Great Construction

Record of Oral Teachings, Issue 31
March 15, 1953


February 4, 1954 (Teachings for the Beginning of Spring Service)

     It seems that today as well as being the beginning of spring is also New Year on the old calendar. We call this the beginning of spring and it seems so early. In any case, this year there is a great significance to this day. I cannot announce it yet, but yesterday something wonderful happened. I will talk about it in the future. It is a prototype of God. It is also something very felicitous. Since olden times, on the day before the beginning of spring the Japanese have had a ceremony where they say, gFortune in, devils out,h as a way to ward off the misfortune caused by devils. At this ceremony, held in temples and shrines throughout Japan, beans are thrown out to scare the devils. I have talked about this before, but this ceremony is backwards. What is thought to be devils in actually a very great deity. It is the Golden Deity of the Northeast, the Eternally-Standing Lord. In todayfs poems was mentioned the gEternally-Standing Deity,h and this is an abbreviation of the Eternally-Standing Lord, the Eternally-Standing Deity. One more thing, I also had another poem with gDeity of the Northeast.h As in the poems, the beginning of the story is said to go back to the age of the gods, but it really was not the age of the gods, but it is still not that old. At the most, it is said to be three thousand years ago, so three thousand years ago is still the world of human beings. There was an age when the deity called the Eternally-Standing Lord wielded global control. He was a very strict deity and did not permit any mistakes\if you look at documents such as the prophetic writings of the Omoto religion, you will understand\he was so strict that the eight hundred myriads of deities could not put up with him, that they could not do what they wanted with this deity around, so they confined him. The deity who confined the Eternally-Standing Lord was a deity called Heavenly Young Boy. This deity is also often called Heavenly Evil Devil. Heavenly Young Boy was called Heavenly Evil Devil by later generations. In other words, he was a deity with characteristics of a lack of gentleness and of possessing perverseness. This is the deity who confined Eternally-Standing Lord in the northeast direction. The northeast direction came to be called the Devilfs Gate and was detested by all. The deity was greatly detested. When human beings make a mistake, they dislike such a rigorous deity. Thatfs the way it is, so that is what they mean by gavoiding the Devilfs Gate,h and doing various other things. So, it has been for three thousand years that this deity has been confined. In 1892, this deity possessed Nao Deguchi, the founder of the Omoto religion and scolded the world. Using the mouth of Nao Deguchi, this deity scolded the world. He began, gOnce in three thousand years opens the plum blossoms. It has become the world of the Golden Deity of the Northeast! It has become a divine nation opened with the plum and governed by the pine. Japan is a divine nation. This world does not follow or pay attention to God. Bamboo is foreign countries.h This was his first harangue, roar. Because she called out loudly, she was thought to be crazy and jailed by the police. She was detained for some twenty or thirty days. That was the beginning of Omoto.
     This deity called the Golden God of the Northeast was confined and his physical body died, but in the spiritual world, his spirit became The Great King of Yama. The Great King of Yama is a deity that judges good and bad, sins and impurities, who has the function of judging. The Great King of Yama was held in great fear. He was greatly feared because he is a strict and just deity. Even in the spiritual world, he presents a terrifying face to evildoers. I have heard spirits tell me this. To those with truly good hearts, he presents a very mild, gentle face. This is very interesting. So, when in Omotofs prophetic writings it says, gThe Golden God of the Northeast has appeared as judge in this world,h gas judge in this worldh means he will perform judgment in the physical world. Until now people who died were judged in the spiritual world, but now those living in the physical world will be judged. The passage says gchas appearedcin this world,h so judgment will occur in the physical world. gUntil now blessings and protection have been hidden, but from now they will be in viewh is also another line, and it means all will be in the physical world. To ask when this is going to happen, it was the year 1892 that judgment approached the physical by one level from the spiritual world. The spiritual world consists of three levels, and the judgment will approach gradually, level by level. Finally, judgment will come to the last level, where it will appear directly in the physical world, which is from today. That means that today is the first day of the last judgment. It is a frightening prospect, but it is frightening if evil is in the heart or there are clouds on the spirit. If that is not so, if there is a truly just and tremendous heart, judgment is something to look forward to. Until now those who have been badly treated by evil will not receive such treatment anymore, so for virtuous individuals, it is a very good thing. Another line says, gEvil and good will be distinguished,h and this is something I am always writing about. Recently the news has been inundated by accounts of corruption cases. That these acts of illegality have appeared is, I think, unprecedented. I think this is an indication that the judgment is approaching. That the Golden God of the Northeast is appearing on the surface means that because he is a deity of the fire lineage, the light is strong. The spiritual world will become brighter. So, all