reference

Record of Instructions, Issue 24
September 15, 1953


    1 September

Meishu-sama: I have not come with anything prepared to talk about today. That is because the other day came a request from the radio station for an interview with me that was to be broadcast. There were some rather unpleasant matters having to do with the radio station, so I was thinking of refusing. I was prepared to tell them that they were extremely mistaken, that since they were doing such things I had no intention of speaking with them, but one of their people who came was rather tactful and sociable and who apologized and implored me to speak with them, so I decided to do the interview and I did it. I had not specially prepared for the interview, so I spoke in a rather slipshod manner and I was not particularly satisfied with how it turned out. Anyway it was recorded and I was told we could redo it if I was not satisfied, and so it has been arranged that they will come today and we will redo it this afternoon. For which I have produced a manuscript. I usually write between twelve thirty and two ofclock at night. I was working on the manuscript for the radio interview and all my attention went there, so I could not think at all of what to speak about today, so I will start right away with questions. And, as I respond to questions, I may find a suitable topic to expand upon.
Question: There is a member working at a lumber company. He went to the mountains to transport lumber and fell into a ravine. He received the blessing of being saved, but the joint in his left arm, both muscles and arteries, were severed. The person who was with him was not member, so right away the blood was stopped and four hours later he was put in a hospital in Kanazawa. He was told that the arm would have to be amputated, but since he refused, it was left as it was. Then, a week later, the arm, from the fingertip to the wrist became black as if from gangrene. He was told it would have to be amputated, and so it was.
MEISHU-SAMA: The blackness was nothing at all. The blood from internal hemorrhaging had merely backed up there. No member would get amputated for something like that.
QUESTION: After three weeks had passed, it had putrefied.
MEISHU-SAMA: It does not putrefy. It just looks like it is putrefied.
QUESTION: Since then, it has been amputated at the elbow. The man himself says he is very sorry.
MEISHU-SAMA: In such cases, it is all right to be carried in to the hospital. In cases like this, it is inevitable. But to amputate is a mistake. The scarlet color and blackness will slowly travel upwards. That is because the internal hemorrhaging started in the tip of the finger, gradually accumulating. Whether the internally hemorrhaging blood stops there or goes upwards depends on the amount. The blood that has internally hemorrhaged is bad blood, so it looks black as it gets old. So, such a condition is nothing to be worried about at all. Why didnft this member consult with the sub-branch head?
QUESTION: Because he was hospitalized.
MEISHU-SAMA: Even if he is hospitalized, the sub-branch head can still tell him that it is not good to amputate. Even if he is hospitalized, it is not like he has been sentenced to death and has no choice. Who is the sub-branch head? 
QUESTION: Tamaki Muramoto.
MEISHU-SAMA: Something is wrong with this sub-branch head. Getting amputated at the elbow means this person is not a member. He is the same as a non-member. I am always teaching about this subject. The affected area will look like it is putrefying. I explain about gangrene and whitlow in my publications, right? It is the same. Even in cases of whitlow, what has accumulated here will travel to the fingertip. A while ago, one of the maids got whitlow, and as whitlow has nothing to do with the fingertip, I channeled Johrei to her only here on the neck. And the condition healed. There should be no reason to ask about this. People get what they deserve. There is something missing from this personfs faith. Something like this will happen when there is something missing from a personfs faith, so it is unavoidable. When you have faith and then suffer, you will be helped, but in this instance God has been totally ignored. In these cases, you get helped, and then you understand the value of and develop an appreciation for faith. But, at this critical moment God has been completely forgotten, so nothing can be done. The sub-branch head bears a lot of responsibility for this. Is he here today?
QUESTION: I am Takamaki Muramoto. I am truly sorry. I told him to leave it to God butc
MEISHU-SAMA: Even if you donft leave the condition to God, if the arm had been left alone, it would have healed.
QUESTION: There were a lot of relatives around, and they were all telling him that he had to amputate.
MEISHU-SAMA: Canft you and the members in the group persuade the relatives in cases like this? It is the member himself who is most to blame. If he stubborn and refuses to amputate, that should end the affair.
QUESTION: He was pretty adamant.
MEISHU-SAMA: But he has to be absolutely adamant.
QUESTION: What should be done with the bones?
