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     Recently juvenile delinquency has come to be taken up as a social problem, but it appears that appropriate responses have not been given. Today of the various proposals for preventing juvenile delinquency that have been offered, all are peripheral, and it is regrettable that there are none that touch on the heart of the problem. I describe the means that we believe will absolutely help prevention.
     Most importantly, it must be made clear where the fundamentals of this problem lie. What deserves consideration is the relationship between parent and child. Simply put, the parent is the trunk and the child is a branch. Because strenuous efforts are made to stop the rot in the branches while neglecting the trunk, any measures are nothing but nonsense. The basic condition for resolving the problem of juvenile delinquency is to know and understand that the cause of juvenile delinquency lies with the parent.
     We start with the spiritual side. Parent and child are connected by spiritual cords for which mention is constantly made. Thus, if the spirit of the parent is clouded, through the spiritual cord the spirit of the child will also be clouded. This is the cause of delinquency in juveniles. Since the way to prevent delinquency is to keep the spirit of the child from clouding, the most important point is to keep the spirit of the parent from clouding. As this point is not understood, parents come to hold mistaken beliefs, and whether they are aware of it or not, commit sin whose created cloud is reflected to the child, so those who are parents must always keep virtuous thoughts, perform righteous acts, and cultivate better sentiments. There are no other measures that will be effective.
     The preceding is a spiritual interpretation, and now I will describe the physical aspects. Children learn from their parents and seek to emulate them, aspects which are known to all, so as long as parents hold evil thoughts and perform evil deeds, no matter how skillfully evil is hidden, as children are part of a household, it is obvious they will learn of the evil. It is only natural that a child will think that it is quite permissible to indulge in the same behavior as the parent. It is not a mistake to say that the delinquency of a child is the delinquency of the parent. Thus, the only way to handle juvenile delinquency is to expose the delinquency of the parent.
     Those who would be parents! Absorb and digest the above, and first of all, seek yourself to be a good parent.

“Juvenile Delinquency,” The Glory, Number 021, page 2, July 10, 1958.

“Juvenile Delinquency,” Teachings of Meishu and Kyoshu, page 41, no date [1959?].

“Juvenile Delinquency,” Foundation of Paradise, 1984, page 238.

“Juvenile Delinquency,” Meishu and His Teachings, no date [1965?], page 66.

“Juvenile Delinquency,” A Hundred Teachings of Meishusama, no date, page 155.

“Juvenile Delinquency,” Teachings of Meishu-sama, Volume Three, 2005, page 44.