TRUE HEALTH

by

Mokichi Okada

This book was originally published in Japanese under the title Shinji no Kenko.

ÏACE ................................................ iAND HEALTH>REME GOAL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

JRING THE WHOLE B Y CURING THE PARTS . . . . . . . 10SINGLE SUFFERING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

EALTH AND HEAVEN ON EARTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12\ WORLD WITHOUT ILLNESS, POVERTY,

AND CONFLICT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135ALTH IS EVERYTHING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14CAVEN THROUGH HEALTH. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

ROAD TO HAPPINESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17PH FAITH AND WITHOUT FAITH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

EKAI KYUSEI KYO AND MYSELF. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20THE TRUE SALVATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

)WER OF THE SPIRIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23IE FEUDALISM OF SCIENCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

POMORROWS CIVILIZATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25IE TRUE NATURE OF ILLNESS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

FIRST ENGLISH EDITION, 1987

Published by Church of World Messianity Copyright® 1987 Church of World

Messianity, ali rights reserved Printed in the United States of America.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

pTHE TRUTH OF HEALTH. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31! HUMAN BEINGS AS VESSELS FOR HEALTH. . . . . . . . . . 32TRUE HEALTH AND FALSE HEALTH. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33RAISING HEALTHY CHILDREN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34A WAY FOR ANYONE TO PUT ON WEIGHT . . . . . . . . . . . 35THE WAY TO BE BEAUTIFUL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36MEDICINE AND SPORT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37MY HEALTH PLAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38WHAT IS DEATH?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40LIFE AND DEATH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41NATURAL AND UNNATURAL DEATH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

)XINSAN ANALYSIS OF TOXINS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45THE THREE KINDS OF TOXINS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47URINARY TOXIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47TOXINS PERSISTING FOR HALF A CENTURY. . . . . . . . . 48MEDICINE: A CAUSE OF WRONGDOING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

CAUSES OF ACCIDENTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51PURIFICATION

THE CREATOR OF HUMANITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55NATURAL THERAPY.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55MEDICINE'S BLIND POINTS AND THE BENEFICENT

POWERS OF NATURE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57WHAT IS SICKNESS? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58THE TRUE CAUSE OF ILLNESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60WHAT IS SICKNESS?

THE COLD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63WHAT IS THE COMMON COLD? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65INTERNAL BATHING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66THE TRUE CAUSE OF SICKNESS IS IN THE SOUL. . . . 68WRONGDOING AND THE FUNDAMENTAL CAUSE OF

ILLNESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70SIN AND SICKNESS.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73SICKNESS AND SUFFERING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75MEDICINE TOXINS I. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78MEDICINE TOXINS II.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79LOW-GRADE FEVER. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80BALANCED PURIFICATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81THE WORD PURIFICATION (JOHKA). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82ADMONITIONS FROM ANCESTRAL SPIRITS . . . . . . . . . . 83REBIRTH. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

JOHREITHE SPIRITUAL WORLD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89THE GREAT WORLD TRANSITION.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90TRANSITION FROM NIGHT TO DAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92I AM A SCIENTIST OF THE SPIRIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95THE PRECEDENCE OF SPIRITUAL O VER

THE PHYSICAL.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97THE PRECEDENCE OF SPIRITUAL O VER

THE PHYSICAL.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99THE SPIRITUAL BODY AND THE PHYSICAL BODY . . . 101 SPIRITUAL HEALING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103THE PRINCIPLE OF JOHREI... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104JOHREI AND THE THREE-ELEMENT COMPOSITION

OF THE INTERNAL ORGANS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110ABSOLUTE POWER.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

ONE PERSON AT A TIME IS INSUFFICIENT . . . . . . . . . 114MY LIGHT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115WHO IS THE SAVIOR? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116ELIMINATING THE SUFFERING OF ILLNESS . . . . . . . . 118BEING MIDWIFE TO WORLD CIVILIZATION . . . . . . . . . 119LIMITED AND LIMITLESS POWER. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119PHILOSOPHICAL EXAMINATION OF JOHREI . . . . . . . . 120RELIGION AND FAITH. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122THERAPY AND CONCEPTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124IT CAN BE CURED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124THEORY OF METHOD AND THEORY OF EFFECT . . . 126FACTS SPEAK ELOQUENTLY.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127CHANGE IN THE JOHREI METHOD.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129SICKNESS AND HUMAN CHARACTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130PRIDE AND ERROR.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

NUTRITIONTHE TRUE SCIENCE OF NUTRITION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135FOODS AND NUTRITION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136NUTRITION.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138THE SCIENCE OF NUTRITION.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140THE COMEDY OF NUTRITION.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

NATURE FARMINGPREFACE.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147NATURE FARMING.................................. 147THE TRIUMPH OF NATURE FARMING THE

GREAT POWERS OF THE SOILPrincipies of Nature Farming.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153The Adverse Effects of Fertilizers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155Superstitions About Fertilizers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156Merits of Natural Compost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156Repeated Cultivation Means Bigger Crops. . . . . . . . . 157Good News for Sericulture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

PRINCIPLES OF NATURE FARMING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158THE GREAT AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION.. . . . . . . . 160INSECT PESTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165DAMAGE FROM TYPHOONS AND FLOODS.. . . . . . . . . . 166RAISING TANGERINES FOR FORTY YEARS

THROUGH NATURE FARMING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167HOME VEGETABLE GARDENS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

THE GREAT AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTIONCLEAN AND ENJOYABLE HOME GARDENS . . . . . . 169

THE EARTH BREATHES.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172CONCLUSION

CONCLUSION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175APPENDIX

ADDRESS BY THE FOUNDER OFSEKAI KYUSEI KYO. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Preface

This volume, True Health, is a collection of the teachings on humanhealth of Mokichi Okada, founder of Sekai Kyusei Kyo, who is known bythe organization's members as Meishu-sarna, or Enlightened SpiritualLeader. In its original Japanese-language form it was published as a sistervolume to another collection of Meishu- sarna' s teachings entitledTengoku no Ishizue (Foundation of Paradise).

Of the three salient elements of the Heaven on Earth thatMeishu-sama felt was his mission to establish — health, prosperity, andharmony — health is the most fundamental. Health, both mental andphysical, hás always been the foundation of ali prosperity and happiness,and mankind hás exerted great and repeated efforts to attain it.Sometimes the approach was spiritual and psychological, sometimesscientific and material Out of these efforts arose movements to cureillness, the great destroyer of health, through a unified, mutuallyinteracting and complementary physio-psychological approach.Activities oriented toward that end continue today.

Medicai science hás, obviously enough, played the leading role inattempts to ensure physical health. Rapid strides forward inmedico-therapeutic techniques, especially in recent years, have made itpossible to save gravely endangered lives and to restore normalfunctioning to the human body. Yet, in spite of such advances, not onlydoes sickness persist, as is shown by the increase in the "diseases ofcivilization," but excessive medicai treatment, overuse of medicines,application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to agricultural crops,widespread use of food additives, overeating, and extensive use ofnarcotics have Ied to an increasing incidence of psychologicalabnormalities, deformed newborn infants, and obese or frail children.

Many people continue to believe that, even though medicai scienceclearly hás negative as well as positive effects, it will eventually lead to anew era completely free of illness. But Meishu-sarna hás warned that ifmedicai therapy and eating habits remain unchanged, illness itself willincrease rather than decrease, even though pathological forms maychange.

Modern therapeutic methods mistake a temporary effect for afundamental cure. By concentrating research solely on the physicalaspects, those who advocate such methods overlook the true nature ofMe as comprising both spiritual and physical aspects. Meishu-sama

taught that, though God made human beings to be healthy, modernmedicine employs unnatural methods which are detrimental rather thanbeneficiai

Against this background of mistaken belief and practice, thiscompilation of Meishu-sama's teachings on the subject hás beenprepared in the hope of contributing to the attainment of true health for alihumanity.

Since Meishu-sama's health philosophy differs from generallyaccepted ideas, the following outline of its major principies is offered toenable the reader to understand it better.

Our world hás a spiritual as well as a physical aspect, and the two are asinseparably bound together as the upper and under sides of the same object.The spiritual world is indeed the generative cause, the fundamentalessence, of the physical world. In other words, ali phenomena occurringin the physical world ha vê already occurred in the spiritual world and havebeen subsequently transferred to the world of matter. This truth isexpressed in the principie that the spiritual precedes the physical. Sincethe spiritual and physical planes are two sides of the same entity, whathappens in one affects the other. Occurrences on the spiritual plane haveconsequences on the physical plane, and physical phenomena influencethe spiritual plane. In short, the condition prevailing in one plane comes toresemble or be identical with the condition prevailing in the other. Thespiritual and physical planes are one. Similarly, the human beingconsists of the visible physical being and the invisible spiritual being.Phenomena occurring in the human flesh are transferred from the spirit,and changes in the physical being are reflected in the spiritual being.

Although essentially transparent, the spiritual being may becomeclouded by impurities caused by negative thoughts, words, and deedssuch as anger, hatred, envy, and slander. Impurities entering the physicalbody make the blood murky and reflect on the spiritual being by makingit cloudy. This spiritual cloudiness is transferred as a toxin, or poison, tothe physical being, where it tends to stagnate and congeal as its quantityincreases. When the poison reaches a certain levei, the physical bodyloses its ability to function normally. Then the body's natural powers ofself-purification eliminate the accumulation of toxins and restore normalhealth. These powers of self-purifïcation are God's greatest blessing. Suchconditions as fever, pain, coughing, accumulations of phlegm, and diarrhearepresent those self-purification powers at

work dissolving and expelling the toxins from the body. These powersmay cause temporary physical instability, yet as time passes the toxinsare expelled, purification is completed and normal health is restored.The elimination of toxins removes the corresponding clouds from thespiritual plane.

Medicai science, however, tends to regard these conditions asharmful and hás always employed such things as medicines to curesymptoms as quickly as possible. Even where it hás apparentlysucceeded, such treatment hás halted the self-purification processmidway. Since it prevenis the elimination of clouds from the spiritualbeing and toxins from the physical being, these undesirable elementsaccumulate. Furthermore, the pollution of the blood with medicinesreflects on the spiritual being by increasing cloudiness. This in turnamplifies the accumulation of toxin in the physical being to a stillgreater levei and can lead to a dangerous situation. The naturalself-purification powers once again strive to remove the accumulatedtoxin and manifest themselves in more violent forms than before.Medicai science responds by prescribing stronger medicines, which haltthe self-purification powers só that they once again assume still moreviolent forms. As the process recurs over and over again withoutresolution, spiritual clouds and physical toxins accumulate to the pointwhere the self-purification forces become impotent and extremelystubborn pathological symptoms afflict the physical being. It is importantto note here that, not just medicines, but chemical fertilizers, pesticidesand food additives fali into the category of impurities.

The way to eliminate spiritual clouds and their physicalmanifestation in the form of toxins is through Johrei, purification bymeans of the divine light, which God made available throughMeishu-sama

Johrei entails channeling the divine light from the palm of the hand ofone person toward the spiritual being of another, and therebystimulating the process of purification and eliminating the cloudiness ofthe spirit and the toxins that are its manifestation in the physical being.This Johrei in turn enables the natural powers of self-purification tofunction normally.

In addition to eliminating spiritual clouds, it is vital to avoidcreating them. The fundamental thing here, as already explained, is tomaintain correct mental attitudes and to speak and act in a correctmanner, yet at the same time it is important to minimize the amount of

FAITH AND HEALTH The Supreme Goal

No one can deny that happiness is the supreme goal of ali humaniittpirations, and that physical health is absolutely essential both toipeople in search of happiness and to people who are happy and wish torrtmain that way. As Jesus of Nazareth said," What does it profit a man,l,lf he gains the whole world but loses his own life?"

I have succeeded in eliminating illness from human beings andrestoring them to vigorous health, thereby prolonging their lives. ThisBÍgnifies the achievement of a great ideal to which humanity hás aspiredfor thousands of years.

The prolonging of human life hás hitherto been generally assumedtobeafooFs dream. For that veryreason, the great discovery leading toits realization must have value unrivaled in human history. I am certainthat taking this new healing art to ali humanity cannot fail to bring about agreat global revolution. But this should not cause alarm: the revolutionI speak of will b e f ar remove d from the bloody and violent revolutionsof the past. It will be brilliant with light and joy, and will serve as thefoundation for eternal peace.

Though I may sound overly bold, I believe that if you read this bookcarefully, think deeply about its contents and put them into actualpractice, you will see that there is no falsehood in what I say.

What is the meaning of cultural development but the betterment ofthe well-being of each individual? The basis of this well-being must behealth and longevity. As we ali know, humanity hás exerted great effortsto advance in the field of medicai science, in the belief that this is theonly way that this goal can be achieved.

It is certainly true that medicai science hás a glamourunequalledbyany other science. But human beings tend to be dazzled by the greathospitais with their surgical theaters, countless kinds of medicines,microscopes, X-ray equipment, radium, and various radiation devices,by the minutely worked out scientific theories, the frequent newdiscoveries, and the publication of new theories. Because of ali of thisimpressive paraphernalia, human beings naturally assume that medicinecan ultimately eliminate illness. Yettoday that goalremains in the remotefuture, and we have no idea when it will be achieved.

I do not wish to idly criticize medicai science, yetl feel that it is timeto warn the world that we are still moving in a direction opposed to whatought to be the true goal.

In clarifying the functioning of the human body by means ofdissection and analysis, medicai science hás performed a service forwhich we must be gratefuL Yet that same medicai science is in manyways fallacious; indeed, it is surely one of the wonders of the world thathumanity should have gone só long without recognizing those fallacies.

The healing art I have created represents the opening of a mysticaldoor that hás been closed for thousands of years. I believe that God hásentrusted to me the great task of helping to restore humanity to itsessential state of good health.

February 5, 1947

Curing the Whole by Curing the Parts

Let us consider for a moment the actual situation prevailing in theworld. The reign of the irrational is wellnigh universal; truth is rarely, ifever, to be encountered. For this reason there is no telling when thesuffering of humanity will be eliminated. In brief, the world as a whole aswell as individual countries, is sick Though it seems immense, the worldis only a collection of individuais. The illness of one person is transferredto the whole nation and then to the world until the entire globe is in apathological condition. Yet the reverse, too, is true: if the individualbecomes healthy and sound, só will the nation and ultimately, the world.A person who understands this principie sees that promoting the health ofindividuais is the sole way to — as our motto proclaims — create anideal world. In other words, curing the illness of individual afterindividual is the way to achieve this great goaL

June 25, 1951

My Single Suffering

I, too, have my sufferings. Since my task is to blaze a new trail in ableak and lightless world such as that of the present, Satan andDevadatta (a cousin and disciple of the Buddha who turned against, andeven plotted the death of his master; he hás come to be a symbol of evil)run rampant. It is like being surrounded by a wall bristling with thespears of jealousy, envy, persecution, calumny, and misunderstanding.Trying to overcome these things and gradually turn this hellish worldtoward paradise is more difficult than can be imagined.

Nevertheless, since I enjoy the protection of the Supreme Spirit, mylot is not só hard as it may appear to outsiders; indeed, I am constantlygrateful for the great happiness and wonderful destiny that have beenvouchsafed me.

Nonetheless, there is one thing that causes me great suffering. It is,as might be expected, relate d to modern medicai science. Though I havebeen speaking and writing about the fallacies of modern medicine formany years, I have never yet gone ahead and told the complete,unvarnished truth. I have been careful always to avoid undulyprovocative remarks, since I felt that to reveal the whole truth mightcause unnecessary trouble. Furthermore, however I might have wishedto publish the truth, I was unable to do só until the right time had come.

I have been thoroughly instructed by God in ali things pertaining tohuman health and illness. If I had not, I would never have undertakenthe awesome task of creating a world free of sickness. I am able to speakboldly because I am absolutely certain of what I am saying. Since thebasis of eliminating suffering is eradicating illness, the utter misery ofmodern humanity brings me intolerable suffering. I am caught betweenmy sympathy for humanity's plight and the feeling that the time is notright for speaking the full truth. This hás caused me such great pain that Ihave constantly prayed for the speedy arrival of the day for fullrevelation.

J une 3, 1950

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Health and Heaven on Earth

As you already know from my repeated explanations, the ideal worldthat we constantly advocate entalis the elimination of humankind'sthree greatest sufferings: illness, poverty, and conflict Illness isobviously the main condition from which the other two sufferings arise. IfGod wishes to save humankind, He must begin by solving the problem ofhealth. Without health, what happiness can there be? Any religion orscience that lacks the power to solve the issue of health is of little value,since it is impossible to deal with poverty or conflict without goodhealth.

This is probably the first time that any religion, or science, hás takenup the cause of creating a world free of illness, poverty, and conflict Toset such a goal requires enormous confidence, yet the fact that we havebeen able to attract hundreds of thousands of faithful followers in ashort time, and that the number of those followers is graduallyincreasing as time passes indicates that this confidence was notunfounded.

It is essential that ali ills be eliminated. Throughout the developmentof our organization, therefore, we have recognized the need to dealwith the issue of health, and have given first precedence to healing. Tobring the results to as many people as possible, we have filie d thepages of our periodicals with case histories, which inevitably awakensdoubt in the minds of readers, especially scholars and specialists. Sincealmost ali of these case histories represent miracles of a kind that areusually thought impossible, specialists and people in positions ofpolitical responsibility naturally expect thorough investigations ofthem. Such people are likely to see in the results expressed in ourtestimonials a threat of unprecedented problems. They wonder,perhaps, whether many of our testimonials are true. If they are in factfree of exaggeration and falsehood, what can they mean? Unprecedentedas it is in the history of the world, the issue is só difficult that such peoplehave no idea how to approach it

Yet facts always remain facts; truth is always truth. We would notwillingly be foolish enough to hurl ourselves into a whirlpool that iscertain to drag us into major problems. Yet if one views the matterobjectively, one sees that it is Time, the absolute authority, that hásbrought forth this great undertaking, in which we cannot help but recognize atremendous love. How will the ordinary people interpret those

•documented cases of individuais, who, despairing after having tried l vain ali kinds of accepted cherapies in the hope of curing their grave lesses, coming to know Johrei, and experiencing the joy of returning i life from the brink of death, are unable to express their gratitude in Drds? People who doubt and reject these experiences have never ICtually come into contact with the matter in question. It is only rational ïrhuman beings to use the power of Johrei in elimina ting the suffering ' the world, if thorough investigation proves beyond doubt that our jeriences are fact. Anyone who persists in refusing to recognize the uth even after it is conclusively proved must either be lacking in love humanity, be forced to adopt this stand by inescapable jmstances, or be psychologically ilLPerhaps what I have said is too outspoken; but the plea I make is one cannot ignore as long as we intend to go forward into the new gê.

June25, 1949

A World Without Illness, Poverty, and Conflict

Most people regard a world without illness, poverty, and conflict asan unattainable ideal; but our movement is not afraid to say that itbelieves firmly in its realizatioa The fundamental way to create such aworld is to eliminate illness.

People who become ill must spend money on treatment and may beforced to stay away from work Misfortunes pile on misfortunes as theillness continues. Ultimately, ali the savings and property the individualworked and sweated for years to amass are gone. Then, when he hásborrowed ali he can from friends and relatives, he finds that no traceremains of the abundant, peaceful, and happy way of life he and hisfamily enjoyeduntilonlyrecently. There are many cases of people who,•inking to the lowest possible depths, suffer from both illness and poverty.

The entire family of a person who is gravely ill is obliged to shoulderlimitless responsibilities. One person's illness can cause hardship to•orne degree or other, not only to relatives and friends, but also to

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employers and fellow workers. One person' s illness can be a blow to thefour or five people in his or her immediate family and to others outsidethe home as welL When two or three people fali terminally ill, one afterthe other, in the same household, it is not uncommon for even thewealthiest family to find itself compelled to live in severely reducedcircumstances.

People save money with one of two aims; the positive aim ofamassing property and a fortune, and the negative aim of providingfunds to pay medicai bills in case of illness. As everyone is aware, a verygreat number of people save for the latter, negative purpose.

We can conclude that illness is the greatest cause of poverty.Everyone knows that the fundamental causes of conflict, whetheron

the individual or on the national scale, are economic. As I have alreadysaid, illness is a basic cause of economic trouble. Consequently, in orderto rid the world of poverty and conflict it is essential first to eliminatethe fundamental cause — illness. First priority must go to riddinghumanity of sickness. Only a divine power could achieve such an aim;not even the Buddha or Jesus Christ dreamed of such a gloriousundertaking, and whoever can have faith in its realization is a happierman than any before him.

September 15, 1935

Health is Everything

Theologians and journalists are mistaken when they insist thatthose religions which stress the cure of illness — or the promotion ofgood health — are somehow inferior because they concentrate onpractical benefits. Illness is a tremendous hindrance to society as wellas a cause of great suffering, and a thorough examination ofcontemporary society shows that sickness is the fundamental cause of aliunhappiness and tragedy. It can even be said that there is illnessbehind every tragedy. The number of happy people increases in directproportion to an increase in the number of healthy people. I have beenspeaking on the individual levei, but on the national levei, as well, there isnothing as negative as illness, the root of ali trouble s.

In the achievement of the supreme goal — a world free of illness, íverty, and conflict — solving the problem of illness leads to the lution of the problems of poverty and conflict. It is important to aember that illness means not only physical, but also psychological Brders, one of the most serious issues in the world today. War providos a good illustration. The people who instigate wars are l exact opposite of the people who try to prevent them. Similarly, the ïgleaders in aggression are very different from the people who must urged to fight. The great villains in these instances are always the lople of power who set war in motion, and exposure of their true 5 ti vê s always shows that they are greedy and unsatisfied with the Igree of success ordinary people find sufficient Their extraordinary Jents and self-confidence make them impatient and spur them on to Utrageous ambition. As the lives of historical heroes make clear, such lople invariably end up in failure even though things may go their way a while.

Furthermore, for the sake of achieving their own ambitious ends, mercilessly sacrifice the lives of many ordinary people. Even ough they are called heroes, such people are in fact able to remain nperturbed in the face of the horrifying unhappiness and loss of life ey cause, the reason being that they themselves are psychologically Uawed. They suffer from a kind of madness; obviously, there is f lomething mentally wrong with a person who is able to persist in selfish, í loveless, merciless actions that serve his or her own purposes regardless Of the cost to others.Interestingly enough, experience hás taught me that a person with a psychological flaw always hás some kind of physical flaw as well. The reason why some "heroes" and criminais seem to enjoy txtreme good health is that, though they harbor large quantities of toxins, these are in a solidified state.

On the basis of this discussion, it might seem that any religion,icience, philosophy, or educational system that eliminated humanillness would be acceptable. In fact, however, there is no way to cure•ickness completely but through the Divine Light.

November 12, 1952

Heaven through Health1514

Jesus Christ proclaimed: "the kingdom of heaven is at hand."Undoubtedly, it is the goal of ali religions to create a better world, torelieve humanity of suffering, and to bring about a world of joy.However, far from realizing this common goal, we have not yet evenbroken out of the hell on earth. Why is it that, in spite of the ceaselessefforts of religion, philosophy, science, morality, and education in aliparts of the world from ancient times, we have made só little progress?We have still to see the first glimmerings of a solution to the problem ofhealth that lies at the heart of ali tragedy. Unless the problem of healthis solved, it will be meaningless to try to set the other things right Thedivine spiritual healing that I have perfected is capable of eliminatingali human illness and of establishing perfect health.

Nevertheless, the discovery of this divine spiritual healing readilyinvites misunderstanding. The relation between it and the majority ofthe world is like that between people standing on the ground and a manstanding on a roof. The people on the ground cannot see the top of thehead of the man located on the roof.

Be sure that if you seek the cause of any tragedy, you will find illness atits heart. Take, for instance, the case of a young person who, on theverge of graduating from a school of higher learning, is afflicted withtuberculosis.* Hope vanishes both for the student and for the parentswho centered ali their aspirations in him. Their future is dark. Similarly, amiddle-aged person attacked by some dread disease must stop workingin frustration just at the time when he or she hás laid the foundation forvigorous future activity. As I have said, most of the tragedies of humansociety can be traced to illness.

It is just at this most miserable of times that there hás suddenlyappeared divine spiritual healing. Anyone who hás joined ourorganization and hás actually experienced it will be convinced of justhow revolutionary a medicai science it is.

April20, 1950

*"At the time that this article was written, tuberculosis was still a dreaded and generally incurable disease in Japan."

The Road to Happiness

Ali human beings wish for happiness, and it is obvious that freedomfrom illness is essential for the happiness of individuais and families.But the idea of complete good health hás been considered impossibleuntil now, and many people, though healthy, live in the fear of falling ill•ooner or later. Moreover, this anxiety is aggravated by uncertainty as

|to whether such an illness could be cured. For these reasons, evenjiuccessful people in comfortable circumstances cannot enjoy true[happiness because of the insecurity they feel about their health.

As I have explained frequently before, illness is the fundamental tlource of ali unhappiness. People save money and buy health and life• Insurance to provide for themselves when they become sick. Similarffiotivation is behind many social institutions such as orphanages,homes for the elderly, and relief funds.

Consequently, until the problem of human illness is solved, even themost ideal governmental measures cannot bring people true happiness.In brief, health is the basis of happiness — indeed, is ali of happiness —but no medicai art or method hás só far been able to solve the problemof sickness, until now.

I am not boasting; but, as I have already stated, the Johrei andhealth regimen that I have founded can liberate humanity from theinsecurity caused by sickness. I can say with certainty that any personwho comes to know Johrei will experience true happiness. The road isalready open to the happiness for which human beings have longed forthousands of years.

September28, 1942

With Faith and Without Faith

Firstly, I must make it clear that by the word "faith" I mean,specifically, faith in our teachings and not faith in the general sense.

The people living in this transient world of suffering are aptly

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described in Chrisfs words as "pathetic lambs." How many people canactually be said to live out their days completely free of anxiety? Among thefactors causing human insecurity, illness is the most important. Peoplecannotforetell when they will becomei 11. People can catch a cold within anhour of being perfectly sound in health. The cold can develop intopneumonia, or the early stages of tuberculosis. An attack ofappendicitis may bring agonizing pain at any time. The next day, thatperson may come down with intestinal typhus or some unknowndisease. Within two or three days, achildmay dieof suchdreaddiseases asinfantile dysentery, diphtheria, or meningitis. Elderly people canbecome bedridden and miserable for years from a sudden cerebralhemorrhage resulting in palsy or partial paralysis. A member of thefamily may be forced to lead a life of isolated hospitalization because of ahighly contagious illness.

Moreover, in these days of high medicai costs, it is impossible toforesee how much therapy and hospitalization will cost. If the illness iseasily cured, the situation is not too bad, but if the illness is protracted,hard-earned savings may be totally exhausted, positions may be lost asa result of long absence from the job, and ali financial support may

vanish. As long as the person recovers and is able to work, he or she canmake a living, but how is a family to make ends meet if the head of the

house either dies or becomes permanently disabled? Such a fate meansthe end of ali undertakings and plans. It is especially hard when suchtragedy strikes a person in the prime of life. Who can say that the tragic

day will not come when, as a consequence of illness and death, thebonds of love between husband and wife or parent and children must be

severed? As reflection on these considerations proves, ali humanbeings, without exception, bear the fear of illness like a leaden

weight

If humanity cannot b e liberated from this anxiety, then the Buddhawas correct in saying that the transient world is like a house on fire, andthat no one can escape the four sufferings of birth, illness, aging, anddeath. According to the Buddha, it is the realization and acceptance ofthis that constitutes enlightenment.

What more wonderful news for humanity could there be, then, thanthe appearance of a teaching capable of liberating it from the anxietyof illness! At first, anyone proclaiming the advent of such a teachingwould no doubt be ridiculed as claiming the impossible and as being onestep short of madness. Nonetheless, such a teaching hás most

certainly appeared. My readers may entertain nagging doubts, mayreject what I say — yet if true it is surely enough to create a worldwidesensation.

I shall now briefly expiam the relation between faith in our teachingsand illness. Anyone who grasps the essence of this faith hás no fear ofillness. Once its causes are clearly understood, illness is seen as a sourceof happiness rather than fear, since it is recognized as a naturalphysiological process in the advancement of good health and thereforeas one of God's great blessings.

Só far, I have concentrated on illness, but many other sources ofanxiety make it impossible for contemporary people to enjoy even amomenfs tranquility. For instance, vehicular transportation, on whichsó many people rely and in which they spend só large a part of their lives isfrequently the source of serious disasters. Similarly, disaster due todangerous machinery at places of work, fire, theft, or earthquakes,floods and other natural occurrences can, like the principal danger ofsickness, strike at any time. Governments and private bodies take steps toprotect the population against these things, and funds are set up toprovide health insurance, disaster insurance, unemployment insurance,and só on. However, none of these tangible methods can ensuretranquility beyond a certain limit, Absolute security can be attainedonly with intangible insurance; that is, God's insurance. Modern people,who are truly "pathetic lambs," and highly unreceptive to the idea ofintangible methods, find themsleves trapped in constant anxiety, sincethe tangible means on which they rely can do nothing to solve the basicproblem.

Those of us who have this understanding cannot bear to watch thosewithout it, who, like rootless grasses, live lives of fear and trembling.They are like people afloat on the sea in a lifeboat, being intent only ontheir own vessel, they refuse to acknowledge the existence of the greatship that hás drawn close with an invitation to board. Looking on andoffering help, we are still unable to draw them from the darkness ofrejection.

It is understandable, of course, that people find it difficult to acceptthis wonderful, but totally unprecedented spiritualpower. Nonetheless,the very appearance of this great teaching removes ali ground for doubtthat the emergenceofan ideal world, a world free of illness, poverty, andconflict is at hand.

March 20, 1949

Sekai Kyusei Kyo and Myself

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As ali members understand, our religion is quite different from aliprecedingreligions. Though I cannot give a detailed explanation here, Ishould like to describe the difference briefly.

Most religions in Japan are of one or two general kinds. The firstkind, which is só simple as almost to fali outside the category of religion,entails actions and ceremonies that give the performer no more than avague sense of having done the right thing. From time to time, believers insuch religions visit shrines, where they buy talisman plaques, amulets orfortune-telling papers. Those with money may sponsor performances ofritual dancing. Others toss money into the shrine offering box or makeother contributions. Doing these things gives them a vague sense ofspiritual security. In Japan, this kind of popular faith is called"Belief inthe Gods." Since a corresponding organization is usually behind it, it canonly be called a "religion."

The second kind is a puré religion in which members are registeredand organized into groups, and in which numerous officers, ministersand missionaries engage exclusively in religious work. Firm believers insuch religions have a sincerity that, in contrast to any vague sense of"grace," inspires them to throw themselves enthusiastically, body andsoul, into religious activities.

The second kind of religion occurs in both old and new forms.Perhaps under the influence of the changing times, the older ones areless vigorous and tend to stagnate. I hear that, by now, some of thembarely manage to survive at ali. The newer ones (again in Japan) havecome into being since the late nineteenth century and are currentlydeveloping with great vigor. Most of them, however, are related to theShinto faith. Among the Buddhists, only some groups within theNichiren Sect demonstrate vigor. The rest lack vitality. Though differingfrom each other in forms and modes, most of these religions areextension of the ideas or writings of their founders. Their believers servesincerely because they enjoy the protection of the god or Buddha whomtheir religion reveres. Obviously, however, degrees of intensity of faithvary among members. Most of them claim to want to make humans happierand the world a better place. We are in agreement with them in this, butmany religions concentrate too much on spiritual elements and showrelatively little interest in material benefits to be obtained in this life.

The True Salvation

While not neglecting the psychological aspects, we realize that,without consideration of physical aspects as well, relief cannot becomplete. This basic stand is what sets our organization apart from aliothers. Spiritual salvation alone is a theoretical matter that cannot givetrue happiness. Purely psychological happiness can vanish at anymoment in our deteriorating modern society. Illness may strike; thievesmay break in and steal; swindlers may cause financial loss, or heavy taxburdens may bring grave difficulty. Of course, taxes are necessary ifpolice and courts of law are to deal with criminais. Money must be spent inthe prevention of the many sicknesses to which human beings fali victim,and money must b e found through taxation to make up for the hugelosses incurred in wars started by ill-minded men. Many other instancescould be cited, but as these show, it is extremely difficult to live insecurity and tranquility on the basis of spiritual salvation alone. In short,in a world like ours, happiness is only possible when both material andspiritual salvation are ensured. As its name indicates, our organizationbrings both material and spiritual salvation to the world.

On the individual levei, this means thefulfillmentof the individual'swishes in terms of actual benefit in this life. On the social levei, it meanscultural reform. In practice, though, as the revelations of God show,contemporary civilization harbors inherent fallacies, fallacies that noone hás yet seemed to notice. On account of them moreover, it oftenhappens that a course of action adopted as being helpful often actuallyleads to harm. In short, something designed to promote the welfare ofhumanity results in the promotion of unhappiness.

The facts prove this better than anything else. Even thoughcivilization hás developed to its present levei, human beings not onlyfail to find happiness but tend to suffer more and more. Insofar as ourcivilization is the product of the wisdom and repeated efforts of greatmen and women, and wise scholars, who have appeared one afteranother over thousands of years, it should by now have reached a leveiof such supreme excellence that any serious inherent fallacy would beunthinkable. Yet I know that such fallacies exist. My wish is to makepeople understand this as quickly as possible, to share happiness withthem, and to impart to them a policy for the creation of a new and idealworld civilization. This is the will of God.

I would like to say here a few words about myself. Before I begin, I

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must explain that, though my background is that of an ordinary humanbeing, my destiny is a mysterious one, unparalleled in human history. Ihave been born to help the world in a way entirely different from suchgreat religious leaders of the past as the Buddha, Jesus Christ, andMohammed. I have been given the power to accomplish what could not beaccomplished in their time. I can, for instance, know anything that isimportant to know in the divine, spiritual and physical worlds and in thepast, present, and future — within the limits, of course, of mattersrelating to helping humanity and the creation of an ideal world. It isfascinating that I can foresee, not only my own fate, but also changesthat will take place in the world.

