reference

gSymptoms of Diseases Discussedh

Gospel of Heaven version


Contents

Symptoms of Diseases Discussed

    Fever
    Itching
    Discomfort and Nausea
    Diarrhea
    Dropsy and Night Sweats
    Dizziness and Insomnia
    Melancholia and Paralysis
    Coughing, Vertigo, Ringing in the Ears
    Chills and Constipation
    Commentary




The Symptoms of Diseases Discussed


     What are generally considered to be the symptoms of illnesses can be roughly divided into the following conditions: fever, pain, itchiness, unpleasantness, nausea, diarrhea, dropsy, night sweats, dizziness, sleeplessness, depression, paralysis, coughing, hot flashes, ringing in the ears, chills, and constipation. Each of these symptoms will be discussed in accordance with the principles of our healing method.


 

Fever

     The theory medical science accepts these days for the cause of fever is, as described in previous chapters, that there functions in the brain a center that controls the generation of fever and that this center under some form of stimulus generates fever. Other reasons that appear to have been bandied about credit fever to the fatigue caused by exercise as well as those to impairment in the liver, kidneys, stomach, as well as generation in other locations. There is no fever-generating center in the brain, as I previously explained, but one theory that cannot be overlooked is that which holds that body temperature itself results from combustion that arises from eating and digesting. That such a ludicrous theory came to be expounded was probably that the digestive process was thought to be like a heating stove, and digesting food was inferred to be akin to burning coal.
     In advance of explaining the cause of fever generation according to the results of my research, readers should realize that because my theory is so far removed from currently prevailing theories, it deserves carefully reading and consideration.
     All in the universe consists generally speaking of three constituents. These constituents are fire, water, and earth. Fire which is the spirit of fire is the element of the sun. Water, known in its physical form as hydrogen, is the element of the moon. Earth is the element of the planet earth. The heavenly world is the sun, the intermediate world, the moon, and the lower world, the planet earth, form three levels. This relationship can be clearly seen at the moment of a solar eclipse.
     These three levels are vertical, but the three constituents also form three horizontal levels. Where these two lines intersect is a three-dimensional fusion, and this fusion also applies to the human being.
     Within the human body are important organs that serve three functions. These organs are, the heart, the lungs, and the stomach. These three organs function to absorb into the body the three elements, the spirit of fire, the spirit of water, and the spirit of earth in order to maintain life. The heart absorbs the spirit of fire; the lungs, the spirit of water; and the stomach, the spirit of earth.
     To the present, material science has been able to comprehend the spirit of water and the spirit of earth but the spirit of fire remains undiscovered, for which there was a reason. The spirit of water is half-substance and the spirit of soil is substance, but the spirit of fire is non-substance.
     To detail even further, non-substance, which is the spirit of fire, fills the space around the surface of the earth. I have named the space permeated with the spirit of fire, the world of greiki.h Similarly, the spirit of water that fills the space around the earth forms the world of air. Consequently, the heart absorbs the spirit of fire from the world of reiki, the physical manifestation of which is the movement of the beating of the heart. Of course, the lungs absorb the spirit of water from the world of air which is the act of breathing. The stomach absorbs the spirit of earth from the foods that are produced from the soil, as everyone knows.
     In accordance with the principles outlined above, body temperature is the spirit of fire that is continually absorbed with the beating of the heart from the world of reiki. Fever generation results when large amounts of warmth are activated in order to dissolve solidified toxins so the heart beats more frequently while fever is being generated. Furthermore, after death you can see that the blood quickly congeals because the spirit of fire returns to the world of reiki and that the corpse dries out as the spirit of water return to the world of air. The corpse becomes soil because as substance, it returns to the spirit of soil.
     Here should be added a word of caution. Fever is generally thought to be generated everywhere throughout the physical body but actually most instances of fever are only local. For example, when you probe the skin for the focus of fever generation with the tips of your fingers in case of a high fever, you will discover a small lump about the size of a fingertip. It is often observed that this lump is quite hot, like a fire. When this lump is dissolved, fever immediately decreases wherever it is in the body. It is very clear from this example that there is no organ that serves as a heat generation center. Neither can I say that the thermometers which are used and depended upon to measure fever in the human body are very accurate. When the center of fever is located near the armpits, the traditional area for inserting the thermometer in Japan, fever is easily detected, but when the fever is located farther away from the armpit, such as in the head, brain or in the legs, it will be harder to determine accurately. As the distance increases from the point of fever generation, the warmth radially decreases. This fact is demonstrated by the frequent discovery that the temperatures taken on the left side arm pit are often observed to vary among individuals by as much as five to six degrees from the temperature measured on the right side.
     Physical techniques are undertaken to try to cool and chill high fevers, but such measures are the worst possible steps that could be taken. Body temperature is maintained at around thirty-six degree because that temperature is the most appropriate for bodily activity and functions. Cold compresses are zero degrees, however, so activities and functions of the localized region to which such a cold compress is applied will be seriously impaired, and is some cases, lost, because they become frozen or paralyzed. From my experience, in cases of high fever such as in stroke, inflammation of the lungs, typhus, and so forth, not few are the instances in which death occurs not because of the original disease or condition but from the application of cold. One example of this occurred when I was asked to help a hospitalized university student who was in serious condition. When he had been hospitalized his symptom had been severe diarrhea and nothing else. When I examined him, I found he was experiencing clouded consciousness due to an extreme degree of anemia and was frequently nauseous. He had no appetite and was considerably weakened. To explain what happened, in the beginning, the doctor had prescribed a cold compress on the head for a high fever due to catarrh, and this cold compress had been continued for more than twenty days. This treatment resulted in a severe case of anemia. Diarrhea, the original cause for hospitalization, had been healed, but the young man had been beset by further illness on account of the mistaken treatment. I explained this to members of the family, but because of their deep-rooted faith in the superstition caused by medical science, they said they could not stop the cold compresses, so I bowed to the inevitable and left. I was later informed that the student died three days afterwards.
     Ah, we can only lament at how terrifying are the cold compresses that are misdiagnosed by the practitioners of medical science.
     You must also come to understand how terrifying is the continuous ingestion of antipyretics for high fevers. The continued use of the common varieties of antipyretics over a week will most often begin to present with a reaction. Because these reactions are quite stubborn, doctors refer to them as fevers of unknown cause.






