"Why do we live?"

That was the question I was asked today by three rather odd people today. As I was about to get on the bus from campus, two girls started asking me some questions on where I was going and whether I didn't find it interesting that everyone always has a goal, a sense of direction. Having missed my bus because of this, I was invited to meet their 'teacher' who started a similar seemingly pointless monologue on the necessity of a goal, not only in our everyday actions but also in life in general. I followed him and the girls in their way of thinking only to understand what their whole point was in telling me all this. To the question "Does this have anything to do with some sort of religious group?" they replied with a simple "no". Fair enough. They went on and on, talking also of Shinran, a Japanese monk from the medieval times, and were to my astonishment extremely well-read. After having succesfully evaded this attempt to brainwash me, I posed my own opinions on the necessity of a goal in life; it is the way -life- itself, not the goal, that is of importance. That is what I sincerely believe. And so, all was said. I left them, catching the next bus.

However, the conversation kept on playing in my mind; all three of them used the same metaphors, as though they were taught. This was more than just some conversation, this had a strange religious smell to it, characterized by the continuous repetition of the same metaphors, a useful instrument for demagogues, and their method was somewhat similar to Aristotle's dialectical approach to philosophy as though it were a conversation, while in reality they are trying to persuade you.

A Google search (in Japanese) on the themes they kept on repeating led me to this site. (Maybe not so) surprisingly, here I could read the exact words, the exact metaphors they used in our "conversation". Continuing my search, I eventually found this book on the Kinokuniya bookstore website, revealing exactly the source of their 'erudition'.

Hmmmm....spooky stuff.