Furthermore, experience to date hás shown that my predictions are ingeneral accurate. It is as if dreams were to come true. I am constantlymaking plans and undertaking projects that, without exception, go as Iwant. If I decide to write a literary work on some topic or other, thewords flow forth naturally. As you know, I am fond of poetry and canproduce a surprisingly large number of verses. For instance, it is easyfor me to compose fifty short verses in an hour. I would like to writeother verse types, novéis, and plays as well, but lack of time prevenisme. I also write satires and humorous literature. Although I have had noexperience with the genre, I was able to write the ritual prayer ourmembers recite. As you ali know, I am also constructing a large-scaleprototype of Paradise on Earth and have chosen each stone, tree, andflowering plant myself. I designed the landscaping, architecture, anddecor. In designing the Hall of Worship in the prototype of paradisethat we are now building, I have employed the LeCorbusier style nowprevalent in the architectural world. But I have done só in a new way sóthat, when the building is completed, it is certain to attract globalattention.

I have almost no need to think about the landscaping orarchitectural work, since if I only stand and look at the space for whichsome project is planned, concrete images arise before me. I have neverstudied these subjects; it is just that, if I decide to do something, Iimmediately get good ideas. I arrange flowers, paint pictures, and docalligraphy. Although I have studied painting a little, in ali these otherfields I am a complete amateur. I understand things that will happen acentury in the future in politics, education, economics, philosophy, andmedicine. Knowing as I do the fundamental ways in which contemporarycivilization is in error, I am impatient to do something to introduce

reforms, awaken humanity, and bring happiness to the world. But there isnothing I can do until the right time comes. At present I can only, inconnection with the creation of a paradise on earth, point out problemsrelated to health, which is fundamental to everything else, and mistakesin agriculture as they have been revealed to me.

Power of the Spirit

The most surprising thing to me is the way I can make use of thepower of the spirit to enable members to heal illness, and to know thecures they effect are lasting and sound. Christ and other sages and holypeople have been able to cure illness miraculously, but almost always inonly one person at a time; it was impossible for them to help hundreds ofmillions of people. In order to help ali mankind, it is essential to endowan infinite number of other people with the power to heal. This is what Iam now doing — with amazing results, as the development of ourorganization most strikingly shows. As I said earlier, even Christ and theBuddha were unable to do this.

God hás enabled me to do these things because the right time háscome. When I think about God's reasons for giving me such greatpowers, I am deeply impressed with the importance of my own mission. Ofcourse, God never creates anything superfluous. Everything is made ordestroyedinanswertoa need. If this is seenasthetruthofwhatlsay, myheaven-sent mission emerges clearly. I am constantly being informedabout ali mysteries and have been given limitless, profound powers ofdivine wisdom. I do ali things on the basis of revelation in order toimpart this knowledge to ali people and to create an idealcivilization.

Humanity hás become só sophisticated intellectually that thesimple explanations that worked in the past now fail to convince.Miracles proving those principies are required só that people canaccept them and God manifests miracles accordingly. We should beoverwhelmingly grateful that God not only points out our errors, butalso works miracles to substantiate what is revealed. The divine work

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that I am now carrying out removes ali ground for doubt about the truth ofwhat I have just said.

November25, 1950

The Feudalism of Science

A large segment of the populace hás recently come to realize thatour Johrei is much more effective than modern medicai science; but Iwould like to say a few words here on a related and difficult problem.

No matter how tremendously effective Johrei is, it naturally cannotcure ali cases and unfortunately, people sometimes die. When thishappens, our opponents raise a great clamor. Some, with seeming glee,seize the chance to criticize us in the newspapers.

Yet at the same time most people accept death as a possible outcome ofmedicai treatment. We ali know of instances in which patients have diedas a result of a single injection. People who at first felt assured ofrecovery through medicai treatment have gradually weakened andfinally died. Others have perished because of unsuccessful surgery. Butfew people are criticai and suspicious about such deaths; admittedly,close relatives are sometimes só enraged that they sue the doctorsconcerned, but it is very difficult to settle matters of this kind throughlawsuits, and they usually swallow their indignation and give up.

In spite of the effectiveness of our method, we are often creditedwith no more than psychological cures, or are showered with the kind ofcriticism and attacks I have already described when we make a slightmistake. In short, mistaken trust in the power of medicai science hás theupper hand. Of course, this is no recent development; there have beennumerous similar instances in the past. It may be that this is the lot of apioneer, but I should like to examine the reasons why society, in spite ofits considerable advances, persists in harboring this irrational attitude.

Be cause materialistic science is a fundamental conditionof modernsociety, practically everything considered nonscientific is rejected as

superstition. It amazes me that people refuse to realize that science isnotomnipotent, no matter how advanced it is. There are many problemsfor which it hás no answers. As I always say, people blindly put ali theirexpectations in scientific progress because they have become thecaptives of what might be called the superstition of science, whichprobably does incalculable harm. Some of the most notable damage iscaused by medicai science. But in this case, unaware that theiradherence to it is profoundly superstitious, people persist in believingthat only medicai science is effective, and in refusing to pay attention toany other kind of therapy, no matter how effective and socially useful it is.In a word, Japan today is subservient to science in a feudal way. This is notwithout reason; history shows that before the dawn of the scientific agein this country, various widely held superstitions did great harm and thatit was science that played a considerable part in rectifying this situation.Yet at some stage the worship of science went too far and carne todominate people's minds completely.

Even though they consider science supreme, people entertaindoubts when they find that medicine is incapable of curing illness.Abandoning medicine, they seek psychological tranquility in one of theestablished religions. Then, if unable to find satisfaction in this way,they turn to the new religious teachings and come to us.

Before World War II, the Japanese people considered the feudalprincipie of patriotism and fidelity to one's sovereign to be the highestmorality, and, as we still recall, advocates of democracy were promptlythrown into prison. Today, most people worship science as the suprememorality and despise and reject our teaching, just as democracy wasdespised and rejected in the past.

March26, 1952

Tomorrow's Civilization

I shall now reveal the results of about twenty years of study on aliaspects of the spirit and the spiritual world. Properly speaking, in só far asthe spirit is intangible — in a sense, immaterial — there is no way inwhich its existence can be proved experimentally, só that it is obviously

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diffícult to develop the study of it into a concrete branch of learning.However, as I have already said, I am convinced that the irresistiblemarch of science will eventually bring it, academically and scientifically,within the grasp of the most ordinary of men. The modern sciencewhose great blessings we ali enjoy now was originally based on whatseemed to be the dreamlike, far-fetched imaginings of pioneers inearlier ages. These imaginings have evolved into important fields ofscholarship. When this is takeninto consideration, it becomes clearthatthe recognition of the existence of the spirit and the creation of animportant department of learning to deal with spiritual scienee are only amatter of time. The civilized modern person who refuses to accept theexistence of the spirit and the spiritual world, no matter how carefullythey are explained, is like an uncivilized savage who refuses to acceptthe existence of air pervading the spaces ali around him. But once oneadmits the existence of the spirit in observing the actual world,everything becomes totally clear and free of contradiction andinconsistency. In the same way, the source of the difficulties that makeme criticize materialistic science becomes easy to grasp, in that themanifestation of this wondrous power is, in itself, the truth. This willgive some idea of the nature of the great change taking place in theworld at present, and of the new civilization that will be born as aresult.

What will this civilization be like? It will inevitably be characterizedby the emergence and development of a spiritual culture. And as therelation between matter and spirit becomes to some extent clearer, itshould have a remarkably stimulating effect on established civilizationalso. This will, of course, take place after the war is over.

It is not an idle dream to assume that, just as the development ofmaterial civilization revealed the true nature of air and was thereforebeneficiai to humanity, só more sophisticated machines will servehumankind by making it possible to measure and utilize spirit.

In my study of the relation between the spirit and illness, I havefinally come to know its essential character and the cause-and-effectrelations connected with it, and have learned that these things areintimately connected not only with human illness, but also with changeand renewal in ali phenomena. However, since the solution of illness isthe topic of this book, I shall here confine myself mostly to therelationship between the spirit and illness.

My healing art is ahead of its time in that it hás reached the stage

where it is possible to make spiritual science serve humankind bymanifesting astonishing powers for the improvement of human health.

October23, 1943

The True Nature of Illness

Illness is what happens when an abnormality arises in one part or thewhole of the human body and suff ering follows as a result; however,medicai science hás not yet understood precisely what causes such anabnormality. Here I should like to outline the research I have done onthis topic.

AU animais consist essentially of the spiritual and the physicalbodies, the close and inseparable connection of which gives rise to thelife force. The spirit is controlled by the will, which arises from the soul.Western medicai science hás completely ignored the spirit and hásconcentrated, in minute analytical studies, on the body. This is ali thatcan be expected as long as science remains materialistic in attitude. Thetrue cause of illness, however, is not in the body, but in the spirit.Sickness arises first in the spirit and then transiers to the body. In otherwords, the spirit is the cause of illness, and physical manifestations inthe body are the result.

Even hundreds of years more of research will not result in curesunless the relation between spirit and body is clearly understood. At itspresent stage of development, science is incapable of employinginstruments to measure the spirit. Its prevailing situation is identical tothe state of civilization before humanity discoveredthe existence of air inapparently empty space. A science that discovered the componentelements of air is certainly not incapable of discovering the existence ofthe spirit The discovery of air led to sudden forward leaps in science.Similarly, the discovery of the existence of the spirit will bring about theestablishment of a true medicine, a true therapy and, by uniting religionand science, will eradicate once and for ali the contemporary conflictbetween the claims of science and the spirit.

I am at present achieving astounding cures through a theory

concentrated on the spirit. Só startling are our achievements, in fact,

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that people describe them as miracles. However, anyone whounderstands the principie of spirit-oriented healing without medicinesand without physical therapy realizes that what we do is perfectlynatural, and not mysterious. On the contrary, we should consider it amiracle if anyone were able to heal completely by means of therapyconcentrated on the body alone.

I am not criticizing science, but pointing out the fallacies of medicaiscience. Science hás brought humanity immeasurable blessings, and itmust continue developing in the future. But I hope that its futureprogress will be in union with religion.

There is one point in this connection on which it is easy to err. As Ihave said, human beings have spirits controlled by will. Machines donot Nonetheless, in its role as a kind of magician, science tends to makemachines and instruments work as if they were alive and even to replaceliving human beings with them. Butitis impossible to treatliving humanbeings as machines.

Because they are nothing but physical matter, damaged machinescan be repaired with tools, oil, and the like, which are themselvesphysical matter. The human body's blood vessels, nerves, and cells areconstantly changing and ceaselessly engaging in metabolic processes. Itis truly a mystery. Itisnotproducedonthe basisof scientific principies.The human body is something we cannot make, no matter how hard wetry. Yet we cannot stop it from being made. It is a mystic product ofcreation, and a human being is a higher spiritual being completelydifferent from plants, birds, beasts, and fish.

May 15, 1936

HEALTH

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The Truth of Health

In talking about health, the very first principie that must beunderstood is that good health depends on obeying and respecting thenatural order. Therefore, we must first consider the purpose of God, thecreator, in making human beings. We interpret that purpose to be thecreation of an ideal world consisting of truth, virtue, and beauty. Thisastounding idea is not easy to accept at first; who knows how many tens ofthousands, hundreds of thousands, even millions of years itmay take toattain the ideal? But history shows that the world hás been moving, stepby step, in the direction of its attainment. God is spiritual, and a humanbeing is physical. Working together, the two are making unlimitedprogress. Humanity is in charge of this undertaking. Our responsibilityis immense, and to accomplish it we must be in good health. Havinggiven us various missions to carry out, God hás endowed us with thedegree of health we need to fulfill our responsibilities. Should we losethat health, God's purpose in creating us would miscarry. Profoundreflection on this truth makes it clear that our normal state is that ofgood health. But, surprisingly, we fali ill — or become abnormal —easily. Once this basic truth is understood, it becomes apparent thatconverting the abnormal condition into the normal condition is inharmony with God's purpose.

In considering this truth, reflection shows that abnormalities in thehuman body result from deviations from the laws of nature. Correctivotherapy needs, of course, to understand the abnormality, correct it, andrestore the body to its normal state. Consequently, I shallnowsetoutindetail the kind of deviations that disrupt the natural order.

When first born, human infants are fed on mother's milk or formulabecause they still lack teeth and their digestive organs are still weak.Gradually, as they gain their teeth and as their internai organs mature,their diets are supplemented with appropriate foods. Each of the manyvarieties of foods available to us hás a distinctive flavor, and the humanbody hás been endowed with a sense of taste enabling it to take pleasure inthose flavors. The rest of our environment is well supplied with the rightamounts of air, fire, and water for the maintenance of human health.The human being is equally well equipped. The brain is endowed withthe ability to reason, remember, and react emotionally. The hands canmake things, and the feet and legs give freedom of movement. Othernecessary parts such as hair, nails, eyes, nose, mouth

and ears are provided. The skin that covers the face and the rest of thebody contributes to human beauty. Outlined in such detail, the humanbeing proves to be a wonderful work of creation. One is moved by thewonder of God's work in a single flower, a leaf, a beautiful natural viewand ali birds and beasts down to the last insect and fish; but humanity iscertainly the Creator's masterpiece. The miracle of the reproductiveprocess ensuring continuance of the species defies description. Whenwe realize that the human body is the Creator's masterpiece, we see thatillness, which inhibits human action, is an aberration against nature.This is the point to which human beings must devote most seriousthought.

April20, 1950

Human Beings as Vessels for Health

Since humankind was made to be healthy, we must correct the oldbelief that human beings are vessels filled with illnesses. Nothing could befurther from the truth. A human being is a vessel for health. Nonetheless,we are subject to illness, and since the problem seems insoluble, manypeople give up and accept what they consider to be inevitable fate. Ofcourse, illness is often difficult to cure. Sickness may linger for só long orrecur só frequently that people may be sick more often than they arehealthy. For this reason, people have come to think of their bodies asvessels for illness and have invented a proverb to express their condition.It is not surprising that, because the basic nature of illness hás remainedunknown, people have come to believe that sickness and death areunavoidable. The same belief led the Buddha to say that ali life consistsof the four sorrows of birth, illness, aging, and death.

I have already explained that illness is caused by deviations from thelaws of nature. When people become ill, they usually resort to medicines,which is a mistaken course of action. It is unnatural to employ eitherChinese medicines, which are made of herbs, roots, and barks, orWestern medicines, which are usually extracts of mineral and vegetablesubstances. Medicines are always bitter, malodorous, sour, or

otherwise disagreeable; since olden times, people have spoken of theneed to eat or drink something good to refresh the mouth after amedicinal dose. Medicines are unpleasant because God made them só inorder to show that they are poisonous and should not be taken. Incontrast, ali wholesome foods and drinks are designed to please thepalate. This is the way of nature.

It is a mistake to attempt to define in generalities what is and is notnutritious. Foods differ according to the soil, climate, and locale inwhich they grow, but they are ali produced to suit the needs of thepeople living on that soil and in that locale. It is right for Easternpeoples to eat rice, and Western peoples to eat wheat People of an islandnation like Japan eat large amounts of fish, and continental people eatmeat. In accordance with this line of thought, it is right for farmers to eatplenty of vegetables, since a vegetarian diet is suited to people who mustwork long hours without resting. If the nutritionists of our time have theirway in convincing farmers to eat more fish and meat, agricultural laborpower will decrease. Since they eat seafood, fisherman workintermittently and are incapable of long periods of sustained labor.Moreover, eating seafood increases sensitivity and in this way also suitsthe needs of fishermen. Nature is truly wonderful.

April20, 1950

True Health and False Health

Almost ali humankind — or at least almost ali members of the"civilized" peoples — are ill. Some are not visibly sick while some aremanifestly só. In other words, the people actually suffering are clearly ill,and the apparently healthy suffer from latent illness. Here I shall dealonly with the condition of the latently ill, since there is no need toexplain the condition of the manifestly sick

The latently ill harbor toxins, but purification to break down theirsolidified state hás not yet started. A truly healthy person is one who isabsolutely free of toxins and in whom no purification process takesplace. In comparison with this, the latently ill person harborsaccumulated toxins yet apparently stays in good condition, carries out

his daily duties, even hard labor, and looks totally healthy.Furthermore, since it is difficult to discover such toxins, modernmedicai examination pronounces such people healthy. I call thiscondition"false health," and cannot help shuddering to think how manypeople today go merrily on their way in spite of the explosive load ofillness they bear. The old-fashioned saying that human beings are"vessels for illness"refers to this state of "false health."

February 5, 1947

Raising Healthy Children

Japanese children today are in poor health. It alarms me greatly tosee how poor their facial color is and how frail they look. In the past thiscondition prevailed largely among urban children, but lately it hás alsobegun affecting those in farming villages. Physical examinationsconducted at a primary school in a certain village in Nagano Prefecture,located in central Japan, showed that eighty-one out of one hundredchildren were suspected of suffering from tuberculosis. Since then,similar reports have appeared from time to time in the newspapers. Itmust puzzle everyone to read this kind of thing at a time when modernmedicai progress hás reached even rural áreas. The gravity of theproblem is ali the greater in that the cause of the phenomenon hás notbeen found. To enable people to understand, I shall describe the causein terms of my system of natural medicine.

The only conceivable cause of poor health among urban and ruralchildren is mistaken hygiene and nutrition. The mistake lies in believingthat Japanese children are exactly like Western children, and in raisingthem totally in the Western mode. This is a grave error. Japanese andWestern children are essentially different. The mistaken idea thatJapanese children can be raised in the Western way seems in the past tohave been limited to the city, but hás now spread to the country as well.The error of the Western way is in ignoring nature, giving children toomuch milk, neglecting breast-feeding, pampering, overdosing withmedicine, and administering the wrong kinds of injections. Thoughtheoretically acceptable, this kind of rearing actually weakens children

physically. The system may be suitable for Westerners, who have beenaccustomed to it for generations, but it represents a sudden and badchange for the Japanese. If there must be a change in the old-fashionedway, which the Japanese have long found compatible, it should begradual. The facts make this perfectly clear. Children were muchhealthier a few decades ago at a time when medicai science had not yetadvanced to the levei it hás reached today. For the sake of reference, Ishall now describe the right way to raise children.

Mothers should work until the month of their delivery if possible.They should breast-feed their children, and use cow's milk only whenabsolutely necessary. Children should be allowed to live in as natural away as possible, and mothers should not be too worried over things likecatching cold. In other words, children should not be unnecessarilybundled up, but should be allowed to go their own ways without toomuch parental interference. Use of medicines must be minimized.Parents should recognize that children are born into this worldendowed with the capacity for healthy growth. Too much coddling onlyweakens them. The best general policy is to keep in mind the venerableold ways handed down from our ancestors without being carried awayby the fashions of the times. We should use modern progress byadopting not its theories, but its truly good aspects. I strongly urgeauthorities and specialists to take this point into consideration.

March 14, 1951

A Way for Anyone to Put on Weight

A large number of people who are born thin yet want to put onweight try ali kinds of methods to no avaiL Practically everyone hás atsome time seen a woman with lovely facial features who was too thin toallow her innate good looks to show to best effect, and hás thoughtregretfully how beautiful she would be if only she were a little plumper.Sometimes physical debility makes children peevish, and frail. It iscommon for parents wanting to strengthen their offspring to feed themmilk, cod-liver oil, and other nutritious foods and to lament later that alitheir efforts have produced no weight gain.

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There is a way by which people like this can fatten up and improvetheir facial color. On the shoulders of people who cannot gain weightthere is invariably a hard, rocklike place that is slightly feverish.*Because it exhausts cells, this fever sharply reduces the appetite; but ifJohrei is used on it, the hard spot will gradually soften. As this happens,the appetite will increase, and the person will put on weight Not onlydoes Johrei make people healthy, it makes them beautiful too. If thismethod were known widely throughout the world, we would ali be able torejoice at the increased number of lovely people. Parents too would bemade happy by the improved health of their children.

January 10, 1951

The Way to be Beautiful

There are three major kinds of beauty: artificial, natural, andemotional. Artificial beauty is the result of using powders and rouges,but natural beauty is the result of good health and good circulation; it isthe beauty of vitality and vigor. Emotional beauty springs from theheart and inspires respect and affection in others.

Today women plaster themselves with powder, rouge, and lipstick tomake themselves look lovely because they have forgotten everything butartificial beauty. Yet there is a way to be lovely from one's innermost corewithout resorting to ridiculously costly cosmetics.

This is true beauty, which comes from good health and purifying theblood. Women's skin becomes lusterless, wrinkled, pallid and puffyfrom the use of too many medicines. To hide these effects, women todaymake excessive use of cosmetics.

True loveliness is impossible without inner beauty, which comesfrom faith. We see this in people receiving Johrei, who grow só muchmore beautiful as time passes that it is almost impossible to recognizethem.

September 3, 1949

*The person administering Johrei does not touch the afflicted person's shoulders. Instead, the person receiving Johrei ascertains the hardness or softness of his or her own shoulders.

Medicine and Sport

Athletes, who have splendidbodies and great physical strength, aregenerally considered likely to die fairly young. Why this should happen isa riddle to medicai science, but the following are the reasons.Although there are many kinds of sports, a person usually specializes inonly one kind. Consequently the athlete repeats the same movementsover and over through long hours of training, só that toxins gather andharden at his power points. As time passes, the purification processstarts. But since toxins are more persistent in athletes than in ordinarypeople, purification and cure are more difficult for them.

My own experience hás shown that hard protuberances ofaccumulated toxins f orm on one shoulder or the other of swimmers, andthat the purification process associated with them produces symptomssimilar to those of tuberculosis. In evalulating the condition of suchswimmers, doctors frequently diagnose tuberculosis, and this accountsfor the large number of persons in this field apparently suffering fromthis disease.

Similarly, golfers tend to be afflicted withkidney trouble, becausetensing the waist and hip region causes toxins to accumulate and hardenaround the kidney área, and it is a well known fact that marathonrunners frequently suffer from enlargement of the heart.

For the sake of their health, athletes ought to engage in two or moresports.

Musicians should also be careful, since their work calls forrepetition of the same movements, which could lead to sickness. Forexample, people who are fond of piano playing have accumulations oftoxins in their chest regions since their power points are in both arms.Violinists are subject to the same kind of problem in their shoulders,and cellists in their left shoulder and hip region. These conditionsdeserve serious thought, and musicians should compensate byperforming movements other than the ones involved in their work.

February 5, 1947

My Health Plan36 37

I should like to explain the method I myself follow in keeping fitThis year I am sixty-seven years old according to the Western way ofreckoning age, but I am more hale and hearty than many men in theprime of life. I frequently climb the hill on whose slopes our newheadquarters is being built and always have to slow down for theyounger people, who lack strength in their legs. I am almost embarrassedby their frequent questions as to whether Meishu-sama is tired, since Iam not fatigued in the least. I go to bed at two thirty or three in themorning and sleep till seven or seven thirty, which means I have aboutfour or four and a half hours' sleep. As my close associates know, I dothe work of ten people. Younger people find it hard to keep up with me,but there is nothing to do but let them keep trying.

I do ali these things as a result of my method of keeping healthy.Since my way is the opposite of the one generally followed today, I shallexplain it here in the hope that it will serve as a reference for otherpeople.

The modern medicai prescription for good health is to exert oneselfonly moderately, to get plenty of sleep and nourishment, to chew one' sfood well, and not to think too hard. My method is the opposite of this. Iinsist that people should exert themselves to the maximum* since this is amost effective way to improve health. Nonetheless, I urge sensiblemoderation, since overexertion can cause suffering. The amount ofsleep a person requires varies with age, but for a person of about my agefour or five hours is just right. Interestingly enough, as far as food isconcerned, I am constantly worried about getting too much nourishmentThere are só many offerings from members that we can scarcely copewith them, and I always make a point of eating at least a little of each inappreciation of their kindness, só that I tend, if anything, to eat toomany rich things. To make up for this I unfailingly eat a considerablequantity of sweet potatoes after breakfast each morning. As a late-nightsnack, I often have a bowl of plain rice-and-tea and never miss a serving ofsweet bean-soup.

Foods have yang (positive) andyin (negative) characteristics that

*(Exert oneself to the maximum) This means that healthy people must not pamper theirbodies. It does not mean that people who are confined because of illness or who areconstitutionally frail should attempt to lead the same kind of active lives as completelyhealthy people.

must be kept balanced. Vegetables are yin and fish and meat are yang.These foods must be taken in a way that avoids leaning too much ineither direction. I eat seventy percentyin and thirty percentyang foods inthe morning, fifty percent of each at lunch, and seventy percentyang andthirty percntyin foods in the evening. Pickles too areyira oryang innature: pickled green leafy vegetables are yin and pickled daikon,radish and turnip are yang. I eat them in a half-and-half ratio.

I chewmy food only about halfway, not thoroughly, because chewingfood fully weakens the stomach. Furthermore, I do not rest after meaisbut immediately begin some activity.** This is a way to strengthen thestomach. I have effectively cured stomach illnesses through thismethod.

I never set limits to the foods I eat. My basic dietary principie is toeat as much as I want of what I want when I want it It is, however,impossible to be always as self-indulgent as this statement suggests, só Ieat suitably.

Though it may sound surprising, thinking as much as possible is akind of health regimen. People who use their brains live long, butworrying is a poor use of them. Instead, one should use them ininteresting, pleasant ways. This is where faith reveals its value.Whenever you have a worry, if you take the attitude that you shouldleave it up to God, the worry will diminish considerably. In other words,let God shoulder the burden. Perhaps this seems conveniently selfish,but God finds such selfishness highly pleasing.

For a long time, no matter how it might rain or blow, I have nevermissed going out once a day. I walk as much as possible. Old people whocontinue to improve in health often say the same thing. I drink onlyabout three small sake-cups of sake or one small glass of beer andsmoke only an average amount***

This is my system for good health. I pay no attention at ali to germs.Although the ordinary person might consider my method unwholesome, infact it is the true way to b e healthy. I guarantee that anyone who puts thismethod into practice will become healthy. There is no chance, at least,of your becoming a pallid indoor type, só I recommend that you putyour mind at ease and follow the system I have set forth.

April20, 1950

**(WhenI have finished eating, I immediately begin some activity) This does not pertain to theill.***Meishu-sama did not inhale but only enjoyed the fragrance of cigarettes. He smoked fouror five a day and did not recommend that others smoke.

What is Death?39

In life, no issue is as urgent or as imponderable as death. As a resultof my own long personal experience and of my researches into variousreligions, experiments in spiritualism conducted inthe West, and everyother related field, I have arrived at an answer.

I shall begin my explanation by describing the composition of thehuman being, which is not the physical body as scientists claim but iscomposed of two fundamental elements: the physical body and thespirit (element of fire). The elements of water and soil are thefundamental components of the physical body, which cannot function asa living being without the soul, the intangible spiritual element. Thehuman body is no more than the visible manifestation of the spirit, andthe separation of the spirit from the body is what is meant by death.When the physical body grows old or ill, or is injured or suffersexcessive loss of blood, and can no longer be used, the law is that thespirit must separate from it. The loss of the element of spirit, or of fire,causes the body temperature to drop and the blood to coagulate atcertain points. The element of spirit, in the form the physical body had inlife, then goes to a separate world called the spiritual realm. Because itis an excellent example of how this happens, I shall describe anexperiment once conducted in the West in connection with the form of thespirit.

As a certain patient was approaching death, the nurse on whom thisexperiment was being conducted noticed a white, steamlike vapor risingfrom the vicinity of the ill person's forehead. It thickened and, afterforming a large oval in space, gradually assumed the shape of a humanbody like the one the patient had had in life. The vapor form hovered inthe air about three feet above the now lifeless corpse, and looking downon the grieving family surrounding the bed, seemed to want to saysomething, but finally quietly floated toward the window and thenceoutside.

The spirit is thought usually to leave the body from a limitednumber of places: the forehead, the abdómen, or the feet In instanceslike death by explosion, when the body is mangled, the spirit istemporarily dispersed into countless fine particles but immediatelyreassembles centripetally to assume the shape of body the victimhadinlife. From there, it proceeds just as do the spirits of those who die as aresult of illness.

When the spirit moves to any given place under its own volition, itassumes a spherical shape as it floats through space.

People who can see these spirits, like the nurse in the above example,have special powers that are either innate or acquired through training.There have been many such people in our country, and I have met themon numerous occasions. One woman whom I used in an experimentproved to have wonderful powers of clairvoyance.

1939

Life and Death

Since ancient times, people have devoted more energy to theproblem of death than to any other. Nothing is more terrifying thandeath, which puts an end to ali happiness and hopes. Yet with theexception of certain special cases, the majority of deaths are caused,one might say inevitably, by sickness. Most deaths occurring before theage of ninety result from illness — are, in other words, unnatural. Thenatural human life span would be terminated not by sickness, but byaging and gradually increasing physical debility. For this reason, peoplewho die in this natural way do not suffer and usually can forsee the end.The corollary is that deaths accompanied by suffering do not representthe natural termination of life. People are merely resigning themselves totheir lot when, in a case of premature death, they seek comfort inwords such as "His time had come." The famous Zen priest TorisuEtsuzan, who diedafewyearsagoattheageof one hundredandtwelve,foresaw his own demise. He called a considerable number of immediatefamily members, relatives, and friends to his side, said some partingwords to each, and meditating until the prophesied time arrived, diedquietly and painlessly. This is an excellent example of a "natural"death.

1939

Natural and Unnatural Death

Death is the extinction of life that occurs when, like a tree that

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withers and dies, the physical being is no longer capable of living. Thenumerous causes of death can be grouped into two major categories:natural and unnatural. Natural death comes when the living being'sallotted spanof years hás been exhausted. Unnaturaldeathresults fromillness, accident, violence or suicide. Human beings should dienaturally; yet, incredible as it may seem, natural deaths have steadilydecreased in frequency as civilization hás advanced, while unnaturalones, especially those caused by illness, have increased.

Why is it that, in spite of inexorable advances in other fields ofcivilization, the situation in relation to human life hás retrogressed?This single fact should make one suspect some grave error, yet despitetheir limitless desire for research in other fields, they remain extremelyindifferent to this issue, presumably because they are resigned to theirinability to do anything about the question of mortality. This is because noscience or religion of the past hás ever been able to pró vide a definitesolution to the question. Consequently, no matter what progress ismade in other fields, in this one área man hás no recourse at present butto let nature run its course.

The topic obviously requires further thought. Nothing could bemore contrary to the intentions of God, who made man to be thesupreme animal, than for unnatural deaths to exceed natural deaths innumber— and to continue increasing. If Godisindeedalmighty, sooner orlater He must restore to humanity its qualifications as leader ofcreation. There is obviously no reason for God to look on silently forever atthe abnormalities of human life.

It is natural, it follows, that the Almighty God should eliminateunnatural deaths and thereby lengthen human life through divinepower. And this only underlines further the imminence of the world oflight, the world free of sickness for which humanity hás hoped forthousands of years.

June 19, 1936

42

An Analysis of Toxins

I shall now turn to an explanation of toxins. Basically, toxin issomething that taints the blood, or clouds the spirit. This tainting orclouding arises, of course, as a result of contamination through evil. Theidea of contamination has been made much of by religions since ancienttime, but so far accounts of it have been over-simplistic: evil iscontaminating, so it should be avoided. But this kind of explanationcannot possibly convince a civilization that has become intellectual andscientific. Today, people require a sound argument based on empiricallogic.

Just as the world consists of a physical and a spiritual realm, só ahuman being is made up of inseparably interrelated physical andipirítual beings. Because the spirit and body are one, cloudiness of thespirit is reflected in the blood and vice versa. This is of paramountimportance, and must be clearly understood. The physical wrong aperson commits causes clouds to form on the spirit. An accumulation ofthese clouds cause a purification process to begin; this may take theform of illness, legal punishment, or some other disaster. Any wrongwhich escapes these kinds of purification will be spiritually punishedaccording to God's law. A person may avoid retribution by his fellowman, but the punishment of God is absolute and will be reflected in thebody in the form of some great suffering. Such illnesses are highlymalignant and often fatal The process of suffering the consequences ofevil can be likened to a debt The longer it goes unpaid, the more theinterest accumulates. Those rare villains who manage to avoid thepunishment of humankind and God in this world will plunge into hellwhen they die because of the gravity of their misdeeds, and finally beobliged to repent. The hell in question is like that which the Buddhistscall Avichi, the lowest of ali hellish regions, or the Nezoko-no-kuni (landbelow the roots) of Shintoism, where there is complete darkness inwhich one remains as if frozen for hundreds of years. Ali desperatelywicked people must resign themselves to going to this kind of world. Irealize that modern people will have difficulty accepting this, but I insistit be believed, since what I say comes directly from spirits I have heardduring my researches into the spiritual realm.

The self-reproachone feels at doing wrongresults in suffering which isin itself a form of mild purification. It would be good if completerepentance followed atthis stage, but itrarely does, and most people goon sinning more and more. The extent of one's spiritual cloudiness is

45

commensurate with the degree of wrongdoing. Clouds, however, cancome from without as well as from within. Take, for example, a casewhere one person causes another suffering. The victim becomes angryand bitter, and these emotions are transmitted through spiritual cordsto the spiritual being of the person who caused the original harm, andthus cause clouds. By contrast, when one person makes another happy,his or her gratitude is transmitted back in the form of light to thebenefactor, whose clouds are reduced by it. It is a fundamental law ofnature that the more such good deeds are done in secret, and withoutdesire for reward the greater will be the reward from God. Humanbeings shall believe and abide by this absolute truth. Purification of thecloudiness causes sickness and other disasters; therefore, if humanbeings wish to be happy they must do good, not wrong, and therebyprevent their spirits from becoming clouded.

Next, I shall touch on the subject from the physical standpoint. Theform of illness which comes from murkiness in the blood is, of course,caused by the poison called medicine. Medicines are essentially toxic,but people have mistakenly interpreted them as beneficiai because theyare unaware that sickness is a purification process. I shall explain theprincipie involved in toxic medicine from the standpoint of practicalexperiment, but must point out that even people who have been cured byJohrei can suffer a relapse. We call this repurification. Though theinitial Johrei removes the toxins that have already stimulated thepurification process, as the person returns to vigorous, active work, abrisk purification starts again. In other words, the patient becomeshealthy as a result of purification, and further purification is stimulatedby this good health. As the process is repeated, the patient graduallyapproaches full recovery. This repurification, however, can entail fairlyviolent high temperatures and severe coughing. The phlegm coughed upis old and therefore thick; it is easily recognizable by its medicinalsmell. The patient loses appetite, grows weak, and in rare cases may die.