Pain

 
     As previously described, pain, physical pain, occurs during purification when fever dissolves solidified toxins. As the liquefied toxins seek an outlet, they move through the body, irritating the nerves of the muscles.
     The symptom of the kind of pain described above appears in a great variety of conditions from appendicitis, acute peritonitis, acute nephritis, gastrointestinal cramps, headaches, toothaches, tympanitis to rheumatism, and the various types of neuralgia. The cause of pain in conditions such as periostitis, osteomyelitis, and costal caries results when the solidified toxins in the periosteum purify and dissolve. As the toxins move from the periosteum to the surface of the skin they open microscopically small holes in the bones, causing severe pain. The pain experienced in diseases such as periodontitis and tympanitis is also of this variety. These microscopic holes quickly disappear and the bone returns to its original condition when the disease has healed. In the instances where there is an innumerable number of holes, doctors often say that the bone has putrefied, but this opinion is erroneous.
     Next are the severe kinds of pain associated with such conditions as whitlow and gangrene. In these conditions, the affected parts turn a dark purple color, swell, expanding gradually. The condition appears as if the flesh is decomposing, so doctors pronounce it to be putrefaction and think it best to amputate the affected areas as quickly as possible, but this judgment is highly erroneous. As can be seen in the fact that the affected areas will expand only to a certain level and will then definitely stop, it is clear that these conditions are not instances of putrefaction.
     In addition, there is the pain that accompanies burns, cuts, and external injuries, but as these types of pain differ from illness, they will heal naturally. There are, however, many instances where these types of conditions do not easily heal because bandages with disinfectants are applied. If the use of medications in these instances is stopped and the affected area merely cleaned with clear water, the wound will heal naturally.
     Because the cause of pain all results from the use of medicinal toxins, as has been shown already, the large variety of pain results from the diversity of medicines.
     When depending upon Johrei, pain is quickly healed. Even cases of particularly severe pain such as in whitlow and gangrene present with dissipation of pain within one to three treatments of Johrei much to the pleasant surprise of patients.