MEISHU-SAMA: He can do whatever he likes with it. This is just like not returning borrowed money, declaring bankruptcy, and then going for help to the creditor. In the non-repayment of a loan, the one who does not return the money is the one at fault. In fact, he is ridiculing others. The sub-branch head says that many of the relatives urged him to amputate, so it couldnft be helped, but the point in all this is that the memberfs faith was not steadfast. Members may be swayed by what others around them often say. They may seem to be too pressured by those around them, but what they are doing is laying on others the blame for what they do. Your own body is your own possession. You have not gotten it from other people. If someone is finding excuses for their own decisions, it means their own faith is not thorough, so they are confused. It is at this stage that the member believes everyone around is correct and goes along with them. In the case of a child, such may be the only possible outcome, but the person in this case is an adult, so no matter what people around may say, if the person is firm and persists, there is nothing the people around can do.
QUESTION: I would like to ask about nature farming. When fertilizers are not used, the customary methods of cultivation do not work. For example, in the cultivating techniques used until now, plantings are too close together, so should we plant seeds farther apart now?
MEISHU-SAMA: Planting seeds farther apart is all right. That is because these are more tillers, so it is good to make more space. When it is for convenience, you should do it in a way that fits your way of doing things best. Do the cultivation techniques any way it is easier for you. I teach the fundamental principles but not how to plant stalks or the amount of space between plants. It also depends on the soil and on the weather which will differ, so you should fit in to the conditions.
QUESTION: Is that way of thinking all right for all crops?
MEISHU-SAMA: Yes. If you go to the tropics, you will have to work nearly naked, and if you go to colder regions you will have to wear heavy clothing. Fit into the conditions you are in.
QUESTION: When bitten by a rabid dog, there are terrible consequences. What kind of purification is this? And, in this situation, what should we do?
MEISHU-SAMA: Channel Johrei to the bitten area at the earliest possible moment. Where bitten there will be swelling and pain, but this is from the poison that comes from the dogfs teeth. As time passes, that poison circulates throughout the body, and if you channel Johrei to the areas where the poison has spread, there will be no problem. It is the same as if bitten by a pit viper. The poison from the bite of a pit viper gradually circulates and when it reaches all parts of the body, the bitten person dies, so if you channel Johrei, there will be no problem. There is nothing to it.
QUESTION: This question is about nature farming. This year, Mr. Ino of Gifu Prefecture participated in an agricultural products competition sponsored by the Asahi Newspapers. Participation is not permitted in this competition unless the farmer is cultivating at least 3 tan [2,975.1 m2] or more of land, and since he had only 2 tan [1983.4 m2], he bought 1 more tan [991.7 m2].
MEISHU-SAMA: Which means he bought land with fertilizer toxins in it, right? That is not veryc
QUESTION: That is why he channeled Johrei to the land. Now in his fifth year of practicing nature farming, he is able to have a harvest that does not appear to be in a way inferior and he is very happy.
MEISHU-SAMA: That is very good. This year conventional agriculture has seen a rather big decrease in production. The rice harvest is not quite 60 million koku [9 million metric tons] which is quite serious. When Kozen Hirokawa was agriculture minister, they made a plan for a 20 percent increase in five years, and we are right in the middle of that plan. When that plan was started, production was 63 million koku [9.4 million metric tons], so the plan for an increase has become rather a decrease. I laughed when I heard the news. Recently they have started a project where they reclaim land by drainage and by adding land in lakes and along the coasts. This is thoroughly mistaking the fundamentals. It is like making a new medicine and trying to heal disease. It will have a reverse effect. There is nothing to do but destroy this superstition.