The Creator hás enabled the earth to produce ali the food neededfor the nourishment of humanity, the protagonists of the world. God hásgiven to each food its own flavor and to human beings the sense of taste.There is thus no need to worry about nutrition. Merely to eat and enjoythe things one likes is enough for good health. The principie inoperation in this case is similar to that governing the sexual appetite,which hás other purposes than simply to create human beings. Thus,

human beings should not put into their bodies anything other thansubstances specified as foods. If the food hás no taste or is bitter itshould not be eaten. It is through, ignorance of this, that people havealways made the great mistake of assuming that unpalatable medicinesare good for the body.

December 1,1952

The Three Kinds of Toxins

Ali illnesses are caused by the three toxins: accumulated toxin(nendoku), urinary toxin (nyodoku), and medicine toxin (yakudoku).Accumulated toxin could also be called hereditary medicine toxin since itis transmitted from generation to generation and is ultimatelytransformed into an independent kind of toxin. Urinary toxin resultsfrom excess urine caused by malfunction of the kidneys. I have alreadyexplained what medicine toxin is, and will confine myself here toexplaining the ways in which it manifests itself. It mainly produces suchunpleasant conditions as fever, pain, itching, diarrhea, náusea, paralysis,and só on. The fever is more noticeable in people who take medicines inlarge amounts. For the same reason, it can be said that people whonormally use no medicines rarely suffer from fever. Again, the paincaused by Western-style medicines is often sharp, whereas pain fromChinese-style medicines is duller.

February 5, 1947

Urinary Toxin

As hás frequently been pointed out, especially hard toxins that persist in the body as the result of generations of use of medicines and

46 47

that are thus not readily discharged, tend to accumulate where thenerves are most dense. Since we tense our waists, hips, and backs in thepositions we assume during various activities, these toxins accumulateparticularly in the region of the kidneys; this is clearly illustrated in theailments of golf enthusiasts. Since such toxins constrict the kidneys, theextent to which they accumulate affects the organ's efficiency. Forinstance, if kidneys operating at maximum efficiency are capable ofremoving ten units of urine from the body, they may be able to removeonly nine units when constricted by toxin accumulation. The other unitremains in the body to become urinary toxin. Like second-stage toxins —those reinforced by some extraneous substance, such as medicine,multiplied on the original or first stage toxin — urinary toxinaccumulates in regions of dense nerve concentratioa Because of itsrelationship to bodily movements, it tends to concentrate most in thekidney region, the abdómen, the lympatic glands of the groin, theperitoneum, the shoulders and the neck. Toxin accumulation is greateron the side that is more constricted. Whereas hereditarily transmittedmedicine toxins are limited in quantity, and medicine toxins themselveslimited to the amounts of medicine taken, urinary toxins are constantlyproduced and therefore hard to treat. This urinary toxin is one of thethree toxins that together are, generally speaking, the source of alidisease.

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accumulation caused little pain, I was interested to note how certain theoccurrence of diarrhea after Johrei was. This experience proved thattoxin accumulations persist for years. I am now sixty-eight, which meansthat that hard lump of toxins was in my body for fifty years. If I had notknown about Johrei, it would ha vê remained with me for the rest of my life.After each bout of diarrhea accompanying the dissolving of the toxins, Ifelt much better, even though I had thought myself quite healthy,unaware of the toxin accumulation. After the toxins finally dissolvedcompletely my condition improved greatly, to my great joy. I feel asthough I have added twenty or thirty years to my life. An even greaterbenefit is that my mind works só well now that writing is easier for methan e ver before.

What I learned from this incident, in short, was that, in people whodo not know about Johrei, medicine toxins can persist for life.Furthermore, as I have always said, the sources of diarrhea are almo&talways either in the head or in the back Thus there are two types ofdiarrhea; the kind that occurs when the accumulations of toxins in thoseáreas disperse and collect temporarily in the abdómen; and the kindthat is caused by poisoning through food or drink. When brought on byJohka (purification) of the head, diarrhea is accompanied by largefluxes of blood.

June6, 1951

Toxins Persisting for Half a Century

At the age of eighteen, I contracted pleurisy. The treatmentconsisted of opening a hole in my side and draining off about twohundred grams of fluid. Germicides were used in the operation. Laterthe illness recurred. This time I was given medicines. The combinedeffects of the medicines and the disinfectants caused a hardaccumulation of toxins at a place between my back and armpit that Idiscovered only recently. I decided to give myself Johrei to get rid of it. Atfirst, it was very hard, but it gradually softened and began to dissolve. Eachtime it dissolved a little more, I had diarrhea. Though the toxin

Medicine: a Cause of Wrongdoing

Most readers will probably be surprised by the title of this article.The idea of a relation between wrongdoing and medicine is indeedstartling. Yet astounding as it may seem, there is actually a very seriousconnection between the two. Medicine, as I often insist, is poison. When itenters the body, the blood becomes cloudy. When the blood becomesmuddy, the spirit becomes cloudy, and this results in discomfortfortheperson who hás taken the medicine.

The sense of discomfort is the true villain since it makes the personafflicted by it fretful, irascible, and ultimately bellicose. A person whofeels well can shrug off provocative remarks from others, but may fly

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into a rage at practically nothing when he or she is suffering somemalaise. In other words, the feeling of the moment determines whether aperson is bright and cheerful or gloomy and ill-tempered. It must betaken very seriously, moreover, since it hás a close connection with his orher whole fortune in life. Emotions play an important part in human life;they can lead to the break-up of married couples, quarrelingbetween parents and children or brothers and sisters, trouble amongfriends, and in some cases to loss of one's job.

Ob viously, emotions play a very large part in ali spheres of practical,everyday life: whether, for example, an employee in some government orbusiness office is liked and trusted by his or her superiors; whether aperson is approved of by his or her colleagues, or a merchant popularamong his or her customers; whether a technical expert is successful inhis or her work or a student in his or her study; and só on. Emotion is anormal component in ali such cases; what matters is when it gets out ofhand.

People who have trained themselves to a state of great self-controlcan deal with emotional problems successfully, but ordinary humanbeings often look to the stimulus of drink, say, or gambling as adistraction from their sense of discomfort. Others, who are well offfinancially and occupy a high position in society, look for similar escapein luxurious living or sexual philandering. This ali costs money, which isfrequently obtained by less-than-admirable means. Human beings havebeen known to resort to embezzlement, fraud, graft, and — mostterrible of ali — murder, just to acquire quite insignificant sums. Somepeople claimto beabletofindawomanbehindevery crime, butlmyselfthink medicine is at the heart of the trouble. In brief, to find emotionalrelief, people today seek stronger and stronger stimulation. To servetheir needs, organizations offering unwholesome amusements of alikinds are increasingand are becoming steadily more accessible throughmodern transportation methods. These factors, combined with thebreakdown of older social restrictions such as class systems make theserious life look foolish in the eyes of many.

However, troubles of this kind represent the brighter side of thepicture. The darker side of medication is much more serious. Here,illness is caused in almost ali cases. Moreover, people recklessly dosethemselves with medicines andinjections, só that illnesses increase andmore and more human beings experience discomfort The ramifications ofexcessive reliance on medicine are extensive. First, because

medicines cause increased illness, patients must spend money ontreatment and lose time from work. The expenditure and the loss of timeon the job reduce their income and drain their savings. They musttherefore borrow or be a burden on others. They become increasinglydisgusted with life. At the same time, since medicines repress but do notfully cure, the illness drags on until they find themselves in a completeimpasse, and are driven to steal the needed funds or, if they areweak-willed, commit suicide, either alone or sometimes with the wholefamily. Cases of this kind are reported in the newspapers every day.Tuberculosis is the illness precipitating many such tragedies.

To sum up, then, crime hás its origins in a human sense of malaise,which is caused in turn by medicines. This is the meaning behind thetitle "Medicine: a Cause of Wrongdoing."

FebruaryB, 1952

Causes of Accidents

The many accidents occurring today on highways and in otherplaces continue to increase alarmingly, even though we are beingconstantly warnedaboutthem. The questionof howto deal with them is sódifficult that warnings and admonitions seem to be the only way open.The true cause of the accidents seems to go unrecognized; but fromourviewpoint, it hás to do with the condition of modern humanity's nerves. Inshort, people's nerves today fail to respond sensitively and quickly.Confronted with danger, people cannot react and avert harm with theagility that is essential. This sluggishness must be rectified since, incrises, a split-second's slip can spell disaster.

In this connection, I am constantly struck by the lack of agility inyoung people. Many of them are much more sluggish than I, and I amnearly seventy. What I look on as an ordinary way of moving and actingthey consider speedy. The cause of this mental dullness is the moderntendency to resort to injections or medicines unthinkingly and at everyturn. Moreover, the alcoholic beverages they drink contain preservativesor other chemicals, and the foods they eat have been grown with the aid ofchemical fertilizers and insecticides. People who have eaten and

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PURIFICATION

drunk this kind of thing for a long time usually have large accumulations ofmedicine toxins in their bodies. Virtually saturated in medicines andcompelled to lead lives of increasing complexity in which they mustthink too much, modern people understandably have massivecoagulations of medicine toxins in their heads. Mild purificationprocesses are taking place in their heads ali the time, só that practicallyno one today is mentally lucid; almost everyone suffers from hotness,rushes of blood, heaviness, and pain in the head. This mental stateaccounts not only for accidents, but also for the many murders andassaults reported recently in the newspapers.

July 16, 1952

52

The Creator of Humanity

Who created humanity? Obviously humanity itself. God created ourfirst ancestors, but thereafter human beings have created other humanbeings. Our bodies have the mysterious power to create priceless humanspirit and flesh. This power cannot be obtained through knowledge,learning, mechanical equipment, or medicines. God hás endowed eachhuman being with this innate power. If each human being hás been giventhe wonderful power to create a physical being, then it is scarcelysurprising that he should be able to cure his or her own illnesses. Naturaltherapies can thus produce certain results.

1936

Natural Therapy

Human beings are indeed the artistic masterpiece of ali God'screations. Truly, as is said in the Bible, humans were created in theimage of God. Consequently, it is impossible for science to understandentirely the mysterious structure that is a human being. Science hás onlycome to a partial understanding of humanity, and no one can say howmany thousands of years will be required for a full understanding or even ifsuch an understanding is scientifically possible. We can only praise themight of the Creator of só wondrous a creature with its many amazingcharacteristics manifest in the movements of limbs and body; inthe subtleoperations of will and thought; in emotionalexpressionsof joy, anger,sorrow, and pleasure; in nerves só sensitive that they find intolerable theitching caused by a mere flea bite; in a tongue capable ofconveyingallkinds of intentions and of tasting theflavors of ali kinds offood and drink; in faces, each one unique among the 1.8 billion people onearth. Especially mysterious is the process of reproduction whereby ahuman being is created. In the light of these wonders, it is scarcelysurprising that, as long as human beings are not scientifically producedrobots, science will be unable to solve the mystery of life.

The minute a person becomes ill, the body itself sets to work to

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eliminate the trouble. Capable of producing its own home-mademedicines, the body is both a great pharmacist and a great physician.When the body is invaded by the impurity called illness, the doctor ofhome medicine who hás his own hospital there promptly diagnoses thecause of the trouble and immediately issued a prescription to thepharmacist, thus initiating therapy. The body produces splendidmedicine and maintains splendid equipment, both of which can produceeffective cures. When a toxin is absorbed by the body, the body'spharmacist immediately prescribes a laxative, which induces diarrhea torid the body of the offending substance. Other bodily reactions, too, areremarkably ingenious. For instance, the entry of harmful bactéria intothe body stimulates the great sterilizing process called fever. Whenpoisoned in one way or another, the body forces the poisons outward toprevent them entering the internai organs. The result is that redsplotches appear on the skin, and itchiness and fever eliminate the causeof the trouble. Toxins stimulate the kidneys to vigorous action in orderto use liquid to excrete the poison in the urine. When a great deal of dustis inhaled, the body expels it in sputum. Therefore, most illnesses can becured by leaving them to nature.* Nevertheless, ignorant of this, peoplerely on the medicines and therapeutic systems developed by scientificresearch, thereby greatly hindering natural therapy and extending theduration of the illness.

Nevertheless, a reliance on natural therapy does not completelyeliminate the need for medicai practice. There is much value in suchthings as bacteriology, some aspects of hygiene, surgery in time of war orfollowing traffic accidents and other emergencies, dentistry, and bonésetting.

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*This does not raean refusing to call on the help of medicai science in case of a grave andpossibly fatal illness. It merely states that, since taking advantage of the natural powers ofrecovery of the human body is fundamental to the maintenance of good health, naturaltherapy is most desirable.

Medicine's Blind Points and the Beneficent Powers of Nature

The greatest mistake of modern medicine is ignoring completely thenatural powers with which human beings are innately endowed. Weoften hear of people who, when taken sick, go immediately to the doctor.After examining them, the doctor says, "It's a good thing you carne tome without delay. If you had waited longer, it would have been too late."Doctors say such things because they believe illness or allowing anillness to go unattended, means that the patienfs condition is certain toworsen. Medicine dislikes the idea of not dealing with a situation intime, and immediately prescribes medicines or other therapy to halt thesicknessas soon as possible. However, it is important to realize that thiseagerness to stop the progress of a sickness is a serious mistake.Sickness is the process whereby toxins are eliminated. If it is allowed torun its course, the disease is certain to be cured once the toxins havebeen removed. It is to rid the body of toxins that such sufferings asfever, coughing, phlegm, runny nose, sweating, diarrhea, pain, anditching exist. Ali that is necessary is to put up with the condition for awhile. When the impurities have been eliminated, the interior of thebody will be clean.

There is no sense in tryingto deal with sickness in accordance with atimetable. Doctors, however, ignorant of this principie, take the oppositestand and strongly caution against allowing an illness to run its course.They try to block the passage of impurities the body is trying to push out,and in this way cause the toxins to harden. Obviously, this is no way tobring about a fundamental cure.

Another serious blind spot of medicine is the dread of thesuppuration that usually occurs when the human body suffers a wound orburn. Because of this fear, doctors make the great mistake of takingvarious steps to prevent infection. The shock of a wound or a burncauses toxins to collectin theinjuredarea; everyone hás a considerableamount of toxins, which the body tries to expel whenever anopportunity presents itself. Since they collect around wounds, thelarger the infected área the greater the amount of toxins that will beremoved from the body. This, of course, is a very good thing.

The process whereby the human body is constantly cleansing itselfand eliminating impurities is called natural self-therapy. Each humanbeing is endowed with such power, and to respect it and give it every

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opportunity to manifest itself is the only true way to true medicaiscience. In practice, however, as is amply borne out by the f acts, doctorsaccept and even encourage things that hinder the operation of thisnatural power.

Simply to realize humanity's heaven-bestowed, natural self-healingpowers — more wonderful than anything medicai science is capable of— is a source of immense happiness. Johrei further reinforces andstimulates these natural powers and is therefore the most progressive andrational of ali therapeutic sytems.

July25, 1951

What Is Sickness?

Ali human beings have both innate toxins, inherited from theirparents, and acquired medicine toxins, which enter the body after birth.Most people find this statement surprising. From ancient times thebelief was accepted, and served as the central idea underlying medicaipractice, that medicine was something that cured disease and improvedhealth, and that, given the right medicine, the problem of sickness couldbe solved. People have thus assumed that the discovery of goodmedicines would solve the problem of sickness. Everyone knows theimportance the people of the United States attach to medicines, and theextreme efforts they devote to discovering new ones. If medicinesproduced cures, the number of illnesses should in theory graduallydecrease. Instead, in apparent defiance of ali reason, they are steadily onthe increase. There is no such thing on earth as a truly curativemedicine. Ali medicines are poisons, each with its own effect Theoperation of the poison called medicine appears to cure because itdecreases pathological symptoms.

Why do I say that medicines are poisons? When the Creator madehuman beings he simultaneously provided ali the foods they require.The things that are fit for human consumption are clearly distinguishedfrom those that are not. Things that we should eat have pleasing flavors,and we have been endowed with a sense of taste. The scrupulous carethe Creator hás taken with these arrangements is revealed in the way

people can derive ali the nourishment they need simply by eating thethings they like. We do not eat consciously to live, but live because weeat The mystery of procreation is similar, in that men and women do notonly engage in sexual intercourse specifically to have children. Childrenare granted to human beings as the incidental result of acts performedfor other purposes.

The interior functions of the human body are incapable of dealingwith foreign materiais other than the ones created to serve as foods.These other materiais are the medicine toxins, which tend to accumulateand, as time passes, harden in various parts of the body. The resultanthard áreas are found only in regions where the nerves operate, such asthe upper body, especially the neck and above. This is the regiondominated by the brain, and includes the eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.These are the places where toxins tend to accumulate, hardening in thevicinity of the neck and causing the stiffness in the neck and shoulderregion that everyone experiences. When a certain degree of intensity hásbeen reached, the natural elimination, or purification, process sets in.Fever dissolves the toxins, which, in fluid form, are passed out of thebody in coughing, sputum, nasal discharges, sweat, bowel movements,

and urine or the symptoms of what is called the common cold.The cold is a process for ridding the body of toxins. If the patient

endures the discomfort and allows things to run their natural course,eventually the interior of the body will be cleansed, and a cure will beeffected. This is a marvelous thing. The simple physiological processknown as the cold is actually evidence of God' s providence for which weought to be grateful, even though people incorrectly interpret thesuffering caused by purification. It is surely evident how mistakenmedicine is in devising ways of putting an end to the process.

The more vigorous and lively the human being, the more readily thepurification process occurs. Attempting to halt the process can onlyreduce the vigor of the body. Nevertheless, people still resort to thepoison called medicine. From ancient times, people have preparedliquid medicines, pills, unguents and injections by brewing, powdering,and extracting elements found in grasses, roots, barks, minerais andanimal organs for use in halting the purification process. Since suchpoisons are strong enough to be fatal, they are administered in small,diluted doses. Amounts are laid down to be taken several times daily. Amedicine that works well is one in which the toxin hás been

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strengthened as much as possible without reaching a levei that cancause addiction.

The use of medicine toxins hardens those other toxins that, havingbeen dissolved, are in solution and in the process of being eliminated.The current fuss about preventative hygiene and fear of the commoncold indicate how poisoned modern man hás become and how easy it isfor him to fali sick. Furthermore, the happiness people feel over alife-expectation of sixty-odd years is gravely mistaken. If it were not forsickness, human beings could easily live to over a hundred. Death at lessthan that age is unnatural and caused by sickness; if illness wereeliminated and natural death prevailed, we would ali live longer.

As the discussion só far should have shown, medicai therapy doesnot cure illness but simply alleviates pain temporarily. Ali the methods itemploys to achieve that end—total rest, wet dressings, applications, icepacks, electrical therapy, radiation treatments, and só on—only hardenthe toxins. Moxa cautery and heat treatments are exceptions. These useheat stimulation to guide the toxins to certain locations and bring relieffrom pain, but that is ali; when the situation returns to what it wasbefore, nothing lasting hás been achieved.

Therapy methods used until now have hardened toxins. The onlyway to bring about a true cure is to dissolve toxins and remove themfrom the body.

January l, 1953

The True Cause of Illness

As I said in the preceding section, human beings possess varioustoxins when they are born into this world. Since it is impossible tomaintain perfectly good health because of the obstructions these toxinscreate, the body is constituted to undergo a constant natural purificationprocess to eliminate them physiologically. This natural purificationprocess is accompanied by some pain connected with the processknown as sickness.

This can be illustrated by reference to the most common of alisicknesses, the cold. Though there is probably no one who hás not

experienced a cold at one time or another, the causes of the sicknessremain unknown to medicai science. My own discovery, however, hásbeen that the cold is one of the simplest of ali purification processes. Aperson who catches a cold is likely to manifest a variety of unpleasantsymptoms — fever, headaches, coughing, expectoration, nasaldischarges, lossof appetite, sweating, lethargy, and pain in the joints —that I will shortly discuss in detaiL

First, though, I must look at the nature of the purification process,which I divide into two categories. In the first category, various toxins inthe blood accumulate and harden in various parts of the body. Theplaces where they naturally accumulate are áreas of nerveconcentra-tions or regions that are on the underside of the body when itis at rest. As time passes, the accumulated toxins harden to producewhat is commonly called stiffness. Usually this condition is painless orassociated with nothing worse than stiffness of the shoulders.

The second purification process occurs when the first one hásalready exceeded certain limits and natural elimination of toxinsbegins. To facilitate such elimination, it is essential to dissolve thehardened toxins. Fever is the means employed to achieve this end. Thedegree of fever required depends on the hardness, nature, and quantity

of the toxins and on the patienfs physical constitution. Fever isoccasionally experienced from fatigue after exercise. This happensbecause exercise stimulates the purification process. The toxinsdissolved by it are remove d from the body in sweat, expectoration, andnasal discharges.

Since itresults in expectoration, coughing insuch cases can serve as a"pump". Nasal discharges are removed in sneezing. Sputum isexpectorated after coughing; sneezing is always followed by dischargeof nasal matter. Fever, expectoration, and the taking of medicine causeloss of appetite. The movement caused by the dissolution of hardenedtoxins and preparation to eliminate them stimulates the nerves in theaffected área and brings on headache and pains in the joints. Toxinsbeing eliminated by coughing come into contact with the mucousmembranes, causing catarrh in the throat and vocal cords, which in turncause pain and hoarseness.

If no treatment is given and no medicines are used, these symptoms ofthe cold are lef t to run their natural courses and they will be curedinashort time, as the purification process is completed in an orderly way.Relying on natural therapy in this way reduces the amount of toxins in

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the body and improves health. By showing that colds should really bewelcomed as the simplest of the purification processes, this discussionshould make clear how mistaken people are when they fear them, andhow mistaken medicai science is to try só hard to prevent people fromcatching them. Since ancient times it hás been said, for example, that"the cold is the source of ali illness." In fact, however, itis necessary toaffirm that the cold is the sole means by which ali other illnesses can beavoided.

Ignorant of the causes of the cold, medicai science applies variousmethods when a person catches cold, yet ali of them halt the purificationprocess. Antipyretics, ice packs and wet applications to lower fever areexamples. They nave the effect of setting purification back from thesecond to the first category. They reharden those toxins that had begun todissolve. Though doctor and patient are deluded into thinking thecondition is improving because such symptoms as fever, coughing, andnasal discharge are reduced, actually the toxins have hardened again andthe situtation hás regressed to what it was before second-categorypurification started. Recurrence of the illness is therefore only to beexpected. It is importantto notice that ali such steps as medication, icepacks, and wet applications make the situation worse when it does recurbecause they halt the purification process. Consequently, the repeatedinterruption of minor purification processes by such means as medicinescauses the toxins to accumulate and increase, thus making necessary aninevitable major purification process, which takes the form of a seriousillness.

February 5, 1947

What Is Sickness?The Cold

Medicai science agrees that people have various innate toxins. Thebody initiates a natural physiological process in the attempt to get rid ofthem. We call this process purification. Initially, the toxins accumulate invarious parts of the body, especially in those áreas where nerves are mostusecL the upper part of the human body, notably around the brain. When aperson is awake, the brain, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth are constantlyactive, even though the legs and arms may be at rest. Consequentlytoxins accumulate mostly in the área of the brain and then in theshoulders, neck, lymph glands, the top of the spinal column, and theregion of the glands under the ears. Gradually these localizedaccumulations of toxins harden. When the hardening reaches a certainstage, the elimination process begins. This should be regarded as ablessing. Hardening of toxins reduces vigor to the point where thehuman being is incapable of carrying out his fundamental tasks, byinterfering with blood circulation and causing stiffness in the neck andshoulders, headaches, heaviness of the head, reduction of vision,hardness of hearing, stuffy nose, dulling of the olfactory sense,pyorrhea, bad teeth, shortness of breath, sluggishness in the legs andarms, backaches, and swelling. To prevent this, the Lord Creatorprovided the splendid purification process called sickness.

If the pain involved in the elimination of toxins is what we callsickness and this sickness purifies the blood, it ought to be consideredthe greatest of ali God's blessings, since it is the essential element forgood health. It could even be that, if they were not subject to illness,human beings would gradually weaken and perhaps become extinct.Since I advocate the creation of a world free of illness, I might seem tocontradict myself by saying this, but that is not the case. What I mean isthe elimination of ali toxins só that the purification process, andtherefore illness, become unnecessary. I shall now explain my meaning asthoroughly as possible and in the most readily understandable way.

We call the process of eliminating hardened toxins purification. Whena person catches cold, the first symptom is fever. Nature employs fever todissolve the hardened toxins and facilitate their elimination. The liquidtoxins then quickly enter the lungs. This is a highly mystical process. Forinstance, if we dissolve the toxins by means ofJohrei, they

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go immediately to the lungs, passing straight through muscles andbonés. The condition is fairly light when toxins are concentrated in onlyone or two places in the body, but grows more serious as the number ofconcentrations increases. This is why a cold that seems mild at firstsometimes grows more serious.

If the liquified toxins are thin, they quickly enter the lungs then areimmediately expelled from the body as sputum. If they are denser,however, the pumplike operation of coughing is called on to eliminatethem through the trachea Thus coughing is immediately followed bydischarge of sputum, as sneezing is always accompanied by nasaldischarge. Similarly, headaches, pain in the throat, inflammation of theinner ear and of the lymph glands, and pain in the arms and legs and theglands near the groin are ali caused when toxins that were solidified inthose parts liquefy and begin to move in search of an outlet. Theseconditions occur because of stimulation to the nerves. The fluid toxinsmay be either concentrated or dilute. Concentrated ones are eliminatedfrom the body in sputum, nasal discharge, or diarrhea; extremelydiluted ones are watery and may be eliminated as night sweating orurine. The completely natural way in which this purification processtakes place makes one marvel at the powers of the Creator. There is noreason why God should have produced human beings and then imposedon them such a thing as illness that causes them to suffer and impedestheir activity. In fact, human beings produce toxins through error andallow them to accumulate in what ought to be unfailingly healthy bodies, sóthat the elimination process becomes unavoidable and essential. If thisis the nature of illness, it means that the ordinary cold, if left to run itscourse naturally, should be cured without specific treatment since thepurification process will take place naturally. When this happens, thehealth will improve.

Yet for some unaccountable reason, at some point this purificationprocess became completely misunderstood. When an illness develops,people take extreme measures to halt purification because they interpretthe accompanying pain as an indication that their condition isdeteriorating. Out of fear they try to reduce the fever. Reduction of thefever halts the liquefaction of the toxins; as a consequence, ali suchsymptoms as coughing and discharge of sputum decrease, giving theimpression of recovery from the sickness. By resorting to medicaitherapy to treat a cold, people only reharden toxins that had started toliquefy.

Since measures such as ice pack, cold applications, medicines, andinjections harden toxins and simultaneously eliminate pathologicalsymptoms, people tend to believe they are effecting a cure. In fact, thesemeasures only hinder the cleanup operation that had once begun. Coldsgrow worse because, by trying to halt them, people force the purificationprocess to conflict with the nonpurification process in a way that generatesfriction. Even when application of medicai therapy seems to haveconquered it, the cold will inevitably reappear. In short, instead ofcuring illness, medicine only postpones it. The way to cure sickness is topurify the body by completely ridding it of the toxins that are thefundamental cause of illness. The only true therapy is one that, whenpurification begins, accelerates the liquefaction of toxins and maximizestheir elimination from the body.

August 15, 1951

What Is the Common Cold?

Itis probably impossible for the ordinary person living as a memberof society to avoid catching cold. Becoming chilled is generally regardedas the cause of colds, and it is difficult to avoid the condition thatpresents itself many times everyday when one may get chilled:undressing before going to bed, dressing upon waking, bathing, andgoing out into the cold wind and rain. Consequently, I teach that peopleshould not worry about this too much.

Sometimes, feeling cold is followed by actually catching a cold andsometimes it is not. When it is, it is because the person had a slightfever; when it is not, it is because there was no fever. In other words, theperson had already caught cold, and the slight fever was the first sign ofthe illness; the cold would have come no matter whether his body waschilled or not. Particularly if he hás a slight fever, he will shiver fromcold no matter where he is and no matter how heavily he is dressed.

It is important to realize, however, that when the weather changes orwhen a person is exposed to cold, there is no way to prevent the naturalprocess of purification that takes place in response to those conditions.

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It is therefore futile to try to avoid catching colds, which are inevitable.Indeed, the attempt can have adverse psychological effects. I amconvinced there is no one who can avoid a cold by being careful.

Medicai science still cannot pinpoint the cause of the common cold.Nevertheless, I will attempt a rough explanation in the light of my ownviews. First of ali, the basic cause of healthor sickness in human beings isthe purity or impurity of their blood. A healthy person hás puré blood,whereas the blood of an unhealthy person is clouded. Fortunately, apurification process is constantly taking place in the body of a personwith clouded blood, and the elements (toxins) responsible for theclouding collect in one place and harden. This is, as I have alreadyexplained, the first purification process. The second purification process— that is, elimination of the hardened toxins — follows. This process iswhat is called the common cold. Fever dissolves and liquefies thehardened toxins, which, after first accumulating in the lungs as sputum,are expelled by the pumping action involved in coughing. In other words,the common cold is the simplest form of purification. As a result cloudyblood becomes puré, and health is improved. Consequently, the cold is agreat blessing bestowed on humanity by God and a natural physiologicalprocess.

Nouember 23, 1943

Internai Bathing

I am constantly writing about the fallacies inherent in modernmedicine. Some people accept the principies on which our philosophy isbased, but in reality most are unable to put it boldly into practicebecause they think of sickness in terms of the doctor and medicines. Forthe sake of that majority, I shall here explain our approach in the mostreadily understandable way.

Probably the most easily understood sickness is the ordinary cold.When people catch cold and such symptoms as fever, coughing, phlegm,sneezing, watery nasal discharges, headaches, and pain in the jointsdevelop, they immediately go to a doctor for a diagnosis. This is thecause of the trouble. While realizing that the sickness is no more than a

cold, most people who catch one at once entertain the fear that, if theyare not careul, the situation will become more serious and that they areexperiencing the first stages of a much graver sickness. Some peoplesimply do as their doctor instructs and wait to get better. Others turn tohome remedies like aspirin, root and herbal brews, a drink of sake andeggs, charred orange peei, and só on, or go to bed, pile quilts onthemselves, and try to sweat it out, turning bright red in the process.Not satisfied with makeshift home cures and afraid that the sickness willget out of hand and become perhaps incurable, people with lesscourage than money rush to their trusted physician. They ask a lot ofquestions, but, because the doctor himself does not understand thecause of the common cold, he or she is unable to give any clearexplanation. Consequently the patient's mind is, quite naturally, not putat rest. The doctor may well suspect the danger of pneumonia, but mustbe content with such perfunctory injunctions as "Go to bed and rest,"or"Take good care of yourself," thus only increasing the patienfsanxiety. Such patients are obliged to stay at home ali day with athermometer and, from our viewpoint, look ridiculous.

There is nothing more beneficiai to health than the cold, since itcleans outthe toxins stored in ali parts of the body. It is good to sweat asmuch as possible and to rid of body of phlegm and nasal discharges,since these fluids contain toxins that have been dissolved by fever. Themore quickly they are removed from the body, the sooner will a cure ofthe cold be achieved, leaving the patient feeling refreshed and in betterhealth than before. A cold cleanses the body s interior free of charge.What could be a greater blessing than that? Just as bathing is a way tokeep the outside of the body clean, a cold is a way to keep the insideclean. Washing removes the grime clingingto the skin; a cold removesthe grime on the body's interior. Sputum, nasal discharges, and sweatare the interior dirt being removed from the body. Though it is easy towash the outside of the body, similar cleansing of the interior isimpossible. Nature, bearing witness to the great skill of God theCreator, hás provided colds to do this work, and we should becorrespondingly grateful to them.

Employing the toxins called medicines and misinterpreting thenature of colds, doctors do ali they can to stop them. I doubt if there isone true medicine among the medicinal products of the world. Ali thesubstances now considered beneficiai medicines are actually toxinsretarding the natural process of recovery. Nothing is more mistaken

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than to rely on these toxins. People make the mistake because they aredeluded into thinking that, when medicines bring relief from pain bytemporarily halting the internai cleansing process, an actual cure hásbeen effected. In short, medicine is truly a forbidden fruit

The fact that I have discovered this remarkable human error andteach Johrei, moreover, as a way of eliminating medicine toxins, clearlyshows how great a salvation my work representa. It should be obvioustoo, that my insistence on the creation of a heaven on earth free ofillness, poverty, and conflict is more than mere boasting.

March 12, 1952

The True Cause of Sickness Is In the Soul

Everything inthe physical world is made up of a spiritual being and amaterial being. The material being decays and decomposes when thespirit leaves it This happens even in the case of stones; for example,stones that crumble and break easily are sometimes referred to as"dead." Rust on the surface of metal can be called a corpse since itrepresents what the metal becomes when its spiritual being departs.Well-burnished sword blades and ancient metal mirrors do not rustmuc h because the spirit of the persons who made them have been added tothose of the physical objects. Ali material things have spirits, buíliving creatures have spiritual beings. In living human beings, thespiritual being and physical body are intimately, inseparably, linked toeach other. Death occurs when the spiritual being leaves the physicalbody for the spiritual world.

Besides their spiritual beings — or rather, within their spiritualbeings — ali living creatures have minds and souls. The mind is thecenter of the spiritual being, and the soul is the center of the mind. Insize, the mind is one-hundredth that of the spiritual being, and the soulis one-hundredth that of the mind.

When the soul moves, the mind is put into action. When the mindmoves, the spiritual being is put into action, and this in turn causes thephysical being to act. The soul is the fundamental source of ali humanmovement and of ali other physical phenomena. Classified in terms of

good and bad, the mind acts as good in relation to the bad of the physicalbeing, and the soul as good in relation to the bad of the mind. Thefriction between the various goods and bads gives rise to a harmonywhich manifests itself as potential action.