 

Itching


     Everyone is quite familiar with the fact that compared to pain, the suffering from itching is not to be scorned. There are three causes of itching, medicinal toxins, congenital toxins, and food poisoning. The most widely known of conditions that cause itching are scabies and hives. The cause of scabies is largely congenital toxins and the cause of hives are calcium injections and medicinal iodine. Because scabies is the purification action of the dormant congenital toxins of smallpox, scabies could be called chronic smallpox in contrast to its acute form which is the disease called smallpox itself. The shortest cases of scabies will last several months, and the longer cases can stretch to several years. Calcium injection is the usual method of treating hives, and although good results are obtained temporarily, with the passing of time, the condition will break out again and worsen. Even in instances where calcium injections are administered for other conditions, with the passage of time, hives will break out, but if left alone, hives will heal. There are several kinds of hives. Usually they appear on the skin as a vast number of infinitesimal grains, but there are also hives that are spotted or that form lines over the skin. In the beginning stages, hives present with a scarlet color, but as it heals, the color turns black. While it is red, the condition is very itchy to be sure, but as it turns black, the itchiness disappears. This phenomenon occurs with scabies as well.
     Finally, certain kinds of injections as well as antipyrine and fish poisoning will present with the symptoms of hives, but these symptoms are only temporary. In lighter cases, the symptoms go away in or three days, and even more severe cases heal in several days. Only in the case of antipyrine poisoning, however, do the black spots remain, even after complete recovery, sometimes for as long as several years.




Discomfort and Nausea

     The term discomfort as related to diseases is not uniform. Such symptoms as nausea, cramps, sea- and car-sickness, and melancholia are among the important ones. The most common is nausea. The causes of nausea include such conditions as gastric reflex from cerebral anemia and high fever, food and drug poisoning, gastric disturbance, pyloric senosis, and pregnancy.
     When severe cases of cerebral anemia occur, they are always accompanied by nausea. At these times, the forehead of the patient is cold as ice to the touch, greasy sweat is exuded, and the face presents with paleness, symptoms which confirm anemia. Upon investigation, a solidified lump will certainly be found, either in the neck or in the back of the head. The patient will speedily recover as this lump is dissolved with Johrei. Recovery occurs because the constriction caused by the toxic lump disappears and blood can flow normally to the brain.
     Cases of purification in the brain and head resulting in high fever, may also cause gastric reflex, much in the same way as cerebra anemia.
     Food poisoning is a purificatory action to eliminate toxins ingested with food. It is often accompanied by diarrhea.
     In drug poisoning, pharmaceutical products that have been ingested and absorbed over time return to the stomach. When they return, they become a sort of medicinal toxin that causes nausea. When nausea leads to vomiting, the secretion that is eliminated smells like the ingested drugs that caused it.
     Gastric disturbance results in nausea when bile, which continually flows through the stomach, encounters the stomach in a weakened condition.
     The nausea from pyloric stenosis occurs when, due to pyloric senosis, that which has been digested by the stomach seeks to descend to the intestines, finds it difficult to pass, and instead, the digested matter returns backwards to the stomach. In these cases, if soft or fluid foods are ingested, they find it easy to pass the constricted pylorus, so nausea does not occur.
     Morning sickness occurs when the solidified toxins around the stomach start to discharge due to expansion of the womb. Morning sickness is easily healed as these toxins are dissolved.
     Cramps may have a spiritual case or may be caused by the chills that occur with the outbreak of high fever. I will provide a detailed explanation of the spiritual explanation of cramps in an appendix to this work.
     Sea- and car-sickness are results of solidified toxins surrounding the outside of the stomach. With the motion of the conveyance, toxins start to dissolve and permeate the inside of the stomach walls. Melancholia can have spiritual causes but can also be caused by inactivity of the stomach, jaundice, cerebral anemia, or stiffness in the shoulders or in the back.



 