that was hidden and suppressed until now will come out. It will become visible to the eyes. Because of this, all sorts of things and matters will come out. Also from today will increase the amount and incidence of disease. Along with heightened incidence of disease, the concept of medicinal toxins and their reality will gradually become obvious. I have mentioned this before, but we will take a step into an age of terror. At that point World Messianityfs advance will become notable and growth will be great. Since we have entered that stage, our sense of worth in the world will be great. What has been kept down, that power to keep matters down will weaken. What took ten or twenty times saying to get people to understand will be understood after five or six timesf telling. Having said that, this event does not mean that all of a sudden God will be visible to everyone. Judgment will advance little by little, steadily. This year, next year, the year after next, it will advance more speedily each year. And then, it will all be clear.
     In any event, that God has come to the surface of things this year is certain, so from this year forward World Messianity will become more widely known on a global scale. In other words, it is time for us to go onstage. Until now, we have been preparing backstage, but our preparations are being completed, and it will be time for us to go on the main stage. And, as with a play or drama, we will have a prelude, an opening scene. This line is from Omotofs prophetic writings, gThis time will be the great drama of three thousand worlds, so there will be roles for evil and roles for good.h These prophetic writings indeed express it well. This is because until now, there have been many occasions of interference with our organization and with unsavory people approaching us. About these people have been made comments such as, gThat is an evil guyh or gHe just wonft do,h but when judged by results, we can see they have played a very good role. So much so that for my part, I want to say, gThank you very much!h Such is like was just quoted, the playing out of good roles and of evil roles will come to be clearly understood. Whether onstage or in the movies, scripts with only good people do not make for good stories. A kind of dramatization can be created, such as good people being made to suffer by evil people. When considered from the significance of a drama, there needs to be an evil role. When all this is considered, what God does is indeed profound. Therefore, we cannot say words to the effect gthat guy is doing such-a-such a thing, so he is bad and is mistaken.h People who say such things are themselves doing something evil. It may be that those who are being talked about as evil are doing a good thing. In Omotofs prophecies are the lines, gGod is indeed troubled by those people who perform mistaken acts thinking it is for God.h Doing something quite enthusiastically claiming that gThis is for God,h gThis is truth,h can unexpectedly be quite a hindrance to, interfere with God. This is where human beings, particularly my followers, make tremendous mistakes in deciding what is good or what is evil. What is good and what is bad is not something that we can know. What is good is for you yourself to do yourself what you think is good. Saying that someone is a good person or a bad person is most dangerous. We are saving all humanity, so it is a tremendous task without experience since the beginning of the world. In Omotofs prophetic writings is the line, gThrow a big shadow into a large vessel. Therefore, if the vessel isnft large enough, you cannot do Godfs work.h It is a pretty large vessel, so matters and affairs have to be looked at from a large perspective. So, the concept, gThe virtue of daijo is the evil of shojo; the virtue of shojo is the evil of daijoh applies to all. I wrote about this recently. I do believe it was in the Eikô newspaper that I wrote that the patriotism and loyalty encouraged by the Japanese state, that the idea gfor the emperor, for the nation,h was indeed evil, so thinking only of Japan and only of the emperor led to things like the Great East Asian War. As a result of thinking gforh something, many nations, even Korea, even China, had terrible things happen to them. When we consider this point, we see the result of selfishness and self love. That is why the true way to think is to think of all the people of the world, for all of humanity. In the beginning of my work I did not speak of loyalty and patriotism at all. In the final analysis, they are evil. If you place your goal on the world and on humanity, it is the right thing, the correct thing. Shojo thinking is most difficult to deal with. If you think you are doing something for God and you do it very earnestly and you are actually interfering with God, then that is because your idea is shojo. When I think of something with a shojo frame of mind, it will not work out well. But in daijo terms, the important thing is results. If the goal is to bring as many people as possible, even one more person, to happiness, what you should do should not be difficult, so you know it is daijo. Even with members of your family, for example, your husband or your wife, your parent, your daughter or your son, who just do not understand about God and you are always troubled because they are against the church, although it is all right to try to tell them a little about the church, to stubbornly persist about the church is a shojo way to handle the situation. Rather than your family, what you should be doing is trying to tell others, as many members of the general public as possible, about our work. Thus, if you help even just one more complete stranger to understand God, you will be rewarded, and even your family members will understand. In testimonials, we often read lines like, gMy son does not seem to understand about the church,h but such a way of looking at things is not a true approach to faith. You should leave individuals such as family members in the hands of God, and then you should try to help as many as possible members of the general public to understand. In any case, each has their own timing for realizing the importance of Godfs work, so it may be possible to help them to a certain extent, but after that, when you leave them to God, the results can be unexpectedly good, and they will soon understand. It is in this sense that the following applies.
