Great Construction

Religion and Faith (Medicine for Tomorrow)

     It seems that occasionally there is the person who thinks our healing practice is religion- or faith-based. I try to explain that it is based neither on religion nor on faith. To begin with the case of religion, as the Chinese ideograms for the word for “religion” indicate, a religion is that in which a certain organization is created, doctrine is established, teaching is expounded, and activities are carried out in accordance with the gist of that teaching. Also, whether it is to the So-and-So Tathagata, the Such-and-Such Boddhisattva, the Deity This-and-That, the Lord That-and-This, or else to Christ, or to the founder of some denomination, prayers and rituals must be regularly preformed. Of course, there are various distinctions in forms and ceremonies among religions, but generally they are as described above. The other supposed foundation of our healing practice is faith, and, briefly expressed, as embodied in the Chinese ideograms for “faith,” faith is when something is trusted or depended upon (the ideogram for “believe”), and that sentiment grows stronger as time passes to the point where finally grows a feeling of reverence (the ideogram for “adoration”). So, when considered in these terms, faith is not limited to gods or buddhas, but applies to all manner of things. Worshiping the rising sun is a faith. Bushido and material science are other forms of faith. Therefore, even the Western material medical science I described in the preceding chapters is nothing other than one form of faith. The faith in medical science in particular could indeed be called absolute. Considered absolute because valuable lives are entrusted to it and regardless of results, trust and ease of mind are inspired.
     This healing technique, on the contrary, differs from the religious element and the concept of faith as previously described. Different because without doubt there is no religious element in this healing technique. Speaking of faith, however, it cannot be said that faith does not at all exist. As long as there are patients who have received death sentences from doctors and individuals who have recovered from the brink of death from hopelessly intractable diseases who give birth to feelings of joy, it is probably natural that that deep emotion would result in faith. To look at actual results in this way is a natural reaction, so it is not superstition.
     Here I want to address doctors. Sometimes when it happens that recovery has occurred through some other form of treatment than that of medical science, you say that it happened because the patient believed they would certainly be cured. And, there is a reason for holding such a view. The view is probably the result of the interpretations of many experiences encountered in the practice of Western medical science, one of which is, for example, the cases of efficacious drugs prescribed by a trusted doctor that cure. For example, even with the same drug, doctors often talk about how the drug prescribed by a celebrated doctor will have excellent effect while only a weak effect comes about when prescribed by an obscure doctor. This proves that these effects are completely activities of mental processes and do not result from the drugs themselves. Therefore, it is only inevitable that patients are controlled by the preconceived idea that they are cured because they trust the doctor.
     In this healing technique, as I have repeatedly stated, the results are the same for those who doubt as they are with those who believe. That evidence particularly presents with great efficaciousness in infants. In cases of ekiri (children’s dysentery) which doctors particularly dread, the recovery rate for patients who undergo treatments of Western medical science is less than ten percent, while recovery in the cases of those who receive our healing technique numbers over ninety percent.
     I always say: “To win the war is enough. To cure the disease is sufficient.” That is all.

Medicine for Tomorrow, Volume 2,  third edition, page 200, October 5, 1943
translated by cynndd

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“Shūkyō to Shinkō,” which appeared originally in the October 5, 1943, edition of volume 2 of the publication Medicine for Tomorrow has previously appeared in translation. Citation is given below for reference.

“Religion and Faith,” True Health, 1987, page 122.