Does True Religion Exist?

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

From the beginning, what is religion and what is it for? We should consider them first. When living in this world, everyone experiences a lot what they don’t aim for nor intend to. They also suffer unexpected disaster, misfortune or disease, or experience various hardships which they cannot avoid with human strength. Sakyamuni said that there are four kinds of suffering which people can never avoid. They are birth, illness, old age and death. In addition to them, we shouldn’t forget one more suffering or anxiety after death. Under these circumstances, it is no wonder that human beings endlessly want to avoid all kinds of suffering and also try to identify what they really are.

People asked religion for all the solution until the 18th century but none of the religions was able to answer. Therefore, the seekers after truth did penance to grasp the truth. We can easily imagine it from history.

Then what did they get after such their hardship? That is just to give up. They only reached the state where they knew that it was useless for human beings to want for or search for the truth no matter how they did. That is what they call, enlightenment. They couldn’t reach any further stage. Therefore, they thought that the state they reached was the final destination called Higan. It would be inevitable if they thought so. I think that even Sakyamuni, who grasped the truth to some extent but couldn’t reach the absolute state of the truth. Neither did Jesus of Nazareth. Other than them, Mahomet, Kukai, Shinran and Nichiren must have been all the same. You would agree with me when looking at the value of what they left behind. What’s more, when looking at what religionists today recite and carry on, all of them follow the form of the old saints and sages as their only belief. However, none of them has ever reached the form of religion. Some religionists preach morality and some misunderstand that education is all works for religion. Some think that religion is one of the theories and some explain religion with science and philosophy, which is the most terrible one. Some also dedicate themselves to social work. That is a reality and they do something religious but are not true religion.

Then what is true religion? Let me explain it now but before that, I list up to eight conditions which form the basis of the true religion.

  1. Realization of truth
  2. Great object to worship
  3. Power to see through the present, past and future
  4. Manifestation of the power of gods or buddhas
  5. Manifestation of the Light
  6. Benefits brought in the real world and the world of ether
  7. Heavenly life
  8. Possibility of curing the disease

When meeting all of the conditions as above, that is true religion. If having even one of them, such a religion has a religious value as for it. However, any established religions would probably have none of them. Now, let me explain these conditions one by one.

 

  1. Realization of truth:

Truth means that the whole universe naturally moves and everything constantly changes. It also means that everything is born and grows in the way it should be. For example, people do what they should do as a human being. They have their own mission given by God and stay at their determined ranks. When they know it and do what they should do, they achieve the truth as a human being, which brought them the eternal joy and prosperity. They finally get spiritual peace and enlightenment. However, there is no religion which teaches it to people nor let them do it today. Therefore, people get lost, invade the other’s parts and get off and lost their own way, which consequently causes conflict and confusion. This is not something limited to a person. The reality is that societies, classes, nations and the whole world do the same things. Facing such circumstances, religionists don’t have the ability to teach people nor the virtue to influence them because they don’t comprehend the universal truth. In fact, regarding this, the Sutras, the Bible and all the other sacred books don’t teach the truth. Therefore, it is inevitable that people cannot know it. If anyone of religions taught the truth, the era of suffering and turmoil like today would never come. If all of the truth were realised, many people wouldn’t so easily suffer from the disease like today. The number of people who die a natural death would never become small like stars in the early morning sky. Looking at these facts, you would see that the established religions don’t have even this first condition.

 

  1. Great object to worship:

When all people in the world pray to the great object with respect, they should gain true wisdom and achieve a happy feeling and then become in the state of absolute peace of mind. They no longer need strenuous self-effort as arhats did penance. Besides, the true divine spirit would never be pleased to see them doing such things. If a god or Buddha that people worship has great power, any kinds of their wishes easily come true as long as they do right wish. A powerful god or Buddha has unlimited power and possesses the highest divine status. Therefore, if people should do penance to get the benefit from a certain god, it means that the god needs human power or, in short, compensates for the deficiency of his power with human one. If so, this god is below the second class. In fact, no god as the great object can exist in any religions so far, who gives people infinite large profit without the need for any human self-effort.