Diarrhea

     Diarrhea is one of the most frequently occurring symptoms of disease and is distinguished either as acute or chronic. Cases of acute diarrhea result from food or drink poisoning. You often hear people say acute diarrhea is due to night chills but this is not true. Diarrhea from chills is extremely rare. For cases of diarrhea from food poisoning, either drugs are introduced to try to stop the stool or else castor oil is used which is said to encourage the discharge, but both these treatments do not really work and will only prolong recovery. Natural recovery is best
     Apart from cases of diarrhea that result from other than food poisoning, there is a type of diarrhea accompanied by sudden, extreme pain. This kind of diarrhea can occur anywhere from ten times to extreme cases of even twenty-to-thirty times a day. Of course, these discharges are liquid stool, and the stools sometimes may be mixed with bloody fluids. In extreme cases it may appear as if rotted flesh is being discharged with the diarrhea. Such kinds of discharge result from the vigorous purification of solidified pus and toxic blood. In no way are fragments of flesh or organs discharged. Such instances of severe diarrhea occur in the young and are rare among the elderly.
     In spite of the fact that these cases will also heal naturally if left alone, instances of severe diarrhea fluster members of the general public and they seek medical treatments but these measures only worsen the condition, sometimes prolonging it, and, even leading to death.
     Chronic cases of diarrhea may last several months or even several years. Doctors usually diagnose these conditions as intestinal tuberculosis, but this is purification of diffuse peritonitis, as has already been described. Its cause is the great amount of uric toxins that continually accumulate and solidify in the peritoneum due to constriction of the kidneys.

 


Dropsy and Night Sweats


     Dropsy, also known as edema, has two causes. In most cases, the causes are constriction of the kidneys or impediments in the urinary bladder. Constriction of the kidneys is generally the cause of dropsy. Serious symptoms can extend over the entire body, and light symptoms are local, as, for example, either on the right side, on the left side, or in the bottom half of the body. But even in some instances where the dropsy is local, as in the face, on the arm, or in a leg, the cause is not from constricted kidneys but from the liquefication of the solidified medicinal toxins in the affected area. In localized cases of dropsy, what must be heeded are the instances of dropsy which break out on the inside of the leg at the same time that the serious symptoms of various other diseases are progressing. Dropsy in either of the legs is a death signal that should warn that recovery may be extremely difficult. In the case of beriberi, dropsy is generally limited to the area below the knees, so a medical diagnosis that unilaterally considers dropsy in the legs to be beriberi is a rather rash decision.
     There is a kind of dropsy that both doctors and members of the general public do not perceive. It is seen most often in female students who are overweight, what most would say merely chubby, who look at first glance to be rather healthy. But the proof that they are not healthy is that they are prone to problems such as tiring easily, having heart palpitations, being often short of breath, and feeling sluggish. The cause of these problems is the excess urine from constricted kidneys that solidifies throughout the entire body in small amounts over a long period of time. The individual in question does not realize what is happening. There are persons who control the intake of food but are still overweight, and they exemplify this condition.
     There are occasions when a calculus, that is, a stone, or a solidified mass of puss blocks the downward flow of urine between the bladder and the urinary tract which thus becomes the cause of dropsy, but these cases as well are easily treated with our healing method.
         I have addressed the issue of night sweats in the section on tuberculosis, so here I will explain the local occurrence of sweat. There are people in which, with some kind of motion, often breaks out sweat in the head, on the face, or under the armpits. The sweat occurs as a result of purification of uric toxins in these areas. The generation of sweat occurs continually everywhere in the body of a healthy person. It is usual even when the individual is apparently healthy, but it is be safe to say that those with localized instances of sweat or who generate no sweat at all will eventually experience some kind of health problem.




Dizziness and Insomnia


     Dizziness is also a prevalent condition, but its cause is deemed by medical science to be unknown. The causes, however, are quite simple.
     Of the causes of dizziness, that of the majority of cases are solidified toxins in the right side of the hindbrain because the toxins put pressure on the blood vessels which send blood to the eyeballs that causes the optic nerve to fluctuate.
     Another cause is high fever that results from the purification of solidified toxins in areas around the eyeballs, much in the same way that one becomes drunk on alcohol or gets directly in front of the fire in a stove.
     The cause of insomnia is almost the same as dizziness. A sort of anemia comes about when solidified toxins in the area of the right side of the hindbrain pressure the blood vessels. This anemia leads to hypersensitive neuralgia, from which one thing leads to another, and the patient becomes overly preoccupied with matters and affairs. In addition, there are instances when insomnia may be caused by the purification of solidified toxins in the front or center areas of the brain.





