Great Construction


The Elimination of Evil and
The Order for Construction of Paradise


     There is one basic condition for making this world into paradise. That condition is the expulsion of the very evil that is lodged deeply within the hearts and minds of the majority of people on earth. In this regard, inexplicably, the common sense of most of the general public is naturally to regard evil as wrong and to avoid it. Ethics and morals have been formed to admonish  people against evil, and education makes this its primary purpose as well. In religion also, good is encouraged and evil is driven away. In addition, observing any sphere of society as well, parents blame and admonish children; husbands, wives; wives, husbands; superiors, subordinates to avoid evil. Laws too are made with the threat of penalties to prevent people from committing evil and so forth. Even though this much effort is expended, there are still many more evil people. Strictly speaking, the reality is that nine persons in ten are to some extent evil and, in the present reality, it would be difficult to say whether even one in ten persons is good.
     To speak of the evil in an individual, though, evil exists in various magnitudes, further divided into various degrees and kinds. One kind is evil from the very core of one’s being, evil committed consciously. A second kind is evil committed unconsciously, without knowing that the act is evil. A third is evil committed in ignorance, and a fourth is the evil committed in the belief that it is good. A brief explanation of these kinds of evil would be as follows. The first type, evil done for evil’s sake, is irrelevant to this discussion and does not require explanation, but the second type, evil committed unknowingly, is the most common, widespread kind of evil. Evil committed in ignorance, the third type, is that committed on a group level by barbarous, uncivilized peoples, and on an individual level, by the mentally retarded, the mentally unstable, by children, and so forth, so it is an evil that resolves itself in the natural course of events. But the fourth type, the evil committed because it is thought to be good, causes great harm, as it is performed openly, vigorously, and with great enthusiasm. Later, I will discuss in detail about the evil unknowingly committed because it is believed to be good, but next I would like to write about the world view of evil as seen from the standpoint of good.
     As described above, when the present world is observed from a wide perspective, indeed it is at the point where “a world of evil” would be a good description. Particularly to be noted, since antiquity, we have heard of many examples of evil persecuting good, but we do not hear of evil being chastised by good. The present state of society is that evil has many supporters, but good has only a few, so evil people slip through the web of laws and confidently infest and lord it over society, while the good have to fight and compete against overwhelming odds. Good people who were weak were always being oppressed and made to suffer at the hands of evil people who were strong, so democracy naturally came about as a way to stand up to this irrationality. In the case of Japan, though, a feudalistic mentality pervaded the nation for a long period, so survival of the fittest was the norm, but fortunately, with the assistance of foreign countries, Japan was able to become the democratic nation it is today. It might be more appropriate in this regard to say that rather than democracy arising naturally in Japan, democracy was a natural result of circumstances. Still, even this one instance is an example where good extraordinarily prevailed over evil. Differing from foreign countries, however, democracy today in Japan is lukewarm, and I am sure I am not the only one who can still see the vestiges of feudalism in various aspects of Japanese society.
     At this stage, I will examine the connection between evil and civilization. The driving principle for the birth of civilization has, at its basis, been the conflict between good and evil, and the formation of the various protective measures that the weak have conceived since barbaric, pre-technological times, as can been seen in history, when the strong made the weak suffer, stole their freedom, and killed at pleasure. Fashioning weapons, constructing enclosures, taking defensive measures, and improving transportation were among the means for which efforts were made whether in groups or individually, and it is needless to say how much these efforts helped to advance culture. From there, progress continued and human knowledge gradually developed, technology such as letters was born, and agreements between and among groups developed. These contracts were the forerunners of the international treaties we have today. Further, rules and penalties were fashioned to bring evil under control on the social level and these primitive itemized lists were the prototypes of the laws we have today.
But the reality is that it was not possible to eliminate evil from human beings so easily. Rather, as human knowledge has advanced, the means and measures utilized by evil have only become more shrewd and ingenious, which shows that since primitive times, the struggle of good to keep the spread of evil in check has continued without cease to the present. Through this struggle, however, all know how much human knowledge has advanced and culture, developed, and it should be called unavoidable that not few were those who were sacrificed in this struggle. In any case, the conflict between good and evil has continued until the present day.
     To somewhat alleviate the sufferings of good people, great religious leaders appeared from time to time, and as the stated position of their teachings, they put limits on greed, oriented followers to the mental attitude of resignation, and taught obedience, as well as provided hope by prophesying the actuality of an ideal world, such as the world of Miroku, paradise on earth, and others. On other fronts, every effort was made to teach the principle of cause and effect as it relates to evil, and of course the people were admonished to repent and reform as soon as possible. The evidence of teachings being spread under hardship and difficulties and the endurance of violent suppression in which blood was spilled cannot be read without tears. Such efforts were indeed effective to a great extent, but the majority were still left powerless. And yet, those on the other side, from that of religion such as atheists established academic learning and through materialistic measures endeavored to prevent the misfortune caused by evil. As a result, fields of learning steadily advanced, and the progress of culture gave rise to results that exceeded expectations. Here, however, an unexpected obstacle was born, and, as described above, science which had advanced so much came to be used by evil.