Consequently, illness is generated by part of the soul, whicftactivates the physical body. Though small, the soul hás free powers ofexpansion and contraction. When a person is awake and working, thesoul assumes human form, but it becomes round during sleep. At theinstant of death, the soul, the mind, and the spiritual being becomeround. Light is associated with this roundness. Therefore, on leavingthe body, the spiritual entity assumes the form of the flying, flamingspheres which are occasionally visible to the human eye.

The occurrence of illness in one particular part of the soul in itshuman form signifies, in fact, a clouding — diminution of the light — of apart of the soul itself. This is transmitted first to the mind, and then tothe spiritual being. Finally, it manifests itself as illness in the physicalbeing. Therefore, as long as the soul remains unclouded, the person willcontract absolutely no illness. Pollution with sin is the cause of cloudson the souL To explain this, it is necessary to delve into the field ofreligion. Therefore, I shall not deal with it here, but instead will explainillness as a physical manifestation.

As I have already explained, when clouds occur in part of thespiritual being — let us say the lungs — the blood in the correspondingphysical being becomes muddy. Since this principie is not limited tolung disease but applies to ali other sicknesses, treatment must dependon removing the clouds from the spiritual being. Acquainted only withthe evidence and ignorant of the main cause — that is, of this principie —modern medicai science concentrates most of its research and effort onpathological symptoms in the physical being. Though it may bringtemporary respite, such treatment cannot effect fundamental cures. Incontrast, Johrei employs the divine light to eliminate clouds in thespiritual being. When this happens, the concentrated liquid is dissolvedand the illness is either alleviated or cured entirely because purificationof the spiritual being results in a cure in the physical being. However, itcannot be said that this is truly fundamental. Though certainly morefundamental than the effects of medicai science, it cannot be calledabsolute since, unless the soul is totally purified, it is impossible to betruly mentally tranquil. Purification of the soul is only thorough whenthe person hás a firm understanding of the right faith and puts that faith

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into practical action. Since this kind of action is the work of the divinelight, the people carrying it out generate absolutely no sin but insteadaccumulate virtue. Consequently, such people lead lives of joy andrapture utterly free of illness or calamity. They enjoy happiness, longlife, and prosperity.

I should like to take the opportunity this discussion offers to say onemore thing about the souL Some people are easily startled by externaithings, and are constantly unsettled and restless because their souls havebeen weakened and their powers of resistance against impulses from theoutside world have been reduced. The many people today who suffer fromnervous debility are of this kind. The cause of the weakness is clouds in thesoul, but it can be cured if the coagulation of toxic blood at the nape of theneck is dissolved. If their condition deteriorates, such people may sufferinsomnia. They must also live with the likelihood of a recurrence evenafter a cure hás been effected. Therefore they should accept Johrei andallow their souls to be só illuminated by the divine light that no cloudscan develop there.

1935

Wrongdoing and the Fundamental Cause of Illness

Illness is basically caused by pollution of the blood, and anaccumulation and coagulation of suppurative fluid. These in turn aremanifestations of clouds in the spiritual being. This is a result ofpollution through sin, which can be either hereditary or acquired.Hereditary pollution is the accumulation and consolidation of the wrongsperpetrated by many ancestors. Acquired pollution is the accumulation ofthe wrongs a person commits in this life.

First I shall deal in detail with hereditary pollution. We are notcreatures who have suddenly sprung to life unrelated to ali other beings.Each of us hás thousands of ancestors and is the present living, breathingculmination of ali our forebears. At the same time, however, each of us isan ínterim being, a temporal individuality, in an eternal process. In thelarge view, we are links in the chain connecting our ancestors and ourdescendants. In the smaller view, each of us is the link

joining parent and child. To explain thoroughly how sickness can resultfrom the wrongdoing of ancestors, it is essential to discuss life afterdeath, that is the organization of the spiritual world. In what follows,therefore, I give a summary of the situation here.

In leaving this world and passing through the gate of death, a humanbeing divests itself of its clothing of flesh. The flesh belongs to thisworld, and the spirit to the spiritual world. As a result of aging or illness thephysical body degenerates to the point where it is no longer serviceable,whereupon the spirit abandons this useless physical burden and goes tothe spiritual world, where it must prepare for rebirth into this world. Thispreparation is purification. Since most people are greatly polluted by sinduring physical life, in the spiritual world, as a result of a fair and strictjudgment, the majority fali into hell. Enduring their punishment there,they improve little by little. Nonetheless, this purification still leavesspiritual pollutants, or a residue of sin, to be passed on in an unbrokenstream to their descendants. Children and grandchildren must bear theburden of their forefathers' wrongs in what might be called acause-and-effect law of atonement Since this is the inscrutable law ofGod the Creator of ali things, human beings have no choice but to obey itThe spiritual pollutants ceaselessly flow in the direction of a humanbeing's brain and spinal column and, immediately after entering the soul,assume physical form as suppurative fluid, which is the cause of alikinds of illness.

The second, or acquired pollution is something everyone understandswell since no person is capable of living this life without doing wrong insome way or another. Of course, wrongdoing is of many kinds anddegrees; there is legal wrongdoing, moral wrongdoing, socialwrongdoing, and só on. Some wrongs manifest themselves in actualphysical action, whereas other kinds are only wrongdoing of the mind.Though it may sound too severe, Chrisfs statement that a man who lustsafter a woman in his heart hás already committe d adultery with her iscertainly not mistaken. Ali the small acts and thoughts of daily life —hating someone, wishing another person harm, lustful desire — thoughapparently insignificant in themselves can become serious if allowed toaccumulate over a long period. Superiority of the kind gained by victory ina competition or social success can cause the person who hás notsucceeded to resent or feel envious of the more fortunate person. Thiskind of resentment can be the cause of sin. Unnecessary taking of life,being lazy, attacking others, wasting material pôs sessions, oversleeping

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in the morning, breaking promises, falsehood, and many other actionsand attitudes are ali sins committed without beingfelt as such. Thoughsmall individually, yet over a long period of time these sins can becomenumerous and accumulate as clouds in the soul. Contrary to what mightseem to be the case, even newly born infants have acquired clouds. Thecase may be different after children leave their parents' sides to becomeindependent, but as long as they are under their protection, childrenmust share the sins of their fathers and mothers. The parents are thetrunkofthetree. The boughs are the children, andsmaller branches arethe grandchildren. Just as no branch is unaffected by the trunk, só it isimpossible that the spiritual clouds of the parents should fail toinfluence the offspring.

Acquired pollution and its effects are often readily apparent, as thefollowing few examples show. In two of these instances, people whopersistently pulled the wool over other peoples' eyes went blindthemselves. As a child I often went to Senzoku-cho, in Asakusa, to visitan old man, who inhisyoungeryears, hadbeentheproprietorof ashopspecializing in mounting scroll paintings and calligraphy and who hadhimself amassed a fortune as a result of his genius for forging suchworks of art. His new scrolls passed muster for sale as valuableantiques. However, as he told me himself, after he had grown old hewent incurably blind; he died not long afterward.

In another instance, the head priest of a temple in the Shizuokadistrict wanted to place the main Buddhist image of his temple on view inTokyo. He took the statue to Tokyo to raise funds but failed andfound himself without sufficient money for the trip home. To raise thefare, he left the statue as collateral with the proprietor of a dealer infurnishings called Hanagame, in Hanakawado, Asakusa, from whom heborrowed what he needed. Realizing its great value, Hanagame sold theimage. When the priest, who had gathered the money for repayment,returned to Tokyo to redeem it, Hanagame stubbornly and brazenlyrefused to admit he had ever accepted it in the first place. In anirresolvable impasse, the priest hanged himself under the Hanagameeaves. Having made a huge profit on the sale of the statue, Hanagameexpande d his business and for a while steadily prospered until he wasextremely wealthy. But in his late years he, too, went blind. To makematters worse, his son, who was supposed to succeed his business, took todrinking and womanizing and squandered the family fortune. I often sawHanagame as a wretched, miserable, scrawny old man being led by thehand about town by his old wife. My father told me the story of his

fate. There can be no doubt that the revenge of the dead priest was atwork in what happened to him.

In another instance, the sin of the father was visited on the child. Agirl of seventeen or eighteen who worked as a maid in our house had lostthe sight of an eye when the children of the family by whom she hadpreviously been employed accidentally shot her in the face with an airgun. It was discovered that in the middle of the nineteenth century, herfather had been especially skillful at making imitation coral beads ofrubber, which he sold to rural people at high prices as the genuinearticle. Though he made a great deal of money this way, the resentment ofthe people he duped must have been equally great. The father's sin wasvisited on the daughter in the form of lost sight in one eye. Moreover, ifher eyes had been normal, this girl would have gone far in the worldsince, aside from this one deformity, she was very lovely.

In still another instance, an old man carne asking me to treat a pain inhis wrist. I was só surprised that more than ten days of therapy failed tocure him that I asked what his religious f aith was. He told me that formore than twenty years he had put his faith in a certain deity. As soon ashe followed my advice to stop worshiping that god his arm gradually gotbetter. And, in a week, he was completely cured. I frequently hear ofpeople whose hands are paralyzed or painful or whose knees will notbend because they mistakenly worship the wrong deity.

As these examples show, we must not underestimate acquiredpollution by sin. People who suffer from illness or other hardship shouldcarefully examine themselves to discover what they are guilty of, thenrepent and make amends.

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Sin and Sickness

Before discussing this topic, I should say that, though "sin" tends to bethought of in religious terms, when I speak of it, I am talking about itsethical aspects. Men of religion do in fact frequently use the term sin;but, as what follows shows, sin is not some hypothetical, man-madeabstraction, but a practical reality.

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As I said in the preceding article, when people think evil and commitevil, cloudiness in the spiritual being increases both in quantity andconcentration. When the concentration reaches a certain degree, thepurification process sets in naturally. This is a strict inescapable law ofthe spiritual world, and no one is immune to it Though the purificationprocess usually manifests itself as illness, it sometimes takes otherfornis. Where medicai therapy hás no effect on illness even thoughapplied with utmost thoroughness, it is because it attempts to usemechanical and pharmaceutical means to solve a spiritual problem. It ispursuing a totally mistaken course. Praying to a god or Buddha in cases ofillness, as some people do, is effective to some extent since, ob viously,such beings are of the spiritual realm and their blessings help to diminishspiritual clouds. However, not even a god or Buddha — the moreconscientious he is the more só, since he must be fair— will allowimpurities accumulated over a long period to be resolved with only lightsuffering. This is like a person who hás violated a national law; no matterhow he repents and laments, his crime cannot be overlooked, though hispunishment may be lightened as a result of his penitent attítude.

In some cases, alternative kinds of purification processes have takenplace before the usual one begins. In these instances, the degree ofclouding is relatively light, só that only a mild purification process isrequired. Such prior purification may have been motivated by apsychological awakening brought about by contact with religious storiesor holy writings or by the testimonials of older persons or people ofdistinction. The good effects these can have show the importance ofgood books, lectures, motion pictures, and dramas in awakening thehuman soul or conscience.

Next, then, I should like to discuss the process occurring in thespiritual being when people are awakened in these ways. The spiritualbeing is in three stages; including the mind, which is the center of thespiritual being, and the soul, which is the center of the mind. The soul,which is essentially conscience, is constantly being clouded over byinfluences from without. It is fundamentally a radiant sphere; cloudinessin the mind, its outer casing, obscures its brilliance and puts it to sleep;but when the mind is as calm as stillwater or a clear mirror, the celestialbrilliance of the soul shines forth.

When a person is spiritually awakened, the soul that hás slumberedsuddenly shines bright. Until today, the primary ways to bring aboutsuch an awakening have been educational — for example the stories and

written material that I mentioned earlier. Contact with them awakenedthe soul and allowed it to glow. This in turn dispelled the cloudiness ofthe mind and initiated purification of the spiritual being. In this way, thethree elements — soul, mind, and spirit — preserve a state of balancebetween light and dark.

In this educational approach, first the soul is awakened; then themind and spiritual being are purified. In our therapeutic method,however, the order is the opposite: by means oïJohrei from without, thespiritual being is first purified; this dispels the cloudiness of the mindand, irresistibly, awakens the soul. Furthermore, when the soul and mindare awakened by the educational method, the person undergoes thesuffering of self-denial, which in turn affects the spiritual body, leadingto sickness and other sufferings, whereas our therapeutic methodconstitutes a kind of ideal remodeling of spirit and body together,whereby the soul is awakened without its realizing it, in the

course of the cure.October23, 1943

Sickness and Suffering

Suffering is the awareness people have that they have fallen ill. Itmight even seem that sickness and suffering are synonymous, butthereare many different kinds of suffering. Until the present, medicai sciencehás regarded suffering and illness as the same thing and hás believedthat easing suffering was tantamount to relieving sickness. Thisapproach is fundamentally mistaken, as the example of the commoncold will show. When people catch cold, they first develop a fever. Since thehead hurts, they apply ice packs to it. Because this brings a littlecomfort, they feel that the lessening of the suffering is the same thing aslessening the gravity of the sickness itself. This is wrong. Illness andsuffering are different; the more the suffering is relieved, the moreaggravated the sickness becomes. Though modern people might findthis an astonishing statement, it is an unshakable truth. No medicine thatfails to accept it as a fundamental tenet can be a true medicine. The

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explanation that follows should leave everyone who reads it totallyconvinced. In the past, people used to say that there was no manuntainted by conceit and syphilis. Actually, there is no one who hás notinherited toxins. Furthermore, most people have more of those toxinsthan they think. When the toxins are transformed medicines, we callthem medicine toxins; I will discuss them later.

As a resultof the metabolic processes, toxins accumulate invariousparts of the body and harden gradually with the passing of time. Toxinaccumulation occurs in places where the nerves are used, and istherefore most frequent in the upper body, especially above the neck.During waking hours, the head, eyes, nose, mouth, ears, and throat workunceasingly. This is especially true of the brain, where more nerves areemployed than in any other part of the body. Consequently, the toxins ofthe whole body are constantly moving toward the brain and accumulateto a great extent in the vicinity of the neck; this is because the nerves ofthe eyes, nose, mouth, and ears have their origins in the brain. Thephenomenon explains why most people have lumps in the neck área orstiffness in the shoulders.

When toxins accumulate to the maximum degree, they impede thecontinued maintenance of good health. At this stage an eliminationprocess, called purification, begins. The Creator hás exercised the utmostingenuity in providing this purification process. First a fever developsand melts the toxin lumps. Then, instantaneously, the toxins pass in fluidform into the lungs, where they are immediately expelled from the bodyin the process called expectoration. Coughing is the pumplike processresulting in expectoration. Toxins in the rear of the head and the vicinityof the top of the spinal column become nasal fluids, which aredischarged through the nose in the process called sneezing. The waythese processes act to remove liquefied toxins from the body is obviouswhen it is recalled that one always discharges sputum in coughing andnasal fluids in sneezing. After liquefaction, toxins in the body below theneck are discharged as night sweating. Headaches are caused by liquefiedtoxins seeking a way out of the body and stimulating the nerves to causepain. These toxins are striving to reach the lungs, from which they will beexpelled in the form of sputum. When we administer Johrei for headaches,coughing and expectoration of sputum are instantaneous, and relief frompain follows. Because human beings often bend their arms and legs,toxins accumulate in the joints, where purification results in pain.

As this explanation makes clear, sickness is the process of cleaningpollutants from the human body. It can therefore be said that there is nogreater blessing than the common cold, or sickness in general. Thecause of poor health is accumulated pollutants. Sickness is the processwhereby those pollutants are cleansed away and good health is restored.The suffering of sickness is blessed since it is a cleansing process. If leftalone, it will not be severe.

Medicai science views pain as an evil and attempts to halt it. Bypreventing the emergence of matter that naturally ought to be expelledfrom the body, this causes a collision between natural and artificialpower and in this way intensifies the suffering. Obviously, medicaiscience, which hás developed under the delusion that suppressingnatural processes in this way can work cures, is fundamentally in error.

There is, however, a condition essential to the removal of thelocalized accumulation of toxins. Unless the body is vigorous enough toexpel the toxins, that is, unless the metabolic processes are strongenough, purification cannot take place. Interpreting this in the oppositeway, medicai science attempts to suppress the emergence of purification.To do this, it must weaken both metabolism and health. Medicines are away of weakening health.

Fundamentally, medicines are poisons; they are effective preciselybecause they are poisonous. This may seem ludicrous, yet a dose ofmedicine in fact weakens the body. Weakening the body weakens thepurification process, which in turn reduces suffering. Establishedmedicai science deludes itself by assuming it is the medicine that háscured the illness. The same can be said for other so-called therapies.Applying ice packs to the head to reduce fever only rehardens thosetoxins that had started to liquefy. Total rest with no exercise of any kind isthe most effective possible way to weaken the body. Even people in goodhealth will suffer ill effects if f orce d to remain still for several monthswithout exercising their bodies. Their stomachs will weaken, they willlose their appetites, their arms and legs will be debilitated by lack of use,and they will find themselves on the verge of serious illness. Clearly the caseis much graver with a sick person who is deprived of ali exercise. Wetpoultices also weaken the body. Human beings breathe, not only throughthe mouth and nose, but also through the capillaries dispersed throughoutthe skin of the whole body. Poultices stop dermal breathing wherever theyare applied. This lowers fever and relieves

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suffering, but it stops the purification process in the vicinity of the poultice.

(Date uncertain)

Medicine Toxins I

I shall now go on to explain the grave danger of medicine toxins, ingeneral, aside from what I call the "hereditary toxins."

In ali ages and ali places, it hás been considered sensible to takemedicine when ill, just as it is to eat when hungry. The idea thatmedicines cure is deeply ingrained. Yet I have realized that medicinesare fearsome poisons that totally lack power to cure sickness. Indeed,they cause illness in the sense that they are its source.* Some people mayfind this difficult to understand, but it is true. I once read in a book thefollowing words of a noted Chinese-style doctor: "Fundamentally thereare no medicines; they are ali poisons. Taking medicine for an illness isthe same thing as attempting to control one poison by means of another."This is a very wise thing to say and reminiscent of the old proverb about"making medicines out of poisonous herbs."

When pain is intolerable, relief can of course be had by means of,say, morphine injections. Yet as medicai scientists know full well, therelief is brought about only by a temporary paralysis of the nervescaused by the poison called morphine.

I have explaíned earlier that sickness arises as a result of theprocess of purification, which is always accompanied by the sufferingreferred to as illness. Obviously, everyone dislikes suffering and wants toescape from it quickly.

There are two ways to eliminate suffering. One way to get rid of itcompletely is by totally expelling from the body those toxins that must

*Though medicines are capable of extending lif e temporarily and of creating a condition offalse good health, they cannot bring about a fundamental cure. Essential good health is aconditionin whichhuman beings can live without medicine. For this reason, itis important toavoid taking medicines as much as possible, though sometimes respect for human life makestheir application necessary.

be removed. The other is a temporary escape and a return to thecondition predating the occurrence of suffering; this means, merely,halting the purification process and returning to the condition existingbefore its initiation. S ince the complete elimination of toxins is a naturalprocess, it takes time. It is the desire to be free of suffering quickly thathás stimulated the development of ali the medicai and other therapeuticmethods invented in the past Moreover, medicai science hás never yetunderstood the principie of toxin elimination and purification as thetrue nature of illness.

1939

Medicine Toxins II

When people become sick they develop fever, pain, and generalmalaise or may cough and expectorate sputum. If they take medicinethey will feel better, just as if the medicine had cured the sickness. But, asI have often said, taking the poison called medicine weakens the wholebody. Because the body weakens, the purification process grows faint,and pain is eased. If this were ali, the situation would not be só bad.The truly serious problem is what happens to the poison after one hástaken it.

Let me explain. The ingestion of poison stimulates an antidotalprocess, or one that eliminates the harmful substance. This is true oftoxins in the foods we eat, but the body is powerless to counteractimmediately poisons other than those in our foods. Since the poisonfrom the medicines that people take is not completely eliminated, someremains to accumulate in the body. Just as in the case of toxins thathave been handed down through generations of medicine users, thesenewly introduced toxins accumulate in áreas where nerves are plentiful;when purification and elimination of accumulated hardened toxins ofthe kind that are most difficult to expel from the body begin, medicinetoxins halt the process and increase toxic leveis. This is the effect ofmedicinal therapy.

A second-stage accumulation of toxins develops. Then purificationbegins again; but this time, owing to the increased amount of toxins, the

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purifying process is a greater strain. This is why secondary purification,or repurification, is more severe than the initial process. Furthermore,third-stage and fourth-stage purification can occur.

1939

Low-grade Fever

Though only some people are aware of it, probably no one today iswithout what is called low-grade fever. Because of the surprisingly greatinfluence it hás on the human body, I shall now discuss this kind offever.

A persistent slight fever causes headaches, heaviness in the head,lack of psychological concentration, distraction, diminished memory,loss of perseverance, laziness in everything, sluggishness of the wholebody, and a desire to lie around and doing nothing. It reduces theappetite and makes people finicky about what they eat. When afflictedwith it, people show a preference for liquids and foods with high liquidcontent They may b e irritable, shut off from the world, jade d, andpessimistic. They become hysterical, are negative in outlook, and preferrainy to fair weather. They catch cold easily and are prone to stuffynose, ringing in the ears, and tonsillitis. They become short of breathand suffer heaviness in the legs from walking fast or climbing slopes. Asthis brief summary of its effects clearly shows, a low-grade fever is notsomething to take lightly.

Because of these symptoms, such people do not mix well with theirfriends or get along smoothly with other people. Their marital and otherrelationships are poor because such people insist on acting precisely asthey wish and always have some kind of justification for their ownselfish behavior; "liberalism" is one of their favorite excuses. Becausesuch people are dissatisfied with life at home, horrible things oftenhappenintheirlives. The currently increasingnumbersof youngpeoplewho run away from home may well be influenced by this kind ofdomestic situation. In the worst cases, entire families have been known tocommit suicide together.

On a social levei, large numbers of people concerned with nothingbut pursuing and justifying their own selfish ends disrupt harmony,debate unimportant matters, and resort to conflict to solve issues thatcould be solved amicably. Egotism of this kind is apparently common inthe world of politics.

Whenever something is being debated in a group, there is só muchbustle and commotion that it takes a long time to come to an agreement;the reason is not só much that people are unaware of the cause as thatthey are indifferent to it

But there is still more to the matter. As society becomes disturbed inthe ways I have described above, people experience more unpleasantthan pleasant things, and seek diversion by turning to alcohol; this iswhy the sale of alcoholic beverages, no matter how much they cost,continues unabated. Next, such people seek still stronger stimuli in thehope of escaping from their suffering. Young people seek unwholesomeamusements. Older people with the money to pay for such things keepmistresses or seek consolation in the red-light districts. For this reason,the world today is filled with such unhealthy amusements.

Clearly, then, nothing is só fearsome as a low-grade fever, which isthe fundamental cause of trouble in ali these aspects of life. Thepresence in the body of medicine toxins is the cause of the slight fever,which is a sign of the slow purification process taking place in the body toeliminate these hardened toxins. Since Johrei is the only way to work acure, an increase in the number of people who do Johrei will eliminate thedeplorable situation I have described above. When this happens, societywill be a pleasant, happy place in which to live; and we will have an idealworld.

September 5, 1951

Balanced Purification

The person who administers Johrei must remember the principie of"balanced purification." For example, pain in the right arm maydisappear, but then develop in the left arm. The pain seems to move fromone arm to the other, but this is really an example of balanced

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purification: cleansing must take place in an equalized fashion. Thus,when toxins have been purified out of the right arm, a parallel naturalpurification may start in the left arm if there are toxins there. Obviouslythis pertains not only to the arms, but also to other parts of the body.Pain does not shift from the abdómen to the back. The appearance of ashift is only the result of the balanced purification I speak of.

Apríl22, 1950

The Word Purification (Johka)

The word "purification" which we use for illness is, I feel, peculiarlyapt, not least because it exactly expresses the truth. It hás, to beginwith, a very pleasant sound, whereas the word sickness is unpleasantnessitself. Yet even the word for sickness, in Japanese, is hardly a mistake.The two characters for it, byo and ki, mean "sickness" and "mind," andthe trouble is precisely that people fret their minds about sickness toomuch without realizing that it is, essentially, a good thing.

In this connection, I am encouraged and delighted when I hearmembers saying to each other, for example, "Fm pleased to say thatpurification hás started," or "Thanks to purification, I feel much betternow," or "Purification is a true blessing."

Though I dislike it very much, the word byoin (hospital) is an aptdescription of the institution: a place (in) where incurable illness (byo)continues for a long time. If we in this organization were asked to give aname to a place where illness is treated, we would probably call it ajohin, or place of purification. If people stopped taking medicines, theonly illnesses that would remain would be simple ones that could becured at home; and there would be no need to build hospitais of anykind.

May 21, 1952

Admonitions from Ancestral Spirits

Because they sincerely hope for the happiness and prosperity oftheir descendants, ancestral spirits are ceaselessly sending themwarnings to prevent their making mistakes and doing evil that runscontrary to their own well-being, and to help them avoid falling intonegative ways. When their posterity left in this world are lured by evilforces into doing something wrong, the ancestral spirits inflict ali kinds ofcalamity and illness on them both as a warning and as expiation for sinsalready committed. For example, a person who hás made a fortune bydishonest means will be made to suffer fire and loss that destroy ali hisproperty. With some sins, again, purification by illness is carried out.

Such admonitions manifest themselves in various ways. For example,it may happen that an infant or a child undergoes purification in the formof a cold— a simple illness thatJohrei should be able to cure easily — yetnothing hás any effect. Perplexingly, the child begins to vomit a greatdeal; loses appetite; rapidly declines and dies. This is an admonitionfrom the ancestral spirits of the kind already described, necessitatedby, say, the child's father's marital infidelity or by his keeping amistress. Where the man fails to understand the first time such awarning is delivered, his other children are taken from him one by one. It islamentable in the extreme that a man should thus sacrifice the life of adear child for fleeting moments of pleasure. In a case of this kind, thespirits hesitate to take the life of the father, who is the mainstay of thewhole family, and are compelled to take the child in his stead.

Here is an interesting illustration of such an admonition. The headof a family, about forty at the time, was disinclined to worship in front ofthe family Buddhist shrine; this disturbed his daughter, who discussedthe matter with her father's younger brother. As an outcome of thesetalks, the family shrine was transferred from the house of the older tothat of the younger brother. The younger man began to worry aboutwhat might happen in the future and went again to his older brother'shouse to request him to write a clear statement of the shrine' s transier.The older brother agreed and took pen and paper in preparation, but inthe very instant in which he was about to write, he had a spasm of thehands, and his tongue was paralyzed. He was unable to write or sayanything.

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Various kinds of treatments were tried on this man, but to no avail.Finally he carne for help to one of my disciples, who related thedaughter's story of the family shrine to me. The ancestors delivered thisadmonition to the older brother as head of the family's main branch,because, while willing to permit the transfer of the shrine temporarily tothe home of the younger brother, they could not countenance apermanent transfer, since this would upset the family lineage and couldresult in severance of the family line.

February 5, 1947

longer alive to enjoy it."People who are reborn before their purification in the spiritual

world is complete are sometimes physically deformed or disabled. Totake one example, one may be born with a deformity of an arm or legbecause one hás broken a limb in a fali, then been reborn before it háshad time to heal.

There are cases in which the devotion and attachment of survivorsinfluence the speed with which a person is reborn. Women notinfrequently become pregnant again soon after the death of a belovedchild. This may be because the devotion and longing of the mother havegreatly accelerated rebirth of the infant. For precisely this reason, suchchildren are usually not very happy.

October23, 1943

Rebirth

There is a great deal of latitude in the speed with which people arereborn, depending on the will of the person involved. A person who isvery attached to this world at the moment of death will be rebornquickly. But the effects of such a speedy return are not good. Thedeepest purification takes place in the spiritual world. Therefore, thelonger one is there, the purer one's spiritual being becomes, and themore fortunate one's circumstances at rebirth. If rebirth is fast,pollutants remain and must be purified away during life by means of anunfortunate fate filled with sickness, poverty, and disaster. This is thesituation that determines why some people are born fortunate whereasothers are born unfortunate. Good and bad fortune are in no wayaccidental but are inevitably determined by the degree of purification inthe spiritual world.

There is still another determining factor: the sincerity andthoroughness with which survivors hold memorial services for the spiritof the departed. Moreover, the fervor with which survivors anddescendants help others, work for the welfare of society and the nation,and accumulate virtue, stimulates the purification of ancestors.

This means that filial piety is not limited to this life. On thecontrary, the prayers offered and good deeds performed after the deathof one's parents can be even more important than care shown duringlife. It is only people ignorant of the nature of the spiritual world whosay, "By the time I was ready to be good to them, my parents were no

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JOHREI

The Spiritual World

I should now like to discuss in more detail the way in which moderncivilization is based, as needs no pointing out, on materialistic science.First of ali, it is necessary here to understand the structure of theuniverse itself. I shall concentrate on the major points, and on thoseparticular matters that are related directly to human beings.

Basically, the universe consists of three elements: the sun, the moon,and the earth. These three elements are the essences of fire, water, andsoil, and manifest themselves as the spiritual realm, the air realm, andthe phenomena realm; reality is a complete fusion and harmony of thesethree. Hitherto, people have understood only the realms of air andphenomena (the material realms) and have been ignorant of theexistence of another, the spiritual realm which material science wasunable to understand. Modern civilization is only two-thirds of what itshould be because it hás been produced by progress in only two of thebasic elements.

As long as this other element is ignored, a perfect civilization cannotevolve, since that element is at the heart of ali basic power and is farmore important than the other two combined. This statement is clearlyillustrated by our culture, a culture that hás not been able to ensurehappiness, humanity's sole desire, despite ali its material development. Aclose examination of the fundamentais of this paradox reveals aprofound truth. If mankind had understood the existence of the spiritualworld from the outset, material civilization would not have achieved thekind of wonderful development it manifests today. Ignoring the spiritualrealm gave birth to atheism, and from atheism, much evil was born. Theresulting struggle between good and evil hás caused man to suffer, andhás thus relentlessly stimulated the development of material civilization.Deep thought on the matter shows that this can only be God's plan. Now,however, having developed to a certain levei, materialism threatens tobring about the destruction of civilization. The invention of the atomicbomb vividly illustrates the truth of this. The time hás come to make agreat turnabout in our thinking concerning the advance of civilization.

The first step must be to make clear to ali people the existence of thespiritual world, which hitherto had been considered nonexistent. Sinceit is in fact intangible, of course, it is impossible to deal with it throughscience. The only way is through a manif estation of the power of

Transition from Night to Day

Ali occurrences in the physical world are projections of occurrencesin the spiritual world. Everything becomes clear if it is realized that agreat transition hás recently been taking place in the spiritual world.

From God's point of view essentially ali things in the universe arecreated and destroyed as a result of the action of both the spiritual andthe actual worlds in an unending process of development in the materialworld that ranges from the limitless universe to the most minuteparticles. It is these unending changes that give rise to unceasingcultural progress and development Calm and quiet reflection on thiscannot but inspire one with a sense of the universal will, of the purpose ofGod. In ali things, there are distinctions between yin and yang, dark andlight night and day. These variations, as well as those of the seasons ofthe year and of the growth and decline observable in ali things, relate tohuman life as much as to ali other phenomena. The distinctionsobservable among ali things, of ali sizes, are to be seen in time too. Forinstance, just as a twenty-four hour span is divided into day and night,só each year, decade, century, millennium, hás a day and a night Theselarger days and nights, however, are phenomena of the spiritual world.To the actual world only the day-and-night division of a twenty-four hourspan is observable.

The time for the change from night to day that must happen in thespiritual world every só many thousands or tens of thousands of yearshás now arrived. Unless one understands this important fact, it isimpossible to grasp the principies of Johrei. At the same time,knowledge of this truth makes it possible to see the future of the worldand inspires serenity of mind. Next, then, I shall explain how this change inthe spiritual world from night to day — a change that takes place onlyonce in thousands of years — affects the physical world.

Hitherto, the spiritual world hás been experiencing a night that, likenight in the actual world, is a dark broken only by periods of moonlightOf course, when the element of water is abundant and the moon isconcealed, only the stars shine. When the stars are clouded over, thedarkness is complete. The effects of this state are clear in the physicalworld, which is simply a reflection of the spiritual world. The alternatingperiods of order and disorder, war and peace, in the nations of the worldin the past have been very much like the waxing and waning of the moon.

Now the time hás come where dark must give way to light; we areentering a period that can be likened to dawn.

As an outcome of this transition in the spiritual world, humanity willexperience an immense, awe-inspiring, and joyful transformation of akind never known before. Harbingers of this transition have alreadyappeared on the scene.

Like day in the actual world, the new day of which I am speaking willbegin with the appearance of the sun's orb in the east Now, in the Far East — in Japan, the land of the rising sun — a great revolution is takingplace. The destruction of the existing culture of night is starting in thiscountry. This is the reason for the total destruction of our major culturalcities, thereductionof ourindustry andeconomy todire straits, and thegeneral abolition of the privileged and ruling classes. Signs of theconstruction of a new culture — the culture of day — have alreadyappeared. Following complete disarmament, democracy is coming intobeing in Japan. Both phenomena are unprecedented in the 2,600 yearsthat have passed since the founding of the Japanese nation. More thanunprecedented, they were also unforeseeable. They are a first step inthe establishment of world peace.

In contrast to the world of night, characterized by war, hunger, andsuffering, the world of day will be a time brilliant with peace,abundance, and good health. The Japan of the present shows we are atthe turning point

The sun that is now rising in the eastern heavens will eventuallyreach its zenith. What will that mean? Obviously it will mean the overalldestruction of the culture of night. What is more, it will signify the birth ofthe culture of day. Since Japan can already show a little of thatculture, this much is easy to prophesy. The fate of the world is bearingdown heavily on us at the present. No one will be able to escape fromthis framework; the only course open to us is to find a way to minimize thesuffering we must face. Such a way is at hand in an understanding of ourprincipies of Johrei and in participation in the development of theculture of day.

The Bible says, "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preachedthroughout the whole world, as a testimony to ali nations, and then theend will come." I believe this to signify that my writings must fulfill thismission. In explaining the principies of Johrei I have gone só far as toexplain the fate of the world because this is very important. Discovery ofthe principies of Johrei and discovery of the fallacy of medicai science

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both depend basically on the one point of converting night into day.The cause of sickness is clouds in the spiritual body. Eliminating

those clouds is the sole condition for the cure of sickness. Why then wasthis not known before the discovery ofJohref? The reason is that thereare two ways to treat sickness. One is to bring about a return to the statebefore purification of toxins started; that is, rehardening the toxins. Theother is to liquefy the toxins and eliminate them. As the reader willunderstand well by now, established medicai science employs the firstmethod, whereas Johrei employs the second.

