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     About the fundamentals of the three greater calamities of wind, water, fire, and of the three smaller calamities of hunger, sickness, conflict that have been spoken of in Buddhism since antiquity I will explain.
     The cause of calamities involving wind and water are purifying functions of the heavens and the earth. Purifying activity is generated because cloud in the spiritual world, that is, impurities invisible to the eye, accumulate. These impurities are blown away by the force of the wind and cleansed by the water of the rain. This is the cause of the violent storms of wind and rain. These purifications are the result of the thoughts and the spirit of language of human beings. In other words, that which belongs to the evil aspect of thought are feelings and actions such as dissatisfaction, hate, curses and cursing, envy, individual anger, lies, reprisals, and attachments.
     Next, to address the speech of human beings as the cause of purifications such as bad weather or poor climate or inadequate rice harvests, action and speech such as complaints, censure of others, yelling and jeering, secrets and frauds, blaming others, grumblings, and so on are all against nature and are generated by evil. All belong to the world of thought where second place is held by the world of speech which is thus clouded. When all these varieties of cloud surpass a certain level, a form of toxin is created, and since this toxin will hinder the daily life of human beings, a natural purifying action is generated. Such is the law of nature. The cloud of the spiritual world, as described above, thus also affects human health, and at the same time, as a result of influencing in an injurious way vegetation, especially agricultural crops, the effect becomes the cause of poor yields and the flourishing of insect pests. Therefore, the withering and dying throughout Japan at present of pine and cedar trees is in accord with these principles, so as long as human beings fail to improve themselves to any significant degree, preventing this calamity will be very difficult. To put it in another way, the past of the Japanese people themselves is killing their nation’s pine and cedar trees, so, generally speaking, human beings should do their utmost to avoid evil thought and speech.
     In addition to the natural disasters described above, a frightening phenomenon that many people are aware of is a calamity caused by human beings. The human-produced calamity that probably results in the most damage is conflict. Regarding the cause of conflict, I will explain my view, which new and unprecedented, may seem rather surprising, so I hope readers will read it as dispassionately as possible.
   War is of course collective conflict. It does appear that until the present day the times humanity seems to have preferred conflict over peace was quite often. This observation applies not only to relations between nations but when we observe the conditions within nations, there is bound to be no place that does not have conflict. Whether in a government office, a corporation, or in an association, within the confines of that group there is continual darkness. Individuals censure and ostracize each other, and then again we have conflict between individuals in the same line of work, conflict within a family, that is, between husband and wife, siblings, parent and child, conflict between friends, and so on. Indeed conflict is favored overwhelmingly. Even on trains and trams, or in the street, we often see the conflicts of fellow passers by. There is no need to point out how great is the aspect of conflict in the daily lives of human beings. As such is the case, I would like to explain the cause for the characteristic that human beings seem to favor conflict so much.
     Every human being possesses various kinds of congenital and post congenital toxins. These toxins accumulate in areas of the physical body in which the nerves are used the most. According to the views I advocate, the region where the activity of the nerves is greatest stretches from the neck up. Although the hands and feet of a human being may rest periodically, together with the region of the brain, the eyes, nose, mouth, and ears do not rest for one moment while the body is awake. Therefore, it is only natural that toxins gather in these areas, and this accumulation of toxins is the reason why so many people continually complain of stiffness in areas such as the neck and shoulders. As time passes, these accumulated toxins solidify, and when they have solidified to a certain degree, an opposing activity occurs, in other words, a dissolving process is generated. We call this dissolving activity, purification. When purification starts, it will always be accompanied by fever, and this fever is a function that dissolves the solidified toxins so that the elimination of toxins may be facilitated. By dissolving the toxins, they are changed into liquid form.
     This natural purification is the common cold, and the discharge of substances such as phlegm, nasal mucous, and sweat are signs of this elimination of toxins. The common cold is the most subtle and complex of purificatory action, and it would be fair to say that it is a normal experience for most people. As purification is experienced at almost an imperceptible degree, the persons purifying think they are in good health, but even in individuals of this degree of purification, they do not have the feeling of enjoying true health. This is because when they are given a thorough examination, they have slight fever in every section from the brain to the region of their shoulders, and since they will certainly be aware of slight degrees of heavy headedness, headache, eye mucus, nasal mucus, ringing in the ears, pyorrhea, or stiffness in the area from the neck to the shoulders, human beings will constantly feel unpleasantness to a certain degree.
     This sense of unpleasantness is the chief culprit in our investigation of the cause of the calamity of conflict. In other words, from this unpleasantness results anger, and the physical embodiment of anger is conflict, and because the development of conflict leads to warfare, the only way to eliminate this spirit of combativeness from humanity is to eliminate the sensation of unpleasantness in the physical bodies of human beings. What everyone can sense from understanding this principle is that, even given the same circumstances, when one feels pleasantness, the situation produces no reaction at all, but when one is experiencing unpleasantness, rage is irrepressible. There is most likely no one who has not had this experience. Following is one illustration of this sort of situation.
     We often see or hear of instances of infants who cry to an abnormal degree. It is said that their behavior is due to nervous weakness or to an inability to suppress their anger, but when these infants are given an examination, they have slight fever in the brain area of the head and in the shoulders. There are many infants who have stiff shoulders. Through Johrei of the Japan Kannon Church, their toxins are eliminated, their fevers go away, and their tendency to cry often is completely cured. Also, children who are prone to anger and who do not follow their parents’ directions will most certainly have the same type of symptoms as the infants previously described and are also cured through Johrei and become quite calm and amenable. They come to dislike conflict and in school, their grades rise to levels satisfactory or better. Husbands and wives who are on bad terms are the same, and through Johrei, they come to get along.
     As explained in the preceding paragraph, since the source of conflict is the purifying fever of the toxins in the head, neck, and shoulders, completely curing human beings of this fever is the only way to solve the problem of conflict. In which case, as the Johrei of the Japan Kannon Church comes to be used world-wide, it is no exaggeration to state that Johrei will absolutely be the only way to fundamentally remove conflict. The same is true for all the other kinds of problems relating to suffering that plague society today in addition to conflict. Destructive thoughts and ideas that encourage warfare among social classes all result from discontent and dissatisfaction that stems from the physical feeling of unpleasantness. Moreover, in order to escape unpleasantness, individuals take without realizing it to stronger forms of stimulus. This behavior of course results in the generation of crimes such as alcoholism, lewdness, laziness, and fighting.
     Taking advantage of this phenomenon, the overly-ambitious materialists of each age encourage discontent and dissatisfaction, cause wars, and bring about social revolutions of a malignant nature. Therefore, if peace is to be established on the face of this earth, all individuals to begin with must remove their discontent and dissatisfaction and seek to instill in themselves a feeling of pleasantness. As a result, war will be shunned, and each human being will without one speck of doubt become a lover of peace.
     It should be known that nothing other than the Japan Kannon Church manifests the power to understand, promote, and realize the above principles.

“Disaster,” Teachings of Meishu-sama, Volume One, 1960, page 48.

“Disaster,” Teachings of Meishu-sama, Volume One, Revised Edition, 1965, 1967, page 61.

“Disasters,” Foundation of Paradise,1984, page 103.

“Disasters and the Law of Purification,” Teachings of Meishu-sama, Volume One, 1967/2009, page 47.

“Three Major Disasters and Three Minor Disasters,” Meishu and His Teachings, page 54, no date, given but said to be from around 1965.

“The Three Great Disasters and the Three Lesser Disasters,” A Hundred Teachings of Meishusama, no date, page 127.