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

As announced now, the largest offering money for Daikoku-sama is two hundred and fifty or more yen, which sounds prosperous. Then the smallest one is thirty or more yen, which is far from the largest one. What amused me very much is that many or actually fifty-six people offered money of fifty-six yen and seventy sen* against fifty-seven yen and fifty-five sen. The number of five, six and seven represents Miroku. Then the five largest offering money is fifty-six yen and seventy-one sen. Fifty-six yen and seventy sen subtracted from fifty-seven yen leaves thirty-three sen. Fifty-seven yen subtracted from fifty-five yen and fifty-five sen leaves fifty-five sen. It means that the larger leaving money is fifty-five sen and the smaller one is thirty-three sen when fifty-seven is designated as the starting point. Five represents an external number and whereas, three represents an internal number. Five also represents the sun and three does the moon. Therefore, the number of five and three represents Izunome. Then the sum up the number of fifty-five and thirty-three is eighty-eight and five plus three is eight, which represents to open something when it is written in Japanese kanji character. Therefore, Izunome-no-Kami is opened with this number. I just explain the offering money but the mystery is hidden in even such a thing.

We carry out various works from now on and the main one is to create the world without disease. It is the medical revolution and also the religious revolution. As for the religious revolution, Martin Luther carried out religious reform a long time ago. Although ours is not like him, we call our activity a religious revolution since it is well-known. In short, superstitions are ruined by themselves through our activity. We will publish actual examples of the superstitions in our newspapers. We think that people need to come out of them.

Let me tell you the actual example of superstition which recently happened. It was very interesting. A person worshipped the deity of Inari but now started to worship Kannon-sama. He wanted to discard the previous object of worship and brought it to me. He asked me to examine it as there must have been three pieces of fox hair in it. When I asked him about it in detail, he said that an ascetic found three pieces of fox hair in his room one day and he thought they must have been fox hair left by the deity of Inari. The ascetic told him to give one piece of it for ten yen. Then he had three for thirty yen. When examining the object, I found a small parcel made of brilliant gold brocade. When opening it, we found a small gold-brocade purse attached with a mirror. We repeatedly opened the purse one after another and finally found a rectangular small thing wrapped with paper. Then we tired the paper one by one. Finally, we found one piece of deep brown hair. That person was deceived by the ascetic as he only had one piece of hair. Furthermore, when looking at it closely, it seemed like the hair of a cat. It is too deep in colour for fox hair. A cat must have got into the ascetic’s house and left its hair. I think that quite a lot of people have worshipped it. This would be a good example of superstition. It really happened but we cannot laugh at it. I think there must be a lot of things like this.

There have been many superstitions created by people with confidence for a long time ago and they were revealed by people in the field of science. However, scientists revealed superstitions in a very scientific manner and regard all things which do not fit their point of view as superstitions. Therefore, their opinion seems to be objected, which rather makes people sympathetic to them.

What we publish now is very unique if we are categorised as a religion. We can do it as there is no superstition in Kannon-kai. Let me give you another example of superstition. A person is an ardent follower in a certain religion. He uses mud for their remedies. It surely works well if it is used only for external diseases such as a boil. He was one of the believers who completely cured of the external disease. Therefore, he was convinced that all diseases would be cured with mud. Then he started to use mud for internal disease. He drunk infused mud and also had others take it. When he got very seriously ill, he took the opportunity and drank the amount of mud equivalent to a cardboard box containing 10 kilograms of mandarin orange. He consequently got poisoned by mud. When I saw him for the first time, his whole body was earth-coloured. It took a long time for him to get better. He didn’t get ill with disease-germ but toxin included in the mud. The earth is not something to eat nor drink for people. They should have something edible. Only mole crickets and moles eat earth. This is an extreme example of superstition. It costs hundreds of yen to cure disease or disease is said to be cured if the money is paid. It would be all right if it is cured but various things would happen.

I will tell you one more example which I might have already told. It is a terrible superstition. Recently, a certain new religion is frequently publishing their teachings. A person who read one of them visited me five or six days ago. He asked me about a certain teaching of them. It says that people become prosperous when they do what the law of mind says even if it is a bad thing. He asked me what it meant. I don’t want to say anything bad about that religion but it is outrageous that people prosper no matter how bad they do if they follow the law of mind.

A long time ago, a Buddhist monk Shinran said, “The good go to heaven after death and the bad much more so.” They are very famous words and literally mean that the good are saved and the bad are much more saved. I think that his words are outrageous but people contrarily appreciate his words since he said the bad are also saved. I will write about this in our newspaper someday. When this idea is expanded, people will prosper when doing bad things rather than good ones. This is such an immoral idea. If he said that only good people were saved, bad people would never become a believer. They wouldn’t join his sect until he said that bad people were saved. They find Buddha’s compassion there and appreciate his great mercy. It has a point but compared to the effect that they thank Buddha, we don’t know how greatly the idea that the bad people are saved affects on people. It must be good but not bad for people to admire. Otherwise, it will break the universal law. It is outrageous. Therefore, it is superstition to admire such Shinran’s idea.

He created one more superstition. He said that he had no disciple and all the other believes are equal to him. Disciples and believers are all the same devotees as him and they admire his idea. It is regarded as a communist ideology, which is the idea of abolishing and not distinguishing the class. If there is a master, there must be a disciple. They must belong to their own class. Nevertheless, Shinran said that a disciple and a master were in the same position. He said that they are the same human beings after all. This is the basis of Marxism. If people admire such an idea, they believe in the superstition.