Melancholia and Paralysis


     The most common cause of melancholia is stiffness around the neck and in the shoulders. Particularly noteworthy are the cases of infants. Infants are continually in a bad disposition, for which medical science does not really know the reason. Doctors say the poor disposition of infants is due to stomach worms and they try using worm medicine or even hocus pocus on babies, but these are no more than superstition. In my experience, the cause in most cases of bad disposition in babies is stiffness in the shoulders. That infants should have stiffness in the shoulders may thought to be amazing but it is true, because when this stiffness is dissolved, the infant returns to its normal disposition. In addition, another cause of melancholia in general are instances where there is a fever either in a part or in the whole of the head There are also instances of spiritual causes.
     Paralysis takes various forms, but the most common is beriberi, which I will discuss in the chapter on beriberi. There are also instances of paralysis in the fingers, toes, and instep, but these are most often caused by the medicinal toxins in injections and will heal naturally. I will talk about the paralysis from palsy in the relevant chapter.




Coughing, Vertigo, Ringing in the Ears


     Coughing has already been discussed, but I would like to make a few additional points. The source of the generation of coughing can be in any localized area of the body, and the way of thinking of medical science practitioners that looks for causes in the throat are fantasy. When the solidified toxins in areas such as head and brain, face, gums, fingers and toes, and particularly those in the groin area, places that are not ordinarily thought of as sources for coughing, are treated with Johrei, in the twinkling of an eye, coughing is activated which expels phlegm. I have had the experience of treating with Johrei the groin area of a follower who was also a medical doctor. Each time I treated him he would cough and expel phlegm. The doctor would say, gEven if solidified toxins are being dissolved and discharging, it is most incomprehensible that in the twinkling of an eye phlegm can move to the throat by some mysterious passage.h I answered his doubts in the following way. gPathological activity inside the body is such that when expelling unnecessary matter, it permeates with no difficulty in an instant through muscle or organ. This principle can be easily understood when the relationship between spirit and matter is known.h The relation between spirit and matter will be detailed in the appendix.
      Vertigo does not result from blood rushing to the head as is generally thought. It is the purifying action of accumulated solidified toxins on the surface of the face or in places on the forehead, and the resulting fever presents with reddening of the skin.
     Ringing in the ears is the echo that occurs when purification dissolves the toxins that have accumulated and hardened either in the parotid gland, the area around the inner ear, or in the region in the back of the head. The condition readily heals as the solidified toxins in these areas are dissolved and eliminated.




Chills and Constipation


     The source of feeling cold are the local fevers that produce chillness or the poor circulation caused by localized instances of solidified accumulations of toxins. Most people feel coldness in the small of the back, lower stomach, instep, and toes, particularly women, but all these instances are easily healed as fever subsides or as circulation improves when the hardened accumulations of toxins are dissolved.
     Constipation is a very common symptom that some suffer over a long period. The cause of this condition is the solidified accumulations of toxins in the peritoneum which constrict the rectum. Excrement finds it difficult to pass through the rectal canal, but this condition is also easily healed when the solidified toxins are dissolved.
     Individuals who tend to be constipated use laxatives continually through which, though it may be accompanied by pain, they can eliminate, but laxative usage is most unsatisfactory. Usage becomes a habit, the constipation gradually worsens, and users find it difficult to eliminate without the continual ingestion of laxatives. Moreover, over a long period of time, the condition increasingly worsens and either greater amounts of laxatives have to be taken or else different varieties of laxatives have to be used. In addition, the toxins from the laxatives accumulate within the body, and they become the source of various diseases.
     It is natural that food is ingested from the top and eliminated from the bottom of the human body, and that is how the body was fashioned by the Creator. As long as every human being, no matter who, does ingest food, its excrement is thus eliminated. Depending on the person, however, one individual may eliminate once a day; others, once in two days; and others, once a week. That is perfectly all right.
     Medical science, however, mistakenly interprets constipation to be harmful to health, and efforts are made to publicize that everyone should have stools every day, so the general populace worries excessively about constipation. When individuals become constipated they feel psychological unpleasantness and take up the use of laxatives. By eliminating through the ingestion of laxatives, however, functions for producing stools deteriorate, causing constipation. Then these individuals use laxatives because they are constipated, and a vicious cycle is formed so that they come to the point where they cannot live without laxatives. When a fever develops laxatives are often used to cause a stool and lower temperature, but conversely this measure harms the healing process and impedes complete recovery. In addition, there are some varieties of illness where the use of laxatives may lead to higher body temperatures.
     Let me give some actual examples of why constipation need be of no concern. Previously when I treated a patient for stomach cancer, a period of constipation continued for twenty-eight days with no effect whatsoever on his illness. This is all very clear from seeing that he recovered completely and several years later, took up farming full time. In addition, among other patients I have treated, one person experienced constipation for a period of two months, and another individual, for six months, and both reported that there was no harmful influence due to the constipation. Later, an example that had been written up in one of the womenfs magazines was the story of someone who experienced constipation for two years without any abnormality.
     Medical science also holds that if left untreated, constipation will cause autotoxemia, but this is also erroneous. This theory exists probably because it was imagined that excrement toxins would become mixed with the blood but such should never occur. The only thing that does happen to excrement if it stays in the body is that as time passes, it will gradually harden but it does not cause any kind of harm.
     Enemas are used on infants, but these measures should be cause for great concern. Continued enema usage results in addiction, and there are numerous examples where infants lose the ability to eliminate without an enema. As a result, when the child gets to be about three or fours years of age, they feel very full and pain in the stomach at the slightest build up of excrement in the body. Enemas are unavoidably used and relief is obtained temporarily, but needless to say the condition continues until death. Such instances show that enemas are extremely unnatural measures that should absolutely be stopped.




