Great Construction

Record of Oral Teachings, Issue 13
September 25, 1952

August 15, 1952

      There is a member who went to a university in the United States and has just returned. The other day he put down on paper aspects in detail of various statistics concerning the sick in the U.S, and last night I read his report. I am thinking of running this report in the Eikô newspaper and also having a small booklet made to have distributed in the U.S. There are just so many sick people. The numbers are in no way inferior to those we have in Japan. At present those under a doctor’s care number around 1.70 to 1.80 million persons―since the population is 150 million, that means that a good 10 percent are under the care of a doctor. The conditions with highest numbers are for kidney cancer and infantile polio―that is a condition particularly peculiar to the U.S. Tuberculosis as well is quite prevalent. In addition, are also conditions of the liver, asthma and various other diseases, but the most troubling one is infantile polio. From what I have heard, most of the cases of infantile polio are pseudo infantile polio. Pseudo infantile polio is not spiritual possession. In most cases, the legs hurt and the patient can’t walk―the late President Roosevelt is a well-known example of this condition. The cause is not possession but medicinal toxins. Mostly from injections. Because the dangers of medicinal toxins are not perceived, medicines are used to try to heal the condition, but there is no reason for healing to take place. Such matters―the cause of disease and illness will be thoroughly explained in my booklet. I do believe that the American people must be saved. If conditions continue as they are now, within about a hundred years, the American people will perish. Because of this, because of disease, effects are being felt in various fields. Strong medicines are used to temporarily suppress disease. When the medicines do not suppress even temporarily anymore, it will be something. It is so pitiful because all are under the spell of the superstition of medicines. In the world at present, medical science is most advanced in the U.S. Germany is said to be a close second, but the conclusion is that because medical science advances, the number of sick increases. It is most troublesome because this fact is not perceived, not awakened to. However, as the spiritual world gradually changes, purification will become more severe and sickness and disease will occur. When that happens, strong medicines will again be used to suppress the conditions, but because suppression will not occur, medicines will be strengthened. But, here again, because, on the spiritual side, the purification function will become stronger, it will be a struggle between medicines and purification. Even now, these two struggle. There is a drug called Hydrazid, and just recently―according to research from one hospital, shows temporary improvement of condition after ingestion. But, in most cases, after two or three weeks, sometimes as long as two months, the germs, whose amount had been reduced, again increase. These are very strong germs. So, these germs grow stronger―in other words, they worsen. According to statistics so far, they increase by about thirty percent. Right now the increase is around thirty percent, but as purification becomes more severe, the increase will be fifty or sixty percent, and the point will be reached where it is not considered safe to use that medicine. It is as I once wrote in the essay “Ridiculing the New Miracle Drugs for Tuberculosis.” So you can see that the terror of drugs will become a tremendous issue in the United States. Before that occurs, I am thinking of giving warning. For which, one thing I am planning is to create an English-language Eikô. As of right now, there is just the right person in Hawaii. We would have that person publish the newspaper in Hawaii with translations from the Eikô here, and I am planning to write some articles appropriate to the U.S. for it as well. The work of saving Americans must be accomplished. America leads the world. Therefore, to save the world, it will be most effective to get Americans to understand, so, that is the method I am planning to take. Then, when Americans come to understand, the Japanese will understand. It seems that everything in Japan must be imported. We have been poisoned by that which has come from abroad, so it is an imported superstition. This may not do for other matters, but in this case, this theory is a case of being taken in by a foreign superstition. The only thing to do is to make use of that superstition.
     Before the signing of the peace treaty, I could not speak of this topic, but now that Japan has regained sovereignty, the matter can be discussed. Spiritually speaking, the Japanese are superior. If I speak more deeply about this, it will be understood. Why the Japanese are superior―gradually I will speak about this. They are number one in the world. So in the case of the arts as well. It has become a global truism that Japan is number one in the arts. A large exhibition of Japanese art will be held in the United States. In conjunction with that exhibit, just recently there came to visit Dr. Langdon Warner, Archibald Wenley, head of the privately-founded Freer Gallery of Art, and from the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art―this is number one in the U.S., the curator of East Asian art, Alan Priest. Mr. Wenley and Mr. Priest visited and praised our museum highly. I asked Mr. Wenley to point out anything wrong that he may have seen in the way our museum was set up and operated, and he answered by saying that it was a not a major problem but viewing dishes the way they were displayed in Japan was very fatiguing, so at his museum, dishes were displayed at eye level. That’s about what he said, and I am well aware of that issue, but whether it is hand scrolls or dishes, they do not look interesting when stood up. The whole idea of what a dish is differs. Dishes are created to be seen from above, but as a way to appreciate a dish, to stand it up like a picture does not feel right. The same goes for hand scrolls. But, in the case of a hand scroll, it is all right to open them at a slant. Mr. Wenley is a connoisseur of things Japanese and we served a meal, and it was when we were sitting down again Japanese style that he said that the most delicious item that we had eaten was the freshwater eel. We had served it broiled. He also ate tempura. He was with his wife, and they both ate with chopsticks, so it does