We can all follow Empress Masako’s positive example
Question from the Internet:
“Japan. Empress Masako’s birthday celebrations were cancelled due to the pandemic. Her statement: she feels that everyone is precious and she wants everyone to be happy. What if your birthday will be cancelled? Will you be as brave as the Empress?”
First of all I don’t have much sympathy for royals around the world, as they are used as part of the “circus and bread entertainment" for dumbing, manipulating people, and I don’t understand why others would need to celebrate her birthday in the first place.
But I also understand it is not her fault, and she is simply playing a role that she didn’t choose but was forced on her.
And after all she is positively using her role, showing a positive example, shifting attention from herself to the people which is an example other royals, leaders should follow.
So I agree with you, from her position, from within that role her act is brave, and worthy to be followed.
And as you suggested even us, simple people of the public would need to shift from our inherently self-serving, self-justifying, egocentric and subjective viewpoint — where we all feel, behave like the king of our own subjective world — towards taking others into consideration as well when we make calculations.
Nature’s integral system, its strict, unchanging laws that system the balance and homeostasis life depends on, demand from us to move closer to implementing the ancient principle of “love your neighbor as yourself".
Contrary to popular opinion this is not some mystical idea, religious dogma or New Age philosophy. This principle is an archaic, symbolic description of the above mentioned Natural law of integration, translated to Human relationships.
Even the cells, organs of our own biological body have to exist in such “mutual love", “mutual guarantee" between them — each making calculations for the benefit of the other parts of the body before any individual calculations —in order to preserve the balance and homeostasis everything depends on.
The gesture Empress Masako made might be symbolic, but it — taking others into consideration as we consider ourselves — is already a step in the right direction we all need to follow.