 

  1. Power to see through the present, past and future:

Buddhism often says something about the past, present and future but it doesn’t explain them thoroughly. People mention the perspective of the past, present and future from a long time ago but no one has explained clearly what the real state of the past and future is like. Only about the past, all of its explanations are vague and tentative, which would not be worth for modern people to be satisfied. In this way, no one has truly succeeded to reveal the doctrines of the three worlds of the past, present and future. Besides, absolutely none of the religions has ever explained thoroughly the origin of good and evil. It is because most of the established religions were found by the gods below the second class. Therefore, they cannot see the innermost providence of God. It should be rather said to be inevitable. In terms of the future, there was, of course, no concrete instruction of it. It is aimlessly and simply foretold by some religions. They are the World of Miroku in Buddhism, Heaven is Coming in Christianity, the World of Kanrodai in Tenrikyo and so on. That’s all but it would be inevitable that they couldn’t give more explanation than that.

 

  1. Manifestation of the power of gods or buddhas:

It is true that the power of gods and buddhas slightly exerted in all religions when they were found but no great power was exerted. It means that human beings have not experienced the true power of God. Now the time has come when Kanzeon Bosatsu finally exerts the great power of salvation. This power is beyond our imagination so that we just wait and see actually that power coming into view clearly and all the people receiving the welfare in the future. Now we can just catch a glimpse of the power by what is being done now. When just looking at the power of our healing art, which anyone can get it after receiving one-week training, you can see that it is dozens of times more powerful than that of doctors who have professionally practised for twenty to thirty years. You can easily imagine how powerful our healing is. If a religion has no power to eliminate the sufferings of the disease from human beings, it doesn’t possess the absolute divine power no matter what kind of religion it is. If it doesn’t possess that power, it is obvious that the religion doesn’t worship the greatest god but the god below the second class. From this point of view, all religions so far are not worth a true religion. You would see that they just exist temporarily for a certain period.

 

  1. Manifestation of the Light:

The divine spirit is originally invisible. It emits unimaginably great light and heat in the spiritual world. The figure of the divine spirit is the same as a human being, who is supreme and superb. It emits the light and heat so intensely that it is always covered with the spirit of water. The true god acts as fire and water. Therefore, it is called “Kami” as fire is pronounced “ka” and whereas, water is pronounced “mi” in Japanese. We never call Kami who only acts as either of fire or water. When fire and water is matched, the great divine power exerts for the first time. Until now, various gods descended to the earth but all of them acted as either of fire or water. For this reason, they couldn’t exert the divine power. In the material field, the power is generated by combining fire and water and the engine starts to work with this power. Even for plants, they grow with the light of the sun and the water of the moon. They do so for the same reason. Then the great divine power exerts when the spirit of the earth is added to that of fire and water, which is called the Trinity. This Trinity power is an absolute one which can achieve anything. When this power exerts, people remake their life and the ideal world full of joy and happiness comes true for the first time. In a true sense, the gods and buddhas so far had the power of only the moon. The light of the sun has not yet appeared. When only the light of the moon appears, it is called the world of the night. Now the time has finally come when the light of the sun appears. It is called the Light from the East. The figure of the holy object I drew emits the light, which partly shows that the light of the sun appears. Some people saw the light emitted from my hand and fingers with the naked eye when I treated a patient. This light shows that the light of the sun appears, too. When looking at these facts, I can say that the light of the sun has not yet appeared in the established religions.

 

  1. Benefits brought in the real world and the world of ether:

There is no established religion which brings benefits in both of the real world and the world of ether. Most of them advocate the benefits in the future. For example, believers in Buddhism believe to become Nyorai and live in Pure Land when they die. Therefore, they neglect the benefit at present. Believers in Christianity are in the pathetic condition to accept sufferings while dreaming to go to Heaven when they die. It is because they cannot do anything but suffer in this world. Believes in Tenri-kyo are suffering poverty and dying while imagining the World of Kanrodai, which can be unlikely realized. They are in such a miserable state. All things as mentioned above show that they don’t bring the benefit in this world. As for low-grade religions such as Inari and Tengu, they bring a little benefit in this world but it doesn’t matter because they are kinds of evil heresies. Under such circumstances, it is widely known that the faith of Kannon only brings the benefit in this world. However, people in society haven’t known yet that he brings the benefit not only in this world but also in the future world. Many Buddhist monks consider that Amitabha saves people in the future and whereas, Kannon saves them in the present world but they don’t know the truth. I don’t deny that Amitabha saves people in the future but Kannon saves people in the present and future world. It means that Kannon works both in the present world and the world of ether. Therefore, Kannon works flexibly and thoroughly. For example, a head clerk takes only its role but a master takes both roles of a master and a head clerk. In the case of Kannon, he has the authority and power of Trinity or the three worlds of gods, ether and presence. In this meaning, nothing but only Kanzeon brings the benefit in both of the visible world and world of ether.