     I am now writing an essay called gThe Feudalism of Medical Science.h This situation is exactly the same as a feudalistic way of thinking. Even when a new method that heals any disease is discovered, it is the same as a feudalistic way of thinking to believe that anything other than medical science is no good, to stick to medical science, and say that everything else will not do. In the days when men wore top knots in their hair and Western civilization came to Japan, one group tried to stop the introduction into Japan of Western civilization. Members of the Divine Wind Brigade shaded themselves with fans when passing under electrical wires believing that the lines would make them impure. When intellectuals nowadays say that new religions which heal sickness are absurd and that people should have nothing to do with these activities, it is the same as the Divine Wind Brigade. It is not as if people have been confined to the cage of science, rather they have confined themselves voluntarily in the cage of science and work very hard not to see at the world outside of science. It is the same as the proverb, gFrogs in the well know nothing of the sea.h Doctors are the gfrogs in the well.h
     The book I am working on now is Book of Medical Science Revolution. I am writing about the subject thoroughly. This includes appending a critique to each testimonial, so I think that when the critiques and testimonials are read together, there will be nothing but to acknowledge the facts. So, that medical science is an evil is covered in great detail. Miss Higuchi, in one of her recent letters, writes that there are many cases where women undergo surgery to have their wombs or ovaries removed, and what happens is that after surgery, patients come down with even more diseases. To think that cutting out the womb and ovaries, such important parts of a womenfs body, is a good thing can only mean that there must be something wrong with the brains of people who come up with such ideas. Basically they cannot heal the disease, so they cut out the womb and ovaries that are diseased. The people who do this, however, do not understand that the human body possesses within it a natural healing power. Therefore, if left alone, the body will heal. This instinct, this function within the human body, is vaguely recognized, but it is not clearly understood. Therefore, due to the worry cases of disease cannot be left alone to heal. When one gets sick, the symptoms gradually worsen, and people believe that they will die. They think they must do something and that they have nothing but to cut out the diseased part of their bodies. They do not know the principle that even when the wombfs condition worsens, if left alone, it will heal. When Book of Medical Science Revolution is completed, it will be translated into English and distributed not only in the United States, but in Europe, and in the Far East, all over the world. Nowadays, there are universities and medical associations in all nations, so I intend to have the book distributed to all of these places. I want to have the book read by everyone. It will be as in the Bible, gAnd this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come.h So, if my message is not accepted, matters will be quite grave indeed. God is being quite painstaking, so the word will be spread as much as possible and those who do not listen to what I have to say will reap the consequences of their behavior. People nowadays are quite clever about surface matters, but inside, they have gradually become empty, so their mental processes have atrophied. I often think that the peoples of old were indeed clever. I mentioned this recently, but people nowadays simply do not have a ready wit.
     The other day, I spoke on a subject starting from a pun. I often use puns. I must say that I come up with some very good puns. These puns donft come out because I think them up, they just naturally come out. The people of past times were quite wonderful with their quick wit. That is because they had good brains. The works of the raconteur Sorori Shinfzaemon that regularly appear in traditional storytelling are truly clever. And, in Edo, Ota Tan, writing under the name of Shokusanjin [1749-1823] at the end of the Shogunate, really had a good head on his shoulders. Shokusanjinfs poetry contained elements of human nature and comedy that were quite good. Nowadays among those in society are many members of the literati, but I donft think any of them can come close to Shokusanjin. This is a well-known story, but one time, while Shokusanjin was performing, in rooms on the other side from his own room was both a wedding and a funeral. He said at the time, gweddings and funerals, when you pass by over there, you go and do that, you go and do this.h Nowadays the literati cannot perform at such a level. And, he took care of his one-eyed wife. At the time of their wedding, he said in the wedding speech, gGood features [ghonorable eyeh] are a disadvantage [gtwo eyeh] for the household, What is bad is the hardening [gone eyeh] of the household.h I thought he had skillfully used all the various meanings of the words futame and katame. Because he was such a drinker of alcohol, there is a period when he stopped drinking. I forget the first half of the poem he composed to mark the abstinence but the last half of the poem was gIf so, somehow is ripped, the handkerchief.h Soon after writing that poem, he started drinking again. When he did so, one of his patrons asked him, gwhy did you break [griph] your prohibition on drinking. The poem he composed upon starting to drink again was gMy prohibition, so close / To being broken, / After stopping drinking, / Breaking it / Was the only thing to doh (Waga kinshu, yaburemi no tonari ni keri, sore tsuide no me, sashite no me). The use of the phrases tsuide no me and sashite no me are what stitches together gbreak,h and I think he has skillfully used these words in the poem. There are hardly any people who are so clever these days. This is because heads these days are too full of medicinal toxins, and so their brainsf functions are impaired. Persons with such brains look only at the surface. Nowadays, whether in medical science or in agriculture, improvements or the advancements are only of the surface. These advances are narrowly focused, and so the large, fundamental points are forgotten.
QUESTION: Recently we see the Yugoslavia-Italy Issue and the British-Hokkaido Issue. Do these have any significance?
MEISHU-SAMA: The problem of Yugoslavia and Italy is a minor issue. The nation of Yugoslavia is small, just a little bit larger than the island of Shikoku. The Yugoslav population is not that large. Three fourths of Yugoslavia is made up of Italians and one fourth, of Yugoslavs, so it is inevitable the Italians would want to have their own way. The problem in Hokkaido is a spy case, so it is also a minor issue. There are many incidents like this. It only became an issue because it did not go as planned. You donft have to go as far as Hokkaido to find cases like this. There are many right in the center of Tokyo. These cases are not known about because those involved are not caught. In other words, those who catch spies have wisdom and the spies who get caught donft have wisdom. As of now, the seven executives of the Japan Communist Party have not been caught and that is because the wisdom of those not caught is of a higher level.