seem there are many who are interested in things Japanese. There appears to be a considerable number of such persons among Americans, particularly those who enjoy Japanese art and architecture. They have a high level of interest in such matters. So can be seen that the artistic sensibility of the Japanese people is decidedly number one in the world. After Japan is China, but overall the Japanese are vastly superior. I will speak more of this from now on, but in the West what is known to be a high level of artistic temperament does not go as far as that of the Japanese. In any case―on the radio this morning was a program, Hobby Notebook, and a person named Katsuichirô Kamei talked yesterday and today, and will speak tomorrow. He is evaluating the Buddhist images of Nara. Today he spoke about the statue of the Bodhisattva Maitreya in the Chûgû-ji temple near the Horyu-ji temple. He said there is a theory that this statue really depicts Avalokiteshvara, but actually the Boddhisattva Maitreya and Avalokiteshvara are the same, and he does not know the distinction between the two. He was comparing the statues as if they were works by Rodin. As regards Rodin’s statue The Thinker, Rodin portrays thinking as if it were something distressful, something to be anxious about, but the Avalokiteshvara in the Chûgû-ji temple―it is called the Boddhisattva Maitreya, is not really thinking but rather could be said to be meditating. The statue exudes a feeling of calmness and of softness. This is what he said. This was quite a brilliant critique. Japanese art does indeed project quite well such a feeling of peace.
     Sometime after the war, I wrote an article about music with the intention of running it in the Eikô. As far as singing is concerned, Japanese music is sung. I wrote that in Western music, the men holler and the women scream. As far as singing is concerned, Japanese music is actually sung. However, the person in charge of editing the Eikô said that it was better not to publish a piece about the superiority of the Japanese people at that time as Japan was still under the control of an occupation army. The point is that in art, expressing the sensibility of peace is true art. In other words, things such as agony and conflict, expressing these sentiments is not the essence of true art.
     I have gotten off track, but what I want to say is that Japanese art will steadily come to be recognized. Even now, there are many requests to lend or be shown the truly good pieces. Not all requests can be granted, even from those in Japan. There are some wonderful pieces in Japan, but I don’t think that much more than a certain number will be approved. We ourselves have about four or five pieces of such a level and I imagine they will be included in a request for a loan. I don’t think we can approve all the requests. One or two would be all right. An exhibit of great scale is being planned in the U.S., and there can be no mistakes when transporting the objects, so I have heard the works borrowed are going to be transported by warships. The U.S. sponsors are five museums, the museum in Washington, D.C., the Metropolitan in New York, and museums in Boston, Seattle, and Chicago. Exhibits will be held in ten places throughout the U.S., over the period of one year. People in the U.S. keenly admire Japanese art. They have had a chance to know about Chinese art, but they really don’t know about Japanese art. The response to the exhibit in San Francisco last year was overwhelming, so there have been requests for another exhibit even greater in scale. That is what has been happening, so it is rather interesting.
     Next, I―as far as medicine is concerned, Japan is in no way superior. No, circumstances are bad, but I really want to emphasize this point. Then, there is the issue of agricultural produce. And next, gradually, politics, society, economic issues. I will be writing essays about such topics for Creation of Civilization. This is because, as I always say, the time has come to join the warp and the woof, the vertical and the horizontal. The U.S. is the horizontal and Japan is the vertical, and these two will be brought together. And this connecting, this joining, will be based on these aspects. World Messianity’s badge also represents this. On God’s level, this has already been decided.
     Another topic is social welfare. Members are occasionally asked why World Messianity does not engage in public welfare. Or, at least this is what I have been told. I have written an essay that thoroughly covers this topic.
(Reading of essay, “World Messianity and Public Welfare,” Eikô, Issue 171, August 27, 1952)
     Now, this is rather strong language. About something in the future―it is prophecy. I have written this.
(Reading of essay, “I Caution All Those Related to the Medical Profession,” Eikô, Issue 171, August 27, 1952)
     This essay also has been written in an interesting way.
(Reading of essay, “Religion and Obstruction,” Eikô, Issue 172, September 3, 1952)
     So, that is what has been read. We became a religious juridical person, that is, a corporation, in August 1947, so this year is the fifth year. Our growth as of this fifth year is unparalleled. In the beginning, it was called the Kannon Church, and at the time hardly anybody knew about us. Then, in autumn of the following year, the tax evasion case occurred, and even though the way in which we came to be known was not so good, still we became widely known. In the long run, that was a part of divine administration. Thus, it is difficult for something good to become widely known, but bad news travels fast. But what is called bad news―well, we were made out to be bad. But, in this way, we have grown so much in just five years, so it is indeed a wonderful thing. I am truly filled with deep emotion. If the next five years continue in this manner, World Messianity will grow globally. Our aim is to save the world, so it must be this fast. It is in the sense that from now on, things will get interesting. It is now our turn for the stage. Until now, it is as if we had been preparing in the dressing room. We will not get to be on stage unless we become worldwide. Just to be limited to Japan is to be like exiting religions. I teach, however, that World Messianity is not an existing religion. Because I state that it is something above religion, it is only a matter of course that we play a greater role on a global scale. On the divine level, this has been decided, so from now on, we should get into stride. Time is up.

Pages 18-24
translated by cynndd