Great Construction

Record of Oral Teachings, Issue 28
December 15, 1953

November 7, 1953

     In a previous meeting, I said we were going to publish a special edition of the newspaper dealing with agriculture at the end of October, but because the data from the key Chūkyō district contains many estimates and wants for accuracy, it will not do to have figures that aren’t precise as to how many bales, how many bushels, how many quarts. It seems that accurate numbers will not be known until next month, so the special agriculture edition will be postponed. I intend to run it early next spring. Please be prepared for that. Also, as for such matters as the estimates given in reports it seems that some people estimate higher yields and others less than expected in accordance with weather forecasts. World Messianity is being carefully observed, so it appears there is an atmosphere in which critics will come in claiming all sorts of nonsense if there are any differences between forecasts and actual results. Since the world is paying close attention to World Messianity, I do believe that we should act and behave in a way that leaves not the smallest hole for the least amount of criticism to enter.
     Another thing that has happened is that four or five days ago, the wife of the Far East bureau chief of the United States newspaper Chicago Tribune, she is a journalist in her own right, came and asked me various questions, a record of which as I am given to understand, will be printed in the newspaper. She saw the Hakone Art Museum and visited the paradise on earth in Atami and was quite impressed. She said to the effect that she had been quite struck by all that she saw and heard, and that she just did not have the words to express what she felt. But, according to what I heard yesterday, she said that although she had met the spiritual leader, she did not feel equal to the task, that she couldn’t keep up, that she just felt overcome. But she had asked quite a lot of questions and seemed to have a lot of self-confidence. So, I myself, spoke my mind. I understand her husband is in Korea right now, but she really wants him to have a talk with me when he comes to Tokyo. She seems to be hopeful that the Tribune will make a big splash of the reporting. She says she wants to write an article with the title, “Builder of World Peace.” I find this extremely interesting. In one bound World Messianity will become known in the U.S. Since we will be advertising ourselves there in the future, this is particularly good for a first impression. What particularly struck her, impressed her, was that the U.S. was the representative of white, Western culture, and that Japan was representative of Eastern culture. That is, the U.S. is a horizontal culture and Japan is a vertical culture. So, for the whole world, joining these two dimensions is the most important. Through this process will be born a true civilization. So for me to run an article about you in our newspaper is the first step. This is the first step in joining these two cultures. All in all she spoke in most gratifying terms. That is what she said, so I think this subject was quite impressive for her as well. One thing she said that was interesting was that I had said I started a religion at about the age of fifty, and she thought this quite unusual. Both Shakyamuni and Jesus had been quite young when they started, but from fifty, but there is no one who has created such a large religious presence at that age. She said that this point was extremely unusual. This is something even I had not thought about and found quite interesting. She then asked me what I thought about communism, and when I told her that I did not make an issue of it, that something like communism would never succeed, she asked me why. I said that in terms of the human body, the United States and Japan were the upper part of the body and that the lower part of the body is communism, that is, the Soviet Union. In other words, the legs and feet. So, if the Soviet Union were to gain supremacy, that would mean human beings would have to walk upside down. When I told her such a thing could never happen, she laughed. It will probably appear in her newspaper. We talked for about two hours. Another thing I told her was that I intended to construct paradises on earth in the order of Hakone, Atami, and Kyoto, and that eventually they would be constructed in Hawaii and the U.S. Accordingly they would gradually be increased on a global scale. I explained that until now, we have had parks everywhere. But parks are quite ordinary places of relaxation for the general public, but that I was planning something on a higher level, to make something superior that incorporates the beauty of nature and artificial beauty. Because nowadays what people saw was too much of a low, vulgar taste, and that there was practically nothing that upon viewing would elevate the character. Because there was so much that led to dissolution and ruin, I thought greatly necessary something of a higher, quality-raising level. It was with that significance that I was constructing paradises on earth. She expressed great acclaim for the project. There is still a lot more we talked about, but that is about all that comes to mind now.
     As I always say, as the Messianic Hall gradually comes to completion, the work will spread abroad. That is the significance of the Messianic Hall. When it is completed, the work will expand greatly in the U.S.
     And then, yesterday was a lawyer from Hawaii named Miho. He has really worked hard for the incorporation of the Hawaii Church, which has been realized. He made a report of this and various other matters, but unlike lawyers from Japan, was quite understanding of religious matters. I am sorry to say that most Japanese lawyers are quite opposed to religion, but according to what this lawyer reported yesterday, in the U.S., all judges and lawyers, all those involved in legal matters say that religion is quite essential. In other words, because human beings are being judged, if judgment is to proceed fairly, since justice must be the foundation, it is beneficial to have the religious conviction to worship God. But, in various court cases, in my experience, Japanese lawyers have a different interpretation. In other words, those of the law, that includes judges, make determinations according to the letter of the law, religion has nothing to do with it. Since religions more than anything else, have many superstitions, it is rather not good for judges and lawyers to base their work on such things. Therefore, judgment is made entirely on the logic of the law, and it seems as if they really believe that logic can determine what is good and what is bad. So, the basis for judgment differs tremendously. What this means in an actual court case is that Japanese judges will not at all even consider whether persons are doing beneficial work, whether they are performing good for society and the nation. Judges are only concerned with whether a person has done something to infringe upon a certain section of a certain law code or ordinance, and do not bother at all with the good or bad of any extenuating circumstances. Guilt is decided in a very one-sided manner. In the U.S., however, it is not that way. In the U.S., if a person is doing tremendous work and trying to help people, sometimes laws may be unintentionally broken, but they do not punish. Punishment is decided on the basis of whether a person is doing great work, is undertaking good accomplishments for society. At my court trial, a certain lawyer stressed that Okada was doing good things for society, but the judges did not listen at all. Even Fusa’aki Uzawa and others were of that mind. So, I feel that rather such kind of defense was off target from the original charge. But the judges were utterly indifferent to this argument. The only feelings were sentiments like “let’s get this guy,” “get any little thing to stick,” and “we will have done our job if we can convict him.” So, I think the fact that the U.S. has grown and developed as much as it has also has a great deal to do with this difference of attitude.
