God bless everyone. Today, I will share the testimony of our brother who spent his whole life as a Sensei but later repented and dedicated himself to the path of Jesus. In this testimony, he claims to have also seen Bruce Lee.
Now, I will read his letter to you just as it is: I am Haruki. I have lived as a Shinto Buddhist for 70 years, but after this experience, I completely repented. Let me tell you about myself first.
I was born in Okinawa in 1952. My childhood was spent on an island where my father ran a traditional Karate Dojo. My father regarded martial arts above everything else; therefore, I began martial arts training from a young age.
Later, my father encouraged me to go to America to promote Okinawa's karate culture. In 1974, when I was 22 years old, I came to America. Being in a different country was a bit tough, and I couldn't see the respect I was accustomed to in Okinawa.
So, I set aside my personal success and began spreading my own teachings. For about 50 years, I have been teaching people the importance of meditation and purifying their souls. One afternoon, I came to the dojo; my students were attentively waiting, as was a long-standing habit.
Today, I was going to explain to them how the harmony of body and breath provides strength in combat. One of them asked, "What is the secret to performing sikin suuki correctly, Sensei? " Although it seemed like a simple punch, this movement taught how to focus power on the right point.
Despite having performed it hundreds of times, I demonstrated it with the same attention and strength. Each time, I took my stance, took a deep breath, and thrust my fist with full power from the center. As I completed the punch and exhaled, I felt a sudden and sharp pain in my chest.
For a moment, my breath was cut off. It was a pang that drew in and absorbed all the energy in my body. Without lowering the fist, I staggered; my knees trembled, and I tried to take a step back but couldn't.
I collapsed to the ground. Unsteadily, I could hear the voices of my students trying to lift me up from a distance, but the sounds quickly faded away and became faint as my eyes began to close. I felt an indescribable emptiness inside me.
I realized I was being pulled into the depths of darkness. Like one last breath, my connection with this world was completely severed. When I opened my eyes, the place I was in was filled with an indescribable darkness.
The darkness was beyond an ordinary shadow; it was suffocating and layered, as if wrapping around me like a veil, penetrating my soul. There was no sound; even the faint background noise I was used to in the world was absent here. This silence was terrifying because it wasn't just silence; it was like the echo of a deep void.
As I tried to acclimate my eyes to the surroundings, I began to feel heavy and helpless. After a while, a faint humming rose from within the darkness. The humming seemed to come from afar, but as I stepped, I felt it getting closer.
My steps became heavy; it was as if I had to pull my feet with each step, as if I were walking through a swamp instead of on the ground. The humming gave way to a strange rasping sound; it was as if someone, or perhaps something, was grinding their teeth. The sound was horror yet equally distressing.
At that moment, I realized that this place wasn't just filled with physical pain; it also carried the weight of regret, fear, and the complete feeling of being abandoned. The beams of light slowly began to form around me, not only indicating that this place was hell but also signifying something—something more. You cannot understand how painful it is to confront something you never believed in throughout your life.
The flickering reflections of light presented the silhouette of a lake of fire in infinite depths, and that fire was not an external light but a manifestation of an inner burning anger. Suddenly, the shadows surrounding me intensified, as if the darkness was solidifying and closing in on me. I was having difficulty breathing.
I tried to pull my arms back and escape, but it was useless; these shadows seemed to be ingrained into my skin, preventing me from moving. The fear inside me grew; I felt there was no way out, that this darkness was completely enveloping me. At that moment, I felt a stronger force within the humming surrounding me.
These entities began to lift and drag me away. As everything around me merged into darkness, I saw them carrying me towards the mouth of a large cave. Inside this cave, which looked like a dark vortex, there was a heavy, suffocating atmosphere.
When I was dragged in this far, I realized that there was no option but to enter. The inside of the cave was engulfed in a suffocating silence. As my eyes began to adjust, the emerging images became clearer: broken swords, old armors, and worn-out fighting symbols hung on the walls.
Everything was as if it had happened in the past but now seemed to have lost its meaning. As I wandered among the scattered, dust-covered symbols on the ground, my eyes met familiar faces. As I walked inside the cave, a silhouette appeared in front of me.
It was Uto, my closest friend, with whom I had worked for years, dedicated to both combat and teachings. He hated Christianity, but what he was saying here was very different from the Uto I knew. His face was torn apart, his hands bound, and one eye missing.
"Haruki," he said, "for years we walked down the wrong path. We thought that combat would bring us inner peace and meaning. " But even we didn't believe it; for years, we deceived children, doing this only for money and popularity.
While Jesus stood beside us, we aimed to spread these fake beliefs. In our own search, we ignored the light of God. We dedicated our entire lives to strengthening our bodies and chasing victories, but we always left our souls hungry.
As UT's words kept echoing in my mind, I continued to move forward. Deep within the cave, I encountered Bruce Lee, who began to speak to me and confessed the following: "Haruki," he said, his voice hoarse and rough, "I stayed away from the path of Jesus all my life. I turned my back on God and His grace.
I chose to rise with my own strength and ability, charting my own path to be free. But now I see that this only brought me emptiness. To purify my soul, I ignored the light I truly needed.
I rejected God's salvation because I wanted to achieve everything on my own. " He paused for a moment, bowed his head, and then continued. "Because of my unbelief, my soul has become increasingly barren each day.
Believing in God was a weakness for me; I only wanted to follow my own path. But here, in this darkness, I see that all that fame and power mean nothing. That all those successes actually only distanced me from God.
" He looked away for a moment, then spoke with a tired smile on his face. "Everything in the world told me that the fame and power I possessed were everything, but that fame only gave me temporary pleasure. I was captivated by the allure of fame and made it a kind of deity.
