I work at the sales department of a firm that deals with natural resource. I am now positioned in administration having my own private room. It has now been two years since I have to be working on night sifts to determine the prices for the material imported from North America.
Around the end of the year and new years, I am often reminded about the bankruptcy of the companies we had business with. I was still a salesman at that time. One day, all of the sudden, a company went bankrupt and disappeared. Since I was a salesman and had visited the firm often, I was able to tell by the attitudes of the employees that the firm was going to go down soon. However, just by feeling that, I couldn’t just stop doing the deals with them. But I had to inform my company’s president of that situation to protect my job. I know many salesmen in other companies who got fired because they didn’t give notice in advance in spite of their suspicion. In some cases, the salesman had informed his direct boss, but the boss lied to the president that he hadn’t been informed in order to protect his position and the salesman was to be blamed and got fired.
Because our company deals with natural resource, the deals are in great numbers. If we cannot collect the payment, our firm would also face great damage. As a salesman, I had to go and ask for the payment. It is like giving them a sentence to death, the most unpleasant experience. Yet I had to do it to protect my own company and employees. We prepare several large trucks to take back the natural resources I had sold to them earlier. When I go to the firm’s owner to give notice, he would talk about his life drama and how the company went wrong. It is not easy to see him in despair when I have known him for so many years. Some would start crying, and some would become furious. In any case, I had to make sure to collect the material before the court order is pronounced. Once the place is roped off, no one is allowed to touch or take away anything on the firm’s property. It has to done in a timely manner. I had to do this with several firms.
There was one devious owner. He planned a bankruptcy. He bought large amounts of materials beforehand and filed for bankruptcy. And when the assets and products are sold in auction, he would buy them with names of his relatives. His debt is gone and he is able to repurchase his real estate and stocks in a very low price. He established a company in another name and rehired his employees and restart the business. Many of the creditors had to suffer in silence. The devious owner may think he might have succeeded with his plan, but in truth, he has left a scar on his ancestral spiritual line. His direct family or his descendents would have to pay for this, either by having a shorter life or some illness.
Yet, what I can say about the owners who went bankrupt, all of them are enjoying their lives now. Some of them have told me that they had even thought about killing themselves. But now when they look back, they are glad they didn't do such ignorant thing. Some had to sell their house and now living in a small apartment. Some managed to save their home. In Japan, even after a bankruptcy, you could still enjoy life, have a place to live and get a job. You may live in a smaller place and have a different job but if you could be grateful for it, you are still able to enjoy life. It is all about your good will.
At the end, we all die in one naked body and nothing else. The world remains like a dream state of all the courageous men. So please don’t try to kill yourself no matter what. Bankruptcy, loss of job… it is all experiences of life that you need to experience in order to grow. You must become an observer to your own life. At the end, you will know that every experience was necessary.
When you enter the Bardo Period (for detail, search inside this blog), you will say to yourself, “it really wasn’t such a big deal. I could have done more about it.” “I wish I had done things more in a sincere manner.” After we experience physical death, the soul still holds all the memories very clearly. What happens in the world of reality is really not such a big deal. What we do about the invisible world is far more valuable. Even when we think we are lost, if your heart could continue to have faith and be in gratitude, that is amazing. Being in gratitude towards the invisible ancestral spirits is valuable. And acting with your good will towards others who are still alive is also as valuable.
These acts are treasured and valued that we all come to perceive in life after death.
Ikashite-itadaite arigato-gozaimasu
Thank you for letting us live
I would like to spread the Gratitude Awareness towards ancestral spirits and everything around us so 5% of the world population will start acting on it on a daily basis.
