Gospel of Heaven written and spoken by Mokichi Okada
Part 2: Teachings in 1935~3 February 1950

There is an interesting old legend in India where Buddhism was found. It is about an udumbara flower which is believed to blossom once in three thousand years. When it blooms, Chakravarti appears in the East and makes this world the Land of Happiness. Then who is Chakravarti? It is Avalokiteshvara or Kanzeon Bosatsu. Chakravarti is a Bosatsu who achieves the original vow of salvation while spinning the dharma wheel. When preaching Buddhism, Sakyamuni divided it into three periods.

They are the age of the true law, the copied law and the degeneration of the law. Each age lasts for a thousand years. The age of the true law and the copied law has already finished and now six hundred out of a thousand years has passed at the age of the degeneration of the law. It means two thousand and six hundred years have already passed since Buddhism was found. This theory roughly corresponds to that of many other Buddhist scholars although it is still being argued among them. There is another theory that each age lasts for ten thousand years but even a great Sakyamuni wouldn’t need to foresee such a far future of thirty-thousand years. It would be determined with common sense. Then Sakyamuni said that Maitreya or Miroku would appear and create the World of Miroku at the age of the degeneration of the law or Butsumetsu. It is explained in detail in the Decline of the Law Sutra and the Miroku Appearance Sutra. Now the time has finally come. Then Kanzeon Bosatsu is the true figure of Miroku. When we simply call Miroku, three types of Miroku have existed for a long time; Houshin, Hosshin and Oshin. Houshin-no-Miroku refers to Sakyamuni, Hosshin-no-Miroku refers to Amitabha and Oshin-no-Miroku refers to Kannon. Then Kannon represents the sun, Amitabha represents the moon and Sakyamuni represents the earth. When they are geographically explained, Kannon represents Japan, Sakyamuni represents the East and Amitabha represents the West. They are also called the three images of Amitabha or the Trinity in Christianity. The power of this Trinity is exclusively possessed by Kanzeon Bosatsu or Oomirokushin who acts for saving the whole world.

When taking a general look at the present world, we can see that the brilliant material culture has developed and due to this, the world is steadily progressing and becoming one. When looking at this, we can understand what the intention of God as Creator is or where the will of the universe tries to go. To create and develop this great culture, He spent thousands of years and used abundant human power. Therefore, we can clearly understand God’s great purpose through His effort. If that is not to create the World of Great Light which is now coming true, what is it then?

Then let us observe another direction. All human beings have longed for eternal peace and made an effort to achieve it for thousands of years. It’s sad, however, that their efforts have not paid off yet or on the contrary, they constantly feel disturbed with the military of nations and struggles between them under the mask of peace. Japan is a peace-loving nation but even so, it faces the instability of national finance as the armament increases year by year. These facts show how difficult people achieve eternal peace. Then is it impossible to get it? Does such an imaginary world come true or not? No one would answer this question clearly. However, we declare that this eternal peace is sure to be realised shortly. This is the original purpose and motivation of our Kannon activity. Then why do people think that it is like a dream? It is because they are captured by the history so far. They have seen so many conflicts and survivals of the fittest in the world for thousands of years. Therefore, people misunderstood that it was the true figure of the world. Everything such as education, religion, moral, politics, economy, international relationship and so on has been constructed and developed based on history until now. For this reason, people would naturally think that my words are such a fool’s dream. However, thousands of years are such a short period as we are living in the endless and eternal world.

People inevitably have no idea but to depend on human wisdom and study so far because they consider this history as their standard. Now the time has come when the absolute and mysterious intellectual-power of Kanzeon Bosatsu exerts, which is beyond our imagination. When this power is added to the unified cultural world as mentioned above, divine spirit is combined with culture and all humans get awakened. Then the culture of conflict is converted to that of peace and the life of survivals of the fittest is changed into that of the mutual collaboration. In this way, the whole world will be unified as if it becomes a large family. Now you would feel that all such conditions are fulfilled and the intellectual power of Kanzeon Bosatsu is vigorously exerting and resolutely creating the great sensation.

We finally observe one more direction. When looking back to the age when Christ and Sakyamuni lived or the later age when Kukai or Nichiren lived, there was almost no cultural facility such as transportation, printing technology and radio. Therefore, every religious founder just enlightened people in one area or one region through a difficult life. You would easily imagine it from Buddhism and Christianity as the two big religions which were found more than two-thousand years ago. In this way, God had many saints appear from time to time to establish a suitable religion and enlighten people at each period until now. Since everything becomes international now, there is no doubt that the power to save the whole world exerts or it was rather just waiting to happen. When looking at the footsteps of saints, we understand that they foretold or warned such a thing would happen. Sakyamuni foretold that the world of Miroku comes. Christ warned that Christ comes again and heaven is approaching. In addition to their prophecies, there is Saviour’s advent in Judaism, Appearance of Miroku in Asian nations, Paradise on Earth in Oomoto, the world of Kanrodai in Tenri-kyo, the world of Gino by Nichiren, the Age of Gold and the Light from the East and so on. If all of them don’t refer to the same thing of this salvation, what would they do then?

If their prophecies did not hit, how would we believe their words? Sacred books would become just a moral book and the religious founders would become just an ordinary person. Oh! The World of Great Light which all humans have long-awaited is just waiting to come true and appear. When it appears, all religions are united into one and people go back to what they should be and do the truth. Good prospers and evil perishes. The time will come when the three great disasters of wind, water and fire, the three medium disasters of famine, illness and struggle and the three minor disasters of disease, poverty and conflict no longer occur. Then the whole world will be unified to be a large family. Finally, the eternal human peace is established and people enjoy happiness with joy. In this way, the World of the Great Light is completed, which is the final goal of God. (23 February 1935)

Translated by N.H.