     The commander-in-chief, the big boss who confined the Golden God the Northeast, as I just said, was Lord Heavenly Young Prince. The deity known as Lord Heavenly Young Prince is perverse and not very honest or sincere at all. He is a real crook, and everything he does is crooked. Now because this whole group, this whole gang came to control the world, the hearts of human beings all have come to be twisted in the same way. That is why everything becomes backwards. It becomes upside down, and so you hear things like gYou push me too hardcyou donft have to be so pushy about itcit is not as if I donft understand,h and opposition is contrarily made for some strange reason. This tendency, this habit has taken deep root. Especially so within the Japanese people. Thus it can be said that there are many on the lineage of Lord Heavenly Young Prince. The Omoto prophetic writings contain the lines, gHonest and sincere is indeed the best.h That is because human beings are rather not honest nor sincere. Although they may hear or see various things, Americans are very honest and sincere. That is why they are unified. On this point, the Japanese are very different. Anglo-Saxon peoples have only two or three political parties. Whether in political parties or in religion, in whatever activity, the Japanese have the most number. Indeed, always being against things, not being honest or sincere, no sense of unity, these are characteristics of Japanese people. When seen in spiritual terms, however, the Japanese are of the highest level, the most superior. So, in the channeling of Johrei, soon all the peoples of the world will come to channel Johrei, and the Johrei of the Japanese will heal the fastest. That is because spiritually speaking, it is the strongestcthat is the reason the evil gods aim for Japan the most. That is why as the Japanese improve themselves, the whole world will become better. The Japanese are like a seed for the whole world. People nowadays do not know this, so they rather think that Caucasians are better. Japanese women and other persons adore American soldiers and Americans in general. Japanese youth are despised. Young Japanese women nowadays seem very happy to entrust their lives to Americans. It is a form of worship. They think that those people are great, the best. But actually, unknown to them, the Japanese are the best. And it is this that the Golden God of the Northeast says in the prophetic writings of Omoto as being quite regrettable. This remark often appears in the prophetic writings. Therefore, in terms of spiritual level, the Japanese people are above the horizon. All peoples other than the Japanese are below. But when Japanese people worship other peoples, they fall below the horizon. Therefore, this also happened\the highest deity known as the Golden God of the Northeast fell below the horizon and a branch deity took over being on top and did what he pleased\illustrated by the words, gGod is also regretful.h That is what these words mean. This situation, in any case, continued in the physical world for three thousands years, but now is the time for the Golden God of the Northeast to appear on the surface for which his vehicle is World Messianity. And here, World Messianity will become known on a global scale from this year. This has all been arranged by God to occur in this way, so you will see and understand it. This starts from today, the first day, so if you look at it in this way, you will understand. Also, that the Messianic Hall will be completed this year shows the change in the physical world. This fits exactly with the transition. As I always say, as Atami represents the physical, in other words, what occurs is in the physical world. Within the Atami Paradise on Earth, as the Hall and the Crystal House this year, and next year as the art museum are completed, that is when World Messianity will truly become known globally. To become known from Japan is really what should happen, but because in Japan until now has been a worship of foreign things, God is using this and has arranged for those in foreign countries to understand about World Messianity first. In Omotofs prophetic writings is the line, gUnderneath a light house is dark. From far way countries it will be understood.h Simply put, it is indeed written epigramically and right on target. In this way, from now on, it will become interesting. In another aspect about this, art will have a big role in salvation, in the creation of paradise on earth. What this means is that when the Atami Paradise on Earth is completed, there will be a tremendous amount of visitors. At least half of the Japanese population will probably come to see the grounds. The other day an American journalist by the name of Grilli and\somebody else whose name I forgot\someone involved in the travel and sightseeing industry\in their conversation, they said, gWhen you come to America, you must see Niagara Falls. I think that in the same way, it will come to the point that when you come to Japan, you will have to come and see the Atami Paradise on Earth. You [Okada Mokichi] may not be thinking that far ahead, but I declare it will certainly be so.h Actually, though, I am thinking far above and beyond her conception.