QUESTION: I have heard that purification is accelerated at times of bad weatherc.
MEISHU-SAMA: People of olden times said that. They say such things as take care of yourself because the weather is bad.
QUESTION: Is it not that sickness worsens, but in such a way of thinking that purification has changed?
MEISHU-SAMA: That can be said in some cases, but not in general. That is not why sickness arises in the first place. It is only because the occurrence of sickness is noticeable. This is where the activity of the nervous system is tremendous. You see this in cases like even though there is nothing wrong, you are told that what you just ate contained poison and suddenly you feel pain in the stomach.
QUESTION:  I would like to ask about the relationship between the soul, the nervous system, and the physical body, but I am not so smart, so I cannot express myself well.
MEISHU-SAMA:  In my books I describe how these are composed of three levels, so if you read my books, you will understand.
QUESTION: Even if we think that the activity of the nervous system is the work of the heart?
MEISHU-SAMA: That is not very thorough. The secondary spirit interferes with the activity of the nervous system. One example is when you think you may have been affected by something you ate. You may feel nauseous, but what makes you think this is the secondary spirit. When it thinks this way, it finds it fun so it makes your stomach hurt. Because the secondary spirit is an animal spirit, it finds such things fun. At such times, you might think such a phenomenon is preposterous, but when the secondary spirit does not find such things fun anymore, it stops.
QUESTION: I would like to ask about memory, reasoning power and decisiveness.
MEISHU-SAMA: Memory functions in the head, so if you have toxins there, it does not function so your memory is poor. The memory only has to remember what is necessary. That the rest is forgotten is good. There are times when you can get into trouble if your memory is good and you remember too much.
     A long time ago, Marquess Ôkuma was known for his good memory. Someone once asked him, gI have a poor memory and forget a lot. What should I do?h It is said Ôkuma replied, gI am very jealous of you for being able to forget. It is troubling that I cannot forget things. Isnft it good that you are able to forget things? I would like to be like that, but somehow I am not able to forget things.h Such being the case, if your head is too good, it is all right to have good brains, but there are times when having a good memory can get you in trouble. Because there are times when it is good to remember something and there are instances when it is better to forget things.
QUESTION: In regard to that concept, I previously heard from a superior that one hundredth part of the physical body is heart and that one hundredth part of heart is the soulc..
MEISHU-SAMA: That is all nonsense. Not just one hundredth, the whole body is heart. If what your superior said was true, that would mean that parts of the physical body did not have heart.
QUESTION: In that case, what about the relationship between heart and the nerves?
MEISHU-SAMA: There is no relationship or anything between heart and the nerves. Heart itself is the nerves. Heart finely divided up are the nerves. The nerves are like the wires for electricity. The soul is not just one hundredth, it is even smaller, one thousandth or even one ten-thousandths as small. However, the soul controls the whole body. When it lodges in the human beings, it is a small spermatozoa. Such a small item becomes the large human being.
QUESTION: Usually, when we talk about the soul, are we talking about the primary spirit?
MEISHU-SAMA: Yes we are.
QUESTION: Are what is known as the rational mind and the emotional mind the relationship of the primary spirit and the secondary spirit?
MEISHU-SAMA: There is a relationship but it is not so clear-cut. As I always say, the part used for rationality is the front part of the head and the back part of the head is for the emotions. Put together, these two form one thought, one idea. Neither should lean to one side nor do they stay on one side. There are times when they may happen to lean to a side. For example, as in times like when murder is committed. These are occasions when only the emotions are in use. What the rational mind would say is that if you do such a thing, you will sustain a great loss. The incident of Premier Yoshida when he said, gStupid fool!h in a Diet session was such a time. The emotions become the whole body and rationality was pushed to the corner. Afterwards, when the functions of rationality returned, there is no doubt he thought he had done a ridiculous thing.
QUESTION: What kind of function is instinct?
MEISHU-SAMA: Instinct is a personfs desire. The primary spirit has an instinct and the secondary spirit has an instinct. Both are instinct. But one is for good and one is for evil. So, when you become a member and you want to help humanity, you want to help those who are suffering and in trouble, it is instinct, but it is true instinct, so it comes from the primary spirit. Then again, when you want to drink alcohol, whenr wanting whether women or your wife, it is all right, but if you want the wrong woman, or you want to gamble and such, these are instincts of the secondary spirit. So, there are various instincts.
