The quote shown below explains we must face what’s right and easy. For example this quote means to me like this-when you see someone drop their money on the floor it’s the easiest to just take the money and profit. What’s hard is doing the right way by being honest and confronting the person who dropped it. This situation is always tempting, but this is not the right way. This quote relates to me for a situation that happened in real life was when someone asks my help to carry chairs. Instead of declining on helping, which is the easiest to do (one less thing to worry about)! I helped and did what’s right.l
Somebody who I look up to as my hero is my mom. My mom is my hero, instead of always going out to eat she always cooks every day for me and my family. Everyday my mom is always cooking breakfast, lunch and dinner for my family to eat. Even though cooking breakfast, lunch and dinner is a lot of work. She always makes all of her cuisines with a lot of love. When you eat from a restaurant they always try their best to make their food great! And you know why? It’s for money and good business! But your mom’s food will always be better! And you know why? That’s because her food is always filled with love! Another reason why my hero is my mom is because how clean the house can always be! For example instead of playing with her phone, shopping or wasting time. My mom is always cleaning the house as clean she can to make the whole house spotless! Lastly my mom is my hero because she will always give me hugs and kisses no matter what. As a child we always make mistakes that disappoint our parents, but my mom is always the first one to forgive! Mom always does everything for me! She is my hero.
Instead of making a New Year’s resolution, I am going to focus on one word. That word is helpful. I am going to focus on being helpful around the house because I am already big and do not need to always be spoon fed by my parents. I will start by helping my parents, such as preparing the food when it’s done or helping on any other chores. Another reason why I want to be helpful around the house is because my parents have already done a lot for me, and they deserve a break with help. Lastly I would want to help my parents because my mom is always cooking, doing laundry and cleaning the house everyday for my family. Because of this she is always exhausted. Therefore I would like to be more helpful and try my best to reduce her work so she could rest. My main goal is just to be more helpful around the house.
For the month of January I have been reading a book called Shindoin sama volume 1. The author of this book is by Shinnyo-en Youth Association. This is a nonfiction book about Shindoin sama’s life, and the religion (Buddha). In this story, April 8 1937 Tomoji had just given birth to Shindoin sama. As the story begins to develop they tried their best to build a better training hall (bigger). They wanted a bigger training hall because there was not enough room for everyone to come in, therefore many practitioners had to stand outside and it was very cold (Snowing). They were told by their landlord that they are not allowed to host anymore suspicious religious activities and to take out the Buddha sculptures. Shinjo Ito and Tomoji were not going to agree because they’ve done nothing wrong. They were required to send a formal request in order to continue what they were doing and they did. One of their practitioners had a spiritual connection with the spirits and she was able to tell Shindoin sama’s dad that Shindoin sama had trained in the spiritual world before he was born. With this information Shinjo Ito was told to train Shindoin sama as a Buddha and not as an ordinary child. The practitioner continues to see more spiritual visions and continues to tell what to do for the ceremony of Shindoin sama’s birth, but Shindoin sama’s dad could not afford anything so expensive and extravagant due to him undergoing monastic training. He later ask’s the spiritual guidance for forgiveness for not following the instructions given. Even though they sent a formal request to what they where doing, they eventually had to tore down their training hall because of the complaints and rules. They just built the hall extension and spent lots of money on lumber and had to tore all that hardwork and money that’s wasted on the lumber. Since their house was banned from doing religious activities, they later founded a huge area where they where allowed to build a temple to train at. They got approval to train at the temple that they were going to build. The location for the temple had to be in a very specific spiritual area. Eventually they had to build a better roof for their house due to lots of heavy rains and storms. Shinjo Ito and Tomoji paid lots of money to get their roof fixed, but the workers cut corners on making the roof. They endured days of raining and leaking. Shinjo Ito and Tomoji begged for a redo but they refused to do it for free. Shinjo Ito and Tomoji begged for their money back because of the poor quality of the roof but they still refused to. Tomoji feared if this leaking continues, it wouldn’t just be Kyodoin sama that died but also Shindoin sama. Due to the leaking that lead to a very cold night. Shindoin sama was born very ill and was a very weak child. His parents eventually discovered