Words Are As Windows To The Soul

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 147, 23 June 1945, Page 4

Words Are As Windows To The Soul

By REV. CANON C. W: CHANDLER

TITORDS are windows to. the soul. • They are keys to our minds. When, as a nation, we use the word "freedom," it indicates a common interest in something which escapes exact definition. It is a relative term. It can never be absolute. Making full allowance, however, for the glib manner in which all too often it falls from traitorous lips, its' constant use must indicate an inbred love for a condition of life that is at once larger, broader and less . restricted than pur present mode of living. • -

The Jewish mind at its best is reflected in the. words "justice" and "righteousness," and throughout the prophets of the Old Testament—in the Pentateuch' and the Psalms in particular—there is 'expressed this plaintive longing; for a condition of affairs vastly superior to anything that Israel had. yet experienced. Freedom, justice .and righteousness are truly great words, whose intrinsic Value can - never be debased, because no one has'yet fully plumbed the depth of their meanings.

More and, more our -wars are becoming wars of words, to the accompaniment of humming aeroplanes and screaming bombs. , Character of. Jesus "Arise," "be of good cheer," "I will,'.' "be thou" clean." and "follow Me" are some of the oft repeated words and phrases of Jesus. From a list of such wprds, as found in the New Testament, be constructed a faithful character sketch of He from Whose blessed lips these words of strength and healing fell.

The Bishop of Tokyo, the Rt. Rev. Samual Heaslett. in. an article in The Spectator, has, something to say about the Japanese mind. In the colloquial speech of the people he says that certain words through constant use "come to the surface." They comprise windows through which we -can peer into the "abysmal depths of personality."

.He then proceeds to enumerate a few words common to the speech of the Japanese. The first is "benri," which in English corresponds to our word "convenient." "Is it convenient?"—that is. the touchstone upon which the value of any new idea is tried. Not. "Is it the best?" "Will it last?" "Is it right?" But V|el it convenient?" The working out of this thought is expressed in toys that will riot last and in bicycles that can be sold 4n : West Africa for £1 and which fail- to stand the test of constant use. Part, of this superficial light-mindedness can, in the ■opinion of the bishop, be attributed to frequent earthquakes, typhoons, volcanic eruptions and destructive tidal waves. These natural and oft repeated disturbances rob the country of that permanence that Snakes for : stability in. countries whose circumstanqes are more favourable! ' Mutual Concessions . The next word is "dakyo," less used than "benri," which means "compromise" and can more exactly be expressed by the two words "mutual concessions." "There is not in the Japanese mind," continues the bishop, "that clear-cut distinction between, say, justice and injustice, pure and impure, legal and illegal, that there is in the-Anglo-nourished at its roots from Greek thought, Roman law and the ideas of the Old Testament. Absolutes are not an element in the Japanese mind as they are with.us. There is a sort , of 'no mans' land' lying between the absolutes which is quite unknown to the' Western mind. Damages will usually be awarded to plaintiff and defendant even though the issue is clear-cut arid judgment has been secured, by one of the parties." The underlying idea here is :that in any dispute between two parties one party, is never absolutely right and , the . other absolutely wrdng. In.;our eyes this smacks somewhat ot compromise-with evil, but not so in Japan, where the guilty party is.given "tear money" to save his face. This procedure, from my point of view, is not devoid of merit in that it shows compassion towards the offender, but nevertheless a procedure which involves direct compromise with evil is as foreign to our minds as it is common, to the Japanese mentality.". .

i The third word is "lioben." It ha,s a religious, flavour and is translated variously,, but reduced to its basic meaning it can best- be rendered as -the "end justifies the means." "Accommodated truth" and "pious fraud" are other renderings. In practice it means that a lie can be told as the truth if the end desired is the conversion of the person to whom the "truth" is told.

Japanese Thinking

The -■' writer' of the article in questions asserts that scientifically educated ■ Japanese will believe the most extravagant : mythological teachings which are patently absurd, unscientific and illogical, as truth, or,-better still, as "lioben.". By the aid of this convenient .term it is possible to hold two completely contradictory ideas in the mind at the same time. (This being so, I fancy there- is a good deal of Japanese thinking going on in minds political and theological around and about us to-day. In certain, particulars it seems to" me that the bishop has overdrawn, the, distinction between Japanese crooked thinking, and our own presumably perpendicular or parallel system of thought. "Benri" and "daky.p". are, not, so it seems to me, completely foreign.,,to our mentality. Perhaps it would be better to say ."., that in so, far', as we are prepared, during wartime in particular, tO: accommodate our minds to lowering standards of justice, righteousness and truth, we are apt to put before truth and compromise before justice, and to adopt means to ; ends that, to say the least, are unworthy of our noblest traditions.) -■ . .- ;;

Summing ■ up, the' bishop says "benri" is irritating and sometimes amusing. "Dakyo" has its appeal to the"'Celtic temperament;' even though it means loss. There is some attraction in a decision that sends a man from the court not completely crushed. But "hoben" is the lie that poisons the soul. Some regard for the clarity of Greek thought, the rigidity of Roman law and the severe judgments of Old Testament morality would, in a process of national reeducation, ultimately eliminate this poisonous element irv' Japanese mentality.