QUESTION: Which instinct are the instincts for preserving life, for eating, and for sex?
MEISHU-SAMA: They belong to the correct instinct. Because you canft live unless you eat. Rather than saying it is gcorrect,h it should be said that it is absolute. If you donft have a sexual instinct, the human race could not continue. In these instances, you have to look at the results. Even if it could be said to come out of the same primary spirit, if the results are not good, it is not the correct, proper instinct. Therefore, as medical science progresses, if the number of sick decreased and the number of those who are healthy increased, from the results it would be a good thing. But, not only do the numbers of sick not decrease, they continue to grow, so from the point of view of results, it is bad. I have written an essay about how medical science is mistaken. So, even in faith, if you say a person has magnificent faith, it is not good unless that person has brought someone to the church. If you say someone does not have faith, that that person does not pay attention to faith, if that person is bringing lots of people to the church, that is good. It is all results. Isnft it rather better than a person who is said to be full of human sentiment and tremendous, to be the person who although a bit strange, still treats me to a meal and gives me money once in a while?
QUESTION: Is there any instance in the functioning of heart that the three spirits of the human being work together?
MEISHU-SAMA: They are all together, but it is a matter of which of the three is working the most. It is dangerous if the secondary spirit works the most, because nothing good happens then. Then again, there are times when the work of the secondary spirit is wonderful, so it cannot be said that it wonft do for the secondary spirit to function the most.
QUESTION: In regard to the appropriateness of a soul suitable to a primary spirit, whether clean or impure, do the primary and secondary spirits posses accordingly?
MEISHU-SAMA: No, that does not happen. It only gives in. When you think something good, the secondary spirit becomes smaller. The secondary spirit does not become highhanded. But this relationship is constantly changing, so in a day, even in a minute, the primary spirit becomes larger or smaller. For example, until now you may have been thinking a good thing, but say suddenly you thought a bad thing. That is why this relationship never stays the same. What matters is that most of the time the primary spirit predominates. That is the power of the soul. Because the power of the soul is light, the secondary spirit gives in to the light. It cannot have everything its own way. So, when crimes are committed, the primary spirit is very small. But, at some point, by some means, the primary spirit awakes and becomes active. When this happens, the human being regrets what it has done and repents.
QUESTION: There are those who are born with a particular talent or destiny, but which of the souls does this correspond to?
MEISHU-SAMA: You cannot say which. There are times when the secondary spirit works a lot. The secondary spirit works a lot with entertainers. Comedians and storytellers make people laugh, but because the primary spirit cannot make people laugh, it is the secondary spirit that does. But if this function is used to perform evil acts, the secondary spirit will utilize this and the primary spirit sleeps. So, if cannot really be said which is which. To say it is one or the other is mistaken. It is really a delicate matter.
QUESTION: To which soul is related a physical deformity?
MEISHU-SAMA: Rather than being something to do with the soul, for example, I have written about this in my books, so if you read them, you will understand, but in a previous life, when you die by falling from a high place, you may also break a leg or an arm, and if this is not purified in the spiritual world, it will remain when reborn, so according to the law of the spirit preceding the physical, the physical body also becomes so.
QUESTION: Is it a matter of principle that the three spirits separate upon going to the spiritual world?
MEISHU-SAMA: It is a matter of principle that they separate.
QUESTION: In that case, in the instance of a deformity, are there times when the previous primary and secondary spirits possess?
MEISHU-SAMA: There are times when the same ones possess and then there are times when different ones possess, but that has nothing to do with the primary spirit or the secondary spirit. The spirit of the physical body has that much cloud and it was born before the cloud could be removed.
QUESTION: When falling into hell and undergoing training, are there occasions when the three spirits do it together?
MEISHU-SAMA: What the spirits may or may not do together has nothing to do with falling into hell. That individual itself has clouds. The purification of clouds is the suffering of hell, but how these clouds came about was through the secondary spirit. We say this, but it is not something about which anything can be definitely said.
QUESTION: Is this a case of joint liability?