One of the principies of Johrei is that the human body radiates aninvisible, mystical light that is a spiritual essence peculiar to the humanbody and that consists basically of the element of fire. Channeling ofJohrei demands large amounts of the element of fire, which willgradually increase in quantity in the spiritual world as the latter movesinto the period of day, since the sun is the basic source of fire-elementradiation. Aside from its value in healing, an increased quantity of theelement of fire is equally important because it will stimulate thepurification process in the human body. Change in the spiritual worldwill directly influence the spiritual body. Increasing the amount of thefire element will play, as it were, a supplementary role in encouragingpurification of the clouds in the spiritual body. Sickness will thereforeoccur more easily, and established medicai therapy, which depends onhardening the toxins, will lose some and finally, ali of its efficacy. Forinstance, whereas in the age of darkness it took several years before thetoxins, once hardened, became active again, in the age of light thisperiod will gradually shorten to a year, then half ayear, and só on until inthe end hardening of the toxins actually becomes impossible.

We are gradually moving into the world of day. In the world of night,the toxin hardening, and not the toxin-liquefying method of treatingsickness hás prevailed because the element of fire needed fortoxin-liquefaction hás been available in insufficient amounts. This hásmade it seem necessary to settle for the toxin-hardening method as thebest substitute. But this was a grave mistake that hás been the cause ofshortened life spans, illness, hunger, war, and other sufferings.

Februaryõ, 1947

I Am a Scientist of the Spirit

Though it might sound odd for me, a specialist in religion todescribe myself as a scientist, yet anyone who reads this to the end willbe convinced that the description is accurate.

As I often say, modern science is still on a levei too low to be calledscience at ali. Contemporary science places maximum stress on thediscovery and investigation of particles. Sophistication of themicroscope hás made possible astounding advances in humanity'sunderstanding of extremely minute particles. We are capable ofinvestigating things magnified thousands, even millions of times, andpossibilities for further development seem infinite. The word spirit,which hás come into popular usage in recent years, probably refers tothis limitless world. It is not scientific operations as such, of course, byhypotheses deduced from the results of research into scientific theoriesthat have enabled us to learn about this world; without such hypotheses,efforts to understand it would have been futile. This infinite world is thesame thing as the spiritual world that I teach. Science, which in realityhás long denied the spiritual, hás now been obliged to recognize it.

By coming to a more accurate appreciation of the spiritual world,science hás suddenly raised itself to an elevated position and taken astep forward in the scholarly search for ideal truth. In its early period,science concentrated on the physical; in its latter period, it willconcentrate on the spiritual. The emergence of such a science on theworld stage signifiesa 180-degreeturn, bringing science into agreementwith religion.

To make this still easier to understand, let us imagine a line drawnthrough the center of the world of science. Material science is belowthat line, and spiritual science above it. The former concerns itself withexternai content, and the latter with internai content. It is a matter forgreat rejoicing that science should have moved from the material, where itwas a science of existence, to the spiritual, where it is a science dealingwith things without physical existence.

A serious problem still remains, however. It is not enough simply tounderstand the spiritual world. Its essence must be grasped and thenmade useful to humanity. Physical science hás no method capable ofdoing this. To deal with the spiritual, it is essential to employ thespiritual.

In my opinion, this difficulty can easily be overcome. Indeed, it hás

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already been overcome in my work with astonishing results. In cases ofcuring sickness I am using the spirit to solve spiritual problems. Toexplain briefly: since impurities accumulated in the patienfs spirit arethe sources of ali illness — according to the firm law that the spiritualprecedes the physical— removingthese impurities necessarily effects acure. The methodwhereby this cure is effectedis to use aspecialkind ofspiritual radiation — it might be called a spiritual atomic bomb — toburn away the impurities. This method, which we call Johrei, is asophisticated scientific operation worthy of being called a"super-science," since it solves problems that medicine, science, andreligion ha vê heretofore found irresolvable.

Since the inferior cannot overcome the superior, a solution of thehigh-levei problems of human life by means of low-levei materialscience is impossible. This is proved by the ease with which Johrei cancure illnessesthat medicai science hás given up as hopeless. Spiritualscience could be called the inner essence of physical science.

Let us now examine more thoroughly the nature of the spiritualworld. Essentially, the spiritual world is made up of theessences of sun,moon, and the earth, a union of what science refers to as oxygen,hydrogen and nitrogen, and what we call the fire element, the waterelement, and the soil element Earth is the basic form of the materialworld; sun, of the spirit; moon, of the air. Sun and moon control theatmosphere, which fills ali spaces on the earth. The fire element, thoughthe strongest, is also the rarest of the three. For this reason, whileunderstnding heat and light, science hás not yet grasped the nature ofthe fire element as a spirit. Since science hás concentrated solely on theelements of water and soil, it is these that characterize moderncivilization; this is its greatest failing.

At this point I have to describe a major, startling change that theworld is due to undergo. The world, as we have seen, is composed of thethree elements of sun, moon, and earth. In terms of physical phenomena,the alternation of the sun and the moon signifies the change from dayto night A similar division between day and night exists in the spiritualworld, even though material science cannot understand it Spiritualscience, on the other hand, can understand it. The great change whichmust take place in the world is a transition of a startling kind humanityhás never previously considered. It is now about to begin. It is a historicalchange, an expansion of day and night that can only be comprehended interms of time itself. In the spiritual world,

alternation of day and night takes place once in ten, a hundred, athousand, or ten thousand years. Just as the planet earth is composed ofthe three elements of fire, water, and soil, só ali universal space isbased on the number three. According to this immutable law of theuniverse, day and night last three years, thirty years, three hundredyears, three thousand years, and só on. Of course, there are differencesin the speed with which the transfer from spirit to material being ismade depending on the nature and size of the thing in question.Nonetheless, in general, everything flows according to the law.

Surprisingly enough, the great transition that must take place oncein three thousand years is about to happen now — now is its dawning. As Ihave written previously, the very date of the transition is clearly known:since June 15, 1931 the world hás been in its day phase. Though thetransition hás been made in the spiritual world, it is gradually beingtransferred to the physical world and will eventually become a reality.

As the spiritual world enters the day phase, the quantity of fireelement will increase. This too will gradually be refle cted in the physicalworld, and the situation prevailing until the present in which water hástaken precedence over fire will be reversed; fire will take precedenceover water. No physical science can explain this, yet people ofenlightenment will understand fully. Problems that have necessarilygone without solutions in the past can now be readily solved. In this way,my idea is to elevate physical science from its present low levei to thepoint where it can help to create a true civilization.

April 7, 1954

The Precedence of the Spiritual over the Physical

Becauseitismaterially oriented, and concentrates solely onvisible,tangible objects, modern science understands only the outer surfaces ofthings and pays no attention at ali to an important inner reality. The"reality" in question, which might well seem a kind of non-existence, iswhat is known as the spirit. As long as science fails to realize that the

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spirit is the main constituent of ali things, its advances will be limpingand partial, no matter how much progress it makes. Nor can it beexpected to give rise to a true civilization. Once this is clearlyunderstood, ali the unsolvable problems of the past will be easily solved,since the law that the spiritual takes precedence over the physical isuniversal. To take one example, the invisible will is responsible for themotion of the limbs and other parts of the human body. The body doesnot move on its own. No matter how miraculous it may seem, it isnecessary to understand that the original cause arises in the spirit and isthen transferred to the body. I shall now explain this in relation tosickness, in which the principie is most easily understood.

Though it is manifest as phenomena in the body, illness hás, ofcourse, its origin in the spirit. In other words, a cloudiness first occurs inone or several parts of the spirit, then is reflected in the body as illness, sóthat to get rid of the clouds obviously means curing the sickness. As longas the cause of the sickness is in the spirit, medicai science's practice oftreating only the physical symptoms cannot effect a true cure. It isessential to realize this as quickly as possible and make a new start.Happily, God hás entrusted to me the immense responsibility of revisingand correcting the mistakes of medicai science. The responsibility is alithe greater in that the error goes beyond medicai science and extends toali aspects of our civilization.

Let me give an example. The many crimes that occur today are, likesickness, only surface manifestations. Their causes, likethose of illness, areto be found in the spirit or the soul. Nonetheless, as in treating sickness,people remain unaware of the true causes and attempt to deal with crimeby treating the symptoms only; in other words, through punishment.Such treatment, however, is only temporary, and crimes continue asnumerous as the sands on a beach. People should realize that theremodeling of the soul essential to their elimination can be achieved onlythrough religion. As I have shown, failure to take the spirit into account isbehind these two major problems. Miracles are a method of making thisthoroughly understood.

September 10, 1953

The Precedence of the Spiritual over the Physical

Let us consider the relation between the non-material world and physical illness. By "non-material world" I refer to what we call the spiritual world. In human beings there is unity between the body and the spirit. The body is visible and physicaL The spirit is invisible to the eye, butit exists as a kind of ether. The human body belongs to the realm of air, and the human spirit to the spiritual world. As previously stated, the spiritual world is a transparent entity still more rarefied than air. In this, it might seem similar to non-existence, yet in f a et, f ar from being nonexistentit is a source of absolute and infinite power, a realm of unimaginably mysterious depths compounded of the essences of sun, moo n, and earth. Ishall tentatively refer to it here as "universal power." This universal power brings ali things into being and stimulates their growth and development, but this process accumulates pollution, and a purification process takes place to eliminate the pollutants. This is very much like bathing, which human beings use to remove the dirt and grime accumulating on their bodies. Pollutants accumulating in specific localities in the spiritual world of the planet earth stimulate the development of low-pressure cellsthat perform a cleansing and purifying function. Pires, whether caused by lightning or by human agency, perform the same kind of function. It isthe same with human beings, of course when pollutants accumulate, the spirit takes the lead in initiating a purification process. I shall now examine this in

detaiLThe pollutants — or clouds — that accumulate in the human spirit

create opaque spots on the essentially transparent spiritual body. Thereare two causes for this: clouds arising in the spirit itself and cloudstransferred to the spirit from the physical body. I shall begin myexplanation with the former. The spirit consists of three layers whichconverge in the center. The innermost is called the soul — the tinyentity that, in terms of human birth, is first transferred by the man tolodge in the womb of the woman. However, since the soul is enclosed bythe mind which is itself enclosed by the spirit, conditions in the soul aretransferred to the spirit by way of the mind, and in reverse, conditions inthe spirit are reflected on the soul by way of the mind. In short, the soul,mind, and spirit are simultaneously three and one. As long as they arealive, ali human beings do both good and evil. When the bad

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outweighs the good, the difference is sin that reflects as clouds on thesoul. Then the mind and the spirit, in this order, become cloudy too. Theclouds are removed when the following purification process begins.Accumulated clouds contract and condense and gather in certainlocalities in the body. Interestingly, the location differs according to thenature of the sin. For instance, sin committed through the eye causesaccumulation in the eye; sins committed through the head,accumula-tions in the head; and sins committed through the chest,accumulations in the chest

Let us consider now the reverse case, where clouds are transferredfrom the physical body to the spirit. In this case, the murkinessdevelops in the blood before transference to the spirit. Since the blood isthe physical manifestation of the spirit and the spirit, conversely, aspiritual manifestation of the blood, the body and spirit are one.Conversely, transference of concentrated clouds to the body causesmurkiness in the blood; when this becomes still further condensed, ithardens; and when the resulting hardness is liquefied and seeks outletsfrom various parts of the body, the suffering caused is what is known assickness.

Transference from the body, thus, refers to the transference of theblood's murkiness. The question, then, is what causes this murkiness.Surprisingly enough, it is the medicine that forms the mainstay ofmedicai therapy. Since ali medicine is poison, íntroduction of medicineinto the body causes clouds in the blood,* as facts prove better thananything else. Because of the toxic nature of medicine, it is scarcelysurprising that, while being subjected to medicai treatment, illnessesoften linger, worsen, or give rise to pathological side effects.

If clouds in the physical blood are reflected as clouds in the spiritand if this in turn is the cause of sickness, the way to cure sickness itself isthe same as the way to cause sickness. It is a universally applicable lawthat the spiritual takes precedence over the physical. For this reason,unless the clouds in the spirit are removed, the illness resulting fromthem cannot be completely cured. Our therapy is an application of thislaw in that we fundamentally cure illness by purifying the spirit

*Though medicine may prolong life and may produce people who are apparently, though notactually healthy, it lacks the power to effect fundamental cures. Human health in its originalforra is the ability to live without medicine. For this reason, it is important to avoid takingmedicines as much as possible. There are, however, cases in which very grave illness makesresort to medicine unavoidable.

through t/ohrei. Ignorant of this, medicai science tries to cure the bodyonly while ignoring the spirit. Consequently, no matter how muchprogress it makes, it remains capable of temporary cures only.

August 15, 1951

The Spiritual Body and the Physical Body

It is a fundamental principie that in ali things the spiritual takesprecedence over the physical; once this principie is understood, manyso-called miracles become comprehensible. It is, however, necessary tounderstand first the relation between the spiritual world and the physicalworld. Human beings may be clad in a fleshy raiment, but they also ha vê aspiritual raiment (aura). The aura is a kind of ether or light reflected fromthe spirit; and, though it is vague, there are people who can see it withtheir ordinary eyes. Like the weather, the aura is constantly changingfromclearto cloudy and from cloudy to cie ar. If the personthinks good and doesgood, the spirit is clear; butif he thinks evil and does evil, it becomescloudy. Thus belief ina true deity shedsa light that helps to dispel theclouds, whereas worship of a false deity only increases them.

Ordinary people who lack knowledge of spiritual matters tend tothink that any god is a true god. This is a great error. Actually, false godsare more numerous than true gods. Proof of thisis to be seeninfamiliesthat, despite generations of ardent faith, suffer an endless line ofmisfortunes. The deities such people worship are either false or weak.When a person puts his faith in a true god, however, and accumulatesmerit as a consequence of his own efforts to save others, his lightincreases, and his aura widens. The aura of an ordinary person may beabout 3 centimeters wide. That of a good and virtuous person may befrom 15 to 30 centimeters wide, while that of someone with a godlikepersonality and immense merit may be many miles in width. That of agreat religious leader will extend throughout a number of peoples andlands, as is true in the cases of Christ and the Buddha A savior of theworld hás the astounding power to encompass ali humanity with hislight, though history shows that no such savior hás appeared in the

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world só far. The attitude and effort of the individual determines thewidth of his or her aura. People should believe this and seek toaccumulate as much virtue as possible.

Members of our organization are often saved from disaster by theirauras. For instance, a wide aura may prevent the spirit of an oncomingautomobile from reaching a person even if it should strike him. Insimilar circumstances, people with thin auras or none at ali may bekilled or suffer severe injury.

The case is similar with good and bad luck. Things are organized sóthat the human body belongs to the physical world, and the spirit to thespiritual world. The spiritual world is made up of upper, middle, andlower zones, each of which is divided into three stages. Each of thesestages is further divided into twenty leveis for a total of one hundredand eighty leveis in ali. Of course, the lower zone is hell. The middlezone is the world ofbeing, orarealmof the same caliberas ourordinaryworld. The upper zone is paradise. Ordinary people dwell in the middlezone but can move either upward or downward depending on whethertheir actions are good or evil.

Furthermore, the spiritual world, unlike the actual world, is utterlyfair without the least partiality of any kind. Though this is a disadvantageto the wicked, it is a true joy for people of true faith.

The world of hell, of course, is a turmoil of jealousy, resentment,envy, hatred, and poverty. These traits the Buddhists call greed, anger,and folly, ali of which increase in intensity as they descend through theleveis. The very bottom realm is said to be a hell of utter darkness andcold. Ali this does not pertain only to the world after death. Happinessand unhappiness in this actual world depend on the individual'sposition in the spiritual world. The numerous reported cases of entirefamilies who, after having been driven to extremities of suffering,commit suicide together, reveal the way the realm of hell in the spiritualworld is reflected on the actual world. Since such suffering ultimatelystems from evil which the person himself hás perpetrated, no one is asfoolish as the deliberate wrongdoer. Even people who seem temporarily tohave gotten ahead in the world as a consequence of evil acts mustsooner or later come to grief because they are placed in hell in thespiritual world. Thereverse, too, is true. If a person does good and if hisposition in the spiritual world improves, it is an inviolable, divine lawthat happiness will one day come his way, no matter how much hesuffers now. Although teaching this principie is the essential mission of

religion, it hás not done só thoroughly until the present time, the reasonbeing the emphasis on scriptures and preaching at the expense of thereally important thing; actual demonstration — that is, miracles.

But the time hás come. The Supreme God will manifest his absolutepowers and through our organization will work startling miracles thatwill awaken humanity from its delusions and win the faith of ali

people.September 10, 1953

Spiritual Healing

From various angles, I have explained that the world of day will be aworld in which the spiritual precedes the physical. Toxins accumulated asmaterial substances in the human body are the fundamental causes ofillness. In the spiritual being, clouds occur in zones corresponding to theáreas in the physical body where these toxic accumulations take

place.Elimination of the toxins from the physical being is a temporary

measure only; the toxins will regenerate as time passes in accordancewith the law that the spiritual precedes the physical. Consequently, theonly correct method of achieving the ultimate aim of therapy is toremove the clouds from the spirit. This is the fundamental way to

eliminate toxins.The very word relapse makes it clear that, by concentrating on the

physical body and employing no methods other than elimination orhardening of physical toxins, past therapies have had only temporaryand never fundamental results. As I have just indicated, medicai sciencehás only two ways of dealing with toxins: hardening them or surgicallyremoving them. Folk remedies use electricity or light rays to hardentoxins or moxa combustion to cause burns that concentrate and theneliminate suppuration.

The therapy to which we subscribe, however, is based on theremoval of clouds from the spirit by means of a kind of spiritual wavecomposed mainly of the fire element radiating from the hands andfingers of the person administering Johrei. I have tentatively named

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this wave the "mystic ray." Everyone hás it to some degree. Perhaps itwould be better to say that this ray boundlessly fills the space ali aroundus — in short,the spiritual world.

Why hás no one in the past discovered the use of this spiritual ray toconduct therapy by eliminating clouds? It is because the world was in anight phase, in which the available light was limited to, roughly, that ofthe moon and it was impossible to obtain enough of the mystic ray totreat illness; that is, to remove clouds from the spirit. This is not to saythat the ray was totally non-existent. As is well known, some religiouspeople and faith practitioners have been able to win fame among peoplefor their doctrines, and renown as founders of religious sects becausetheir cures have had some effect. Nevertheless, since it is primarilycomposed of the water element, the light of the moon hás been effective indealing with only limited numbers of sicknesses and for only limitedperiods. Since the water element of moonlight is a cooling factor, ithardens toxins.

Since it employs mainly the fire element, Johrei hás the great effect indissolving ali kinds of toxins. Thus the following are the twofundamental motivations behind the discovery of my therapeuticmethod: the knowledge that the world is about to enter a transition fromnight to day, and the desire to effect great cures by radiating onpathologically affected parts of human bodies a powerful ray, thuscausing the fire element, the molecules of which increase in the dayphase of the world, to pass through the human body in greatconcentrations.

October23, 1943

The Principie of Johrei

lThe general educational levei today makes explanation of this

principie most difficult. There is nothing to be done about this, however,as long as education remains structured on materialism.

In fact, however, the written records and traditions handed down byword of mouth of founders of virtually ali religions include mention of

miracles. This is especially the case in the great religions, because inthose days performing miracles and producing beneficiai results weresufficient to convince the masses, who had no desire to be told theprincipies of the miraculous things they beheld. It is obvious even nowhow many more people Jesus Christ would have saved in his lifetimeand the great extent to which he would have been able to expand thelimits of his teachings if it had not been for his crucifixion. The brevity ofChrist's life was caused by the great power of Satan at that time. Satan'spower was superior because, where the spiritual realm was concerned,the time was premature. Spiritual intuition tells me, however, that nowthe time is at last ripe for the great transition in the spiritual world andthat Satan's power is weakening day by day.

Divine revelations have made clear to me ali the things that havepuzzled the world in the past. Through this knowledge, I am striving todefine clearly the true and false, elucidate the basic roots of good andbad, rectify ali errors, and stimulate lively development of a spiritualculture to contrast with the materialistic culture that hás progressed sóhaltingly in the past. In other words, by stimulating the simultaneousdevelopment of the spiritual and material cultures, I aim to create anideal world, or paradise on earth. I shall explain some of the principieswhich enable members to get good results through startling miracles.As I have said, unlike uncivilized people or people living in a time of lowcultural development, modern humanity is not inspired to faith bymiracles alone. People today are unconvinced unless miracles havetheoretical corroboration. Many older religions have gone into declinebecause they merely rejected materialistic culture and failed to bringactual benefit in this life to the people of the time.

I shall now explain the Johrei method by means of which ourmembers work miracles. Raising the hand and directing the palmtoward a sick person immediately lightens difficult and seriousillnesses. In a short time, intolerable pain is relieved or eliminatedaltogether. This can only be called miraculous.

Over hundreds and thousands of years, outstanding scholars ofmany lands have studied and practiced to perfect modern medicaiscience, and their meticulous and elaborate therapeutic methodsdeserve praise. For an ordinary person to successfully apply the Johreimethod to cure sicknesses that have proved recalcitrant to therapy atthe hands of medicai authorities who have trained for decades at greatexpense, must be described as the wonder of the century. This is

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precisely what is meant by "the truth that transcends truth." It isunderstandable, since this is something without precedent in alihistory, that people who have done no more than hear such storiescannot accept what they hear, and that they regard the bearers of thetales as either superstitious or demented.

If we were less than absolutely certain of what we can do, we wouldnever have made such an ambitious and sweeping statement ofpurpose: "A world absolutely free of illness, poverty, and conflict." If welacked the power to carry out this program we would be guilty of theunforgivable evil of deceiving the world.

Miracles are not miraculous for us. They are phenomena that occuras the result of a particular process, and are capable of scientificcorroboration.

II

Nothing is purely material; everything hás a spiritual body that isinvisible to the eye. Human beings are composed of a physical body and aspiritual body, which in very general terms correspond to the essences ofthe moon and earth and the essence of the sun, respectively. In simpleterms, the spirit is fire, yang, male, exterior, vertical and diurnal. Thebody in contrast is water, yin, female, interior, horizontal, and nocturnalConcentrating solely on the body, science hás made the fundamentalerror of not recognizing the existence of the spirit. If they were bodywithout spirit human beings would be matter only, as inanimate astrees and stones, devoid of both life and spiritual activity. Pailure tounderstand this simple fact hás been behind ali the errors science háscommitted in the past. Scientists assume that space is occupied bynothing but air. Unfortunately science hás not yet developed to thestage where it can discover the many invisible elements other than airthat fill space.

Fortunately, however, I have been able to discover those invisibleelements. I call this approach "spiritual science." The discovery hás led tothe pioneering of an age in which humanity's greatest suffering,illness, will be totally eliminated.

What, then, are the basic causes of sickness? The human being iscomposed of spirit and body. The two are inseparably joined, and thespirit enables the body to live and move. The spirit assumes a shape likethatof the body. Atits center is the mind; atthe center of the mind is thesoul. The operations of this three-in-one entity manifest themselves in

the form of will and thought. Since it controls the body in the form of willand thought, the spiritual precedes the physical. In simple terms, when ahuman being moves his arms and legs, the limbs are motivated,not bythemselves, but on the command of the will. The same is true of theeyes, the nose, the mouth, and ali other parts of the body.

To explain sickness in connection with this principie in a way that isreadily understood, I shall take boils as an example. Almost everyonehás experienced them. Generally, they begin as small eruptions,increase in size, become red, inflamed, and are painful or itchy at theirhead. They are a manifestation of the natural physiology of the body as itattempts to expel toxins. The body is naturally able to generate fever toliquefy toxins that have accumulated and localized, and then todischarge them in fluid forni. To create an exit passage for the toxins,the skin becomes thinner and softer than usual. The redness of a boil isthe toxic blood visible through skin that hás become transparent. Ashort while later, a small hole opens, and liquefied toxins in the form ofpus are expelled from the body. This is the end of the purificationprocess.

This is the physical explanation. In the spirit, a kind of cloudcorresponding to the boil develops. The graver the sickness, the denserthe clouds. The clouds accumulate and localize in one part of the spirit.This is the ordinary purification process leading to the elimination oftoxins from the entire spiritual body that have accumulated in oneplace. The purification, which is inseparably connected with thephysical being, is what is called sickness.

Not only the human body, but everything else in the universe issubject to the previously mentioned law that the spiritual precedes thephysical. The purpose oïJohrei is to eliminate clouds in the spirit. Bymeans oïJohrei, the clouds are rendered completely ineffective, theirlife is converted to death. "Dead" clouds are impotent and cannotirritate the nerves. Consequently, pain no longer exsists.

IIIThe Johrei method I use at present is to write the character for the

word hikarí (light) on pieces of paper, which exert their effect whenworn on the person as focal points. When someone wearing a focal pointadministers Johrei, strong waves of light radiate from the ink with whichthe character is written, travei along the person's arm, and then radiateoutward from the palm of his or her hand The written characters for

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hikari give off light rays which are transmitted instantaneously to eachone ofthemthrough"spiritual cords" frommybody, justas radio wavesare broadcast To say that light waves are emitted from my spiritualbody raises the question of what kind of mechanism there is in myspiritual being that can do this. The answer is simple: in my abdómen is abali of light with an ordinary diameter of about 6 centimenters. There arepeople who have seen it. This bali of puré light emits limitless light rays.The source of this light is the cintamani gem of the BodhisattvaAvalokiteshvara, which, located in the spiritual world, directs itsboundlesslighttome. This is calledthe divine power, the imponderablepower, and the power of wondrous knowledge. The cintamani gem, orthe jewel of satisfaction, held by the bodhisattva calledCintamani-cakra-avalokiteshvara is the same as this one.

IVConcerning the background of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (or

Kannon in Japanese), from ancient times this particular Buddhist deitywas believed to have a unique, mysterious power. With God's permission Iwill some day reveal ali of the mystery of this bodhisattva, but at present,the time is not ripe. I shall therefore set forth only as much as isnecessary to Johrei.

Of course, Avalokiteshvara hás been active in Japan since thearrival of Buddhism, but until now that activity hás been limited tosalvation of the spirit. Avalokiteshvara conferred practical blessingswhen people pray ed for the m, but they were only of the most minor kindbecause, though the basic element of the light was a close union of theelements of fire and water, the element of soil was missing. Because itincluded only two elements, the light lacked full power in the conferring ofbenefits. But the time for the great transformation in the spiritual worldhás arrived — what the Bible calls the end of the world and the LastJudgment. For this reason the mightiest and most absolute power ofsalvation hás become necessary. This power must include ali threeelements — of fire, water, and soil — the last-named being the elementof matter which corresponds to the human body. The three-elementcomposition is completed when soil is added by the passage of lightthrough the body. The power of this three-in-one is the power ofAvalokiteshvara. In simple terms, the light element emitted by thecintamani jewel of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara passes through mybody, thus becoming a manifestation of the bodhisattva's mystic power,

which passes from me and through followers in our faith, becoming inturn the power of purification.

I shall now use an example to explain this principie. In the past,people prayed for blessings to pictures or statues of Avalokiteshvara.But the Johrei performed by believers in our faith is capable ofbestowing many times more blessings because the light waves emitted bystatues and paintings consist of only two elements and lack the vitalpower of the physical body.

The great transformation in the spiritual world, of which I amconstantly speaking, is another reason. Before the middle of June 1931,the water element predominated in the spiritual world; the amount ofthe fire element was small. Since that time, however, the amount of thefire element hás been gradually increasing. The transition actuallystarted decades earlier, but at that time the element of fire wasextremely rare. To explain the strength of the light, I might say that thelight is strong when the fire element is abundant, just as an electric lampof high candle power gives off strong heat.

As another example, I am often told that I am much hotter thanordinary people because of the mass of the fire element inmy abdómen.Each evening some of the people who serve me rub my shoulders andthen always comment on the great heat they feel in my body. Even inwinter, it is such that they often have to remove one or two outergarments. Everyone says that a room becomes warm by my being in itfor a short time. I laughingly call myself a "substitute stove." In winter,after a bath, I am comfortable for an hour or two in nothing but aterry-cloth robe. I greatly prefer bath water that is not too hot. Theprincipie involved is like the one that increases heat when water ispoured into a fire or that makes clear winter days colder than cloudyones.

May 30, 1949

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Johrei and the Three-element Composition of the Internai Organs

Among the internai organs, the function of the heart, lungs, andstomach hás the greatest importance to human life. I shall now explainhow they act in terms of the three fundamental elements of fire, water,and soil.

The heart absorbs the fire element, the lungs the water element, andthe stomachthe soil element; the heart corresponds to fire, the lungs towater, and the stomach to soiL But the way inwhich medicai science hásexplained this matter hás been totally inadequate. Science hás pointedout the way in which oxygen taken into the lungs purifies the blood, butthis alone fails to reach the heart of the matter. I shall now explain thesituation according to the medicine that hás been divinely revealed tome, but I must first begin with an explanation of the true nature of thespiritual world. It is impossible to understand this true nature withoutrealizing that, though it is imperceptible to the five human senses, thespiritual world is actually the fundamental source of ali things.

The principie that water causes fire to burn and that fire causeswater to flow is the key to the solution of ali things. A prer equisite to anunderstanding of the invisible spiritual realm is an explanation of therealm of air. Oxygen, familiar through modern science, is the spirit offire; hydrdogen is the spirit of water; and nitrogen is the spirit of soil.These three maintain their individual identities but when they areunified they form the essence from which ali things rise. The ineffablymystical action of these three elements results in a situation in whichextremely hot, extremely cold, and temperate climates are each suited tothe needs of the creatures living there. Hypothetically, if ali the waterelement were removed, the world would explode at once. If ali the fireelement were removed, everything would instantaneously freeze. If alithe soil element were eliminated, everything would crumble to nothing.This principie should make clear the basic significance of the functionof the heart, lungs, and stomach. In other words, the heart absorbs thefire element from the spiritual world; its operation is the pulse. In asimilar way, the lungs absorb the water element; their operation isrespiration. The stomach absorbs the soil element from the physicalworld; its operation is intake of nutrients.

The liquefaction of the hardened toxins that cause ali illnesses

demands heat. This is the first step in the purification process.Interpreted as a pathological symptom, this heat, which is necessary inlarge quantities, is fever. At such times, in order to accommodate thisheat, the pulse rate increases greatly. Since heat concentrates in theaffected region, it tends to decrease in other parts of the body, thusbringing about unpleasant chills. At such times, the lungs absorb largequantities of the water element, causing the respiration rate to increase,stimulating the activity of the heart, and preventing dehydration.

The spirit of fire is of course, emitted by the sun, the spirit of waterby the moon, and the spirit of soil by the earth.

Principal among the three major organs is the heart, which activatesthe lungs, which in turn activate the stomach. Though insufficiency offood in the stomach does not mean immediate danger to life, survival ispossible for no more than a few minutes if the lungs become inoperativeand for only seconds when the heart fails. This is clear from the custom ofmedicai science of always giving heart failure, not failure of the lungs orstomach, as the cause of death.

When a person dies, the heart first stops operating. The body thenbecomes cold as the spirit, the element of fire which had previouslyfilled it, departs to return to the spiritual world. Then the lungs ceaserespiration, and the element of water which had permeated the bodyreturns to the realm of air, initiating a process of drying up. Obviouslythe stomach also stops operating and the impossibility of obtainingdrink and food causes the body to become rigid.

Since the human body is composed of an amalgam of the threeelements of fire, water, and soil, curing illnesses that beset the body isrational only if it relies on the powers of those three elements. This isthe principie of Johrei.

Johrei depends on power from the Supreme God, a transmitting oflight It is a spiritual light, invisible to the human eye, whereas thevisible light of the sun, a lamp, or an electric bulb is the physicalmanifestation of light The essence of light is a close union between theelements of water and fire. The greater the amount of the fire element,the stronger the light. However, the power of light composed of fire andwater is insufficient. The element of soil is also necessary. Inclusion ofthe element of soil perfects the union of the three-in-one, which emits alight with wonderful healing powers. Waves of this light penetrate thebody and eliminate polluting clouds in the spirit. The effect of thisprocess is transferred to the body in the form of therapeutic

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effects.As for the practical means of carrying this out, I write, as I have só

often explained, the character for the word light on a piece of paper,which is then folded and worn inside the clothing. The spirit of lightwaves pass through my arm and through the pen to permeate andcondense (though I use the word condense, the process is difficult toexplain). A connection is then established between the character forlight and the source of light within my body by means of spiritual cordsalong which a supply of light waves passes ceaselessly. The spirituallink between the Supreme God and myself is similar; an infinite amount oflight waves is transmitted to me for the sake of the salvation of mankind.

As this explanation should have made clear, a therapeutic methodmaking use of the power of the three-in-one composition of the humanbody is true therapy, and as is only to be expected, such therapy iscapable of manifesting unprecedented healing powers.

August 6, 1949

Absolute Power

It is indisputable that the power of God is the source of ali activity inthe universe. Ali growth and change are a manifesta tion of this power, asare the stimulation and cessation of ali action. Ali living creatures, fromhuman beings to bactéria, are born and die because of this power. It isthe limitless, absolute controller. I could supply endless other examples ofthis fact, but suffice it to say that the universe itself is, ultimately,power, which I would now like to examine from various viewpoints.

The actual Chinese character signifying "power" (-fâ) shows hownot only the meaning of words but the way they are written is a product ofGod's wilL The character in question is produced by first making avertical line, then crossing the vertical with a horizontal slightly higherthan midway to make something like a cross and finally swinginganother vertical down from the horizontal, allowing the brush to risesharply upward at the bottom of this second vertical in a kind of tail. Inshort, from a combination of vertical and horizontal arises action, which

then proceeds to revolve with a clockwise circular motion. This is theway power itself works.

