Creating The Value of Life.pdf

CREATING

THE VALUE OF LIFE

By Fumihiko Iida

Associate Professor of Fukushima National University,

JAPAN

This book became best-seller in Japan

and achieved more than 400,000 copies in 1996.

Translated by

Muneo Yoshikawa, Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus, University of Hawaii

If you want, you can distribute this PDF ﬁle to all around the world,

but please do not gain any proﬁt !

Fumihiko Iida

Faculty of Economics, Fukushima Univ.,

Matsukawa-cho, Fukushima City,

960–1296, Japan

This PDF ﬁle was converted from the HTML ﬁle of Iida’s HP by Yoshio Umeno.

UPON THE OCCASION OF PUBLICATION

— Why This Book is Being Sent Out From Japan to the World —

Muneo Yoshikawa, Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus, University of Hawaii

In the latter part of March, 1996, a trusted friend sent me a copy of Professor

Fumihiko Iida’s article, ”The Dawn of Meaning.”[1] I read it immediately and was

amazed that a traditional academic journal at a major public university in Japan had

published a research article on life after death and rebirth, especially since the topic is

so remote from economics and management, the journal’s usual genre. I was full of

emotion as I realized that the new world-shaking paradigms (views of the world, of the

universe, of nature, of humanity and of the corporation) have at last started to make

inroads in Japan.

On the one hand, I was speechless with admiration for the bravery of Professor Iida

in submitting such theories to a journal of economics and management. I have spent

over thirty years in the academic environment of a public University in the U.S., and I

know very well that a scholar of management must be prepared for the worst when he

publishes theories such as Professor’s Iida’s within the discipline of management sci-

ence, where they appear out of place, at least at ﬁrst glance. I contacted Professor Iida

immediately because I was convinced that he had some compelling reason, a reason

beyond human knowledge, to act as he did. One week later I visited Professor Iida’s

ofﬁce at Fukushima University.

As I suspected, Professor Iida did have a reason beyond human knowledge to write

his article. I am unable to explain it simply, and Professor Iida has requested that I

refrain from trying. However, the overwhelming response to his article made Professor

Iida resolve to publish a greatly expanded version of his article as a book. As I spoke to

Professor Iida, I felt very strongly that his theories were too important to be conﬁned

just to Japan; I felt that Japan must send his ideas out to the whole world. For that

reason, I have been asked to write the introduction to this book, a task which I, a

non-Japanese, perform with great hesitation.

Transpersonal psychology and molecular physics, disciplines on the forefront of

global knowledge, are currently dealing with such concepts as the invisible world,

the realm of the unconscious and idea of life ﬁelds. In philosophy, such concepts

are termed the ”celestial” realm and the realm of ”nothingness.” The Japanese have

words for these astral realms in the world of art where the concepts are called yohaku

(blankness, empty space), yo’in (reverberation, lingering note) and yojo (suggestive-

ness, lingering charm). These realms have meaning in a psychological and emotional

sense. Fellow Japanese very clearly understand and share this realm of emotion.

In the world of business as well, Japanese have a shared understanding in this astral

plane of the ”life-ﬁeld” called the ”workplace.” Just as in the world of art, this realm

or life-ﬁeld of work can also be understood psychologically or emotionally. For that

reason, the realm of work has a nature that cannot ask ”why” things happen.

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iii

As someone who is not Japanese, I think that Japan got so caught up with the

question of ”how to” during the days of high economic growth that the nation lost sight

of the question ”why.” Corporations fulﬁlled their destiny as entities with the shared

understanding that the goal is the pursuit of proﬁts. When considered from a cultural

perspective, there was virtually no consciousness of purpose to generate the question

”what,” nor was there any consciousness of vision to generate the question ”why.” And

then one day the hyper-inﬂated ”bubble” economy suddenly deﬂated, leaving Japan

ﬁnally conscious of the emptiness of a materialistic civilization. Now Japan is starting

to search for real wealth and seeking to ﬁnd the meaning of life and the meaning of

work.

Professor Iida grapples head on with these problems as a scholar of management.

The conclusion he reaches is this: it is impossible to ﬁnd the meaning of life or the

meaning of work unless one changes one’s human consciousness and set of values in

the most fundamental ¡and basic of ways.

This book proposes a ”theory about the meaning of life,” through a comprehensive

treatment of scientiﬁc research ﬁndings about ”life after death” and ”rebirth,” ideas

that are found throughout the world.

A course on ”Death and Dying” has been part of the curriculum at the state-owned

University of Hawaii for the past twenty-ﬁve years. Thinking about human life and

death has become a respected academic discipline. Japan is behind the rest of the world

in this regard; however, Professor Iida makes every effort in this book to elucidate the

meaning of ”life” and ”death” in as scholarly a fashion as possible by giving speciﬁc

examples, based upon the scientiﬁc research of scholars around the world.

What this book makes clear is that, ”Human beings are creatures that create mean-

ing and that create value.” Dr. Victor Frankel, a survivor of the Nazi concentration

camps, has stated that the people who survive even the most horrible environments are

those people who are able to ﬁnd value in their lives even in the midst of suffering. By

publishing this book, Dr. Iida also hopes to emphasize strongly the following: ”People

who discover value in their own existence are strong people. Discovering value in your

own existence provides the most powerful reason for living.”

It has been reported that the chief cause of death in the U.S. is ”the loss of a sense

of meaning.” Japan is no exception in this respect. Japan presently has no vision (why)

nor does it have clear goals (what). Japan has lost its way and is buffeted about here

and there by the immediate situation. Professor Iida makes us aware of the world we

cannot see (past and future lifetimes) and, by thus raising our consciousness, draws

our attention to the one, unbroken chain of life that continues forever. This book is

essential required reading for most Japanese people because it reveals the importance

of attaching meaning anew to the ”celestial” realm and the realm of ”nothingness.”

As the author emphasizes, we are linked to all the objects, people and living crea-

tures that surround us. When we understand the meaning of our existence, then for

the ﬁrst time, our ways of perceiving, of thinking, of understanding and of interacting

spring out of the boundaries of ”humanity,” spring out of the boundaries of ”nation-

hood,” and spring out of the boundaries of the ”world.” Heightened in this fashion, our

very consciousness acquires a bright and shining hope in dealing with problems which

UPON THE OCCASION OF PUBLICATION

face all human beings such as racial issues and environmental issues.

This book is required reading not only for Japanese but for each and every one of

the many people living on this earth. I myself plan to translate this book into English

shortly, so that I can spread Professor Iida’s ”network of meaning” throughout the

world.

I fervently pray that even one more person will read this book.

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