I tied my soul to fame itself, and by ignoring Jesus, I deprived my soul of true peace. " When I opened my eyes, I was still under the impact of that striking experience. There was a dark void, an indescribable anxiety within me.
Had I really seen hell, or was my mind playing a trick on me? As I tried to understand this, it felt as though my soul was caught between two different paths. I thought I could feel the presence of Jesus, but this feeling conflicted with the beliefs I had been taught since the past.
As someone raised in Shinto Buddhism, I couldn't believe that God could guide me in such a way. The experience I lived left a constant echo in my mind, but at that moment, I wasn't ready to fundamentally change my life. The emptiness I was trying to find meaning in might never be filled, but I was aware of the resistance within me.
Choosing that path seemed impossible for now; however, that darkness remained as a warning within me. Weeks passed, and my life seemingly returned to normal. I continued my daily meditation classes and combat training in the dojo, but everything wasn't the same.
An echo of that dark experience still lingered in a corner of my mind. Whenever I remained silent, those moments would return. The unease I felt was turning into a void, and this void was deepening.
The routines in my life, the disciplines I taught my students, were now starting to feel insufficient. It was as if something was missing, and this missing part was turning into a growing emptiness within me. Even though I continued to meditate, there was a sense of superficiality.
While thinking about what the experience I lived was trying to tell me, I wished for a new quest, a call in my mind. One morning, while returning home, I was walking my usual route. On my path, I came across a small church I had unknowingly passed by for many years.
But this time it was different; it was as if my gaze focused intensely on the church, and an indescribable feeling emerged within me. Even the simple, quiet appearance of the church was somehow drawing me in. At that moment, the old experience echoing in a corner of my mind resurfaced.
For a moment, I hesitated; a part of me was reluctant to take a step, but the inner voice continued to direct me towards it. I noticed that the door was open and that no one was inside. I slowly turned my steps towards the door and, for the first time, entered with great curiosity.
The silence and peaceful atmosphere of the church affected me. I felt a wave of peace inside me; there was a different serenity in this environment. As I walked inside the church, my gaze fell on a thick book—a Bible—on a table.
At that moment, a strange curiosity arose within me towards this book, as if I needed to take it in my hand. I carefully took this book, which I had never touched before, and began to turn its pages. At first, I only intended to read a few pages, but as I read, the words drew me in.
Every line left an echo in my mind, causing a different emotion to awaken in my heart. The words and teachings of Jesus were filling an emptiness within me that had existed for years but I could never comprehend. I couldn't put the book down.
As I turned the pages, I found myself completely engrossed in these words without even noticing how time passed. A growing search for meaning within me was finding answers in every word of these texts. Holding the Bible in my hand, what I read echoed in the depths of my mind, creating peace and a kind of awareness in my soul.
My eyelids began to grow heavy, and finally, as the book was in my lap, I fell asleep. In my dream, I was inside a bright light; everything was surrounded by pure peace. From this light, I heard the voice of Jesus.
His voice was both soothing and authoritative, as if every answer I was seeking was within that voice. Haruki, Jesus said, "I know you seek true peace and the meaning of life. I am here for you to lay down the burdens of your soul.
Just repent and turn to God; He will forgive you. " Jesus read some verses from the Bible to me; each one was imprinted on my soul, filling the emptiness within me. First, He read Luke 5:32: "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
" This verse helped me understand why Jesus was here. I felt that even sinners could be forgiven before God, that He offered a way open to everyone. Then, when I heard John 14:6, the words echoed within me: "I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me. " The power in these sentences showed me that the way to reach God was only through following Jesus. Jesus emphasized that He was the only path in my spiritual journey.
Jesus read another verse from Matthew 11:28: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. " These words described the weight my soul was carrying—the emptiness I carried throughout my life, the search, and the regret. All of it found meaning in these words.
I could only reach true peace and God's love by accepting Jesus's call. Finally, He read from 1 John 1:9: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. " These words affected me because these verses explained that repentance—that is, turning to God with remorse—would bring us forgiveness.
At that moment, I felt that I needed to leave behind all the mistakes I had made in my past and decide to turn my soul purely to God. When Jesus' words ended, I opened my eyes. The Bible in my lap was still in my hand.
I felt the reality of the experience I had lived. Everything I had gone through showed me that I was at a turning point in my life. I was under the influence of my dream: Jesus calling, and the words He said were still vivid in my mind.
This was different from everything I had experienced, as if it was an awakening I had been waiting for for years. I felt that what I had been searching for all my life was actually within this message. I realized that fame, success, and everything I had achieved in the world had never fully filled the emptiness in my soul.
For a while, I sat silently inside the church. I felt that I was at a true turning point in my life. This call was opening a new door for me to find the peace and meaning I was seeking.
I stood up and walked inside the church; everything seemed more meaningful to me than ever before. In the peace of God, I felt fully accepted and at home. I brought my hands together again and began to pray on my knees.
All that I had lived through passed before my eyes: the life I built with pride, the years filled with searches, the thing I felt was missing deep in my soul but could never find. At that moment, I was filled with the desire to leave all these burdens behind. I prayed to dedicate my life to the path of Jesus, to have my past mistakes forgiven, and to surrender myself to Him.
I presented my past, my mistakes, my wrong steps—one by one—to God and begged for forgiveness with all my sincerity. I wanted to be forgiven by Him and for my soul to be reborn in His path. During this prayer, I felt a sense of relief and liberation within me.
It was as if all the burdens I had carried inside me for years, causing distress, were slowly being drawn out of my heart. I felt enveloped in God's love, and this was unlike anything I had felt in the world. I knew that for the rest of my life, I would move forward with this peace, making a new beginning under God's guidance.
