew that she herself was no different from the rest of them. The fact that people did not even know their own faces seemed to Yûko to be a symbol of human foolishness.
(Sabaki no ie, House of Judgment)
“The fountain is quite pretty,” Kume remarked.
“Yeah. I was thinking the same thing. But I feel kind of cheated when I remember that the water spraying out and falling back into the pool is the same water that sprays out over and over again. It’s like an illusion of beauty, you know?”
This child says such twisted things, Kume thought, as she stared at Shûichi.
(Sabaki no ie, House of Judgment)
Love, marriage, and the family
Love doesn’t just naturally well up in a person. It has to be learned. Of course there are those who have an inborn inclination towards kindness. But how can one really care for another without once exercising the will to love? Love is an act of the will.
(Ashita no anata e, To the future you)