Commentary


     The text of this commentary is the same as that for gSymptoms of Diseases Discussed, Gospel of Heaven.h
     This commentary will discuss noteworthy bibliographic details of the work titled gSymptoms of Diseases Discussed.h gSymptoms of Diseases Discussedh is the English translation I have given to two different works, similar and yet different. The original Japanese-language titles of both these works differ but slightly. gSymptoms of Diseases Discussedh first appears in Meishu-samafs works in the three versions of Medicine for Tomorrow, Volume 2 (Myônichi no Ijutsu Dainihen). In Medicine for Tomorrow, Volume 2, the original Japanese-language title is gByôki Shôjô to Sono Kaibô,h which could literally be rendered as gSymptoms of Diseases and Their Dissection.h gSymptoms of Diseases Discussedh then appears in Gospel of Heaven (Tengoku no Fukuin). In Gospel of Heaven, the original Japanese-language title is gByôki Shôjô no Kaibô,h which could literally be rendered as gDissection of the Symptoms of Diseases.h Both literal renderings are rather clumsy English, but although the Japanese originals differ slightly, I have kept my English translation the same for both because the Japanese originals are so similar that they can be confused.
     The descriptions of the contents and publication histories of both volumes are detailed in The Light from the East where they are listed in the index both as separate entries and also under gOkada, Mokichi, Writings.h
     Outside of the original Japanese-language texts, this booklet is probably the only other ocassion that the distinct elements that make up gSymptoms of Diseases Discussedh have been published together. There are various reasons for this, but aside from the issues that impinge on church history and on the various subjective views of how to treat the teachings of Meishu-sama, this commentary will explore only the bibliographic factors of gSymptoms of Diseases Discussed.h
     In both Medicine for Tomorrow, Volume 2 and Gospel of Heaven, gSymptoms of Diseases Discussedh is treated typographically the same way in the table of contents and in the main text (not necessarily a given in many Japanese-language texts). That is, gSymptoms of Diseases Discussedh is represented as the title of an gessayh or gchapterh of the book, and each symptom or group of symptoms is listed as a sub-section, shown clearly by the smaller yet still larger-than-main text-size type of the sub-section title. In as much as the organization of documents is a subjective decision to begin with, it should be noted that the two main indexes of anthologies of Meishu-samafs teachings list gSymptoms of Diseases Discussedh as a whole as a separate teaching as well as listing each distinct sub-section as a separate teaching, so any simple attempt to arrive at the number of Meishu-samafs teachings, in this case, essays, by merely counting index entries is doomed to miscount.
     As can be seen from the texts themselves, gSymptoms of Diseases Discussedh consists of an introduction that corresponds to about six lines in English and then starts with the symptom of fever, so as gteachings,h the six lines of introduction do not seem to have any meat, and it appears obvious why the individual symptoms, which do have meat, could be and are considered distinct teachings or essays. Still, it is also obvious from studying the original text that these ten distinct sections were originally conceived as a whole.
     What makes looking at these distinct elements as a whole interesting is that Medicine for Tomorrow, Volume 2 and Gospel of Heaven are the only works where Meishu-sama discusses the symptoms of the diseases in such detail. In other works, whether essays or testimonial critiques, symptoms are often mentioned in passing but rarely become the title, much less the contents, of an essay. Although a detailed comparison is out of the scope of this commentary, the manuscript for Creation of Civilization, a great opus that Meishu-sama had not published at the time of his death, does not contain a section similar in scope to gSymptoms of Diseases Discussedh of Medicine for Tomorrow, Volume 2 and Gospel of Heaven, although Creation of Civilization does contain a section similar to the as yet untranslated twenty-one-section chapter, essay, that soon follows gSymptoms of Diseases Discussed,h titled in the original, gByôkan to Igaku no Gobyû,h which could be rendered literally as gMaladies and the Fallacies of Medical Science.h For whatever reasons, in later works, Meishu-sama did not aim a spotlight on the symptoms as much as emphasize the diseases themselves, so the existence of gSymptoms of Diseases Discussedh in Medicine for Tomorrow, Volume 2 and Gospel of Heaven is noteworthy for those who are studying Johrei as a method for physical healing as well.
