Great Construction

Paradise Is a World of Art

     The application of the cardinal truth to any object, system, technique, science or category of thought is Art.
     “Paradise is a world of art” is what I always say. Truly fine art, literature and all other fields of art should flourish in the New Age, for they are all good. But art should progress equally in its every phase. I mean, this world can not be called a true paradise unless it becomes artistic in every phase of life.
     The spiritual healing by Divine Light which I advocate can truly be called the Art of Life, for essentially art should include truth and goodness besides the beauty in it. In the state of illness there is no truth, hence no art. Health is the true state of man. If a man becomes ill, he is no longer whole. He is no longer in a state of manhood.
     Let us take a bowl, for instance. If a bowl is impaired or cracked in any way, it can no longer be useful as a bowl. If it leaks, does not stand straight and falls when it is put on a table, or is too fragile to be handled, there is no more truth in it as a bowl. We must repair it in order to make it useful, we must make it whole. Similarly, if a man can not work because of illness, he is useless. He, too, should be made whole and returned to the true state of manhood. It is Johrei, the Divine Light of God, which can achieve this.
     If a man should lose his quality of goodness and do wicked things, he no longer exists as a true man, and such a person will do harm to society. Far worse than being useless, he very existence will personify wickedness itself. And he must pay the penalty, for there is a Law of Compensation. God holds the power of life and death within His hands. Those who disobey the Law suffer in one way or another: they may fail in business, suffer from a long illness, or be harassed by poverty. In some cases such people even lose their lives.
     There are two kinds of evil: that which is done intentionally, and that which is done unintentionally. The suffering which comes from them is proportionate to the degree of the evil. The Divine Law is absolutely fair.
     Beauty is art itself, so I will not spend any time expounding it.
     Thus the fundamental requisites for transforming this world into paradise is the embodiment of Truth, Goodness and Beauty.
     In this meaning spiritual healing and farming which we advocate can also be called art, the former the Art of Life, the latter, the Art of Agriculture.
     We are also constructing miniature paradises as another of our activities. This is the Art of Beauty. The Art of Life, the Art of Agriculture and the Art of Beauty—these three being combined, the World of Light will be realized where Truth, Virtue and Beauty abound. THIS is Paradise on Earth—the Ideal World.

Teachings of Meishu and Kyoshu, page 42, no date [1959?]