To examine this now in terms of actuality, it represents, in thewidest sense, the two great principies or ideologies of the world:spiritualism and materialism, or the spiritualistic and materialistic typesof culture. In religious terms, in which they are easiest to understand,these are the cultures of the two great world religions: the oriental,vertical, spiritual culture of Buddhism and the Occidental, horizontal,physical culture of Christianity. In the past, because they have existedindependently, the vertical and horizontal have been unable to manifesttrue power, as is most patently proved by the failure of the world toachieve harmonious unity and to save humanity.

The major religions have undeniably had as their goals therealization of an ideal world, but the wretched confusion and deadlock oftoday' s world shows how f ar the ideal is from actuality, how remote is itsrealization. Lack of power is the reason for this state of affairs, and thathás come about because the vertical and the horizontal have not beenbound together. Of course, this may be a matter of time and may beunavoidable within God's plan.

If I now explain my own mission, the meaning of what I have just saidwill become ali the more apparent Johrei is the central aspect of myactivities. As our members know very well, I write the character of"light" on a piece of paper, which, when worn as a focal point, impartsthe power to cure completely even those difficult illnesses that doctorshave given up as hopeless. I have already written hundreds of thousands ofthese focal points, but their effectiveness remains unchanged, no matterhow their number increases. Furthermore, they are effective, not only incuring illness, but also in altering a persorís psychological makeup. Theythus improve the personality and save people from very dangerous crises.Thanks to the innumerable examples of such miracles occurring ali thetime, more and more people are living in happiness. This is due entirelyto the power of the focal points; I do not wish to boast» but facts arefacts and there can be no harm in relating them. Never before in historyhás anyone ever exercised this absolute power. There can be no doubtabout ali these miracles, since they are related in testimonials of actualexperiences in our periodicals. In Buddhist terms, this power which isborn of the binding together of the vertical and the horizontal is themystical power of the Bodhsattva Avalokiteshvara. In Christian terms, itis the power of the Messiah.

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Though largely spiritual now, this power will someday manifest itself inphysical form. When this occurs a true culture, born of the conjunction ofthe spiritual culture of the Eastandthe material culture of the West, willcome intobeing. The birthof sucha culture is God's goaland God's willand is unprecedented in the world.

January 16, 1952

One Person at a Time Is Insufficient

The great achievements of the many sages, who like Jesus Christ,have worked mira cie s in saving human beings glow brightly in thehistory of religion. But such people have only been able to cureindividually, which makes it impossible to heal large numbers of people.Even Christ, who performed such wonderful miracles as opening theeyes of the blind, causing the lame to walk, and driving demons out ofthe spiritually ill, was able to heal only one person at a time, só it is notsurprising that his achievements attracted little popular attention in hisown day. Yet tens of thousands of our members daily perform similarhealing, and there is no telling to what extent their number will increase astime passes. One thingthat is predictable however, is that since largenumbers of people will gradually be saved, our activities will become animportant global issue in the future.

Our therapeutic system is undeniably a wonderful medicai science,but physical healing alone is insufficient, since the creation of an idealworld is our ultimate goal. We must strive to create both psychologicaland physical health, producing the kind of human being that is united inspirit and body, thus making possible the formation of a paradise onearth. This discussion indicates that the time hás come and that ourorganization hás appeared as the ultimate religion, as is most vividlyproved by the way people who accept our faith immediately becomecapable of miraculous healing powers.

(Date uncertain)

My Light

Some readers no doubt are astonished by the things I have writtenabout Buddhism — things that have been divinely revealed to me,thoughnever said by anyonebefore. Itismerely a matterof timingthathás prevented God from making these things clear before. For a longtime darkness and ignorance have prevailed, but a great transition intoan age of brilliant sunlight, driving away the dark, is approaching. Evenin the age of darkness, of course, the light of the moon enabled people todiscern things to a certain extent, and they were grateful for such smallmercies. I refer to the teaching of Buddhism.

Yet moonlight is only about one-sixtieth the power of sunlight, toodim to make things clearly visible. Thus throughout the period ofdarkness, human beings were deluded, unable to live in peace andtranquility since neither religion nor anything else was clearly discerned.But when it is day, everything on earth is clearly revealed in the light ofthe sun and nothing is obscure, só that it is perf ectly natural that I, whose taskis to create a"civilization of day," should understand ali things.

What, exactly, is my relation to the world of day? Within my bodyresides a bali of light — what was known from ancient times as thecintamani jewel. I have already made this fact known, but here I shalldeal with the light itself in detail. It hás been thought that the light is theradiance of the sun, but this is mistaken. It is in fact a close conjunction ofthe light of the sun and the moon. Its fundamental nature is a union of thetwo extreme elements of fire (sun) and water (moon). As long as itresides in my body, the soil element of my flesh is added to those twoelements, thus completing the three-in-one triad of fire, water, and soil. Insaying this, I do not imply that ordinary people are made up entirely ofthe soil element. They too have light, though it is small and weak. Mylight, however, is much larger than that of ordinary people. It may be tensof thousands ormillions of time s larger, or só infinitely larger that it defiesthe imagination. When worn on the person, the three kinds of focalpoints, bearing the characters for light, divine light and great divinelight, immediately manifest healing powers radiated by the light oftheir written characters. In writing them, I neither pray nor do anythingout of the ordinary. I merely write them, one at a time, at a greatspeed: it takes about seven seconds to write one, and I can easily writefive hundred in an hour. Each of those pieces of paper is capable of

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curing tens of thousands of people. Though I may give them to hundreds ofthousands of people, their effectiveness remains unchanged. In otherwords, the power of the light I possess is inconceivably great.

Since I possess such power, it is unlikely that I should fail tounderstand anything. As our members well know, no matter what I amasked, I am never at a loss for an answer. Sometimes suffering people inplaces f ar removed from me telegraph asking for blessings, and many ofthem receive curative aid from me by doing no more that that. As soon asI hear of their plight, a part of the light within me breaks off andconnects with them. The light traveis through spiritual cords to bringthem assistance. Since this light can be multiplied tens of thousands oftimes and radiate as far as necessary to make such connections, it isextremely precious. In simpler terms, what radiates from me could becalled "light bullets," except that, unlike ordinary bullets, they do notkill but give life.

This general explanation deals with only a part of my power; toexplain ali of it would be difficult Even só, it will be enough to makepeople open their eyes and observe the work I do in the future. Anyperson of intelligence will be able to understand to some extent. Inreligious terms, people vary in their "spiritual awareness," and ifbelievers purify their bodies and souls wholeheartedly só that they arefree of clouds, they will be spiritually enlightened and accuratelycomprehend my great power.

May 25, 1952

Who Is the Savior?

I consider this an unusual title for an article, as I am sure the readerdoes. In order to explain it, I must now give a psychological account ofmyself. I should say in advance that my chief aim here hás been to viewthe workings of my inner mind objectively and without the leastdeception: I hope the reader will keep this in mind.

The words savior and messiah have been used at ali periodsthroughout the East and the West. Yet, with the exception of a few peopleof special religious faith, the majority of humankind hás always

regarded the birth into the world of the long-awaited, supernaturallypowerful savior as no more than an ideal hope, a great dream. Thosewho have claimed to be saviors themselves have vanished with thepassing of time. Clearly, no true savior hás yet appeared.

Though I am not fond of calling myself the savior, I must confessthat I cannot definitely deny that I am. The appearance of a savior is ofunprecedented importance inthe history of humankind and, obviously,must not be discussed lightly. Nor can one regard it simply as an ideal:one must believe that it will take place sooner or later, since the sages ofthe ancient past have prophesied it in such various forms as the coming ofthe Messiah, the Second Coming of Christ, and the birth into the worldof the Bodhisattva Maitreya as the next Buddha.

To turn then, to my own psychology. for a long time I have thoughtthat the primary condition for a savior is the ability to solve theproblems of human illness. The greatest quality of a savior is to beendowed with an absolute method for perfecting human health andallowing people to live their heaven-appointed life spans, plus thepower to put that method into actual practice. Of course, the physicalhealth must be accompanied by mental health.

In a famous passage, Jesus of Nazareth made this clear when heasked what it would profit a person to gain the whole world and lose hislife. In this connection, I have always held that the value of a religion or areligious leader is clearly limited if the power to eliminate sickness islacking.

One day, over a decade after I first entered the life of faith, I carne tounderstand the fundamental principie of illness and the method fordealing with it. The surprise and joy I felt at that time is unimaginable.Among ali the peoples of the world, no one hás ever made só great adiscovery as this. No other discovery or invention is in any waycomparable with it; I must indeed have been born with a miraculousdestiny.

October20, 1948

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Eliminating the Suffering of Illness

Since ancient times, two major methods have been used to cureillness. One method is totally spiritual and involves prayers to divinebeings or Buddhas, either directly or through the intervention ofshamans or other religious practitioners: conjurations, surrogates, orspiritual discipline. The other method, totally physical in nature, relieson such things as medicine, mechanical equipment, surgery, injections,and radiation treatment but includes as well such folk treatments asshiatsu(fïngerpressure cure) andmassage. In other words, the methodsare diametrically opposed. In modern civilization, however, science hásmade such startling progress that it hás become usual to assume thatphysical therapy is the only way to effect cures. Consequently, it isbelieved that progress in physical therapy will one day free humanitytotally from the sufferings of illness. By overemphasizing science, menhave come to reject the very existence of the divine spirit.

To examine the situation now in greater depth, we see that orientalcivilization evolved, according to God's plan of operations, afterhumanity had developed to a certain stage. For a while it made greatstrides, but later failed because it was too spiritual and mental, firmlydenying physical matter; thus it entered the period of decline in which itstill is at present. On the other hand, occidental civilization, which hásunderestimated the spirit and worshiped the physical, developed to thestage it is in at present But it, too, hás ultimately failed Bothcivilizations have failed, as the present state of the world clearly proves. Inshort, humanity hás failed first in one direction, then in another. Yet inspite of this double failure, people's eyes have not been opened and theystill cling desperately to the kind of civilization that offers no hope.Obviously some kind of great change is required.

December25, 1951

Being Midwife to World Civilization

This is where Sekai Kyusei Kyo appeared and pointed out the errors inthe already failed civilization. In this sense, I am now writing the text forthe creation of a new civilization. Essentially this project inclinesstrongly neither to the vertical nor to the horizontal, but is the teaching ofan adaptable, indestructible truth, a truth of moderation. In simplerterms, it recognizes the existence of the spirit while greatly respectingmaterial progress. The Johrei method itself is a combination of thepower of both spirit and body, since it consists of the spirit emittedthrough the palm of the hand Consequently, I am both the midwife andthe leader in the birth of a true world civilization.

December25, 1951

Limited and Limitless Power

It is necessary to understand the difference between limited andlimitless power, since people today tend to assume that ali power isfinite. Possibly this is ali one can expect in a purely materialistic socialand cultural environment Many people ignorant of the truth fail to besuccessful because they base their actions only in belief in limitedpower. There are many different kinds of limited power. In primitivecivilization the basic power was human power or physical strength. Ascivilization evolved others followed — mental power, authority, thenpolitical power, the power of oppression, military power, financialpower, economic power, the power of learning, horse power, mechanicalpower, destructive power, the power of thought, the power of the pen,and the power of publicity — these gradually developed to supersedehuman power. The strength of each one depended on the period inquestioa In the primitive period, the kinds of power that succeededeach other were violence, authority, and control.

It is important to note that ali these kinds of power are limited andhave no quality of absoluteness, as is irrefutably proved by the way apower once considered absolute can later be totally destroyed. An

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examination of examples of failures from the distant past makes thisclear. In contrast to limited power. limitless power is absolute, eternal,and irresistible. Though limited power is visible and tangible, limitlesspower seemingly exists nowhere. For this reason, people are unable tobelieve that it exists and remain convinced that limited power is the onlypower. Limited power is produced by human beings; limitless power isemployed by God.

A ready example is the Johrei method used by our organization.People assume that since medicai science uses visible, medicinal, andmechanical methods it will necessarily effect a cure; yet find itimpossible, at first, to believe that Johrei, which involves no more thanraising the hand into space, can have any therapeutic effect. They aretotally unable to understand why Johrei, in practice, is compararablymore effective than medicai science; they can only wonder. In short,they can understand limited power, but limitless power is beyond them.However, for a person who understands the principie, it is perfectlynatural. What is quite clear is that medicai science is the power ofhumanity, whereas Johrei is the power of God.

(Date uncertain)

Philosophical Examination of Johrei

The basic premise on which people have criticized the great effect ofJohrei is quite erroneous. People have long been accustomed tobelieving that no cure is possible without physical treatment and tend tothink that the effects of our therapy, which employs no medicines and nomechanical devices, must result from psychological suggestion.Non-members especially are prone to think this way. Interestinglyenough, however, the truth is the opposite.

Almost ali the sick people who come to us, or who resort to certainkinds of folk medicine, entertain a certain degree of doubt about itbecause they are baffled by a treatment that employs no machines andno medicines. However, when others explainthe great effects it hás andwhen they see how effective it hás been in the cases of people close to

them, they almost ali come to temper their doubt with belief.Most people who undergo medicai treatment are dominated by the

assumption that they will recover. They ali, moreover, put great faith inbig hospitais and people with doctorates. Preconceived ideas about thewonders of progress in medicai science make their confidence in itincomparably greater than their trust in other forms of healing. This isproved by the way in which many people continue to undergo aprescribed medicai treatment in vain for months, without losing theirfaith in it Sometimes, even therapy extending over one or two years andresulting only in an aggravation of the condition does not alter thepatienfs confidence, which is truly amazing in its tenacity.

Quite often, doubt does not arise even when mistaken diagnosis andmistaken treatment worsen the patienfs condition, when injections causedeath or surgical errors increase the gravity of the sickness. When a greatdoctor, employing ali the late st methods, is unable to do anything butgo on making matters worse until the patient finally dies, people resignthemselves to fate and make no complaint at ali; even a great doctorworking as hard as possible was unable, they say, to effect a cure. Evenwhen the cause of death being a patently mistaken treatment, a legalsuit would be justified, but people usually take the easy way out and letmatters ride saying, "No matter what we do now, the person who hásdied will not come back to life again."

Medicai science commands this absolute trust, I believe, because, inmaking judgments, people today are far too likely to emphasize externaiform, theory, and tradition more than substance. As a young personinterested in philosophy I was once deeply impressed by the theories ofthe famous French philosopher Henri Bergson, especially his ideas onintuitivo theory and the perpetuai motion of ali things. The gist of thosetheories is as follows:

It is difficult for human beings to respond intuitively in makingobservations of the things around them, since ali of us fali under theinfluence of currently existing ideas. The comprehensive effects ofthings such as education, custom, and tradition lie latent in our minds,tending to make our thinking fixed and rigid. We are unable to escapetheir influence. The sum of these things prevenis us from graspingobjects as they actually are. In other words, they obscure our vision likedark glasses. To understand things correctly, we must put ourselves in astate where not a grain of these preconceived ideas remains to hinderus. Bergson hás described the self in such a condition as the self of the

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instant It is the self for which there is neither past nor future, the self ofthe unprejudiced min d, free even of speculation. When the self of theinstant views things it is with completely unhindered intuition. This is theonly way for human beings to view things correctly.

The theory of the perpetuai motion of ali things — that is, the ideathat everything that exists is in constant movement and never stops foran instant — means that the individual self, the Japan and the world oftoday are not the same as the individual self, the Japan and the world ofyesterday. Obviously, the culture, politics, economics, art, and medicineof yesterday diff er from their counterparts today. Therefore, what wastruth yesterday may, or may not, be destroyed today. If it is destroyed, itwas false to start with. Truth that is not destroyed can be said withcertainty to be either truth or something closer to truth than falsehood.The appearance of truth in relation to time is also important There aremany historical instances of truths that have been considered supremefor decades and centuries only to be proved paradoxes at a laterdate.

Bergson's philosophy, as outlined here, is extremely convenient inarriving at an understanding of the true nature of Johrei and Westernmedicai science. It is important to note in this connection that themajority of the people who come for our purifying practice do sóbecause the medicai science in which só many have absolute faith hásfailed to cure them. Strangely enough, when the medicine they trustdoes no good, they are cured by the kind of therapy that they view withsuspicion. Reflection on this state of affairs clearly ré vê ais thedifference between the healing powers of the two approaches totherapy. It is a sign that the healing powers of Johrei transcendpsychological suggestion and go much farther.

September 28, 1942

Religion and Faith

with certain established doctrines and expounding certain teachings inaccordance with which their adherents must act. In addition, religionsfrequently require their members to worship figures of buddhas,bodhisattvas, gods, sages, Christ, or sect founders.

Faith means trust and confidence which grow stronger as timepasses and ultimately evolve into reverence and total conviction. Itsobjects are not limited to gods or buddhas but can include practicallyanything. Praying for the sun to rise at dawn is faith. The samurai spirit isa kind of faith, as is belief in science. Belief in medicai science in the Westis also faith that hás become só absolute that people are willing to entrusttheir precious lives to it with tranquility, no matter what effects itstreatments produce.

It is where these religious elements and concepts of faith areconcerned that Jo/irei differs. It hás, of course, no religious element atalL As for faith, it is not entirely non-existent; it is, for example, onlynatural for people who have recovered from a criticai illness, even afterphysicians have warned of impending death, to rejoice só greatly thattheir emotion extends into faith. However, this is a natural reaction, andnot superstition.

Now I have a word to say to doctors. There is a reason why doctorsinvariably attribute successful cures effected by other than medicaimeans to faith. Their interpretation, based on the experience ofWestern medicai science, is that medicines are especially effectivewhen the patient hás faith in the doctor administering them. Doctorsfrequently speak of the many instances in which the same medicine hássuperlative effect when prescribed by a famous physician and much lesseffect when given by an unknown doctor. This proves that the medicineitself hás no cura tive effect at ali and that belief alone is at work in suchcases. In the light of this situation, it is probably unavoidable thatdoctors accustomed to such attitudes should think that belief in thedoctor effects the cure.

As I often say, in the case of Johrei the effect for a doubter is exactlythe same as the effect for a believer.

Octoberõ, 1943

Whenever Johrei is described as a religion ora faith, I insist thatit isneither. Religions occur in various forms and require various differentkinds of activity, but generally they are organized into sects or groups

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There isatpresenta grave misconception concerningthetreatmentof sickness. It is the idea — put forward, moreover, by doctorsthemselves — that healing based on faith and healing by folk medicineare greatly assisted by psychological suggestion and spiritual strength.In my opinion, this is putting things the wrong way round. The averageperson hás absolute faith that medicai therapy can cure sickness. Theextent of this belief as shown in ali kinds of daily instances is quiteastounding — as is witnessed by the fact that such people consider anycase of cure through nonmedical means to be miraculous. In otherwords, the patient who chooses to seek a cure through conventionalmedicine starts with the psychological conviction that his or hersickness will be cured. Should, even só, a cure notbe achieved, itmeansthat medicine itself— which theoretically commands ali the resources ofscience and psychological suggestion — hás proved ineffective, thusmaking nonsense of such ideas.

Now let us examine the opposite kind of case. In the beginning, alipatients who come to us entertain doubts about the likelihood of a cure.Most of them, after having found no help in medicai treatment and othermethods, are merely accidentally guided to us and turn to our system as alast resort, hoping for a stroke of good luck. Thus, whereas medicaiscience, which theoretically hás an absolute advantage in suchundertakings, is unable to cure, our group, which ought to be at thegreatest disadvantage, shows solid results. There is food for seriousthought there.

May 15, 1936

It Can Be Cured

The elimination of illness — that is, the assurance of good health — isthe most important of the three conditions we constantly profess as ourgoal — a world free of illness, poverty, and conflict. Without health,what salvation is possible? Those people of great faith who believe

salvation is possible while they groan beneath illness and suffering aregreatly mistaken. Though spiritual salvation is possible under such aphilosophy, physical salvationis not. The reasonwhy people of faith areonly half saved is that, limited to spiritual salvation, the existingreligions unfortunately lack the power to save on the physical plane. As aconsequence of the long-established conviction that religion shouldconcern itself solely with spiritual salvation, religious scholars haveconcocted the ingenious theory that physical salvation is heresy. On thebasis of this paradoxical view, they voice the highly mistaken opinionthat any religion propounding the aim of bringing to its followers actualadvantages in the present world is of inferior quality.

The members of our organization are able to enjoy in abundance thepractical blessings which established religions consider impossible tobestow. Such people who come to us after having been given up ashopeless by doctors immediately take a turn for the better and recover.Such an astonishing truth should be a matter of major concern forphysicians. Nonetheless, despite ali the criticai attacks directed at usby the world, our organization continues to develop at an unabatedrate.

The people who spread our teaching have no inclination to offer thesick cures from a religious viewpoint. Ali they do is perform Johrei —purification of the spirit — in response to the request of the person.When the spirit hás been purified, the illness vanishes naturally. Inother words the process involved is not one of curing but of allowing acure to effect itself. This is the most important point. It is inconceivablethat it could infringe any law or do any harm to society. We welcome anykind of investigation of our activities since the number of lives we havesaved and the extent to which we have helped enhance the generalwelfare are clearly revealed in the mountains of reports and writtenexpressions of gratitude we receive from people who are só happy atbeing saved by Johrei they cannot contain their delight. Indeed thesewritten expressions of thanks are too numerous to be accommodated inthe pages of the monthly magazine Chijo Tengoku (Paradise on Earth)and the weekly í/tTzarí (Light). Asa rale, the person who hás been helped byJohrei writes his or her own report, telling the facts as they arewithout exaggeration. People who for some reason cannot write theirreports dictate them orally. But in ali cases, names and addresses aregiven in detail, and anyone who doubts can visit the people and questionthem.

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It is most distressing that people, either wittingly or unwittingly,attempt to hinder us as much as possible in our struggle toward the goalof creating a new Japan. I am at a loss how to describe people whoattempt to crush us because we have superior powers in curing illness,humankind's greatest source of suffering, when both the official andprivate sectors of the population ought to offer us ali possible supportand encouragement.

March 30, 1949

Theory of Method and Theory of Effect

Here I would like to deal in some detail with the unfortunatereadiness of the general public to misunderstand the Johrei therapy.Although the wonderful effects of Johrei treatment are now known to alarge segment of the populace, a considerable number of people, andespecially a group of specialists, still seriously misunderstand us. Mypurpose in writing this is to enlighten them in their error. In thecriticisms made of our system there is never a word indicating that itseffectiveness is inferior to that of medicai treatment. The criticism isthat our method is mistaken, unscientific, and superstitious because itmakes no use of such material means as machines and medicines. Irefute this objection, though I realize that such people make it becausethey consider human beings to be physical bodies only. In contrast totheir opinion, we see the human being as composed of the two elements ofphysical body and spirit, and insist that the spiritual takes precedenceover the physicaL In other words, the body moves in accordance withthe operations of the spirit, or the will. The difference between our viewand theirs is the difference between materialism and spiritualism orbetween the belief that the physical takes precedence over the spiritualand the belief that the spiritual takes precedence over the physical. Theyemploy physical means to cure the spirit

The key to determining which of the views is correct is to find acriterion for accurate judgment. The only absolutely infallible criterion isthe actual effects of the two methods. In contrast to the materialistmethod, which deals with visible things that anyone can recognize, the

spiritualist method is at a disadvantage in that it is dealing withsomething invisible and intangible that cannot be readily recognized.When the spiritualists are criticized on this point, no mention is made atali of effects; and method alone comes in for censure. The method thatconcentrated on visible things seems on the surface to be reasonable.However, without employing medicines and mechanical equipment andrelying solely on the operation of the palm of the human hand, we areable to manifest amazing therapeutic effects in dealing with illnessesthat medicai science cannot cure no matter how much medicine andmechanical equipment it resorts to. In short, one system seemsreasonable but fails to cure, while the other seems unreasonable butcures. It is important to note that one system concentrates on methodand the other on effect It should be perfectly clear which of theapproaches is correct.

To carry the discussion to its logical conclusion, one may say that,even though it is scientific, the system that produces no positive effect isin practice useless and therefore, to say the least of it, not good science.The system that does have a positive effect is useful, and therefore goodscience. The essential point is that one is concerned with visible thingsand one with invisible things. The former deals with the visible and isnot true science; the latter deals with the invisible and is true science.

January 30, 1950

Facts Speak Eloquently

In a short time, our organization hás grown and extended itsboundaries to an extent probably unprecedented in the history ofreligion. Why hás this happened? In this hard world, people do notdonate money, use their spare time, and remain fervently faithfulwithout some reason. Furthermore, our present membership of twohundred thousand includes representatives of ali social leveis: frompoliticians, doctorate holders, university professors, members of thenational diet, high ranking officials, and influential businessmen to

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middle-class merchants, white- and blue-collar workers and farmers.The great diversity of this membership deserves thought.

There are quite a number of people who, refusing to accept suchfacts, self-righteously dismiss our teachings as superstitious andheretical; however, it would be a mistake to condemn such peopleoutright since virtually ali of the new religions that have appeared só farhave been without true value. Though some of them have flourished inthe beginning and have seemed to promise to become great religions inthe future, as time hás passed they have gradually lost their vigor andended in fiasco. Only a limited number of them continue to exist today.With examples of this kind in mind, people might be called justified indismissing new religions as superstition and wrong teachings.

How does this situation affect us? Before answering this, I would askyou to abandon ali prejudico, begin with a blank page, and look at thingsthrough untinted glasses. The quickest and most sensible answer is totalk about the effect of our characteristic Johrei, which is unprecedented inthe history of religion and in the history of humanity. That this is neitherempty theory nor conceit but living fact is prove d most vividly by themountain of reports on my desk; of the experiences of individual humanbeings, reporting their overflowing gratitude. The reports are regularlycarried in large numbers in the newspaper Hikari and the monthlymagazine Chijo Tengoku.

Because we know these facts, we are compelled to believe in thepossibility of realizing our extraordinary ideal of a Paradise on Earth inwhich there will be no illness, poverty, or conflict.

The work we are doing at present cannot really be called religion.Use of that word summons up associations with older establishedreligions and is therefore a hindrance to understanding the true natureof our organization, which is actually an undertaking of salvation on ascale larger than anything that hás gone before it. Since the world isentering a phase of tremendous transformation, it would be difficultwithout salvation on this vast scale for humankind to escape a greatcrisis. Consequently God hás chosen me as the person to carry out thisgreat undertaking. Though I am not bold enough to call myself aMessiah, I cansay now that in the future God will manifestMessiah-likepowers through me.

As history shows, ali religions have been misunderstood by theworld at one time or another. I am no exception to this rule, for I too havebeen misunderstood, but the numbers of my supporters are gradually

increasing. For my part, I merely act according to God's instructions and, entrusting myself to God, allow time to pass.

December20, 1949

Change in the Johrei Method

Henceforth, I wish Johrei to be performed in a new way that hásbeen divinely revealed to me and that derives from the recenttremendous alteration in the spiritual world. Formerly, Johrei involvedthe action of both spirit and body in that, when the spirit was emittedfrom the palm of the hand, the person exerted a certain degree ofphysical power. However, the use of physical power had the effect ofreducingthe spirit's power. Eveninthe past this was só; that is why, theharder the person performing Johrei tried, the more the effectdiminished.

To check this tendency, from now on no physical power should beexerted in the channeling, and the spirit alone should be radiated. Toexplain in greater detail: the light of the divine spirit will pass from mealong spiritual cords to the focal points ali of you possess, where it willabide. Since that light will pass through the palm of the hand to thepathologically affected part of the recipient, from now on Johreipractitioners must channel the spirit with as light and easy an attitudeas possible and must exert no force at alL It is certain that, with thismethod, healing powers will be much greater — indeed, five timesgreater this will stimulate astonishing progress in the work of God. Youmust do as I say without confusion or fear, for it is the will of God, nowthat the time is ripe and that salvation for humanity is moving forward.I will explain practical details personally in interviews, só as to makethem easier to grasp.

December27, 1950

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Sickness and Human Character

My considerable experience hás revealed to me interestingcorrelations between a person's character and the sickness from whichthe person suffers. As I have discovered in therapy, a person who isdirect by nature will recover in a direct fashion. A person who doesn'tmake afuss will recover without a fuss. Butthe illness of a person who isegotistical is likely to persist for a long time. The symptoms of astubborn person are stubborn themselves. The sick condition of aperson who is changeable is likely to alter easily. The sickness of aperson with an negative personality is likely to take negative turns.

It is important to know the character of the person one is attemptingto cure and to alter his or her bad traits, since this is certain to have agood effect on the sickness itself. The best thing is to attempt to developstraightforwardness in the person's character.

1936

Pride and Error

human power. The less human power exerted, the better. A proudperson, however, is most likely to exert his or her own strength, whichhás a more debilitating effect on the effectiveness of Johrei thananything else.

People often ask me why their healing power hás fallen off lately nowthat they are practiced, whereas it was só much greater when they werehesitant beginners. The explanation I have just given should make theanswer obviou s.

We must also be on our guard against error, for it is easy to make amistake in relation to one's thinking concerning faith. For instance,people sometimes conceive a desire to know about God's causes andeffects, or the origins and relationships of the gods as set forth in mythsand legends, or become interested in the phenomena of spiritualpossession, thirsting for more and more knowledge on such subjects.Too much enthusiasm on these topics can cause a person to neglect thebasics of faith. There is nothing wrong with knowing a little about suchmatters, but limits must be set, since becoming wrapped up in them canlead the person away from the true path. Error of this kind comes fromeither not reading my teachings or from reading them but failing to putthem to practice.

A person who understands what I have written on these twoimportant points and puts my writing to practice will be able to followthe line of true faith.

July4, 1951

Two of the things that we are most strongly warned against in theteaching of Omoto Sect are pride and error. It is good that we should beon the lookout against pride, for the experiences of many of ourmembers reveal how it can be a problem. For instance, a person whoperforms Johrei for the first time is uncertain of his or her ability to healandgoes aboutthe task in fear and trembling. Wheninfact he succeeds incuring, he or she considers it wonderful; and the person healed isoverjoyed and grateful; ali of our members must have experienced this atsome time or other.

But, as time goes by, the person forgets to be grateful for beingallowed to heal and comes to think that the greatness resides in himselfor herself. When this unmistakable kind of pride develops, sterncautioning is needed, since this is a stage of great danger, one at whichthe person's thinking can take a reverse turn. As I have already stated,the Johrei practitioner must not attempt to exert any of his or her own

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NUTRITION The True Science of Nutrition

The basis of nourishment is the spirit of the food we eat, butcontemporary nutrition concerns itself only with vitamins, caloriecounting, and other minor details. In fact, the spirit is impossible tounderstand at the present stage of learning, no matter how muchresearch is expended on the matter, since spirit cannot be measured in atest tube. Calories, vitamins, proteins, carbohydrates, and só on are thedregs left behind when the spirit hás been removed.

Humans are active beings made up of both spirit and body. Ourfood, consequently, must nourish both the spirit and the body. Foodsthemselves also consist of spirit and physical being. The spirit isretained in large amounts in fresh foods such as newly pickedvegetables or newly caught fish. Foods spoil when their spirits areallowed to escape. The length of time spirit remains in foods variesaccording to type: grains retain their spirits longest; vegetables comenext; fish lose their spirit faster than ali other foods. Observation of theway foods spoil will make this clear. The fresher the food, the greaterthe concentration of spirit in it. Salt-dried foods retain their spiritsrelatively long because they borrow the spirit of salt, which removesmuch of their moisture.

The spiritual energy of foods nourishes the human spirit, and theirphysical components nourish the human body. The fundamental source ofhuman activity is adequate spirit, which is at the s ame time the factordetermining physical strength and weakness. Consequently, it isessential for good health to consume foods with large amounts of spirit.Eating such foods stimulates greater activity of the spiritual being and inthis way makes the body stronger and healthier. No matter how manymanufactured nutritional supplements are consumed, they have virtuallyno power to activate the spiritual being and thus have no stimulatingeffects, their own spiritual elements having been dispersed andweakened. Eating plenty of fresh vegetables is infinitely wiser thanresorting to such supplements.

Modern science is mistaken in ignoring the importance of the spiritand concentrating research on the body only. Yet, to give a simpleexample, the limbs and body of a human being do not control the mind; itis the mind that controls the limbs and body.

The human body is made up of hundreds of different kinds ofmatter, principally blood, cells, muscles, boné, hair, fluid, calcium, and

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só on; each of these is composed of different elements. The organs of thebody constantly function without resting a single second. Ali these thingsreceive energy from spiritual and material elements extracted fromfoods, which contain without exception ali that is necessary for activehuman life. Consequently, human beings should ideally consume as manykinds of foods as possible. People should eat whatever they want to eatwithout making the mistake of assigning medicinal virtues to some andharmful effects to others.

1935

Foods and Nutrition

Specialists in modern health should realize that they lean too far inthe direction of scholarly research and separate themselves too far fromreality. I say this because, after more than a decade of study, I havecome to a conclusion that is diametrically opposed to accepted beliefs.

Fifteen or sixteen years ago, I was a great eater of meat Dinner wasalways either Western-style or occasionally, Chinese food. In otherwords, I ate what nutrition experts of the day would probably haveconsidered an ideal diet But, in my thirties at the time, I never weighedmore than a miserable fifty kilograms or 104 pounds, suffered fromstomach and intestinal disorders and colds ali the time, and never went amonth without having to call on the services of a physician. In myeagerness to regain good health, I tried ali the currently popularregimens — deep breathing, cold-water massage, meditation, and só on.Though some had limited effects, none led to overall physicalimprovement.

Realizing the negative effects of a meat diet, I switched to eating inthe traditional Japanese fashion; that is, plenty of fish and vegetables.Suddenly, I began to gain weight. In two or three years, I was weighingfrom about fifty-nine to sixty-one kilograms or from 124 to 128 pounds. Igradually became free of colds and forgot ali about stomach andintestinal disorders. For the first time I knew the joy of good health; and

since then I have remained active and completely strong and sound.Trying the same diet on my six children and the other members of

our family, who number fifteen or sixteen in ali, hás produced excellentresults. We know the great happiness of never having our doorstepdarkened by the demon of illness.