     So, you can see every one will come. Those who come to see the grounds will be spiritually connected by God to us. In that way, in those with whom we have been connected, there are various kinds of people, so\those who are connected are those who have an affinity, but even among those who have an affinity with us are of various levels\in other words those who have been connected to us have become candidates to be saved. It is like they have received a ballot to vote in the national elections. It is as if they had received the right to meddle around in politics. That being said, all have become quite impure over a long period of time, so there are some who may have lost their qualification. So, it does not mean that everyone who comes is going to be saved, but it does mean that a certain number will be saved. For this reason, in other words, the Atami Paradise on Earth is like an intelligence test by God. It has the significance of distinguishing between those who will be saved and those who will not be saved, but also those who come to visit will, to a certain extent, be purified, so they will be marked as qualifying for salvation. That is why God has caused to be made things that have to be seen and is using such methods, which I think is really quite clever. There are various methods such as advertising leaflets and lecture series, but getting many people to come all at once is really not an easy thing to do. That this wonderful something that must be seen is being created is indeed an indescribably ingenious phenomenon. That it is taking so long is unavoidable, but in three to five years, thousands of people will probably come to see it. It will cause that much of a stir. It is in regard to this that the American journalist said that there was no one else in the world who was doing the work that I was undertaking that was so significant or on such a large scale. Her comments are just as I had predicted, that Americans would recognize my work. I think it is great that she, as an American, discovered this. People on the level such as the Japanese are never able to even approach this attitude I am looking forward to many, good things from an association with this journalist, and she said that if possible she would greatly like to spread word of my work globally. So, it is very encouraging. From Godfs point of view, however, this is nothing at all, only that such a thing is coming together steadily. From what we are doing right now, it is a wonderful, large-scale project, but based on my plans, it will greatly change from this point on. It will become something that cannot even be imagined from what can be seen at present, so there is just no way to talk about it. I understand that a while ago, Mrs. Grilli went to one of the embassies and gave a talk. Some of the participants were heard to say that they would definitely like to study our work. She replied, gI wonft say anything. Just go and look for yourselves. There is no need to say anything more.h In that way she spoke about my work in a way that needs no addition from me. In any case, Godfs plan is still something that cannot be imagined. Its scale is great and it is truly magnificent.
