Great Construction
Six, The Possibility of Absolute Health
and the Way to a Longer Life
As a human being, there is probably no one who does not desire absolute health and a longer life. Thus far, humanity has sought the answer to these puzzles in material science. The use of material science for this purpose is the fundamental cause of the fallacy that is modern medical science. Leaving aside the issue of whether the human physical body was created by material science or not, there is no way that disease and sickness can be healed by medicines and instruments that were created by material science. Since human beings were created by God, it is only natural that the mysterious and intriguing structure of the mystery of life can not be known through the present level of academic learning.
It is the same as with the growth of plants, understanding the true essence of the light of the sun, or the fact that the weather forecasts are so unpredictable.
That the same is true for the cause of sickness and disease should be very clear from the fact that even now the cause of the common cold is not understood. These days, whether a condition is called a lung disease, a kidney disease, so-and-so tuberculosis, or this or that inflammation, the name of a disease or sickness is based on apparent symptoms. In other words, for some reason the condition comes about, and to the resulting condition is given a name. That is all. For example, let us suppose an individual has lung disease. When explaining the reason people come down with lung disease, it is said that germs have been ingested. In which case, every day everyone must be ingesting hundreds of thousands of germs, too many to count. If this is so, there comes about the unfair situation where some people get sick and others do not.
Doctors will say these people get sick because their lungs are weak. When asked why people are born with weak lungs, there is no answer. And then, let us suppose that kidney cancer has been diagnosed. The cause is not understood. We often hear that children who eat bananas get dysentery, but dysentery is never the result of eating bananas. There are children who can eat bananas all year long and not get dysentery, and then there will be children who eat bananas and sometimes get dysentery and then at other times, not get dysentery. Surely it is not that sometimes there are bananas with germs and at other times, no germs. Since bananas are eaten after the skin has been peeled, all bananas should be the same. But nowadays from the standpoint of medical science, the theory is that dysentery comes from the medium of germs. Such being the case, it is certain that germs do infect, but as human beings live in this complex world, it is absolutely impossible to create conditions in which germs do not invade or adhere to human beings. Above a certain level of hygienic prevention, stopping this process is not possible.
Let us suppose you board a train. Who can guarantee that a person suffering from a lung disease will not sit at your side? In winter with the windows all shut, in a car completely full of people probably there are at least five to ten infected. So, if you ride on a train in winter for twenty or thirty minutes, you must be prepared to be assaulted by ten or twenty thousand tuberculosis germs. Then again, there is the currency that we touch with our own hands everyday. Whether it is actual paper money or coins, it could have just been handled by a patient with lung disease or syphilis. If that is so, it is absolutely impossible to disinfect each and every bill and coin. And then there are those who work in retail shops. They must come into physical contact with paper and coin many times within the day. Since it will not do to disinfect their hands with formaldehyde after each time they touch any kind of money, it is also understandable that they also eat meals and munch on sweets with those hands.
When we observe establishments such as bakeries, clerks receive payment from a customer, and then with the same hand, soon after pick up some merchandise and wrap it for the next customer. When we closely look at what is actually going on, it is absolutely impossible to perform such acts in a way that germs do not come in contact with foods unless there occurs some big revolution in the living patterns of humanity. If constantly disinfecting is absolutely impossible, then would it not be ideal if there existed an iron-clad healthy body that never got sick, for example, never allowed the invasion of germs into the human body itself. If such an indestructible body were possible, would that not be good news of great import? Such has become possible with the Japanese-style medical hygienics that I have created.
As long as human bodies are not invaded by germs, are not diseased or visited with misfortune, individuals should have naturally long life spans, and the truth is that their lives should continue. A long human life span should be between 90 and 100 years, so a long life is possible. Thus are an absolutely healthy life and longevity in an inseparable relationship.
Lectures on Japanese Medicine, Volume 1, 1935
translated by cynndd* * *
“Roku, Zettai Kenkō no Kanō to Chōjuhō” is the sixth chapter of Nihon Ijutsu Kōgiroku, Dai-ippen (Lectures on Japanese Medicine, Volume 1) which was compiled and distributed in mimeographed form in 1935. Although “Dai-ippen” (Volume 1) is included in the title where it has been anthologized, there are no subsequent volumes.