that he has caries (hip joint) after Shindoin sama telling his parents that his leg hurts when he run. The doctor came to his house for a checkup and that’s when they know Shindoin sama has caries. The fee was one thousand Yen to fix the roof, but they did not have that amount of money. Their practitioners could not leave it like that so with all of their help and contributions they lended Shinjo Ito and Tomoji one thousand Yen to rebuild their roof. Everything was then rebuilt. During this time was the war against Japan and America. They suffered with scares but Shinjo Ito continues sharing and providing his foods/crops with strangers. Shinjo Ito is always covered in dirt working very hard to provide crops to share with others! Because of the food scares Shinjo Ito and Tomoji struggled to provide food for their five kids, eventually Shinjo Ito, Tomoji and their kids went to Tomoji’s parents house which was in Tokyo. They stayed for three months for safer shelter (because Tomoji had young babies) and food. Food was abundant there because it was in a farm. Shinjo Ito heads back to the temple making sure that everything was ok, and he continued giving food to strangers and saving people from air raids (Bombs). He made a underground air raid shelter where he goes in for safety. When the air raid siren rings that means bombs are about to hit towards that area and that’s when he goes in the shelter. He would also bring other people in the village for safety in the underground shelter. Even though they are strangers from the villages he would not selfishly go inside the shelter by himself, but would always prioritize others than himself. Eventually time passed and the war was over Shinjo Ito came back to where his wife and kids where at and they headed back home together. Shindoin sama went to school once he was back. In his school his classmates founded a bird, but the bird would only eat with Shindoin sama’s care. The life was on his hands.
I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it because when the author includes foreshadowing you can predict what’s going to happen next in the story. For example in some books it would be unpredictable but this book you can pretty much predict what’s going to happen next. That’s pretty good! Because the book won’t leave you with “wait what”? “Why is the ending like that” or “Why did they do that”? The ending in this book is great! Not only that but Shinnyo-en Youth Association did a great job by showing us great endings of the story every time! With no dissatisfaction with the ending. This book is not just good because it has no dissatisfaction in the ending, but the ending will not leave you confused. The character would die in the endings mostly but you would understand why with no confusion. If you would like a book with great endings, and with dialogue/pictures that you can predict what’s going to happen next? Read this book! This book is also really great on teaching you how the Buddha religion originated and what Buddha is about.
My most favorite character is Tomoji. Tomoji is my most favorite character because she always tries her best to give what’s best for her son (Shindoin sama). For example on page 158. “So let’s take a nice long bath, and your leg will soothe”. “I’m sure you’ll recover”. This shows that she wants what’s best for her son after knowing that he has caries. She wants what’s best for her son’s recovery because in this situation her husband’s mom came to see them after hearing that Shindoin sama has caries and told them to go to Shinobe’s hot springs for possible recover. She want’s what’s best for her son so that his caries would possibly go away while being in the Shinobe’s hot springs. She took it very seriously what her husband mom said about going to the Shinobe hot springs for possible recovery and took Shindoin sama there immediately. Shindoin sama asks his mom “how come this bath isn’t warm? She says “ Shinobe’s hot springs are naturally low in temperature, but if you take your time and soak, it’ll warm you all the way to the bones”. “So let’s take a nice long bath and the pain in your leg will soothe.
My most favorite quote from the story was on page 203. When Shindoin sama says “I’m making sure the chickens don’t eat the red beans”. This is a memorable quote from this story because in this situation Shindoin sama was with his grandparents due to the war in his area he lives at. His grandparent’s live in the farm. In this area there was lots of animals including chickens. He throws small rocks at the red beans to avoid the chicken from eating the red beans because it’s not good for them. Even though it’s just an animal, he tries his best to look after them! There’s a total of 250 graphics. One graphic in the story that I can explain was on page 174 its a picture of soldiers and military airplanes dropping bombs. Also a picture of Shindoin sama’s older brother (Kyodoin sama who has passed away) helping people out of the fire in the spiritual world. The cover of the book is a picture of Shindoin sama when he was seven years old in a vermillion robe that’s can only be worn by the Saito Homa’s officiating priest. He is wearing the same robe as his father! On top of that Shindoin sama was holding a religious instrument with a black circle with string on his head like a small string crown.