     Next year, construction will be started on the Atami museum. It will be a totally different style from that in Hakone. It will be mainly in the Le Corbusier style, but I think it will also include some Chinese features and some Japanese features. It will be neither old-fashioned nor too new, but it will be relaxing. I would like to incorporate largely a medieval feeling from the Western countries. It will be three stories, and in such places as special rooms on the third floor will be arranged representative articles of Japanese art. Then, Mrs. Grilli says that she will bring many noted persons who come from places like the United States, and she seems to be telling people like the Rockefellers. This is all in the future, but without a doubt he will say he wants to build something like our museum in the United States. In that case, I am thinking of designing and constructing the building there. It would be a lot of trouble to go there, so I intend to do it by drawing up plans and giving instructions. Of course, in the case of an art museum, matters may not go this way at first, and there may already be art museums here and there, or they may already be planning and making them. But in any case, I am thinking of the formal and regular promotion of East Asian art on a global scale. Last year, the exhibit travelled around and produced quite a reaction, but with only as much as it did, it could not be a real introduction. Yesterday we had somebody\an executive from the Cultural Properties Preservation Committee who is from Kyoto\discussed various matters, including the point that Nihonga, traditional Japanese-style paintings have become Westernized, like oil paintings, that Nihonga has disappeared. In response to this trend, people like Taikan Yokoyama and others became quite indignant, constructed a house at Ikenohata in Tokyo, saying that they wanted to start a movement to revive Nihonga. It seems as if his main goal means that he wants to return to the spirit of Okakura Tenshin. This is what I said. That is, the biggest reason that the works of Nihonga artists, and especially those of young artists, become like oil paintings is because they have no opportunity to view works of Far East Asian art of high quality. Even if they want to view the real thing, they have no opportunity. But as far as oil paintings are concerned, they can view whatever work they wish right away. That is why everyone wants to go to Paris. Once in Paris, famous paintings from antiquity to the present can be readily viewed. Even in exhibitions held in Japan, Western paintings are readily accessible. But good Japanese paintings or Chinese paintings are not to be seen even if so desired. You may ask me about the national museums, but they are a national disgrace. Whether they be true Nihonga or Chinese paintings, good pieces only amount to less than ten percent, one in a hundred. There is nothing in other art museums, and even in individual art museums, everything is oil paintings. So, since these pieces must be shown, once artists see such works, the first time they see them, they will say, gThis is a good work,h and they will want to imitate it. Because good pieces of Nihonga are not available, everyone looks to oil paintings. It is in these circumstances that I will exhibit good pieces, and that is what I intend to do from now on. To which the visitor heartily agreed, and urged me on in this project. So, along with introducing to the West what I have just described as good pieces of East Asian art, these good pieces must also be shown to the Japanese people. Unless this is done, Nihonga will disappear. I wrote this in the Eikô newspaper a while ago. I went to an exhibition and when I first entered the hall\oil paintings are always displayed at the end of the exhibition route, at first were displayed Nihonga\I thought that this year oil paintings had been placed first. To the person accompanying me, I just happened to say, gThe order of exhibits has been changed this year, it seems,h but he replied, gThese are Nihonga!h And, when I looked closely, yes I could see they were certainly Nihonga. There is no doubt that the pigments are Japanese, but to look at the paintings, they all had the earmarks of oil paintings. I thought that this was really something and not in a good way. But there are thoughtful people who lament this trend. Which is why it is so important to exhibit Nihonga works of good quality. With that in mind, I have a good number of excellent pieces that I have not exhibited at the Hakone Art Museum. That is because if these works are exhibited indiscriminately here and there they will get damaged. Paintings particularly. So, paintings must be shown for only short periods of time. However, to make such display changes at the Hakone Art Museum once in a while is a lot of work, so what I have been doing so far is rather to exhibit pieces that are not exactly of the first rank, and then every once in a while put out an excellent piece. It is for this reason that I intend to exhibit really good pieces at the art museum in Atami when it is completed. I will have constructed a special room and exhibit items that are really impossible to view anywhere else. I intend to invite and show these good pieces to important people who come from the United States. In that way, the paradise on earth in Atami will become a topic on a global scale, so foreigners who come will think it quite tremendous. At one stroke World Messianity will become global. Americans have told me that to call these museums gHakone Art Museumh or gAtami Art Museumh is not correct, that they should be called World Messianity Art Museums. I would like to do that, but because new religions are not trusted in Japan, this is when I thought of how Lord Heavenly Young Boy in his perverse ways would do it, so I have named them rather innocuously Hakone Art Museum and Atami Art Museum. One day they will be called the World Messianity Museum. For a little while more, though, we cannot go that far.
     I think I have covered most of the activities that we will be dealing with from now on.

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