     As described in The Light from the East, Medicine for Tomorrow, Volume 2 went through three editions. Some sub-sections of gSymptoms of Diseases Discussedh show no changes, others, slight revisions. The version carried in these booklets is that of the third edition, published on October 4, 1943. The third edition was used with two factors in mind. First, the third edition shows more revision than the first or second editions. Second, the translator actually possesses a copy of the third edition, so the original text was able to be accessed without having to rely exclusively upon anthologized versions.
     The Gospel of Heaven version of gSymptoms of Diseases Discussedh shows even more changes, but it should be noted that between 1943 Japan when Medicine for Tomorrow, Volume 2 appeared and 1947 Japan when Gospel of Heaven was published, Japan had gone through revolutions in all aspects. Japan was defeated in war, the whole social and political system completely changed, and Japan had lost sovereignty, being occupied by a foreign power. The occupying army had already begun changes in all aspects of society and those that concern us here are language changes. Japanese publishing, including language use and forms before and after 1945 are very different, and these changes are reflected in the differences between Medicine for Tomorrow, Volume 2 and Gospel of Heaven. Of course, in 1947, Meishu-sama is able to discuss the religious aspects of Johrei in addition to its role as a healing therapy.
      Before getting to the concluding remarks, there is one bibliographical-content aspect to a part of gSymptoms of Diseases Discussedh with which English readers may have already come into contact. The sub-section gFeverh contains teachings relating to the spiritual side of physical fever, and when the first anthology of Meishu-samafs teachings, Goshinsho: Shûkyô-hen (Divine Writings: Volume on Religion), was being produced, the editor excerpted from gSymptoms of Diseases Discussed,h the metaphysical description of fever, that is, of heat\fire and the other two elements, water and earth, and to the excerpted block attached the title gKaso, Suiso, Doso ni Tsuite.h The planning for the production of this anthology had begun while Meishu-sama was alive and he is said to have approved the contents of the volume. As the church grew and the original publications where Meishu-samafs teachings had appeared became scarce, this volume came to used by many ministers throughout Japan for study and the contents became well known. Indeed after Meishu-samafs death, when his wife directed the production of a newly conceived set of anthologies of Meishu-samafs teachings, gKaso, Suiso, Doso ni Tsuiteh was included in the third volume, Tengoku no Ishizue, Daisanhen (Foundation of Paradise, Volume 3), when it was published October 5, 1958. Bibliographical information for the three published translations of this excerpt are given below for reference.
    Foundation of Paradise, gThe Elements of Fire, Water and Soil,h 1984, page 53.
     Meishu and His Teachings, gOf Fire, Water, and Soil,h no date, page 85.
     A Hundred Teachings of Meishusama, gThe Spirit of Fire, the Spirit of Water and
            the Spirit of Earth,h no date, page 61.
     Still, Medicine for Tomorrow, Volume 2 and Gospel of Heaven do show similarities and the accompanying English translations in this booklet were made to reflect, as much as can be made to show in translation, the differences between as well as the similarities of the two versions. In that sense, it might be said that if these translations were aimed only at North American audiences for pastoral purposes, they would certainly be made differently. These translations were made into English that, as colloquial as possible, still tries to maintain the formal and semantic integrity of each text toward the other texts as well as seeking to provide a basis for translation into languages other than English.

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