MEISHU-SAMA: That could be said, but you really canft declare that because there are varying degrees. If it came from the same acorn, that would be all right, but there are levels. Maybe you could call it gteam responsibility,h because they are all responsible. If you want to make it difficult, it is difficult, but if you think about it in simple terms, there is nothing to it at all. At the most profoundest level of the most profound aspect of this issue is something that cannot be explained. Rather, it can be felt. That is what we mean by satori. It is most delicate, so I can neither talk or write about it. I am probably the only person in the whole world who understands this. Others do not understand this. If the individual can fulfill its role, it is all right not to understand such things. Suppose we take a star. Say this star is irritated by how much the sun is shining, it cannot be helped if this star says it wants to shine as much as the sun. A star has only a certain amount of light. When you truly think about it, it is truly mystical and mystifying. On the other hand, if you know that much, it is not interesting. It is interesting because you do not understand it. God is truly inexpressibly mysterious. What is most certain in all of this is not to judge matters. It is not wrong to not judge. Errors spring forth when judgments are made. That having been said, matters will be peculiar if you donft make any judgments. Judge what has to be judged; judge only what should be judged. And what you cannot judge, leave as unjudged. If you get in a hurry and try to rush a judgment, you will lose and suffer for it. Then again, there is the issue of time. At one specific time, it may be good to do something in one way, but as time changes, it may be impossible to do it in such a way. In another instance, it may be better to go to a certain place. In these instances, matters can be decided but not decided. And even though it may not be decided, it must be decided. That is truly what could be called mysterious, subtle and delicate. It is indeed inexpressible. Another aspect is that there are matters that seem to be understood but which are not understood, that are not understood but which are understood. Even so, both are the same, and since it is not understood, matters are confused, but still a decision has to be made. Then again, when is the point by which a decision must be made, and from which point, should things be left undecided? Then again, there are matters that can be decided for only an hour. For these matters that should be decided for an hour, it can become very bad if they are decided for a day. Those limitations cannot be known. If we donft understand anything at all, we donft understand anything, so we should try to understand matters to a certain level. Shakyamuni says gall is void,h and it is not a mistake, but it is rather irresponsible. This expression is much used in religions such as Seichô no Ie. They teach the theory that gYou have sickness because you think it sickness. If you think you do not have sickness, sickness will disappear,h but this is a form of making a decision. Even if you decide you have no pain, it hurts when you feel pain. No matter how much you think you have no pain, it hurts. If human beings only lived in spirit, such a way of thinking would be all right, but we also have a physical body. It is for this that a level of satori must be achieved. Since antiquity priests have trained to try to reach this level or state. They have trained in sects in esoteric Buddhism as well. There is really nothing to the training at all. The trainee was asked, gDo you understand?h If to this was replied, gYes, I understand,h then the master said, gGood,h and that was that. We rather donft understand if it was understood or not. But, it was supposed to be that the master understood. Indeed, there is no way this was not understood. Through the masterfs words and deeds, one can roughly estimate how much he understands. When a high priest received the law, it was thought he would be all right because he had probably gone through training. gDo you understand?h gYes, I understand.h gGood! I will bestow upon you the title of master.h The title of master is form only and nothing else. Only smoke was bestowed.
QUESTION: It is said that Miyamoto Musashi achieved a gunity of sword and zen,h and that he did not have to kill an opponent or protect himself, that he had freedom from all ideas with perfect serenity. Are there such effects?
MEISHU-SAMA: Yes, there are, but they differ from gfreedom from all ideas with perfect serenity.h Human beings cannot reach such a state. There were no other words to describe such effects so they used these words. In any case, his soul reached a very high level. Musashi was greatly helped by the priest Takuan Soho. He was continually taught by Takuan. But Musashi was born with his soul already on a very high level. Thatfs why he could paint such wonderful paintings. One excels in all endeavors. Even with the sword, he could attain such distinction. Such a principle works in all matters.
QUESTION: Is this a matter of removing evil thoughts?