Let me examine why such superstitions are originally caused. For a long time ago, famous great monks and saints such as Sakyamuni, Christ, Shinran, Nichiren and Kukai did and said many things and people have admired all of their deeds and words as absolute ones. Such their thoughts create the cause of superstition. I admit that it was all right until now but it won’t be allowed to create the World of Great Light. The wrong things are wrong even if they were said by Sakyamuni and the same is true for Christ, who did something wrong.

This is the will of Kannon-sama who is a superior god to Sakyamuni, Christ and Amitabha. He appears now, scolds what they said until now and corrects their mistakes. There are many funny things, for example, in the Bible. When he was executed by crucifixion for treason, eleven disciples had left. They hid themselves to avoid having a hard time until the storm blew over. It took more than ten years and then started to write what they heard or thought to hear from Christ. Therefore, I think that it is too cruel just to blame Christ.

As for Buddhist sutras, they were written by his disciples. All of them are not necessary to be right. I think that the social thought at present is very different from that at that time when Sakyamuni lived in India. At that time, Brahmanism flourished and people had to do penance very much to get enlightened. They had to stay in the mountains for about ten to twenty years while acting strangely like an arhat. Even if they did so, they could hardly get enlightened. When looking at them, Sakyamuni thought people should get enlightenment easily and their training should become easier. Therefore, he preached sutras and this is the principle of Buddhism.

When looking at sutras in today’s way of thinking, however, they are too many even though they were the easiest way when Sakyamuni lived. At that time, they lived very cheerfully without hardship and international dispute. They could live while eating natural food even if they did nothing but thinking in the mountain or forest for many days. On the other hand, it is hard for today’s people even just to read sutras. If people cannot get enlightened without reading through all sutras, people can hardly make a living. They will lose their jobs. For this reason, Buddhist sutras should be abolished. What’s more, they were once translated into Chinese from Sanskrit in China and then imported to Japan. That is very wrong. We cannot understand them. Therefore, they are not worth to read. As for our ritual player, people can understand it easily as it is written for that purpose. Human beings cannot be saved by what they cannot understand. If they cannot understand it, they will get lost. It is outdated that people are saved by the sutras today. They are for those who had enough to live on and wandered around while wearing breached cotton kimono a long time ago. They cannot save today’s people. The Bible says that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. It means that a rich person is never saved. Therefore, all Christians must be poor to be saved.

As a matter of fact, there are many rich Christians in Europe and America. Furthermore, such people contribute to maintaining the organisation. It is very strange. I don’t know that the rich become broken soon by contributing money for it but it doesn’t make sense that the rich are never saved. They are defeated just because they are rich. This must be superstition after all.

Not only in religions but also medical science, there are superstitions. When looking at it from that point of view, you can find many wrong things. Many people died while believing in medicine. This is one of the examples. We would like to let people know such a thing as many as possible, awaken and do true things or I think that we have to show the standard of true faith and life. There is a lot of superstitious charm or direction. They seem to be superstitious but some of them are not. I also would like to tell you a lot about them.

Then I would like to tell you another thing. That is Amaterasu-Okami-sama incarnates to Kannon-sama. To avoid any irreverent attitude, we have to make it clear. Amaterasu-Ookami is God and the whole universe is the holy body of Amenominakanushi-no-Kami. It is vague and elusive. Along with this god, Takamimusubi-no-Kami and Kamimusubi-no-Kami are called the three gods of creation. There are also different theories but this is the most grounded one. Takamimusubi-no-Kami is an ancestor of the spiritual linage, who controls the spirits of all things in nature. On the other hand, Kamimusubi-no-Kami controls the material world or all substances. Since three of them have no personality, we cannot worship them. God is expressed as Amaterasu-sume-Oomikami-sama who plays the central role. In short, he appears to unify the whole world while playing a central role. Therefore, Amaterasu-Ookami once appeared as a human being. This is God and takes a central role of all.

Amaterasu-sume-Oomikami-sama left the sovereignty of the whole world to the Emperor. He left the teachings for his ancestors as the founder of an empire, which says, “Toyo-Ashihara-no-Mizuho-no-Kuni (or the Land of Abundant Reed Plains and Rice Fields) is suitable for my descendants to be governed as a king. Accede to the throne and rule this land.” In this way, he gave them sovereignty. He also gave Kannon-sama the right to save people and Kunitokotachi-no-Mikoto the right of judgement. Therefore, Kunitokotachi-no-Mikoto was driven into the north-west direction and became the Great King of Emma in the world of ether to judge dead people. In this way, the right of sovereignty, salvation and judgement is decided. In this sense, Kannon-sama is given the right of salvation and save people with mercy and compassion regardless of whether they are good or bad. It means that good and bad people are equally saved by Kannon-sama. They are saved as if everything is illuminated by the light of the moon and sun. This is called the great mercy and compassion of Kannon-sama. On the other hand, Kunitokotachi-no-Mikoto judges things by absolutely distinguishing between good and evil. He does the same things which the Great King of Emma does. I told about them a little to make this point clear. (1 July 1935)

*) Sen is a unit of Japanese money which is no longer used. One hundred sen becomes one yen.

Translated by N.H.