Great Construction

The God of Time


     Of every thing that is in the universe and in all aspects of human affairs, most likely there is nothing that is not controlled by the god of time. Whether it be the changes in the history of constant rise and fall or the battle between good and evil, right and wrong, apart from the god of time, nothing exists. In this sense, what was good today will be evil after several years. Past history well illustrates that what is truth now will be abandoned as non-truth in the years ahead and that what is prosperous at present will have the fate of decline and fall in the future. Thus it can be said that there is no such thing as absolute truth or no such thing as absolute evil. The oneness of right and wrong has been a concept known since antiquity, and there is no mistake that it is truth.
     A situation close in memory, we can look at present-day Japanese who before the war recklessly treated their lives in the belief that there was nothing higher than loyalty and patriotism. How mistaken this idea was haunts the memory of the people as we survey the tragic fate under which all anguish with the results that are completely opposite to the goals of that time. Needless to say, that the situation changed with the abrupt ending of the war was the settlement of time itself.
     Within the range of our knowledge, there are those aspects from our not so far away past that are difficult to overlook. The flourishing era of the Tokugawas became the Meiji Restoration in which those who had been daimyo and banner men were replaced by government ministers who had been nondescript students, a change that greatly resembles our present times. After the war, the downfall of the privileged classes which had consisted of the imperial house, the peerage, rich people and so forth still shines in our eyes. This situation is of course due to the god of time. In the prophetic writings of the Oomoto religion is the line “Even God is no match for the times” which summarizes the issue completely. Therefore, I do believe there would be no problem in concluding that the god of time is the master of all on this place called earth.
     It is in the above sense that paying close attention to the absolute that is time is something to which human beings should constantly be attentive.  

Chijōtengoku, Issue 5, page 8, June 25, 1949
translated by cynndd

                *        *        *

“Toki no Kamisama” appeared originally in Chijōtengoku, Issue 5, June 25, 1949, and was reprinted while Meishu-sama still alive in the essays anthology for ministers Goshinsho: Shūkyōhen (Divine Writings: Volume on Religion), page 91, March 25, 1954. “Toki no Kamisama” has appeared in translation. Citation is given below for reference.


Time, The Ruler,Foundation of Paradise, 1984, page 358.

“Time Governs All,” Teachings of Meishu-sama, Volume Three, 2005, page 58.