MEISHU-SAMA: It is certainly not a matter of removing evil thoughts. gRemoveh means gthere is,h and if evil thoughts did not exist, there would be no need to remove them. Because it wonft do to try to eliminate evil thoughts, as evil thoughts have disappeared, there is no need for such thinking. If there is even a little, it comes to the point that removal is attempted. I paint pictures. I write books. I compose poetry. I make architectural plans. Since these are all of a high level, they are all the same. If you reach a certain level, all you do is of that level. Just the other day, I had to teach a gardener something. The plant he was taking care of had its leaves fall off, the color became bad, and the plant lost vitality, and he just added some more soil around the plant. If you change the soil, that is all right, but there are occasions when the soil cannot be changed. In such cases, the nutrients that the plant absorbs from the soil must match the number of leaves and branches of the plant. But with plants on a crag, there are times when enough nutrients cannot be absorbed, so nutrients do not reach the plants and they weaken and die. In these cases, if the number of leaves and branches are decreased, more energy can go to the plant. So, I look at the color of the leaves and the whole situation, and cut. After cutting, nutrients can spread throughout the entire plant and the plantfs vitality improves. In other words, if you understand a personfs illness, you understand everything else. Even in Nature Farming, hints may be obtained from illness. Nature Farming is a way to make plants healthy. If harvests have not been plentiful, it is because that much energy was missing. In the case of human beings, their physical bodies contain a lot of medicinal toxins, so people are not healthy. Medicinal toxins are the same as fertilizers. If one truth is obtained, it has the same meaning for all. If you believe that all suffering and all bad things are purification, then so are wind and water damage, and you understand this right away. At such a point, you may not think that the air could be dirtied by medicinal toxins, but in this case the thoughts and words of human beings are important. When human beings think evil thoughts, the spiritual world gets cloudy to that extent. Acts and deeds also cloud the spiritual world. And, because the soil is made impure, it has to be cleansed, so floods occur to cleanse the soil. And then, the wind blows hard to drive away the impurities. It is the same with all things. Just apply what is happening to the situation you face and you will understand. That is why what I say and teach is a new field. This is a real field of learning. The fields of learning until the present are all mistaken. Rather than say they are mistaken, you can say they are of a low level, a very low level of culture. In other words, what you all have learned until now is like something you learned in elementary school. What I teach are fields of learning that span levels from middle school to university. Thus, most of humanity in general thinks that elementary school learning is the highest kind, but when they hear a lecture based on university level of learning, they think it wrong and call it superstition. They probably believe so because there is no way they could comprehend a university-level lecture on the basis of just an elementary school-level of education. The facts, reality, however, do not, does not forgive. It will be gradually seen that sickness will not be cured with elementary school-level medical science but will be when you go to university, so it is inevitable. That is all this is. Therefore, religion until today could be called a level of advanced course at elementary school, so there is not much difference from material science.
QUESTION: It seems that make-up causes lead poisoning in males more than females.
MEISHU-SAMA: That is because theyfre actors. Females do not use that kind of make-up.
QUESTION: Is not there a spiritual significance to this?
MEISHU-SAMA: There is no such meaning. It happens because men have darker skin than women and they continually apply it more thickly than women. Their faces have to appear white so they apply it thickly. Before the basic ingredient used to be the white powder oshiroi, lead, but now as lead is hardly used, there is no lead poisoning, although there used to be in the old days.
QUESTION: Was Kenfichi Enomoto poisoned by lead?
MEISHU-SAMA: He was not killed by lead poisoning. He got gangrene in his foot. This is healed easily by Johrei, but since they amputated his leg, healing took longer. Enomoto did not play womenfs roles so it was not lead poisoning.
QUESTION: The reason actors do not sweat on stage is because they use so much white power, oshiroi, that stops the sweat. It seems it is used a lot.
MEISHU-SAMA: Thatfs right. Itfs better nowadays, however, but in the olden days, it was really terrible.
QUESTION: When giving names, should thought be given to the number of strokes in the ideograms of the name?
MEISHU-SAMA: There is a relationship to the number of strokes.
QUESTION: How should this kind of situation be handled?
MEISHU-SAMA: The number of strokes has to do with even and uneven numbers. Uneven numbers are yin and even numbers are yang. As long as the stroke counts of the husband and wife and of the children harmonize, itfs all right. They should be harmonized. If a couple has uneven and even number of strokes in their names, the numbers fit, so the relationship continues, but if the numbers are either both yin or are both yang, people with such a combination of numbers eventually split up. I was taught about this long ago, but trying it out, I found it is true most of the time. When children are born, it is good to fit the yin-yang pattern with the mother. The child will attach itself to the mother and will steadily grow up. If, however, the yin-yang pattern is fited to the father, and it is the same as the mother, the tie to the mother will weaken. In such cases, it is the father who will raise the child. There is something to this.
QUESTION: I would like to ask in specific terms what you mean by gharmonize.h
MEISHU-SAMA: The yin-yang pattern. It is only natural that yin and yang harmonize. Think of hot water. It is just right because it is fire and water. If fire predominates, it is too hot and canft be used.
QUESTION: Is it the same for surnames?
