There is a Japanese proverb that says, "When a flower opens the butterfly arrives, but at the same time, when the butterfly arrives the flower opens." The butterfly is a mysterious animal, because during its journey in a group that lasts a year and takes it from the north to the south of America, it reproduces itself and multiplies; and at the same time, the butterfly, by the process called pollination, enables the flowers it encounters along its way to bear fruit. Thus the butterfly not only feeds on the flower's nectar, but it helps the flower to accomplish its purpose by transforming itself into a fruit. There is another mysterious phenomenon of nature that I would like to tell you about. When the baby chick is hatching, it pecks at the shell from the inside in order to break it, while at the same time the mother hen is trying to break the shell from the outside. These two actions that take place in the same moment allow the chick to be born. Through these two examples that tell of natural phenomena, I wanted to explain to you that what we see apparently happening by chance always contains within it a mysterious, universal plan that gives a sense to nature's action. This universal principle is what we call Mystery, and when we become aware of its presence we have a mystical experience, which means that we are united with the Absolute. The Absolute has various forms in which it can be encountered. One of these is God present in the man who for you is Jesus, while for us it is not present in a man, but in every form of truth that exists in nature: in fact everything that exists in the universe is part of a piece of the absolute. The founder of our Shingon Buddhism, Kobo-Daishi, who lived at the beginning of the 9th century, wrote a book entitled, Reaching Illumination in Everything that Exists in the World, in which he describes the experience of the union between man and the Absolute. The Absolute, which we call Tathagyata, gives light to all the world because it is merciful. In the world, the person who is meditating and has a pure and simple heart receives illumination and reflects it as a mirror. This fact allows him to be united to the Mystery. What I said is a description of the mystical experience. In fact, in the ancient Indian language, Sanskrit, the Absolute is called Tathagyata. Tatha means "origin," and Gyata means something that comes from the origin and is present in the origin. For this reason our founder Kobo-Daishi says that the term Tathagyata can also mean "great mercy" and emphasizes that this mercy, which is eternal and universal, reaches everything that exists in the world. Thus when we become aware of the presence of this great universal mercy, we can have a mystical experience for the first time and realize that life itself is mystical. For us, meeting Msgr. Giussani was precisely a mystical experience.
Earlier I told you that the mystical experience is union with the Absolute, now I want to explain to you why the encounter with Fr. Giussani was a mystical experience. In the teachings of Shingon Mykkyo Buddhism, the experience of union or unity is called Samadhi. The origin of the word Samadhi in Sanskrit is Samaya which means that all persons have the same potential; subsequently this word took on a new meaning and distinguishes all those persons who can reach a high level of simplicity and purity. It is man's nature to have a pure heart, but human egotism can change his heart from pure to impure. If we compare the human heart to the moon, his egotism is the cloud that obscures the moon's splendor. If we eliminate man's egotism, we can become aware of his purity. The experience of purity is the experience of ecstasy. This type of experience is a type of mystical experience that is called spiritual experience. So then, how can we have a spiritual experience? 1) Through the beauty of nature. 2) Through an encounter with true masters and true friends. 3) When we are able to recognize in the circumstances that occur the mysterious plan of God or the mercy of Buddha.
Mystic experience means believing strongly that man's nature is pure. Moreover, we must also believe that there is a master capable of truly loving, and that we can put our trust in him. For you, this master is Fr. Luigi Giussani, who teaches us the right path. My encounter with Fr. Giussani gave me the occasion to meet many new friends. And I believe that I can say that all the encounters we have along these years are not only cultural encounters, but actual experiences of cultural exchange; this is why the encounter in 1987 with Fr. Giussani was for me a new mystical experience by which I am inserted into the Absolute. The mystical experience is something that is always tied to wisdom and rationality and allows us to better our human condition. At the end of the path of the mystical experience, man can achieve true freedom, which means overcoming space and time, that are human conditions and thus subject to original sin. The characteristics of man as a fruit of the mystical experience are: purification of self, improvement in the quality of man, feeling a great and boundless joy.
I believe that I can say that these thirteen years have been for me truly the experience of the fruits I just mentioned being realized and the study of religion becoming concrete. So we pray that our friendship with Fr. Luigi Giussani will go on forever.