Out of curiosity, I asked my wife and our maid to feed the children onwhat in the eyes of modern nutrition specialists is poor nourishment parexcellence. They were given such plain fare as seventy-percent hulledrice, plenty of vegetables, on rare occasions "inferior" fish such assalted salmon and dried sardines, pickles and rice-and-tea gruel orpickles and salted balis of steamed rice, and homemaderice-and-seaweed rolls. The results were surprising. Our children in bothprimary and middle school were physically robust. Their nutrition wasabove average or excellent. None of them, from our oldest daughter, whowas sixteen at the time, to our smallest boy, who was four, eversuffered anything that could be called a serious illness, and theyalways won prizes for perfect school attendance.

For the past eight years, I have been applying this experience in

treating hundreds of physically ill people, always with excellent results. Iwould be happy if medicai scientists would make a study of theespecially good effects vegetables in the diet have had on patients withlung ailments.

These are the simple facts. They encourage me to state flatly andunequivocally that, though it seems to have made great progress, thecontemporary study of nutrition is fundamentally wrong. This is amatter of great importance to the health and welfare of the wholenation; the time hás come to rise up fearlessly, sound the alarm, andissue a warning to the population in general as well as to the learnedauthorities.

If generally adopted, the diet I advocate could have a mostbeneficiai effect on the national economy. I guarantee that Japanesefarmers would become incapable of the hard work they have alwaysdone if they were to adopt a meat diet instead of the homely fare towhich they have long been accustomed.

June, 1935

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Nutrition

My detailed explanations in previous articles should already havemade the danger of medicines clear, but it is also important not tooverlook the great fallacy currently prevalent in connection withnutrition. The science of nutrition concentrates on foods and neglectsthe way the human body functions. It is folly to try to compensate fornutritional insufficiencies by means of vitamins — which science hásactually classified into groups A, B, C, and só on — because this is tooverlook the innate capabilities of bodily functions.

Essentially the life force is a result of the activity of the bodilyfunctions. These functions, especially digestion, are the main constituent ofthe drive to live. The drive to live is synonymous with good health. And"activation" of the functions signifies the working of the functions toperfect imperfect foods. This is easy to understand if one thinks of theway the body grows weak when the stomach is empty. The reason for thiscondition is that food processing hás stopped. When one eats, digestiveactivity resumes; and the body feels refreshed. Since ali the body sfunctions are interrelated, the weakening of the fundamental digestivefunction weakens ali the others. Conversely, recovery of the digestivefunction brings about recovery of the others.

Exercise is essential to good health because it stimulates themetabolism. The good e ff ect it hás is supportive and not fundamental innature. The essential thing is to stimulate the activity of the digestivefunction itself. And, to this end, especially easily digested foods are not sógood. We would do better to eat perfectly ordinary, simple foods.

Medicai science urges us to eat foods that are easy to digestHowever, they are in fact harmful since they weaken the stomach.Though long chewing of food is recommended, it also, if overdone, hás asimilar weakening effect on the stomach. An illustration of these effects isthe malpositioning of the stomach called gastroptosis, a purelymanmade sickness, which results from the stomach relaxation that is theinevitable outcome of eating easily digested foods, chewing them toowell, and frequently taking digestive medicines, ali of which aggravategastric weakness.

In relation to this, I recall an experience of my own. I once tried theregimen known as Fletcherism, which was popular in the United Statesmore than thirty years ago and which advocated chewing food as

thoroughly as possible. For a while, the system seemed to be doing megood; but, after about a month, I started growing progressively weaker.Realizing that the system was at fault, I returned to the ordinary way ofeating and soon recovered.

As this should indicate, medicai science cannot hope to improvehealth só long as it follows a course diametrically opposed to the trulybeneficiai one. To take another example, it is very odd to suggest to amother whose breasts fail to produce enough milk that she should drinkcow's milk. Human mothers should be able to produce enough milk tobreast-feedthe childrenthey bear. If they cannot, they have been doingsomething wrong and the condition will be rectified when they discoverand correct their mistake.

Medicai science is either unaware of or unable to cope with thissituation and seems to believe that whatever a mother takes in at themouth goes straight through to the nipples. This is an absurd error.Drinking cow's milk actually reduces the amount of mother's milkproduced. In other words, supplying milk from outside reduces theability of the mother's body to lactate.

A moment's thought will suffice. The process whereby humanbeings eat rice or bread and green vegetables and yellow beans to

produce red blood is wonderful. If blood is produced from eating foodthat contains no blood at ali, then what would be the outcome ofdrinking blood? Obviously, cessation of blood production. If cowsproduce splendid milk by eating hay, how much greater is the humanpower to produce totally different substances from nutrients! Refusal toexamine nature is the fundamental cause of the fallacies prevailing in thescience of nutrition.

Vegetarians are healthy and long-lived because vegetables containali the nourishment the human body needs in large amounts. Zenpriests, who eat simple fare, often live to very ripe old ages. The famouswriter George Bernard Shaw, who died at ninety-four, was a well-knownvegetarian.

In essence, then, human beings should follow the natural course ofeating what they want without worrying too much about nutrition.Urbanites should try to eat vegetable and animal foods at ahalf-and-half ratio. Farmers and the sick should eat seventy to eightypercent vegetable and twenty to thirty perc ent animal food. With suchdiets, and abstaining from ali medicines, there is no reason why peopleshould become ilL Since só many methods of hygiene and health aremistaken

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and cause more trouble than they do good, men would do best to live a simple life in accordance with nature.

August 15, 1951

The Science of Nutrition

The contemporary science of nutrition errs fundamentally instudying only one of the two aspects deserving research. It studies onlyfoods and neglects the human bodily functions that must ingest andprocess those foods. The body's internai functioning, which is still notcompletely understood even by the scientist with his modern theories,freely produces and alters the necessary nutrients from foods eaten.One hás only to observe how magically the digestive functions transformrice, bread, leafy vegetables, yams, beans, and só on into blood,muscle, and boné, even though the most meticulous analysis of thesefoods is unable to discover the smallest particle of the element of bloodor the slightest trace of the basic material of muscle. Nor can analysisfind in foods any of the malodorous odor of urine or feces, or anyammonia. Consequently, in prescribing vitamins and other supposedsupplements, modern nutrition only increases bodily debilitation.

Here is an example to make my meaning easier to understand.Think of a factory that brings in supplies of iron as raw material and coalas fueL It operates mechanical equipment, utilizing the work of laborersand the burning of coal in various processes that ultimately result infinished products. The production processes are the factory's lifepower. If instead of raw materiais and fuel, however, finished productswere brought to the factory, there would be no need for laborers or coal.The machines would not need to operate, and no smoke would comefrom the chimneys. Since the factory could not continue under suchcircumstances, the laborers would be discharged, and the mechanicalequipment would rust.

Similarly, if the human body is supplied with supplementalnutrients in exactly the forms it requires, there is no room for the

activities of its own nutrient-producing plant, and debility sets in. This iswhyit is essential to understand that human energy is generated from theactivity of converting imperfect nutrients into perfect nutrients such asvitamins and other similar substances.

Moreover, the modern science of nutrition is mistaken inunderrating the food value of grains and believing that foods eaten tosupplement such staples are more nutritious. The truth is that grains arethe major source of nourishment and the supplementary foods ofsecondary importance — something added merely to make eating thegrains more enjoyable.

Essentially, the human bodily functions are made to be able to adaptto the environment. The tongue of a person who habitually eats theplainest foods comes in time to find them delicious. This fact, however,is little known; as is often observed in people of luxurious inclinations,gourmets become jaded with ordinary fare and constantly seek newdelicacies.

Let us now examine the significance of different foods. Fund-amentally, foods, which are esssential to the maintenance of the life ofliving organisms, are suited to the needs of those organisms. The

Creator thus hás determined the kinds of foods human beings, birds,and beasts should eat. It is easy to tell what foods are provided forhuman beings; foods have tastes, and human beings are endowedwithasense of taste. The human being enjoys eating those foods that arenaturally nutritious and that are the elements of which good health ismade. It is therefore essential to realize that ingesting such unappetizingthings as tonics, which do not require chewing and which do not demandthe functioning of the digestive system, is not only mistaken, but alsoharmful. Each person hás a different environment, occupation, andphysical constitution. The thing that the individual likes to eat is anecessary element for that person. In other words, we should eat whatour natural instincts tell us to eat without being too greatly concernedwith such things as theories of nutritional science.

Vegetables are more nutritious than anything else. From thenutritional standpoint, a diet of grain and vegetables is sufficient, asactual cases of people who follow it make perfectly clear. Vegetarianslike Japanese farmers and Zen priests are healthy and long-lived,whereas urbanites who continually eat fish, fowl, and meat, become sickeasily and have shorter life spans.

February 5, 1947

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The Comedy of Nutrition

At present, substances such as vitamins A, B, and C, amino acids,glycogen, carbohydrates, fats, proteins and só on figure largely inartificially prepared nutritional supplements and tonics. A great varietyof them is available, and the number of different kinds of vitaminsincreases each year. Though taking such substances, either orally or byinjection, may have a temporary effect, it produces no long-termimprovement. In fact, they have adverse effects, and the more suchsupplements a person takes, the weaker the body becomes. It goeswithoutsaying, of course, thathumanbeings consume foods for the sake oflife support and the manifestation of life powers; yet today's scientifictheories misinterpret this truth.

In eating, the human being ingests and chews food, which passes tothe stomach and thence to the intestines, where the necessary elementsare assimilated and the remainder is excreted from the body in urineand feces. By means of this process, the life powers of the liver, gallbladder, kidneys, and pâncreas function to produce, extract, anddistribute ali the nutrient elements needed for the functioning of blood,muscles, bonés, skin, hair, teeth, finger and toe naus, and só on. Themy sterious, mystical, infinite life process cannot be described in wordsbut is nature itself.

The nutrients human beings require for life are contained in alikinds of foods, whose virtually limitless variety arises partly from theneed for different kinds of nutrition, partly from differences inindividual preferences and capacities from time to time, and partly fromthe differing needs of the individual constitution. When hungry, thehuman being eats. When thirsty, he drinks. A person who craves sweetshás a sugar deficiency, and one who craves salty food lacks salt Thenatural desires of the human being reveal our needs for various kinds offoods. But we ali want food that tastes good. It is mistaken to forceourselves to take tasteless or unpleasant things like medicines. The oldJapanese saying to the effect that good medicines always taste bitter isequally mistaken. The Creator made things bitter to show that they arepoisonous and must not be eaten. Consequently, the better foods taste,the denser their spiritual content and the higher their nutritional value.Fresh fish and vegetables are delicious because they still have densespiritual beings. As time passes, their flavor diminishes because theirspiritual energy disperses.

A few words, now, about tonics and artificially prepared nutritionalsupplements. The body is able to produce freely, in just the rightquantities, ali the various nutrients — that is, vitamins and everythingelse — it needs from the foods it consumes. In other words, the body'snutritional function hás the miraculous power to produce the vitamins itneeds even from foods that are totally lacking in them. Indeed, thisprocess of producing nutrients is precisely what constitutes the humanlife force: the activity of converting incomplete foods into complete onesis, in short, life itself.

Taking artificially prepared nutritional supplements, which arecomplete foods, reduces the need for the body's own nutrition producingfunction, which therefore naturally degenerates, thus stimulatingdegeneration in other functions that share communal responsibility withit and leading gradually to total physical debility. In what follows I givetwo or three examples of what I mean.

Some years ago, the dietary regimen known as "Fletcherism" waspopular in the United States. It required that ali food be chewedthoroughly till it was dense pulp. I followed this system diligently for amonth, only to find to my surprise that my body gradually grew weakerand was incapable of exerting the kind of energy I wanted from it.

However, after abandoning the system and returning to my ordinaryway of eating, I recovered. This experience shows how mistaken it is tochew food too thoroughly. I realized that, since thorough chewing withthe teeth reduces the demand for stomach action, the stomach weakens,and that chewing food moderately is best. Long ago people used to saythat a person who eats fast and defecates fast is healthy. In this respect,they were more advanced than modern civilized mankind.

Taking digestive aids also weakens the stomach by dulling itsactivity. The person with a stomach problem again resorts to medicinefor the condition, and this further weakens the stomach. In other words,taking digestive medicines is undeniably a cause of gastric sickness.One often hears of cases in which chronic sufferers from stomach andintestinal illnesses made no improvement as long as they persisted ineating easily digested foods but recovered by eating rice-and-tea gruelwith pickled vegetables.

The way the human life force converts incomplete foods intocomplete ones can be compared to the operation of a machine factory.Raw materiais are brought to the plant, where coal is burned as fuel tooperate the necessary equipment. Workers employ the energy from the

Nature FarmingPreface

The theory of cultivation without f ertilizers* that I have advocated issó unorthodox that it hás encountered general astonishment anddisbelief— só far, indeed, notonly crops buthuman beings themselveshave become addicted to fertilizers.

Admittedly, quite a lot of people have accepted the theory — in largemeasure out of respect for me personally — yet even here they have, asali the reports show, carrie d it into practice at first only with the greatestmisgivings. Then suddenly, just before harvest, when the crop is muchbigger than anticipated, the fear vanishes. One fact is more convincingthan a thousand theories.

I believe that as a result of this great discovery a revolution willoccur not only in Japanese agriculture, but someday perhaps, inagriculture ali over the world. If such a great philanthropic task wereachieved, it would be an unprecedented piece of good tidings formankind and a perfectly natural outcome of our organization, which hás asits goal the creating of a paradise on earth.

July l, 1949

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Nature Farming

To explain nature farming in terms of fundamental theory, I mustbegin with a discussion of the nature of soiL The Creator made soil forthe cultivation of grains and other vegetables essential to the support oflife. Consequently, the essence of soil is a mystery far beyond the

The original Japanese uses a compound term Muhiryo saibai, translated here as"cultivation without fertilizers." However, though the system of agriculture MokichiOkada advocated employs no commercial fertilizers or animal manure and is popularlycalled a "no-fertilizer" systera, it actually makes extensive use of natural compost. Theterm"no-fertilizer" is therefore inaccurate. Stressing as it does the powers of nature, thismethod of cultivation is best described as "natural" Mokichi Okada hás stated that thisterm is proper, and we intend to use it exclusively from now on.

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complete comprehension of modern materialistic science. Over theages, agriculture hás steadily, though imperceptibly, fallen into evilways. Underestimating the power of soil, farmers have accepted thenecessity of using manure or chemical f ertilizers for the improvement ofcrops. As a result the soil hás degenerated and altered, and itsgenerative powers have weakened. Unaware of this, and sufferingunderthe delusion that insufficient use of fertilizers causes poor crops,farmers resort to still more fertilization, with the result that the soildeclines even further. Farmers ali over Japan today unanimouslylament the poverty of the soil. I set forth below a few points illustratinghow dangerous the use of artificial fertilizers is.1. One of the greatest agricultural worries today is insect pests.However, instead of finding out what causes them, farmers concentrateali their efforts on exterminating them. In other words, unable to findout the reasons why harmful insects occur, they take what seems to bethe next-best alternative. In fact, fertilizers generate harmful insects,and the number of such pests hás increased in recent years as thenumber of fertilizers used hás increased. Furthermore, people areunaware that the insecticides used to exterminate pests penetrate thesoil and cause it to degenerate, thus leading to the appearance of stillmore insects.2. The application of fertilizers gravely weakens crops. Heavilyfertilized plants fali and break in wind and rain. They bear little fruitbecause their blossoms drop. In the case of rice, wheat, and beans, theplants grow too tall and their leaves are too big, só that crops areshaded, husks are thick, and seeds are small and sickly.3. The ammonium sulfate and ammonia in manure and chemicalfertilizers are powerful poisons. Eating plants that have absorbed suchsubstances means that, though perhaps only in minute quantities, thesepoisons constantly enter the body through the stomach. This canscarcely be called harmless to the health. Doctors have recentlyreported that cessation for two or three years of the use of manurefertilizers totally eliminates intestinal worms. Here is one of the greatadvantages of nature farming.4. Rising fertilizer prices bring the cost of raising rice só close to theprice the government sets for it that farmers are compelled to sell on theblack market.5. Acquiring and applying fertilizers and dusting and sprayinginsecticides require tremendous labor and effort.

6. Vegetables and grains raised by nature farming are better tasting,larger, and faster growing, and crops are bigger than those producedwith fertilizers.

These points should make clear both the danger of toxic fertilizersand the advantages of nature farming, which can be called withoutexaggeration amajorrevolutionin Japanese agriculture. In what follows Idiscuss the results and methods evolved from my own experiences, andthe reports of a number of people who have put nature farming topractical application.

I suspect that very few people in Japan know what real vegetablestaste like because few crops in this country are raised without chemical ormanure fertilization. The inherent flavors are lacking in vegetables thathave absorbed such fertilizers. Vegetables that have absorbed naturalnutrients from the soil, however, develop their own truly deliciousflavors. I have found much more happiness in life since I carne toappreciate the taste of naturally cultivated vegetables. In fact, theadvantages of the nature farming method are só great that to apply itmightbecalledkilling seven birds with one stone: thecosts and labor offertilizing are eliminated; there is no unpleasant odor; there is nodanger of spreading parasites; insect pests are minimized; crops arelarge; and vegetables are delicious.

To begin with practical matters, I shall first discuss the nature ofsoil, which is a three-in-one unity of the three great elements of soil,water, and fire. The soil element provides the basic power for plantgrowth, while the water and fire elements are supplementary powers.The nature of the soil itself, which is the main driving force, can produceeither good or bad effects on plants. In cultivation, it is imperative toimprove the quality of the soil, which is the fundamental element. Thebetter the soil, the better the results.

The way to improve soil is to strengthen its vitality. To do this, thesoil quality must be cleansed and purified. Soil that hás been purified isrich in power for the raising of plants. Agricultural practices in the past,however, have polluted the soil to an extreme degree. This is bestunderstood by examining the opposite theory first.

Fertilizer hás from ancient times been considered essential to theraising of crops, but the reality is that the more it is used, the more itkills the soil. Fertilization may produce temporary good effects, but thesoil gradually becomes addicted to it and is unable to produce goodcrops without it. In other words, the more fertilizer is used, the more

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adverse its effects.When crops from paddy fields become poor, farmers haul in new soil

and temporarily increase their harvests. However, they interpret thisphenomenon mistakenly. They believe that repeated crops over anumber of years have exhausted the nutrients in the soil and made itpoor. What they never realize is that the soil hás degenerated because ofrepeated years of chemical and manure fertilization. The new soil theyintroduce is free of chemical and manure fertilizers and, therefore, richin life power. For this reason, it increases crops. But I will leavetheoretical discussion at this point and proceed to explain theadvantages of nature farming in practice.

First, I should mention the short height of plants raised the naturalway. Fertilized plants grow tall and have heavy foliage withlarge leavesthat shade and retard the growth of such crops as beans. Furthermore,frequent dropping of blooms greatly reduces the formation of fruit. Inthe case of green soybeans, a naturally cultivated crop will be twice asbig as a fertilized one and the beans will be free of insects and have amost delicious flavor. The skins of naturally cultivated string beans andbroad beans are incomparably tender.

Amateurs trying to raise potatoes often complain that their cropsare either small or none and that the individual potatoes themselves areof unsatisfactory size. Unaware that the cause of the trouble is too muchfertilizer, and operating under the mistaken notion that they havefertilized insufficiently, they apply increasing amounts of these harmfulsubstances, thus decreasing the results of their labor. When asked foradvice, instructors or experienced people totally miss the point bysaying that the seed potatoes must have been bad, that the acidity of thesoil is at fault, or that planting was done at the wrong time. The amateurhás no way of discovering the true cause of his poor crop. Potatoesraised by means of nature farming are extremely white and fragrant,have a firm texture, and are só delicious that they might be mistaken foranother kind of vegetable. The same thing is true of taro and yams.Naturally cultivated sweet potatoes raised in high furrows, well spaced ina place that gets plenty of sun are astonishingly big and delicious. Ihave heard, however, that most farmers use no fertilizers in raisingsweet potatoes.

The success of nature farming in raising corn aeserves specimmention. Since ali seed, not only that of corn, include the fertilizerpoison, crops are not as good as they might be for the first year or two. In

the third year, however, there is a remarkable improvement. Cornraised from seeds free of fertilizer poison in land also free of fertilizerpoison hás very thick stalks and flowing green leaves. If the ground iswell watered and gets plenty of sun, the stalks will bear plenty of earsthat are long and densely seeded in even rows. Once tasted, this sweet,delicious corn can never be forgotten. Daikon radishes raised thenatural way are large, pure-white, thick, and sweetly delicious and have afine, firm texture. It is fertilizer poison that causes the air pockets andhardness marring some daikon radishes. Naturally cultivated vegetables,which are never attacked by bugs, are tender, have attractive colors andstimulate the appetite because of their tempting fragrance. Since nomanure is used in growing them, they are of course completely sanitary.

Nature farming is especially recommended for the raising of eggplant. Grown this way, egg plants have tender skins, beautiful color andan appetizing fragrance. My own family refuses to eat egg plants thathave been raised with fertilizer.

In the nature farming of rice, chopped straw, which absorbs heat ismixed with the soil to provide greater warmth. As is generally known,cold mountain water is very bad for rice. Consequently, irrigation

ditches should be long and shallow to allow the temperature of the waterflowing through them to rise. No ponds should be dug along the course ofthe ditches since the depth of the water would make it slow to warm up.Nature farming of such things as squashes, melons, water melons, andpumpkins produces unprecedentedly good results.

Rice and wheat raised the natural way are short in stature andexcellent in both quantity and quality. Ordinary rice is extremely glossyand almost as dense in texture as glutinous rice. It hás such body and issó delicious that it is always rated as superior.

In brief then, these are some of the advantages of nature farming.Surely there hás never been better news than this in connection withhousehold vegetables. I and others like me produce top qualityvegetables by no more labor than is required to sow seeds andweed thefields from time to time.

Although, as I have said, there is no need for artificial or animalfertilizers, it is important to use large quantities of natural compost,which I shall now discuss. In stimulating plant growth it is of the greatestimportance to allow the root hairs at the ends of the larger roots todevelop. This means preventing the soil from compacting and

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hardening. If natural compost hás decomposed too much, it tends toharden easily; about half decomposed is best. Grassy plants are suitablefor compost since they decompose quickly. The hard fibers in tree leaves,however, linger for a long time. Consequently, such leaves shouldbeallowedto decompose thoroughly, since contact withthe hard fibersimpedes the growth of root hairs. Recently some people have arguedthat it is good to allow roots to come in contact with the air, but this is amistaken notion. If the soil is loose enough to aerate the roots, the roothairs have plenty of room to grow. This roominess is the reason whyplants grow well in such soil. Air hás nothing to do with the matter.

Warming the soil is another point that must be taken intocon-sideration. In general, for vegetable cultivation, a bed of grassycompost about one foot thick is made at a depth of about one foot. Forplants like daikon (turnip), carrots, and burdock, however, where the rootis the most desirable part, it is best to mix grassy compost well with the soiland make a bed of leafy compost underground. Recently, people havebeen concerned about the damage caused by soil acidity. Since the acid isthe result of artificial or animal f ertilizers, those of us who use the naturefarming system have no need to worry about this.

Another thing that amazes people about our way of growingvegetables is our success in planting the same crop in the same groundyear afteryear,* a practice that is generally considered unsound. With ourmethod, crops gradually improve as the years pass. This may seemmiraculous, yet there is a very good reason for it. The nature farmingmethod takes advantage of, and tries to reinforce, the powers inherent inthe soiL Planting the same crop on the same land, year in and year outenables that soil to naturally generate the properties needed for thecultivation of the particular kind of vegetable, to which it becomesaccustomed.

Though insect pests may not totally vanish when the nature farmingmethod is used, it does reduce them to a fraction of what they are whenfertilizers are employed. Farmers often say that too much fertilizerincreases the number of insects that plague the crops. I have hear d fromexperts that Manila and Havana tobaccos, which are used in the finestcigars and are famous for their superb aroma, are never

* "Planting the same crop in the same ground yearafteryear." Measures must be taken inconnection with the soil and other conditions to make this kind of cultivation successful.

troubled with insect pests, because the plants are never fertilized. Inparticular, there is the fact that insects do not damage weeds; and thespecial fragrance of the wild parsley and edible chrysanthemum pickedin the country in springtime is due to the fact that they have had nofertilizer.

It is important to make one point clear. For the f irst ye ar or two afterthe shift is made from fertilized agriculture to nature farming, resultswill be poor. This phenomenon occurs because the soil hás becomeaddicted to fertilizers. The situation is like that of the drinker, who, whendeniedalcohol, suffers aperiod of absent-mindedness; the smoker whobecomes lethargic when he stops smoking; or the morphine or cocaineaddict who cannot tolerate being denied drugs. It is imperative to bepatient and wait two or three years until the soil and seeds are freed ofthe fertilizer poison and the land can manifest its great powers.

This explanation of the principies behind nature farming shouldmake clear how mistaken the agricultural methods of the past havebeen. This is a matter unrelated to faith. A person can have no faith andstill produce revolutionary results by using natural composts instead ofartificial or animal fertilizers. But it is important to realize that, if thedivine spirit is used to purify the soil, the effectiveness of nature

farming will be even greater.July l, 1949

The Triumph of Nature Farming The Great Powers of the Soil

Principies of Nature FarmingThe basic principie of nature farming is to give full play to the great

powers inherent in the soil itself. Hitherto, people have not known — orperhaps it is better to say have not been told about — the true nature ofsoiL This gave rise to the idea that fertilizer is essential, and to analmost superstitious reliance on it. In the early stages, no matter howvigorously I advocated nature farming, people either would not listen atali or laughed at me. But gradually my efforts were repaid. In recent

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better than ordinary. When Harvest comes around, they will be•ttounded to see not only that their crops are big, but also that the grainli of high quality, lustrous, strongly adhesive, and delicious. Most of itwill be first or second grade, and practically none will be below thirdgrade. Moreover, the grain will be from five to ten percent heavier thanUsual and will be só dense that its volume will actually increase instead ofreduce in cooking. This means that a person's appetite can be•atisfied and will stay satisfied on one-third less than the usual amount ofsteamed rice. Thus, rice grown the natural way is highly economical. Ifeveryone in Japan ate rice raised according to our nature farmingmethod, consumption would drop by one-third. As long as currentamounts continue being produced, this could eliminate the need forimporting rice, and therefore have a splendid effect on the nationaleconomy.

Superstitions about FertilizersWith nature farming, the seedlings are weak and poor in color for the

first two or three months because fertilizer toxin remains in bothseedlings and the soil. As time passes, however, they rid themselves ofthese poisons, regain their own innate powers, and gradually improve.Farmers should be able to understand this because they can see howfields that have been in poor condition improve after heavy rains washout excessive fertilizers. Farmers are in error in believing that hauling innew soil improves crops from low-producing fields because nutrientshave been sapped from them by long use. The truth of the matter is thatthe soil hás become poor from many years of being artificially fertilized• só deeply affected are such farmers by a superstitious belief in theefficacy of fertilizers.

Merits of Natural CompostIn using natural compost for rice cultivation, rice straw should be

chopped as fine as possible and thoroughly mixed with the soil toproduce a warming effect. To soften soil for dry-field cultivation andthus to permit roots to grow and spread, allow dried leaves and grassesto decompose until soft, then mix this compost with the soil. Recently ithás been said that ground should be soft in order that air may penetrateto the roots. It is not that air is good for the roots, but if the soil is softenough to allow air passages, root growth will not be obstructed.

For the cultivation of plants whose roots do not penetrate deeply,

mixing grasses and leaves with the field soil is sufficient. Fordeep-rooted plants, on the other hand, a bed of tree leaves should bemade about thirty centimeters below ground levei. Such a bed warms thesoil. Since root-system depth varies considerably from plant to plant,the depth of the leaf bed must be adjusted to suit the needs of thegiven plant.

The uninitiated claim that composts of this kind contain fertilizingelements is untrue. They are employed to produce three effects; toprevent the soil from hardening, to warm the soil, and to retainmoisture around plant roots. Where the soil around crop roots tends todry, spreading of large amounts of natural compost keeps moisturein.

As the discussion só far should have made clear, nature farmingtakes advantage of the powers of the soilby avoidingthe introductionofsuch impurities as artificial fertilizers and by preserving soil purity.Doing this eliminates hindrances and enables soil to make the most ofits own essential qualities.

Interestingly, farmers err when they think it is necessary to allowsoiltorest. Soil improves the more crops are raised onit, just as human

beings become stronger the more they work and weaker the more theyrest. I feel very sorry for farmers who refuse to cultivate the same fields inconsecutive years because they believe this will drain it of nutrients.

Repeated Cultivation Means Bigger CropsOur natural system advocates repeated consecutive cultivation of

the same piece of land. For instance, for the past seven years we havebeen raising corn on a piece of gravelly land in Gora in Hakone thatwould take a prize for the most unlikely agricultural site. Nonetheless,the harvest this year is wonderfuL The ears are longer than usual anddensely packed with even rows of sweet, tender, delicious grains.Consecutive cropping means better harvests because the land naturallydevelops the qualities suited to the needs of the plants being raised on it,just as men who do heavy labor develop muscular bodies and men whoare engaged in intellectual pursuits develop clever minds. Similarly, ashuman beings who constantly change occupation and domicile areunlikely to succeed, só crop rotation is unlikely to result in abundantharvests. Seeing this makes clear how mistaken are the agriculturalpractices of the past

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Good News for SericultureSilk worms raised on leaves from mulberry trees cultivated in the

natural way suffer from no diseases and produce larger quantities ofstrong and lustrous threads. The profits that the implementation of thispolicy would bring to the sericulture world and to the entire nationaleconomy are immeasurable.

May 5, 1953

Principies of Nature Farming

A complete understanding of these principies is impossible on thebasis of established scientific thought and can be attained only throughexplanation on the basis of the spiritual science that hás been revealedto me. Consequently, the principies may be difficult to grasp at first.But a person who reads attentively what I have to say and reflects upon itis certain to understand. Anyone who finds it incomprehensible isprobably, quite unconsciously, caught up in the superstitions of science.The facts, more than anything else, show that what I say is absolutelytrue.

Actual results invalidate the apparentprogress of agriculture today,which, as is well known, is a combination of traditional and scientificmethods. Weak seedling stock and the plants' inability to surmountvarious natural disasters are the direct cause of the poor rice harvests oflast year. I am certain that most people would gasp if I told them thatfertilizer toxin is responsible for weakening seedling stock Farmershave considered fertilizers indispensable to crop raising and, owing totheir limited knowledge and scientific blindness, have been unable toperceive the harm they do. An important element in theirmisunder-standing lies in science itself. Science, though admirable inother fields, is not merely powerless as far as agriculture is concerned, it ismistaken. For example, through lack of understanding of the true natureof soil and the capabilities of fertilizers, science hás promoted artificialmethods and ignored the powers of nature. In spite of the united,long-term efforts of the government, leading farmers, and agricultural

specialists, the lack of true progress shows that, in the face of poor cropslikethose of last year, science is impotent and easily defeatedby nature.Japanese agriculture is up against an apparently impenetrable barrier.Happily, God hás revealed a natural system of cultivation which willbreak down that barrier.

The cause of present problems in agriculture is the lack ofknowledge of the nature of soil and the tendency to stress fertilizers,which are actually only auxiliary substances. What, after ali, is the pointof plants removed from the soil? After World War II, American soldiersstationed in Japan tried the hydroponic cultivation of plants. Althoughat first their efforts seemed to produce good results, it hás recently beenreported that the method is gradually being abandoned.

It is astounding that farmers have neglected the soil for such a longtime and have concentrated on fertilizers to provide nutrients for theraising of crops. The consequence of this policy is that the soil hásbecome debilitated and acid, as the disastrous crops of last year prove.Nothing can be só foolish as the way farmers have wasted labor andexpensive fertilizers to create the very conditions responsible for poorcrops.

Before examining its nature from the standpoint of spiritual

science, it is necessary to explain the significance of soil. The Creator,who made human beings, also made soil in which to grow the foodhumans require. Seeds sown in the soil germinate and put forth stalks,leaves, flowers, and finally fruit, which can be taken in at the happy time ofharvest. We should regard the soil, that wonderful technician thatproduces rice, with gratitude. Since it is the forces of nature that are atwork here, there is of course no more suitable subject for scientificstudy, yet in practice science hás made the great miscalculation ofrelying more on the power of human beings than on the power ofnature.

Natural power, or X, is generated by the union of sun, moon, andearth; that is, the fire, water, and soil elements. It is common knowledgethat at the center of the earth is a mass of fire, which is the energysource of ground heat. The spirit of this ground heat, which penetratesthe earth' s crust and fills ali space up to the stratosphere, is composedof spiritual and material aspects. Its material aspect is what sciencecalls nitrogen; its spiritual aspect is as yet unknown to science. The fireelement, which is radiated from the sun, hás spiritual and materialaspects. The material aspect is light and heat; the spiritual

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aspect is also as yet unknown. The water element, which is radiatedfrom the moon, hás a material aspect — water itself — and a stillundiscovered spiritual aspect. X is now the result of the unification ofthe three undiscovered, spiritual aspects of these elements. Thoughapparently nonexistent, this X is existence itself. It is the source of life ofali things. It follows that, since the growth of agricultural crops isequally its doing, itis, in itself, an unlimited fertilizer. To recognize itspower and to cherish and respect the soil is the true, the only agriculturebecause this allows the soil to manifest its capabilities to an amazingdegree. Puttingthis method into practice is the fundamental solution tothe problem.

Another important point is the prevailing belief that only animatebeings are capable of such reflections of will and thought such as reasonand emotion. No doubt the idea that inanimate things are also capableof these things would surprise many people. Yet it is true of inanimatethings, including the soil and crops. Respecting and cherishing the soilenables it to manifest its capabilities fully. Keeping soil clean and freefrom pollution makes it happy and active. The difference between thewill and thought of animate and inanimate phenomena hás to do withfreedom; whereas animais are free and active, soil and rice plants arebound and static. If farmers wish for bumper crops in a spirit ofgratitude to soil and rice plants, their attitude will be communicated,and their wish will be answered. It is science's greatest mistake toassume that anything invisible and intangible does not exist.