MEISHU-SAMA: It cannot be helped in the case of surnames since they canft be changed. It is the given name that has to be adjusted. There are several ways to think about the issue. We can discuss it from the standpoint of the spirit of language, but that does not work out easily. In the spirit of language, the sounds of the first line of the syllabary, a, i, u, e, o, are fundamental. The sounds of the gah line of the syllabary, a, ka, sa, ta, na, ha, ma, ya, ra, wa, are the gline of heaven,h so they are of fire. The sounds of the goh line of the syllabary, o, ko, so, to, no, ho, mo, yo, ro, wo are at the very bottom, so they are of earth. The sounds of the lines, gi,h gu,h ge,h in the middle, are of water, so if the surname is of fire, the given name has to be made of water. When the surname is of water, the given name has to be made of fire, so that they fit. For example, the name gOkadah belongs to the ga line.h The first letter is goh of the goh line, but if you go by gthe spirit of language reversed,h the bottom letter controls so it is of the gah line. In gspirit of language reversal,h gMokichih is gmi,h so fire and water harmonize. Knowing this is very helpful when giving names. There are a lot of matters to know about ideograms and the spirit of language, and I am thinking of putting in it matters about gspirit of language reversalh and ideograms. For some reason, however, God does not seem to permit this. When I start to write on the subject, it becomes objectionable to me. When these matters are more understood, various mystical aspects are all understood, so it seems that until the right time, these mysteries should not be widely understood.
QUESTION: It is said that children who are born at the time of the ebb tide do not fare so well.
MEISHU-SAMA: Such a thing is absolutely not true. Lots of children are born at the time of the high tide and their fates do not change in that way. It cannot be completely declared that such things do not occur, and until a certain period of time, there will be some influence, but when that time passes, the fates will be the same.
QUESTION: Such things are also said at the time of passing.
MEISHU-SAMA: Individuals do pass way at the time of the ebb tide. That is why there is some degree of influence.
QUESTION: I understand that an individualfs destiny belongs to one of the three levels, top, middle, or bottom, and that one cannot go either above or below that level. Individuals change from a hellish suffering to a paradisiacal condition, but this seems contradictory.
MEISHU-SAMA: Thatfs not right. When we speak of destiny, there is no gdestiny of hellh or gdestiny of heaven.h Onefs destiny, onefs fate at present is a matter of level. It has nothing to do with heaven or hell. For example, it is already decided that those who we will be above others, like a manager or a prime minister. The individual who is to be a manager will certainly be a good person. Even if one becomes a beggar, he will be the boss of beggars. Then again, no matter how great a person, those who cannot become bosses will become chief clerks and branch managers. Such things are already decided and that is destiny. And, if it does not turn out this way, those individual cannot truly manifest themselves. In the case of plants, there are spreading plants that can easily overgrow an area, and it is the same with human beings. In the case of bamboo, if bamboo cannot clump together, it cannot survive. In the same way, if we do not depend on others, we cannot continue to live. Then again, whether they get really thin and have many experiences in life, there are those individuals who must become bosses. They may be overwhelmed, but that may be that individualfs destiny. So, for persons who do not have the destinies to be bosses to try to forcefully become bosses means that they will fail. Since long ago I could go anywhere and become a follower, but there was no time when I could be led or helped. I had resigned myself to the fact that I did not have the capacity to be helped. I could not follow others blindly. So, even if I became close to someone in the beginning, after a while they would come to me for advice. Before I was in faith, I could not consult with anybody about anything. For whatever reason, as time went on, the other party would become subordinate. I seemed to have the destiny like that of a large tree. That is what destiny is. You are born into it, and thatfs the way it works. Laborers do happen to gain some success in the world from time to time, but since their destiny is not appropriate, they slip, fall. Then again, someone who has achieved just a little success may look at laborers and other such people, and ask why they have no success when they seem to be working so hard, but matters are actually not like that, and these people are really satisfied with the way things are, and that is destiny. However, that destiny has the freedom to go up or to go down, and that is fate. Therefore, fate can be changed by the person, but destiny cannot be broken. A limit has been placed on destiny. Fate, however, can be changed to the utmost limits of destiny. A store clerk or a branch manger may be gusedh by a boss, but they are on the highest of those levels. That so far can be reached is onefs fate. Therefore, fate can be changed but destiny cannot.
QUESTION: Whether one has more aptitude to be a businessman or a farmer, is there some relationship to the destiny of onefs occupation?
MEISHU-SAMA: That is destiny. Even among farmers, some go up and some go down. Whether one is a tenet farmer or owns onefs own land is fate.
QUESTION: Is destiny somehow related to happiness?
MEISHU-SAMA: It is related. That one is born in a good place and can be in a good position all onefs life without suffering is happiness. Such a person has the destiny of happiness. Even with this kind of happiness, one can live in unfortunate circumstances, and this means one has an unfortunate fate.

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