 

  1. Heavenly life:

There are various names such as Sokushin Sokubutsu, Shaba Soku Jakko Jodo, Paradise on Earth or the World of Kanrodai in religions. Most of them refer to the ideal coming world. On the other hand, they cannot do anything for sufferings in the present world. They just give them up and try to endure them. As a result, they even consider that enjoying hardship is a very faithful attitude. Since they cannot eradicate sufferings, they accept and get satisfied that they are defeated by sufferings, acknowledge them and finally regard that it is normal for people to suffer. In short, they become a slave of sufferings. That is as if modern medicine maintains patient’s status quo for as long as possible to make them live longer while letting them only have a rest. It is because the medicine cannot get rid of the disease. These misunderstanding in religions are caused because the true religion didn’t appear. If the true religion appears, it eliminates sufferings. It should deny nor solve misfortune. When all sufferings are eradicated, Paradise on Earth and also the ideal world comes true. In this sense, such a world is the one without disease, poverty and conflict, which I always praise. However, it is inevitable for people to think that the World of Light is such a fool’s dream which will never come true because people have lived in the anguished world for thousands of years. Besides, the World of Light is not suddenly constructed as if it falls from heaven nor the scenes change in the dark at the theatre. It should be built up step by step. This is the law of all creations so that the World of Light will never be constructed out of this law. To build it step by step, we nor our families should build it up step by step first. However, religions until today can never eliminate disease, poverty and conflict no matter how earnestly people believe them. It is because they have a lack of the power of gods nor buddhas. Therefore, believers in such religions always put up with sufferings and unthinkably dream the ideal world and then die one after another. They are often disappointed that such an ideal world is too slow to come. Any believer suffers such thought.

 

  1. Possibility of curing the disease:

Established religions consider that religious healing is not necessary but this is the most outrageous story. They just repair their incompetency. While they are proud that they are beyond science, they cannot heal disease. It confesses that they are inferior to medicine created by science. If religion is nothing more valuable than science, it would not be a religion but just a theory or moral similar to religion. However, they would say that they don’t cure the disease but save the human spirit. This is a great sophistry. If the human spirit is saved, there is no way the human body isn’t saved. They don’t exist individually but they are not separable. No person has a body but no soul and vice versa. They are blind for such a plain enough and easy thing. On the other hand, new religions have considerable dedication to cure disease, which has some effect but it depends on diseases. Besides, their probability rates of the cure are uncertain. Therefore, I doubt their effectiveness. What’s more, if the disease is not cured, it is said to have a lack of faith or do the wrong thing. It is just an excuse and we understand that that religion doesn’t have absolute power. In fact, the true religious treatment should cure the diseases one hundred per cent and no conditions whether to believe it deeply or not or just believe it or not. Whether to believe or not should not be the problem. The true religion has an absolute power which completely cures all kinds of diseases without conditions. Therefore, there would be no such religion which meets this condition. In this sense, new religions today have poor ability to cure disease. Therefore, it is inevitable that they are regarded as religious fraud in society.

 

I explained as above the conditions and values of religion by dividing into eight points but none of the established religions would meet all points. I rather declare that none of eight points would probably meet with any of them. In this way, it is clear that true religion has never appeared in the human society. As I mentioned above, it is not wrong that people in the society associate religion as superstition. In fact, there is a superstition in any kinds of religions. To tell the truth, all established religions are temporary ones until the true religion is found. They just preached the temporary truth or truth like things. Sakyamuni said that the essence of Buddhism was Shinnyo, which means, I think, to be something like the truth. For this reason, when the true religion appears, all existing religions cannot help but become united into one. There are many sects and schools in Buddhism and they are fighting over nothing. It is because a great religion has not yet appeared, which has absolute authority and divine power. That is coming soon and exerts the power to give human beings great joy and happiness which they have never experienced. Everyone would know how great it is by fact. (1 July 1936)

Translated by N.H.