    Just about a week ago, six or seven persons, a deputy section chief of the religious affairs office in the Ministry of Education with journalists from the Asahi, Mainichi, and other newspapers, came and asked questions, and at that time, when I said, “… even when the term ‘progress of medical science’ is used, medical science is still useless,” I was asked, “Well, nowadays it is said that in Japan the life span has lengthened, so doesn’t that show the progress of science?” If only the lengthening of the life span were observed, it would not be unreasonable to think this. So, I was going to explain my theories, but those who were asking did not know enough of my writings and wouldn’t follow what I was going to say. I just explained it simply. I think my followers as well probably get questions like this, so I have written about it.
(Reading of essay “Reasons the Life Span Has Lengthened,” Eikō, Issue 234, November 11, 1953)
     In other words, stopping the purification process has become adept. It is strange to call this progress, but stopping purification has greatly improved. So, to be sure, the life span has lengthened, and this may only be a period of time, but after about, say, two to three years, purification in the spiritual world will become stronger, and, contrary to the situation now, the time will come when life becomes frighteningly short. It will become the age of terror. This situation is advancing in quite significant steps. The way to understand this most clearly is that when you channel Johrei, healing is improving, recovery is taking place faster than before. That is because the power of Johrei has strengthened to that extent. Another point is that damage to agricultural products has increased dramatically as well, and this is also because the spiritual world has changed. The fact that the power of purification has strengthened is that drugs and medicines have gradually been strengthened which halts the purification process more efficiently and so recently the fact that the life span has lengthened means that reverse treatment has progressed to the extreme. It is at this point that the functions in the head are impaired. And, now, the power of purification, the strong energy of the spiritual world which destroys reverse treatment, is increasing, so, just like this year’s poor harvests, in a little while the power to stop purification will become very weak. The power to halt purification will weaken in reaction. In that situation, when drugs are taken, conditions will worsen; when injections and vaccinations are given, patients will soon take a turn for the worse. As I said sometime before, doctors themselves will become frightened. It will come to the point where they say “This is terrible. If we try to help, everyone gets worse, we just give up.” It will be the age of terror. And then, for the first time, people will come to say, “What World Messianity is teaching is right!” and “We can’t rest at ease unless we follow World Messianity implicitly.” That day will come. When that happens you all will become very busy. There will not be enough bodies. We will try to help as many as we can, but it is as it states in the Omoto prophetic works, “Soon Ushitora no Konjin will reward evil with good.” and “Making others happy he will reward evil with good.” That is exactly what it will be. It is not getting revenge by hitting someone. That is the way human beings do it. God helps people. God helps and makes happy those who have heavily ridiculed the idea of God. So what is happening now fits this way of behavior. Another point is that no matter how much effort is made to get the Japanese intelligentsia to understand, it does not, but when World Messianity gets to be well known in the U.S., the intelligentsia will understand. This also is a case of “making happy and rewarding evil with good.”
     I have written something called “A Living Religion.” Other religions appear to be dying out and only World Messianity is vigorous, and I have written so that it can be understood why.
(Reading of essay “A Living Religion,” Eikō, Issue 233, November 4, 1953)
     And here, I tried to write from a different point of view about how medical science is mistaken.
(Reading of essay “Is Medical Science a Superstition?” Eikō, Issue 235, November 18, 1953)
     As I have written, it would suffice if doctors were able to cure diseases. If they were able to do so, there would be no need for healing practitioners in the public sphere or for new religions. Patients come to us out of desperation. So it is most strange for doctors to say that new religions won’t do, or that other treatment methods are no good. If they think so, they should heal patients themselves. It is just like when someone does something shifty and does not pay the salaries of those they employ, or those who borrow money heedlessly from others, or those who get money from illegal means. All you have to do is pay the necessary monthly wage. Do people do bad things when they get a decent wage? So, all doctors have to do is cure patients. When they do so, all problems will be completely resolved. They are showing something as cured when it is not cured. And, they charge a lot of money at that. Until finally they take patients’ lives. Even though they say we should believe, there is no way they can be believed, so it is a dilemma. It’s just like the doctor taking the hand and saying, “Don’t go anywhere else. I will take care of you,” and then slapping the patient in the face. Anyone would run away from that. People go to those who pat them on the back. This is simple, obvious logic, but this is where medical science is mistaken. It is as if they are mercilessly hitting people across the face while at the same time saying, “I’ll make you better. I’ll take care of you.” And those whom they are really taking care of and making better, they call impertinent. They say…. those who hands they are holding and taking care of … The whole world is actually mistaken. Just two days ago in a news commentary program titled, “a totally nonsensical world,” the commentator was talking about something else, but I as well want to say “it is a nonsensical world.” And, just to get this simple logic understood is quite daunting. Here I have to give various examples. In other words, human beings are becoming stupid educationally, culturally barbaric, barbarically uncivilized. In cases where a cure does not come about, operations are recklessly undertaken, organs are removed, and it is called progress. An American newspaper journalist said that surgery in America has progressed so much that everything is taken out to an extreme degree. Since they continue to call it “progress,” I would say that on the point of “super foolishness,” America is in no way inferior to Japan. Therefore, the words “super foolish” are not enough to describe this situation and I have added another “super” to called it “super super foolish.”

Pages 17-24
translated by cynndd