Great Construction

Love and Sincerity


     The key to solving all problems, whether of the world, the nation, or the individual is the blending of love and sincerity together, love and sincerity alone.
     The poverty of politics is because of the poverty of both love and sincerity. The lack of resources is because of the lack of love and sincerity.
     The decline of morality is also because there is no love and sincerity. The confusion of public order as well generates where there is no love and sincerity.
     The lack of both love and sincerity is the cause of all unpleasant problems.
     Religion, academic learning, and the arts are only empty shells unless both aspects of love and sincerity together are at their center.
     Ah, love and sincerity! Love and sincerity. Oh, humanity! They key to the resolution of all your problems is the bonding of love and sincerity.

Essays on Faith (Shinkō Zatsuwa), page 1, September 5, 1948
    translated by cynndd

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     The prose-poem titled “Makoto” (Love and Sincerity) first appeared in the Japan Kannon Church publication Essays on Faith (Shinkō Zatsuwa), September 5, 1948, page 1, and while Meishu-sama was still alive, reprinted in the first and only Sekai Meshiya Kyō anthology for the general public, Gospels of Heaven (Tengoku no Fukuinsho), page 2. Although most English translations print this work as connected prose, in the original text each line of the piece was printed separately as in a poem or series of epithets. The same format is maintained here. Citation for translations of “Makoto” is given below for reference.

“Makoto,” Foundation of Paradise, 1984, page 328.

“Makoto,” Teachings of Meishu-sama, Volume Three, 2005, page 3.

“Faithfulness,” Reaching for Faith, 2010, page 19.

“Sincerity,” Meishu and His Teachings, no date, page 58.

“Makoto—Sincerity and Truth,” A Hundred Teachings of Meishusama, no date, page 3.