Q: Let me ask you about the lyrics of your music, MARTH. What do you mean when you say, “what you already have” in your music?
Is it something we had in childhood?
I think every life comes to this world as part of the whole universe, whether it is an animal, a flower or a tree. All lives come as a manifestation of Atman, of the whole universe, and as a child of God, or whatever you call it, within the world of unknown oneness.
When you are connected as one with the universe, you have such joy, bliss, and a sense of security because you are connected with everything. It is a life of no fight, no conflict, no mental conflict of separation. It is a world of no separation where we don’t have to blame others and fight with them.
I guess many people in childhood used to have such a pure heart and peaceful feeling that everything is one… MARTH expresses such feeling as “something you already have”.
Q: What is something we’ve been truly looking for?
As everything is connected as one, there is a sense of relief and joy, deep comfort, the heart of oneness. It is such comfort that there is no need for us to do some”hing that boosts the ego and makes the self superior at all. No need to excel and win over people who seem other. No need for us to fight or clash, which we learned here on the earth. No need for us to boast that we (as the ego) are amazing or great. It is an eternal comfort that we are part of the whole universe; accepting that we are connected as one, there is no need to fight at all. It is the true nature, the true essence of the whole universe, such quality of love and happiness. That is what “we have been truly looking for”.
Q: What is “the secret of the sky”?
“Sky” pronounced “Sora” in Japanese is also read and pronounced “Ku”, which is “emptiness, void”. Within the world of oneness where everything is unknown and mystical like a dream, there is the peace of the void. We lose it, however, within the ego world, while living in the societies of separation. Unfortunately, however, the world of disparity has prevailed on the earth because of our fear and suffering caused by a sense of separation. I mean to express by “the blue sky” or “the sky (sora, ku)” something that is not contaminated by such notions of separation. I think the joy of connecting with existence is beyond comparison. Then it is truly wonderful that we are connected as one, that we have no idea of separation, and that we have no negative thoughts.
You will be enclosed by something warm and happy when you neither fight nor blame others. You know that everything is one and you are part of it as well as everything is part of it. You will be able to understand that the people who continue fighting with you just don’t know the idea of oneness, however fiercely they fight or become brutal. The joy to be able to live protecting the goodness of the rules of oneness as part of the beautiful universe is beyond our ideas.
Q: Then, why do we get hurt as we grow older?
That is because we have currently such societies of the world where we believe in a value of separation. The ego world is the one where people believe in separation, that everything is not connected. It is natural that we believe in hostility, conflict, and fighting there. Therefore, our love and true essence within our original nature of oneness get hurt in our lives. We cannot feel that we are connected with everything. Our heart as a child of the whole universe is broken. Messages from the universe to awaken us – troubles and something like a punishment – continue coming to us. Such pains let us sense that something is wrong with us somehow and are the universe asking us to awaken . . . I think that all the rulers had to fail for this reason …
That we outdo people who seem other than ourselves in reality, rule them, become superior, or obey because of fear and listen to them because of fear of separation, all these are schemes of the ego. Such acts harm people. They destroy children of the universe whose nature is beautiful.
Q: What kind of lies make us lose our way?
What I mean is that we live in the societies of lies, which believe in something wrong, in the sense that we don’t think everything is a manifestation of the whole universe (God), and a manifestation of Creation. We never think that everything is connected as one within the world of unknown, mystical oneness.
Therefore, all the people, who are children of the whole universe, are searching. We have been searching for unity, true peace, true love and something truly connected as one all the time… We are always searching for them. In fact, we are fed up with the self. That is because it is not our innate quality. Maybe we will be searching for them even after we leave our bodies. Something that is connected as one… something united, something for which we can love people and forgive them, something with which we can feel everything is connected as one… As we are connected as one, we are searching for the heart that will never hurt people, never harm them even though we are hurt.
The true self is made of something that is connected as one, only we are not aware of it. We used to have one when we were babies… All of us have been looking for such an incredible feeling of security and love deep down. That may be a gift from the whole universe which only the people who have realized how silly it is to boost the ego receive …
We human beings, whose true quality is that of oneness, may not know yet that we can get true happiness only when we never boost the ego… I think that the most appropriate way of life for us is neither to win, nor improve, nor compete, but to realize there is true happiness when we feel for our friends who are connected with us as one… The ancient people of this country called it “wa – harmony”…
Q: I heard that you are from Japan, from Awajishima Island. Am I correct?
I don’t belong to anywhere. Never do I belong to anything in this world. I’m only part of the whole universe. However, this body as a human was born in Azabu, Tokyo. And my father’s father, my grandfather, comes from Awajishima Island, and my grandfatrher’s wife, that is, my grandmother, is from Jindai of Awajishima, too. So, my whole family have been living in Awajishima Island for generations. They seem to have been managing a temple and a shrine for a long time; that is, Jindaiji Temple, located in Jindai, which *Kūkai is said to have developed, and a shrine nearby. There is an incredibly old graveyard of my family there. Incredible amount of graves…
There is a shrine named Onokoro Shrine close to it.
According to the legend of that district, I heard that a leader named Isaiahnagit (translated as Emperor Isaiah in Japanese) came to Japan from the middle east with millions of people about two thousand six hundred years ago. They say he brought the leaders of twelve tribes and his disciple and prophet, Elijah, to Japan, too. He avoided conflicts and wars, persuaded everyone and headed for the peaceful land, the land of Jomon where there was no war. He said it was their homeland. And the king of the land called Jomon now accepted them willingly. He considered the people as siblings. I heard such a story.
And it is said that the leader named Isaiahnagit taught the people that one shall not harm others even though hurt by them. He said that one should not lose beauty as part of God and a child of God, otherwise, he shall hurt his own love, the essence, his soul. However hard a time one has to go through, however terrible the lies one has to hear, never harm anyone, however bad he is. This is what I heard about him. However, I didn’t hear that his disciples and the tribes accepted the teaching. It is only that this person named Isaiahnagit continued to convey it all the time. I heard that the first location where they lived in Japan was Jindai on Awajishima Island. It is the place my family comes from and my father always told me the story. My grandfather as well… They said Isaiahnagit from the middle east was filled with love…
My father worked for the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Ministry of Justice. He always told me that I should neither harm others nor sue them. He told me never to boost the self, to become great and superior, never to seek after status or fame, in other words, never boost my ego nor be separate… He always scolded me and hit me hard, telling me to live small, feeling connected as one as a child of the universe. Otherwise, I shall lose my precious love and divinity. He never scolded me for any other reasons. This is how I was brought up in my childhood…
I deeply trust true justice presented in the teaching, because I feel what this person, Isaiahnagit, said is incredibly wonderful and true. I heard he came from somewhere around Arabia. The great tomb of Emperor Nintoku is in Nintoku-Tenno-ryo, where the descendents of Isaiahnagit live. They say glass vases from Persia are treasured there. I have little idea about Isaiahnagit, but I feel he must be a person of the beautiful heart, the one we should follow even now. My father was also a beautiful man of goodness and true justice. He was as strict as his father (my grandfather) was. I cannot but feel that the beauty of their hearts owes itself to the teaching of Isaiahnagit. I feel there must be people who have the same value in Jindai even now. If only there was something I could do . . . all I can do is convey only a small piece of the loving heart through my music…
MARTH
*Kūkai
also known posthumously as Kōbō-Daishi (弘法大師 The Grand Master Who Propagated the Buddhist Teaching), 774–835, was a Japanese Buddhist monk, civil servant, scholar, poet, and artist who founded the Shingon or “True Word” school of Buddhism.
(from Wikipedia)