E23017

     Romantic love between a man and a woman is completely a function and activity of spirit which is something I would like to share with all young people. Let me give two examples.
     When I was involved in business, I hired a woman who was an art student around twenty years of age to work in the office. My business was in articles of artistic quality, so I had her creating design sketches. Let us call her T. One day T’s friend from school, a beautiful woman of about nineteen or twenty, let us call her U, came to visit. T was busy with work, so I had U wait in the reception room. When I just happened to look at U for the first time, I became rather anxious because I felt something depressing from her. I could not leave the situation alone, so I went to the room where T was working and asked about U. She did not open up at first but after persistent questioning, she related the following facts.
     For quite a long time, she and U had been involved in a homosexual relationship, and lately this fact had become known to T’s mother. T had been soundly scolded and it had come to the point where she was told to break off with U or quit school. The two had conferred and they had decided to commit a double love suicide that night. I was surprised, put T in a separate room, and examined her spiritually. The possessing spirit started to speak. It was the spirit of a duck and confessed that several months previously had possessed T. U was possessed by the spirit of a heron. The duck found the spirit of a heron unbearably adorable. That was the situation. I scolded and admonished the duck, and presently it withdrew. The result was that, as if she had been awakened, T’s love for U disappeared. They were nothing more than good friends, but of course spiritual treatment was continued several times until that stage was reached. From that experience I learned that romantic love was a spiritual activity and that if treatment were necessary, treating only one side was sufficient.
     The other example is the following story. I happened to be discussing with a student from a certain university whether or not spirits exist. He asked me to examine him spiritually, so I accepted and immediately began a spiritual examination. He soon fell into a trance. This trance meant that a possessing spirit had appeared. I asked, “Who are you?” The spirit said, “My name is AAA. I am a prostitute at the BBB Brothel in Asakusa. I really like this student and I want him to come visit me, but he doesn’t come so I possessed him. Please tell him to come visit me.” I told her I would do so, and the spirit happily withdrew. At the same moment, he awakened, and I asked him, “Do you know AAA at BBB?” He was surprised and said, “Why do you know that?” I replied, “I heard it from you just now.” He laughed and said, “I said something outrageous while I was unconscious.” This incident is of course an example of possession by a living spirit.

“Ren’ai to wa Nan zo ya,” which first appeared as the thirty-sixth chapter of the appendix titled “Reikagaku” (“Spiritual Science”) to the volume Tengoku no Fukuin (Gospel of Heaven), page 402, September 5, 1947, was reprinted while Meishu-sama still alive in the essays anthology for ministers Goshinsho: Shūkyō Hen (Divine Writings: Volume on Religion), page 197, March 25, 1954. “Ren’ai to wa Nan zo ya” has, as far as is known, not appeared in translation.