January 27, 1954

The Great Agricultural Revolution

iOver a decade ago, I discovered that it is possible to produce large

agricultural crops by means of the nature farming method, which addsonly leaf and grass composts to the soil and uses no artificial fertilizersor animal manure at ali. At the time, however, few farmers would lend anear to what I had to say, no matter how hard I tried to convince them. Ihave continued unfalteringly to the present not just because from the

outset I have known that my beleif is absolutely true, but also because Iam convinced that the nature farming method is the only way to save thefarming population, and is thus deeply connected with the fate of thewhole nation. Portunately or unfortunately, the grave situation that Ianticipated with such concern hás now come about. I am painfully aware ofthe need to win the understanding of both the farmers and the generalJapanese population. I am gradually perceiving hopeful signs in theoutiook for the nature farming method.

The fact that I am a religious leader is helpful here becausemembers of our faith believe what I say and put it into practice, eventhough they cannot explain it. This hás. produced relatively quickresults, and won many sympathizers. Recently, even ordinary farmerswho are not members of our faith have gradually started payingattention to our method.

Before going into a detailed explanation of the principies wherebythis agricultural method is able to ensure large crops by adding nothingto the soil but natural compost, I should like to explain its effects. It isstartling in the way it reduces costs and labor; there is no need to pay forfertilizers; insect damage is reduced to a fraction of what it is in ordinary

cultivation systems, and damage from wind and storm is halved. Thismeans that labor too is cut by half. I have been speaking of ricecultivation, but the method hás the same effects with other crops aswell. One example of the wonderful success it hás with ali kinds ofvegetables is the immense size of sweet potatoes raised this way. Beancrops too are greater, and individual beans are bigger. Radishes arewhiter, finer in texture, crisper, and much more delicious. Othervegetables also have excellent flavor and color, are tender, and are notattacked by insect pests. I have no space to enumerate them ali, but anastonishing list of other vegetables — including corn, pumpkins, andwatermelons — benefit from this system in the same way.

The wonderful flavors of foodstuffs raised by nature farmingdeserve special mention. No one who hás tasted grains or vegetablesgrown in this way hás any desire to eat those raised with fertilizers. Imyself eat only foods raised without fertilizers, and farmers followingthis system have increased to the extent that I receive more vegetablesthan I can eat. People are grateful to find that abandoning the use offertilizers can increase the harvests and the quality of fruits. Flowersgrown the natural way have larger blossoms and brighter color and lastlonger in ikebana arrangements.

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Nature farming drastically reduces insect pests, which emerge becauseof the use of artificial fertilizers. The folly of the current reliance onchemical insecticides and germicides is greatly to be lamented, since thesesubstances sink into the soil and actually stimulate the developmentofmore insects. Furthermore, plants grown according to the natural systemsuffer much less than others from the wind and storm damage that hás beenoccurring almost yearly in recent times. Plants are greatly weakened byabsorbing artificial fertilizers. I have discovered that chemical fertilizersand animal manure become toxic when absorbed by crops. The resultantpoison becomes both nourishment and a stimulus to reproduction on thepart of insects. Fertilizers give rise to minute insects which eat the plantsthemselves. If they develop in the roots, they weaken the plant by ravagingthe root hairs. In addition, they can cause leaves to wither, stalks to break,flowers to drop, and fruit to fail to ripen. They cause withering inpotatoes. When these minute insects develop in áreas other than the roots,healthy plants have the strength to destroy them. But when plants aredebilitated because of fertilizers, they fali victim to the pests. In winds andstorms too, plants raised the natural way are tough and resilient enough tostand again even when blown down. Plants raised in the ordinary way,however, are ruined if blown down in this way, and an examination of theroots tells why. The root hairs of plants raised the natural way are muchmore numerous and longer than those of fertilizer-grown plants, and rootspread is better. As ali farmers know, plants that are low and have shortleaves bear more grain or fruit. Nature farming results in plants with shortleaves, whereas those raised on fertilizers are tall and have large, long leaves.Though they look good, such plants bear surprisingly little fruit.

Since they suffer from no sicknesses, silkworms raised on leaves fromnaturally grown mulberry trees are extremely healthy and produce morehigh-quality threads that are both tough and lustrous.

In short, ali crops raised the natural way are incomparably betterthan those raised with fertilizers. The important thing to understand in thisconnection is the capability of the soil itself. Because the Creator madesoil to grow the crops needed by humans and animais, it contains in itselfmore than enough fertilizing material. In short, it is, in itself, fertilizer.Ignorantof this fact, human beings have greatly weakened the soil byapplying artificial fertilizers as if they were plant nourishment. This is anastonishing error since, to increase crop production, what is

really necessary is to increase the strength of the soil. To ensurethe finest results, it is necessary to keep the soil puré by mixing noimpurities with it and adding nothing but natural composts.

The fundamental theory of nature farming is respect for nature. Asthe generation and growth of ali things in the world illustrate, there isnothing that does not depend on the power of nature: that is, the threebasic elements of fire, water, and soil, as manifest in the sun, themoon, and the planet earth. Given plenty of sun, ample water, and purésoil, plants will produce more than human beings require. The leavesthat fali in abundance and cover the earth each autumn are the trueenrichment of the soil, Nature is teaching us to use them to improve thesoil. Cultivators are mistaken, however, if they think natural compostsare used as nutrition for the soil. Their true purposes are to absorbmoisture andthus to prevent drying, to supply warmth, and to keep the

soil from hardening.Thus the best thing to do for rice cultivation is to chop rice straw

as fine as possible and mix it with soil in a kneading fashion. Sincerice straw is produce d by the rice plant, it hás a warming effect on theroots. In vegetable cultivation, dried fallen leaves and grassesshould be mixed with the soil; the usual proximity of wooded áreas to

fields will

encourage their use.The centerof the earthisamassof fire ceaselessly radiating ground

heat — that is, the spirit of soil — in the form of nitrogen. AGod-provided fertilizer, it penetrates the earth's crust and rises toaccumulate at a certain height above the planet. It is then brought backto earth in rainfall to permeate the soil. This natural nitrogen fertilizerdescends from the heavens in exactly the required amounts.

During World War I, when the Germans were experiencing foodshortages and were forced to increase crop production rapidly, theydiscovered that nitrogen could be taken from the air and used asfertilizer. Since then, the practice of using this chemical hás spread aliover the world. But its temporary good effect cannot last. Ultimately thesoil is weakened by oversaturation with nitrogen, and its productivepower drops; despite this, people, like drug addicts, have becomeaddicted to the practice and thus overlook the real cause of the

trouble.It must be remembered that the amount of fertilizer toxin persisting in

soil and seeds even after the change to nature farming hás been madegreatly influences crops. In wet-field rice cultivation, some farmers may

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expec t a ten- percent increase for the first year, but others may witness aten- or twenty-percent decrease for the first year or two. The ten- ortwenty-percent increase will take place finally in the third year. Verypoor crop results after the change mean that a great deal of artificialfertilizer remains. In such cases, it is wise to haul in fresh soil fromelsewhere to neutralize its effects.

Rice plants absorb such highly poisonous substances as ammoniumsulfate when these are used in chemical fertilizers. Consequently, peoplefor whom rice from those plants is a dietary staple take the poison intotheir bodies three times daily, albeit in infinitesimal amounta Naturally,this hás an insidious harmful effect It is conceivable that the high rate ofillness today is caused by such poison intake.

In conclusion, I would like to summarize the economic effects of thenature farming method.1. The cost of fertilizers is saved.2. Labor is halved.3. Crops are greatly increased.4. Grain volume increases só that there is no loss in cooking, and the

grain is delicious.5. Insect damage is minimized.6. The danger of ascarids and other parasites, a topic of major

concern today, is eliminated entirely.This explanation hás shown how revolutionary the nature farming

method is. To implement it would immediately solve more than the foodproblems; by ensuring adequate nutrition, it would also have salutaryeffects on human health. If implemented throughout the nation, thesystem would accelerate the rebuilding of Japan, which would withoutdoubt earn the respect of the whole world for the high levei of itscivilization. It is for these reasons, and to bring this method to the largestpossible number of Japanese readers, that I have compiled this specialedition.

Finally, I should say that I have absolutely no intention of using this material as religious publicity. The results of the nature farming system willbe the same for people who do not share our faith. II

Last year the season was unfortunately short, and no harvest waspossible in some áreas. However, after considering the reports fromvarious regions, I can understand what happened, and will give my

opinion of the situation here.At first, family members and f ellow villagers are likely to criticize or

ridicule those who adopt the nature farming system, since it rejects thefertilizers that have always been considered the source of crop life.Reading accounts of the preseverence in the face of setbacks of thefarmers trying the system brought tears to my eyes and filled my heartwith joy at the wonders faith can do. Nor is it surprising that peoplewhose ancestors have for generations adhered to superstitious belief infertilizers should object to the nature farming method. One recalls how,throughout history, inventions and discoveries, even those that are nowmaking the greatest contributions to humanity, were at first objects ofmisunderstanding and persecution, and the many records telling howthey triumphed over suffering and hardship cannot fail to move usdeeply today.

I was prepared for the nature farming method to meet with greatinitial opposition, but f elt that the period of patient perseverance wouldbe limited since our system actually produces astonishing results. Fromreports gathered só far I see that, as predicted, our methods are finallycapturing the attention of people in many fields. Nonetheless, externaiconditions are bad, and, since he is not entirely certain that method will

succeed, the farmer who decides to employ it does só fearfully and only asan experiment Furthermore, since soil and seeds are still permeated withfertilizer toxin, the plants are soyellowandscrawny inthe first year that thefarmer fears they will dry up entirely and in his anxiety turns to God inprayer. Thus everyone who hás tried the system confesses to a feeling ofgreat relief when harvests turn out to be surprisingly good. It is byovercoming the initial period of hardship that the crown of victory

is won.May 5, 1953

Insect Pests

The three greatest burdens on the agricultural community in recenttimes have been the high cost of fertilizers, insect pests, and damagefrom wind and storm. I have already dealt adequately with the topic of

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fertilizer, and would now like to speak in detail about insect pests.Harmful insects breed because of fertilizers, which pollute the soil,cause it to degenerate, and weaken its potiential. At the same time, theimpurities introduced by the fertilizers remain. Ali kinds of matterdecomposing in the polluted places encourage insects and bactéria. Theseveral varieties of fertilizers are responsible for the varieties of insectsthat breed because of their presence, and the new kinds of insect pests thathave emerged recently are the results of the production of new kinds offertilizers.

One should emphasize here the grave wrong committed by peoplewho use chemical insecticides to rid themselves of crop pests. Thesesubstances, which are toxic enough to kill insects, permeate and ruin thesoil. Soil polluted with chemical insecticides adds yet another poison tothe fertilizer toxin already absorbed by plants grown in it. The soilweakens and, like human beings, loses its powers of resistance, with theresult that insect pests proliferate. This kind of vicious circle is a goodexample of howmistakenagriculturalpractices have been in the past.

Obviously, the health of people who eat rice raised with the highlytoxic fertilizer, ammonium sulfate, will be adversely affected, sincetheir blood will be clouded. Even though individual dosages are verysmall, eating such contaminated rice three times daily ali year roundcauses a large accumulation of toxin, which becomes the fundamentalcause of ali kinds of illnesses.

January 15, 1951

the damage is the most that can be expected at the present time are amazed at the way plants raised according to our nature farming method withstand wind and storm. Their root spread, for instance, is good, and stalk breakage is only a fraction of what it is with fertilizer-grown crops. Flowers do not drop, and rice does not rot even after rain. Indeed, in comparison with fields of rice raised with fertilizers, fields cultivated thenatural way seem to suffer no storm damage at ali. Examination shows that plants raised without fertilizers have many more hair roots and muchstronger root spreads than plants raised with fertilizers, and are consequently as strong and healthy as human beings fed on a plentiful diet of wholesome, toxin-free foods. Farmers always welcome plants — not just grains, but ali other crop plants as well — that are low and have

small foliage, since they bear better. This accords exactly with the results of my own method, and serves to show how superior it is. People of experience are unanimous, moreover, in praising the excellent quality and flavor of the crops. Crops of plants raised with fertilizers, on the other hand, are less satisfactory because too much nourishment goes to their leaves, which flourish to the detriment of the fruit or grain. Offshoots from rice raised the natural way are extremely numerous. The record at present is an amazing one hundred and fifty shoots, producing fifteen thousand grains, from one rice seed. Furthermore, naturally cultivated rice straw is of very high quality and is strong enough to be used in many ways.

January 15, 7957

Damage from Typhoons and Floods

Both the governmental and the private sectors are anxious to dosomething to prevent the ever-increasing crop damage caused bytyphoons and floods. Proper preventive measures would requireenormous expenditure, and for the moment one hás to be content withstopgaps. Nevertheless, só long as great losses are incurred each year,action of some kind must be taken. Those who accept that to minimize

Raising Tangerines for Forty Years Through Nature Farming

Not long ago, a member of our organization gave me tangerines from atree he hás been cultivating for forty years without the use of fertilizers. Iate some at once and can say I have never found anything só delicious.Fellowbelievers often give me naturally cultivated fruits and vegetablesthat, though certainly more delicious than those raised with fertilizers, arestill not one-hundred percent as good as they should be.

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This is because some fertilizer toxin remains in their seeds or in the soilin which they are grown. It takes more than four or five years toeradicate this toxin and allow true flavors to emerge.

Eating the tangerines made me think of the effects our cultivationmethod could have on the economy. If naturally grown fruits andvegetables were marketed, their delicious flavors would soon win theman enormous following, and there is no telling how great sales might be.In addition, they could be exported abroad, bringing in unprecedentedamounts of money, to the great advantage of the national economy.

Recently, many stores have started selling so-called sanitaryvegetables raised with chemical fertilizers but without human manure. It istrue that this system eliminates the danger of internai parasites, but thevegetables themselves are inferior in f lavor. Consequently, experiencedmembers of our organization could make plenty of money sellingvegetables and fruits raised our way, without fertilizers of any kind.Aside from making money, such action would publicize nature farming,and I would like our members to start doing this at once.

DecemberS, 1951

Home Vegetable Gardens

Só f ar, I have directed my explanations largely at people who farmfor a living, but I would like to conclude with some words on thedomestic garden.

With nature farming, the method is clean and sanitary, and crops aresurprisingly good, abundant, and flavorful. There is no need to worryabout damage from insects and there is no danger of internai parasites.Leaf color and stalk forni are much better than in plants raised withfertilizers. A home gardener who adopts the nature farming methodfinds his daily garden chores enjoyable rather than trying as in thepast.

Amateur gardeners have often complained that their potatoes didnot produce well or that the potatoes were small. They have spoken offlowers dropping from tomatoes and eggplants or of daikon (turnips)riddled with holes. Other constant complaints include cucumbers that

wither because of root worms, or pickling greens with practically noundamaged leaves. The home gardener, unaware that these cropfailings have been caused by use of fertilizers, hás assumed that he hásbeen fertilizing too little and hás increased the amounts, thereby furtherdamaging his produce. Puzzled, he hás turned to the specialist for help.The specialist hás been unable to give a satisfactory answer, for he toois superstitiously convinced of the importance of fertilizers, and thenumber of people troubled and perplexed by the situation hás increasedgreatly. If ali these people only knew of the nature farming system, theywould experience a quite extraordinary sense of relief.

January 15, 1951

The Great Agricultural Revolution Clean and Enjoyable Home Gardens

I would now like to explain the system mainly for the benefit of thehome gardener.

Readers of Chijo Tengoku and of this paper will already be aware ofthe wonderful results farmers achieve by growing crops withoutfertilizers. The same system can be a light in the darkness for the homegardener as well. In addition, it provides the double advantage of cropsbetter than those possible with fertilizer, and of reduced labor. Forreference, I will enumerate here the most important of the manybenefits of the system.1. Since only natural leaf and grass composts are required, there is no need to deal with animal manure. Labor is reduced.2. Ali vegetables are of better quality and much more delicious than those raised with fertilizers.3. Individual fruits and vegetables are larger and crop quantities are greater.4. Insect damage is reduced to a fraction of that experienced with fertilizers, and there is obviously no need for insecticides.5. Plants raised without human manure cannot carry ascarids or other internai parasites.

Since most home gardeners raise vegetables rather than grains on

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the ir limited plots of land, I shall now discuss some of the experimentswe have already completed on vegetable cultivation.

Amateur gardeners often complain that their potatoes bear poorlyand are small. These difficulties, which are caused by fertilizers, do notexist in nature farming, which makes it possible to produce large cropsof pure-white, dense, subtly flavored, and appetizing potatoes.

Corn stalks are thick, and the leaves are long and bright green. It ispossible to tell ata glance that they are largerthan usual ones. The earsare long and thick, and heavy with densely packed, orderly rows oftender, sweet kernels.

Daikon (turnips) are longer and thicker than usual They have a fine,crisp texture, are extremely delicious, and completely lack the holesand hard places só often caused by fertilizers.

Ali the leafy plants used in Japan for pickles, spinach, Kyona(Japanese cabbage), Chinese cabbage, and cabbage turn out subtlyflavored, tender, large, and appetizing. Lastyear, an amateur gardenershowed me three heads of Chinese cabbage he had raised, each weighingroughly six kilograms. They were the largest I have ever seen.

Ali bean crops are better with nature farming, but green soybeansare especially noteworthy. The plants have short branches and smallleaves and produce twice as many beans as plants raised with fertilizers.Each pod usually contains four beans; almost none contains only one.

Tempting to see and delicious to eat, eggplants have good color,tender skins, and strong flavor. Anyone who hás eaten them raised thenatural way will never want eggplants produced with fertilizers again. Ishall not discuss them in detail here, but scallions, onions, tomatoes,pumpkins, and ali the melons are also outstanding when cultivatedwithout fertilizers. The smooth texture and delicious tasteof pumpkinsgrown this way, however, deserve special mention. Yams raisedaccording to the nature farming system are exceptionally large, andgrow even larger if they are allowed to remain in the ground somewhatlonger than usual.

Fruits raised the natural way, especially citrus fruits, persimmons,and peaches, are much more delicious than those raised with fertilizers.

Natural composts, which are essential in nature farming, are of twokinds: grass and tree leaves. Grass is suitable for mixing with the soil;leaves are used to make bedlike layers under the soil.

l shall now explain the effects and principie of cultivation withoutfertilizers and the difference between it and ordinary methods.Originally, the Creator made soil for raising vegetable foods; as such itis a subtle substance of mystic properties. Taking full advantage of itspowers is in keeping with soil's essential function. Not realizing this,however, at some period in the past people made the mistaken decision toemploy fertilizers, which killed the soil by destroying its vitality.Attempting to rectify the situation by using still more fertilizers, theycaused plants to become addictedto these outside substances. The soil ofJapan is now said to be poor. This is because of the use of fertilizers, andthe chemical fertilizers that have recently come into use haveaggravated matters. To prove this, one hás only to examine the case ofrice cultivation. Whenrice crops decrease, farmers attemptto stimulatebetter growth by hauling into their paddy fields soil from other áreas.They do this in the belief that importation of virgin soil will restore thenutrients that long periods of cultivation have depleted. They are totallymistaken; the truth is that long application of artificial fertilizers andanimal manure hás destroyed the soü"s vitality. The importation of soilfree of fertilizer toxin restores it.

The purpose of composts is to keep the soil soft and warm. Rootsmustbe able to spread well if plants are to grow strong and vigorous, sóthe soil must not be allowed to become packed hard. Thoroughly mixinggrassy composts with the soil prevents such hardening. Grassycomposts, which have tender fibers, permit the growth of root hairs atthe endsof plantroots. Tree leaves, onthe other hand, have tough fibersand should not be mixed with the soil. Instead, they should be used toforni bed layers for keeping the soil warm. Ideally there should be a layer about 30 cm thick of soil mixed with grassy compost and below it a layerof tree leaves about 30 cm thick. This arrangement is good for alivegetables and beans. For crops of long-root vegetables like daikon(turnips), carrots, or burdock, adjustments in layer thicknesses must bemade. Furrows of maximum height provide the roots with amplesunlight and growth is excellent. Yams planted at intervals of about 30cm in furrows about 60 cm tall reach astonishing sizes.

Furrow orientation — east and west or north and south — must bedetermined on the basis of natural lighting and prevailing winddirections. To prevent strong winds from breaking stalks and scatteringthe ridges of earth, it is always wise to build suitable fences or planttrees as windbreaks.

March 30, 1949

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Ali things — not just animais but plants and minerais as well— breathe. In fact, the planet earth itself breathes, as I shall nowexplain.

Earth breathes once a year. Exhalation begins in the springand reaches its clímax in the summer. The exhaled breath of theearth, like that of human beings, is warm. It results from theemanation of ground heat and grows more intense in spring, whenali things begin to grow. The grasses and trees come into bud first ofali, ali things reachupward, and man himself f eels a lifting of theheart. As summer approaches, the vegetation flourishes increasinglytill a kind of peak is reached, when the earth itself begins tobreathe in. At this point, plants and trees wither, and ali thingsgo into a state of decline. Human beings too become cool and calm.As this course of development moves toward the opposite polé, wintersets in. In this natural cycle, the earth exhales its spiritual ether—nitrogen, in scientific terms— whichenables plants to grow. Nitrogenconstantly rises, collects at the upper limits of air, then is returned toearth again with the falling rain. This is natural nitrogenfertilization. It is an error to take nitrogen from the air and use itartificially as fertilizer. At first, this increases crops, but ifnitrogen fertilization is continued for a long time, the soilbecomes poor as a result of nitrogen addictioa In other words,oversaturation of nitrogen dulls the soil's vigor. During WorldWar I, the Germans invented nitrogen fertilizer in order to increasecrops. They were able to achieve their wartime aims with its use, butsuch fertilization should have been abandoned with the return ofpeace.

Incidentally, sun spots, for which there have long been variousexplanations, represent in fact the breathing of the sun. Everyeleven years, when the spots are said to increase, the sun reaches theend of its exhalation phase. Though it is usually said that the light ofthe moon is a reflection of the light of the sun, the burning of thesun might also be seen as caused by the moon's water element Thewaxing and waning of the moon, which take twenty-eight days tocomplete, represent that bod/s respiratory activity.

September 5, 1948

The Earth Breathes

CONCLUSION

Conclusion

In this book, besides providing a solution to the problem of health,the fundamental source of human happiness, and discussing thepossibility of creating a world without illness, I have dealt with ways toeliminate poverty and strife. I also explain that the spiritual world,being the source of ali things, is where true solutions to ali problemsmust be worked out. By avoiding theory and concentrating on actualexperience and examples, I think I have enabled the reader tounderstand the basic concepts of my philosophy and to find a certainamount of hope and tranquility.

As the book makes clear, my true purpose is to save as many of theworld's twobillionpeople aspossible ata time whentheunprecedentedshift from the old world of night to the new world of day threatensmassive destruction. I feel sure that my readers will give theirwholehearted assent to this aim. In addition, while suggesting arevolution in the field of medicai science, I have attempted a blueprintfor the realization of a heaven on earth in the new world to come.

My ideas must be put into practice in a realm that is not exclusivelyscientific nor religious but a combination of both and that also relates topolitics, económica, education, morality, and art. I foresee the imminentbirth of a new culture in which ali the useless elements from the culture ofnight will be destroyed while ali that is still useful will be preserved. Therecent idea of a world federation is a manifestation of the new world I havein mind.

In that world, my new ideas for cultural activities in religion,politics, economics, education, and art will at last be made known. Likeour medicine, they will be something mankind hás never known before.For the creation of a heaven on earth, an unprecedented undertaking,unprecedented concepts must be established. Christ urged his followersto repent because the kingdom of heaven was at hand. The Buddha saidthat, after his own death, the world of the Bodhisattva Maitreya wouldcome into being. At present, the entire planet is experiencing the birthpangs of a new world.

February 5, 1947

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APPENDIX

APPENDIX

Address by the Founder of the Sekai Kyusei Kyo Delivered at the Hibiya Public Hall, Tokyo

What I am about to say is very unusual and unlike the things otherpeople say. But what would be the sense in my coming ali the way herefrom Atami just to say the same things as others?

People are fond of calling our time an age of culture — an age inwhich culture hás made great advances. Such remarks represent aconfusion of culture and civilization. The two are very different. Acivilized world is an ideal one completely free from barbarity. Culture isthe stage between barbarity and the attainment of civilization. Mentoday are infatuated with the chimera "culture," convinced that whatthey have now is either fine in itself or can result in a good world iffurther improved and developed. Actually, however, the world today isvery different from what I mean by a civilized world.

In the simplest terms, civilization is a state in which life is safe, inwhich the safety of human life is ensured. However, the world today isperilous and frightening, threatening a last judgment in the forni ofatomic and bacteriological bombs or the like. Ours is a time of culture, notcivilization, since the safety of life is threatened. We live in an age oftransition between barbarity and civilization. What, then, is civilization?

War and illness are the greatest threats to life. Consequently, a trulycivilized world is one totally free of these two threats; one in which thesafety of life is completely guaranteed. Since it is now imperative tomove toward that civilization, the Sekai Kyusei Kyo hás adopted as itsgoal the creation of a world free of illness, poverty, and conflict — warbeing, simply, conflict on a grand scale.

Illness, which is the source of ali three of these evils is both physical— something that hurts or causes discomfort — and mental Withoutcuring such physical ülnesses as tuberculosis, contagious diseases, anddysentery — which are said to be unusually common this year — it will beimpossible to achieve a civilized world, even in hundreds or thousandsof years.

As personal histories show, the roots of poverty lie in physicalsickness. A person loses or is unable to find employment because ofbodily illness and is therefore forced to bear the double hardship ofphysical suffering and loss of income. This in turn hás a negative effect onfamily, relatives, and friends.

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Psychological illness is the cause of war. The people who initiatehostilities — history calls them great men and heroes — possess greatpower and brains but suffer from a kind of psychological sickness.

In short, we must eliminate both mental and physical sickness for thesake of creating a true civilization. In theory at any rate, it is assumedthat medicai science can cure physical illness — members of themedicai prof ession are doing their best in that direction — and that onlyreligion can cure psychological illness. Doubt persists however, aboutthe very possibility of cures. In fact, only Johrei can heal the mind andthe body and thereby enable us to create a civilized world.

Seeing humanity and the whole world today as barbarous in theworst sense, I fear modern warfare much more than I would have fearedfighting in some so-called "barbárie" age. People today are dazzled bythe cultured — or "civilized," as they say — surface of a society that isbarbarian — at best semicivilized — in its essential nature. It is as ifthey were admiring the beauty of a woman who is wearing fine clothingbut who is actually a mass of syphilis and suppuration.

Sekai Kyusei Kyo is not a religion. If religion were capable of solvingour problems, solutions would have been found long ago. Throughouthistory, religious leaders, founders of faiths, philosophers, and moralistshave purported to solve issues, make progress, and put things right.Humanity hás reacted toward them with the same unquestioning trustshown by a tattooed, naked savage to a witch doctor. But the failure ofali the religionists' efforts to ensure the safety of life points to their lackof power. They have been able to bring the barbarians to a state ofculture but are impotent to take them further to a state of civilization.

Mankind hás made many wonderful discoveries and hás inventedmany splendid things but hás used them in wrong ways. The discovery ofatomic energy is an illustration of my meaning. Used correctly thisdiscovery would make it possible to operate a train or automobile fordays on an energy source no larger than the tip of a finger. Instead ofputting it to such good uses, however, human beings created the atomicbomb, which as we know, is capable of killing millions of people. Theairplane, a fast and convenient means of transportation hás beenconverte d into a dreadful machine carrying deadly bombs.

Although science hás advanced só far, yet lacking the essentialquality, it hás been put to wrong uses that cause humanity sufferingandhardship. If only the soul is altered, however, these things can be put to

good uses and employed in the creation of a splendid world Christurged people to repent because the kingdom of heaven was at hand.Shakyamuni predicted that, after his death, the realm of the BodhisattvaMaitreya would come into being. As I see things, it would have beenbetter if Christ, for example, had talked less of the kingdom of heaven' sbeing at hand and more about creating a kingdom of heaven; but inpractice the world at that stage was not ready for such things.

In those days, culture had not advanced to the stage where thecreation of true civilization was possible. What they said was thereforeright for their time. By now, however, material culture hás advanced sómuch that the world hás become almost completely one. What I amsaying can be heard in ali corners of the globe. I could board an airplaneand after a single nighfs sleep, be in America The physical conditionsfor the creation of a civilized world are nearly fulfilled, but our souls stillhave not developed to the point where we are ready to put ourknowledge and skills to good uses. We must tell ali men of this situationand help them develop the right kind of soul. As the members of ourorganization know well, I am constantly writing with the aim of tellingpeople these truths.

In addition to carrying this message to others, I am engaged inJohrei, which is a method of curing illness and of healing the evil — insimpler terms, barbarity — in the soul. The soul itself cannot beremoved, since human beings cannot live without souls. Johrei,therefore, alters its way of thinking by dissolving evil elements andincreasing the number of good elements. Ali people who have undergonethis experience feel a desire — a compulsion — to do good.

As I often tell members of our organization, people today f requentlywantto do wrong. Evenwhen they do not have this positive longing, theyfeel that doing good is foolish and that to be open and frank somehowlowers their dignity; thus, they prefer to put up a good front and looksmart. In fact, their attitude is the reverse of the correct one, thoughmany years ago even I myself did not realize this. I too thought it wasclever to get ahead in the world by doing flashy things. As I carne toknow God through faith, I saw I was wrong. From then on, I found myselfconcentrating on looking for something, anything, that would be goodfor others. By "good" here, I mean anything that makes people happy,makes them feel good, pleases them, gives them satisfaction. From that

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point on, things began to go better for me. In short, when one begins tolook at things in this way — i t's not a matter of faith at this stage — onediscovers that things are going increasingly well and that one is findingincreasing happiness. Só I felt a sudden desire to let other people knowabout it. The more I experienced this practical truth, the more I carne torealize that God and the devil really exist, and from that time on I wassubjected, little by little, to ali kinds of what I might call training in faith.And ali kinds of miracles and the like convinced me quite plainly that Ihad an extremely important mission to fulfill. And that is how I carne toform the Sekai Kyusei Kyo and to start the activities in which I am stillengaged.

Many sages and men of religion have dealt with the topic of a finaljudgment for humanity — Jesus Christ spoke of the last judgment andthe Buddha mentioned a world that would come into being after his owndeath. It is often thought that this final judgment will be a kind of courtsession, not in hell, but in the actual world, presided over by someonelike the Buddhist Yama, king of the spiritual world. This is not true.

The spiritual realm, to put it simply, consists of three realms for alibeings: the physical, tangible, visible world of ordinary experience; theinner spiritual realm; and the realm of air, which is intermediate to theother two. In general, humanity understands the physical realm and therealm of air but not the spiritual realm. In other words, there are threestages comparable to the three stages of human history from thebarbárie age, to the age of culture, and then to the age of civilization.

In addition, the world undergoes alternating phases of light anddarkness. The most common of these is the twenty-four-hour cycle of dayand night In the yearly cycle, winter, when the rays of the sun are theweakest, is the period of dark, and summer, when those rays arestrongest, the period of light. Moreover there are ten-year andone-hundred-year periods of light and dark manifested as ages ofpeace followed by dark ages. This too is a kind of rhythm. There aresimilar alternating stages lasting a thousand years and ten thousandyears. We have long been in an age of dark but are now about to enteran age of light, of civilization (the second of the two characters used towrite the Japanese word for civilization, "bummei," means "bright").When the transition from dark to light is made, things of darkness thathave no place in the culture of light must be gotten rid of. There will bemany of

them, like the electric light that is useless in the daytime; they will have tob e destroyed.

The "Last Judgment" means differentiating between what will beuseful and what will be useless when the break between day and nightoccurs, useless things must be either put away or destroyed, and new,useful things must be created.

Human beings themselves also consist of a physical being, aspiritual being, and an intermediate water or water-vapor beingcorresponding to the realm of air. The human body contains a largeamount of liquid. The spiritual being, or soul, belongs to the spiritualrealm. As the spiritual world becomes light, the spiritual beings ofhumans must become correspondingly light. This means that whatevercloudiness is in them must be removed; this must be accomplished bymeans of a natural process of purification replacing the unclean with theclean. But the cleansing process will involve suffering since, as our faithteaches, purification is the principie source of illness.

In the past, people have not known or have ignored the strength ofthe operation of the spirit — the souL For example, the day beforeyesterday, I happened to think of a person I had not seen for a year.Then, yesterday, he carne to see me.

Such communication takes place along what are called spiritualcords, whose operations are most interestingly observed in af fairs of theheart It is not my purpose to discuss such things here, but it does seemthat when one comes to believe, one begins to understand this kind ofcommunication, which helps one to understand better the nature of,and the prospects, for a love affair among other things. This is no lightmatter. Foreseeing ali kinds of development in society by means of thespirit and spiritual cords can prevent tragedy and social eviL Butenough of such matters for the moment. . . .

Where moderate sickness is enough to remove cloudiness and inakethe spirit conform to the environment of light, ali is well. But if thecloudiness is very great, the illness required to eliminate it may be sógrave that the person dies. Illnesses that come in small doses may betolerated, but when ali the sickness required for purification comes atonce, the burden may be too crushing. The final judgment, when thespiritual realm becomes totally bright, will suddenly inflict this kind ofintolerable burden on many people. God in his mercy is taking pity onthem at present and trying to help them by letting them know what isimminent. Thus he commanded me to make these things known.

Whereas Christ and Shakyamuni prophesied the coming of a betterworld, I proclaim now the need for us to make it ourselves and to createon earth a heaven free of illness, poverty, and conflict. God háscommanded me that we should make it.

In fact, God hás already done ali the preparations. I do not need towork myself to death in actual acts of creation: ali I need to do is to dealwith phenomena as they present themselves. This is easy, yet imposes onme a responsibility greater than anything humanity hás ever knownbefore. Carrying it out will make the prophecies of the great men of thepast come true. If they failed to come true, the prophets who made themwould be liars, and great men like Christ and the Buddha were not liars.Therefore, someone must make their prophecies come true, and I havebeen selected for the task. Until now, I have never spoken of thisimmense and awesome responsibility; but today, for the first time infront of a large assembly, I make this statement because the time ofchange from night to day is gradually approaching and I must inform thegreatest number of people as quickly as I can for the sake of their ownsalvation.

May 22, 1951

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Sekai Kyusei Kyo 26-1 Momoyama-cho Atami City,Shizuoka Pref. Japan