     To begin, as can be understood when we observe conflict, along with the growing advance in weaponry, the continuing increase in the scale of war has given rise to the atomic bomb. The appearance of the atomic bomb is a crystallization of a terror that was never imagined by humanity. All those who heard of this discovery were joyful that the time for the demise of conflict had come, but this was for a brief period. It is fair to say that as the danger came about that the atomic bomb could also be used by evil, unease has rather increased. Still, however, it is mostly likely that drawing near is an age in which conflict has become impossible. When these points are considered, the results are truly bizarre that evil has created conflict but that evil has also brought conflict to an end. When viewed in this manner, it can be appreciated that both good and evil are nothing other than parts of the profound economy of God. Thus, human beings on the side of spiritual culture as well as those on the side of material culture, aside from those who are evil to the core, of course share a great desire for an ideal world of peace and happiness, but the problems remain about both the possibility of such a realization, and even if possible, its timing. But because there does not seem to be any prospect for such a realization, humanity’s sufferings only deepen. It is for this problem that sensible, thoughtful people continue to knock their heads against a wall, wrapped in clouds of doubt. Of such people are those who seek philosophical answers in religion, trying to unravel the puzzle, but most are convinced that the goals will be reached through the progress of science. With this approach as well, no certain expectations seem to be obtainable, and the situation has come to an impasse. When the reality of the present is observed, humanity continues to live each day without change, suffering and screaming in anguish in the midst of the three great catastrophes of disease, poverty, and conflict. However, I to whom all the fundamentals have been divinely revealed, will explain how the fallacies of culture are to be corrected.
     If evil creates the misfortune of human beings, as described above, there arises the doubt as to why God created evil. There is no way that these difficult issues of extreme inexplicability can be understood by human wisdom. It was inevitable all would resign themselves to the circumstances as even religion and any of the academic fields have not been able to make headway. But as long as these problems are not clarified, in no way will a true civilization be established. I will now disclose the fundamental principles of this issue. Actually, the existence of evil in this world has been necessary so far, and it is this very fact that was merely a puzzle in the world until today. Amongst all evils, that which has most threatened the life of human beings are most likely the issues of the security of human life and the two catastrophes of conflict and disease.
     I will start my explanation with the issue of war. At this point it is needless to state that many lives are taken and extreme misery pervades throughout, but because through war the utmost extremes of the knowledge of human beings have been expended and due to the efforts made to devise ways to keep the misfortune away, the development of culture has unexpectedly been promoted. Consider that there probably is no exception to the experience that, whether a nation wins or loses, after a war, there is stunning development. If conflict had not existed from the very beginning, culture would not have developed or else its progress would have been slight. Thus, conflict and peace have been intertwined like a rope, and the course of present culture has been step by step progress. It is interesting that such is true of social conditions and of human fate as well. As can be seen through this fact, it is the friction and rivalry between good and evil that indeed are the steps of progress.
     As can be understood from the above, evil has played a great role until today, but even so, the period of evil is not perpetual, there is a limit. This process is the intent of God, the lord of the world, what could be called in philosophical terms absolute or cosmic will. In other words, it is the end of the world prophesied by Christ followed by the very age, the heavenly world, long-awaited by humanity, with names such as the world of truth, virtue, and beauty free from disease, poverty, conflict, the world of Miroku, and so forth. The names differ, but the meaning is the same, and what they mean is a world where good has triumphed. In order to create such a marvelous world, an appropriate amount of preparation is necessary. With preparation in both the mental sense and in the material realm, the conditions have been met that are sufficient to form such a world. As to the order for this process, however, God has advanced the material, physical side first. The mental aspects of preparation do not require time and can be made in one stroke, but the material is not so easy and obviously requires much time. In order to advance the material, it was necessary to make human beings ignore the existence of God in order to concentrate on the natural, material aspects, and here was born atheism. It was the atheism that was indeed the necessary ideology required to create evil. Evil was thus born, and gradually as it gained strength, evil was able to inflict suffering, cause conflict, and bring pain, taking human beings down to the lowest levels, out of which they of course have tried to struggle. Stimulated and with great effort humanity sought to escape from the extreme limits of suffering. This struggle is what has spurred the development of culture, and, as tragic as it has been, was unavoidable.
     These are generally the fundamentals for understanding good and evil, and the time has now come for the expulsion of evil. This is the boundary line for the switch from evil to good, so the situation has become quite dire for evil. The preceding is neither supposition, wishful thinking, nor reasoned inference. This is a sign of God’s program for world economy, so whether it is believed or not, this transition is the definitive fate of humanity. This transition is the brake on evil, and the culture in which evil held sway will change and return to the hand of good, which will be the beginning of the stages for the establishment of paradise on earth. 

Creation of Civilization, unpublished, 1952
 translated by cynndd

        *              *             *

“Tengoku no Kensetsu no Junjo to Aku no Tsuihō,” the second chapter of the introductory first part of Bunmei no Sōzō (Creation of Civilization), the manuscript for a book that remained unpublished while Meishu-sama was alive, has appeared in translation. Citation is given below for reference. This chapter is a heavily revised version of the essay “Tengoku no Kensetsu to Aku no Tsuihō” (The Construction of Paradise and the Elimination of Evil),  which was originally published in Eikō, Issue 169, August 13, 1952, but at that time not specified as being slated for the projected volume Bunmei no Sōzō.

“Order of Construction of Paradise and Eviction of Evil,” Creation of Civilization, 1978, page 55. .