Great Construction

Medicinal Toxins

     Repeatedly I have explained that the countless number of healing therapies that have come about since the start of healing with Hippocrates in the West two thousand five hundred years ago and the beginnings of the way of healing by Fu Hsi in China five thousand years ago have all been nothing other than attempts to halt the activity of purification or temporarily alleviate the degree of pain. Thought to be the most efficacious of all these suppressive, temporary therapies are those that rely upon drugs and pharmaceuticals.
     These medicinal toxins not only stop the purification process, they are frightening measures whose harmful influence upon human health is truly unimaginable. My many years of experience teaches me that all suffering results from medicinal toxins, that they are the cause of pain, fever, unpleasantness, fatigue, and of nervous exhaustion as well as of overall decline of the metabolism and relaxation of the bodily functions. It is no exaggeration to say that the quality of the health of human beings, and the severity of their conditions result from the amount of medicinal toxins they carry within their bodies.
     Medical treatment, as we know it today, utilizes medicinal toxins to halt the purification process the first time individuals become sick, and subsequently, new medicinal toxins are added to the original amount of toxins. This process is exemplified by the well-observed phenomenon that as doctors perform medical treatment, complications arise. Is there nothing more unreasonable than the fact that despite the purpose of healing one illness, second and third conditions are caused? If the treatment were indeed appropriate, the first condition should improve and there should be no reason for complications to break out. If we applied the number ten as the value of the first illness, this value should become nine as time passes, then eight, then seven and so on, gradually decreasing. But look what happens. Despite medical treatment, ten becomes eleven, then twelve, thirteen, gradually increasing, a most inexplicable phenomenon. That neither doctors nor patients start to harbor any doubts about these results show how much medical science has come to form one kind of superstition.
     This is how I see the situation. If the Japanese people were to quit using drugs completely, the number of sick people would probably decrease by half within ten years. Consequently, the Japanese life span would lengthen and after several decades, individuals on average would live easily to about eighty years. The life span would be longer because the reason for the shorter length is death from illness. Death by illness is not natural. With the decrease in illness, the number of those who die from natural causes through the inevitable declining process, would increase. Death from natural causes should occur around the age of at least ninety years. Neither natural is pain or agony that accompanies human death, so if death were completely natural it would happen like a tree that falls over naturally at the end of life, with no suffering whatsoever only a matter of course. Needless to say, the cause of the suffering that accompanies the process of death are drugs and other therapies that are applied to halt the process of purification. To wit, the friction that results from unnaturally suppressing the natural process of purification leads to pain and agony. That the suffering occurs in an already greatly weakened physical body only multiplies the misery.
     An old adage holds that the human being is a vessel of disease, but this saying is in great error. In truth, the human being is a vessel of health, and health is the condition in which human beings should be. God caused human beings to be born to bring forth the divine ideal on this earth through the agency of human beings. In order to accomplish their mission, therefore, human beings should not be unhealthy.
     Please allow a personal note here. I was born with a very weak physical constitution, and until around the age of forty I was more than the average worshipper of medicines and drugs. Sick more often than healthy, you could say I was soaked in medicine. A certain episode made me realize how terrible medicinal toxins are, and I abruptly quit the use of drugs. Since then, my health has improved each year, and now, twenty years later, I am indeed healthier than a younger man. The some ten members of my family are, unusually so for nowadays, all healthy. In addition, can be seen without a doubt that not only do those who believe and put into practice what I teach all, without exception, grow healthier as time passes, they all form healthy families as well.
     There is another important aspect to be noted as well about the use of drugs. Those who carry medicinal toxins experience the harmful effects listed below that become more pronounced the greater the amount of toxins. Humanity has yet to become aware of these bad effects and where they come from.
1.  Continual sensation of unpleasantness
2.  Functions of the brain dulled
3.  Slackened physical movement
     I shall discuss these points in greater detail.
     As for the first point of the sensation of continued unpleasantness, because there is slight fever in areas where medicinal toxins have accumulated and solidified, there is chillness either locally or all over the body, so when cold is felt, it exceeds the normal amount. In addition, in whatever affair or activity these individuals may engage, they are troublesome, like to sleep, get bored easily, nor can they tackle a matter for a very long time. Due to these factors, they interpret all things pessimistically, lack in common sense, and like a gloomy atmosphere, preferring rainy days over bright, clear ones. Easy to anger, most noticeably they are they desperate, are always fretful, take umbrage at the smallest slight, experience occasions when they may become hysterical, and even though they know they are mistaken, cannot deal with their error and continue to push ahead. More than anything else, they are pessimistic, and there are some who become totally useless as human beings.
     When such individuals are in a family, the other members are influenced and family life becomes very gloomy. There is no end to conflict, and a sense of satisfaction in life is all but impossible.
     As for the second point concerning the brain, the thinking processes of modern people overall have dulled considerably. Particularly noticeable is the poor memory now seem to be had by all. Nowadays, individuals in even the important positions cannot give a speech without referring to manuscripts, even though I hear that in previous eras, it was considered disgraceful to refer to notes while speaking publicly.
     At the end of the Tokugawa period in the mid-nineteenth century, Sugita Genpaku, Takano Choei, and others were able to produce magnificent translations of Western books even though good reference books were not available, so undoubtedly these individuals were quite intelligent and quick witted. There are probably no persons like them among people today. Examples such as when Benkei recited the Kabuki play Kanchincho while looking at a blank piece of paper at the Battle of Ataka or when Hieda no Abe memorized all the books of Record of Ancient Matters are instances that show the incomparable superiority of the brains of Japanese people.
     People today find it difficult to have a definite opinion of even the simplest matter unless each minute aspect is explained in painstaking detail with varieties of proofs for every explanation until the point is acknowledged. Human beings were created so that they could understand something from just a few words. The old proverb, “Hear one, know ten,” now has to be worded “Hear ten, know one,” which is the utmost people today can manage. A tendency does exist for theory to be valued over practice, and because of this, in medical science as well as in other sciences, ignoring the actual and leaning to theory is preferred.
     Another example of how dull the brains of people have become these days is that whenever the government establishes another institution or initiates a new policy, efforts have to be exerted in many different ways, including through the radio and printed posters, for the populace to understand and act accordingly, and such is because, I do believe, the brains of the Japanese population in general have become so dull.
     As for the third point, that the physical movements of contemporary people have become sluggish, is also quite obvious. The normal actions of most Japanese have slackened, so the slowness is not perceived. The pace of individuals when they walk, especially those in urban areas, is astonishingly slow. This is because their physical bodies are sluggish.
     The quick reactions of the samurai and geisha of old who could move in a flash like birds and the couriers who were able to run twenty miles in one day, easily making a return trip, are actions that people nowadays can not possibly imitate.
     The Japanese should be lighter in weight and more nimble of movement compared to foreigners. That Japanese aviators are especially superior is the best demonstration.
     Therefore, it is no exaggeration to say that the fundamentals of human unhappiness and conflict lie in medicinal toxins. This fact would be so clear, I imagine, if a society of human beings without medicinal toxins came about. A human being completely without medicinal toxins would be clear-headed, pleasant, and quite energetic.

Medicine for Tomorrow, Volume 1, third edition, page 207, October 5, 1943.
translated by cynndd