Great Construction

The Power of Speech

     When some one is suffering from sickness or from some other trouble, we often experience wonderful results from prayer. That is, by praying our prayers aloud. People are often miraculously helped out of severe pain or out of trouble. It is so miraculous that people wonder why or how such things could have happened. There is a definite reason for this.
     It is the power of vibration of speech which causes this. If I may explain this a little more fully, in the spiritual world there is a realm of speech where (in Japan) 75 great spirit-sounds are always vibrating. But these are soundless sounds which fill the spiritual world. Of course we humans on the mortal plane do not hear them. To this realm of speech in the spiritual world the words we human utter vibrate and influence that world. Good and righteous words emit high vibrations which diminish the clouds in the spiritual world, while bad and vicious words emit low vibrations and make the spiritual world more cloudy.
     There is a certain order in the arrangement of the 75 sounds in the spiritual realm of speech. And the words uttered on this plane should harmonize with the right arrangement of sounds in the spiritual realm of speech in order that that world might be kept pure.
     Good words mean elegant words which convey beautiful thoughts. They are the words in which sounds are naturally so arranged that they agree with the law of Truth, Virtue and Beauty. That is why they harmonize with the sounds in the spiritual world. These words sound pleasant to human ears, too, because they penetrate and reach our soul which is the seat of conscience. Conversely, bad and vicious words do not reach the soul but stop at our mind which surround the soul.
     If I may explain this a little further, our secondary spirit which is of animal nature can possess the human mind and stay there, but cannot go further. The denser the cloud is that surrounds the mind, the stronger the secondary spirit becomes. Consequently it is more active. If such is the case, the cloud and the secondary spirit cover up the light of the soul, and so, the voice of conscience becoming weak the person will take delight in doing wrong.
     As a rule people in general feel good when they hear some good story, because the vibrations are good and they give a pleasant impression to the soul. If some people like hearing bad words, they like them because their secondary spirits enjoy the low vibrations emitted by those words. For instance, suppose we were listening to some villains talking about their vicious plans, their conversation would sound so unpleasant that we could hardly bear it. But to those villains it would give a pleasant feeling.
     Good words send out high vibrations and these vibrations reach the inmost soul and the soul emits more radiance, which in turn alleviates the cloud around the mind and makes the secondary spirit diminish. When the secondary spirit diminishes the primary spirit gains more power so that that person comes to dislike wickedness.
     When we pray Amatsu Norito, “Prayer of Heaven.” or Zengen-Sanji, “Prayer in Praise of God,” the high vibrations formulated by the good words of the prayers will weaken and diminish the secondary spirits within the people listening to them. In case of an evil spirit possessing the human being and torturing the body, it will be obliged to leave the body being unable to stand the high vibrations of the prayers. Thus the clouds around the mind being alleviated or dispersed, the body will be freed from suffering.
     I think you now realize how wonderful the vibrations or rightly chosen words are. Thus when we pray our prayer aloud the spiritual world around becomes much more purified. The same can be said of singing of hymns, chanting of scriptures and reading of the Bible.
     There is one more important point I wish to mention in this connection. Not only the power of certain words themselves, but the purity of the soul of the person who utters the words has a great relation to the vibratory power of the words uttered. In other words, the purer the soul is the more powerful will be the vibrations emitted by the words he utters. This is because spiritually the soul belongs to that high plane of higher vibrations.
     For you who are endowed with Light, your vocal vibrations are extremely high. They even approach the plane where dwells the Divine Light of God. Consequently you members should always be striving for spiritual advancement so that your character may attain this highest plane and your speech may give utterance to the highest vibrations.

The Glory, Number 017, page 2, July 16, 1957

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The English translation of “Kototama no Iryoku” above which first appeared on the second page of The Glory, Number 017, July 16, 1957, was never published while Meishu-sama was alive, but reprints and other versions were published afterwards. Citation is given below for reference.

“The Power of Speech,” Teachings of Meishu and Kyoshu, no date [1959?], page 33.

“The Power of Speech,” Teachings of Meishu-sama, Volume One, 1960, page 44.

“The Power of Speech,” Teachings of Meishu-sama, Volume One, Revised Edition, 1965/1967, page 44.

“The Power of Speech,” Foundation of Paradise, 1984, page 404; Reprint of “The Power of Speech,” Teachings of Meishu-sama, Volume One, Revised Edition, 1965/1967, page 44.

“The Vibratory Power of Speech,” Teachings of Meishu-sama, Volume One, 1967/2009, page 42.