'Say what is in your heart'

One day in 1986, while I was in New York, I was feeling exhausted both inwardly and outwardly. I walked into Smile of the Beyond and one of the people working there smiled at me. At that moment, my heart cried: “How can I have a place like this?

Later when I was meditating at Aspiration-Ground, the feeling “I want to have a restaurant where people can feel my Guru’s heart" came as a surge that lifted me high, very high; I became the surge.

On that day Guru invited me to his house for the first time, and there he asked me to say what was in my heart. I thought: “How can I say it in front of so many other disciples? If I say it, I will have to do it! But I have no money. So I didn’t say anything. But Guru urged me to say it, so finally I did.

Guru smiled and said, “Very good, very good." He also said that my mother would help me and that people around me would come forward to help. It was so true. My parents and members of the Centre helped me. Guru told me to go back in August and start. I said, “Yes, Guru.

My note from that day says: “My restaurant has already begun.”

I returned to Japan in October that year, later than I had expected. By that time, other disciples had found possible locations for the restaurant, and I quickly decided to take the first one I saw. I intuitively liked the place very much, so I did not even go and see other places.