New Philosophy of Life
Written by Okada Jikan Mokichi, 1950

This title seems to be strange but you would understand its meaning as you read the following writings.

To begin with, no one is as mysterious as I am. It is because there is no historical record of someone like me. Here, I try to describe myself as objectively as possible. Please read the following writings with that in mind.

Firstly, I will tell you about my work. My aim is, of course, to save human beings. Therefore, everything I do never deviates from that purpose. Now, I focus most on writing on paper with ink and brush. That is Japanese calligraphy. As requested by believers, I try to do my best to do so. They hang the folded paper that I wrote around the neck as an amulet. Then they hold their hands towards the sick about one metre away and emit spiritual light. This spiritual light reduces the suffering of the sick without exception. Even though a person became a believer a few months ago, they heal a dying patient with a serious disease who was given up by doctors. As a result, the patient becomes healthy and organizes their social life.

Such a miracle happens countlessly every day. When witnessing them, it is no wonder that people marvel at such miracles of the revival. Miracles enable the extension of human life, which no one could do until now. This would be the greatest issue in the world. The sick are saved and countless gratitude reports come from them every day. They are piled up on my desk. Whenever reading them, I don’t know how many times I moved to tears. As I explained, believers hang my calligraphy around the neck and hold their hands towards the sick. We call this practice Johrei. Johrei not only heals the sick but also saves people from all kinds of misfortunes. For example, Johrei drives away thieves who are just breaking into a house. Johrei also saves people without any injury from falling off a cliff or getting hit by a train or car. Johrei saves people from fire, too. There are numerous examples of those.

Here let me explain miracles for agriculture. Johrei revives the wheat fields where wheat is about to die. Johrei prevents pests and brings better harvest without exception. Johrei revives horses and cattle that are told to die by veterinarians. Such miracles happen quite often. Other than those, Johrei frees poor people from poverty and brightens their gloomy atmosphere. When they receive an amulet, people’s fortune is turned around in a moment. Those countless miracles are introduced in our newspapers and magazines. When reading them, you would understand what I mean. Looking back on history, we know that great saints and religionists have performed a miracle to save the sick. However, each of them just saved one person at a time. Some patients have been healed by the benefit of religious faith. Some substitutes have exerted the healing power, too. Such power was occasionally exerted but it isn’t comparable with the remarkable power of Johrei that our believers exert as my agent.

When looking at my writings, many people see the light in the shape of letters. The light infinitely disperses and moves lively in the air. Many people tell me about such a phenomenon. Some see a rubber ball-sized light in my belly. Many people also see the light emitted by my hands. This spherical light was occasionally taken in the picture. It erupts light waves on one occasion and fills the room on another occasion.

I meet several hundreds of believers for one hour every day. I tell them in advance to ask any questions. They give me dozens of questions at most for an hour and I answer almost all of them. Their questions are, of course, different from day to day. I occasionally don’t know the answer to the question. However, the answer comes up in my mind soon after I am asked and just slips out from my mouth. It means that I learn from the answer. That is strange enough.

People who are not believers in our religion often say that my life must be luxurious. It is unreasonable to think so because of today’s material shortage. I have never wanted it. I just receive things given as a token of gratitude by believers who got blessed. By doing so, I try to receive their sincerity as much as possible. As for money, it is strange that we get the right amount of money as much as needed for our salvation work at the right time. As our believers know, our teachings constantly spread. In this way, I do nothing with my intention. God will let me do everything freely under the will of God. In a word, I am just a puppet manipulated by God. Therefore, I look at myself with interest while thinking about what kind of things God let me do next. This is a very strange story, isn’t it?

From now on, I will describe various works I do. I also tell you about my hobbies accompanied by my work. I have quite a lot of hobbies. Not so many people would have them like me.

Needless to say, I am a religionist but actually not thought to be one. Then what is my profession? I am a salvation contractor. It sounds a little strange but it is a much more suitable name for me. I have many disciples and they save countless people every day. Since they perform miracles, I often hear that they are respected as living gods. It means I am a manufacturer of living gods. Saying so, I make a big laugh.

I draw Japanese ink paintings and calligraphy. I make poems including comic ones and write books, novels and lyrics. I write articles in our newspapers and magazines. I also edit them. I supervise construction, gardening, flower cultivation, interior designing and also farming, which are held to create the model of Paradise on Earth. You would see that we are now constructing such a model in Hakone and Atami.

Then I will tell you about my hobbies. I love both new and old art. I have appreciated the works of excellent artists since I was fourteen or fifteen years old. I love both Japanese and western music. I am the person who most often listens to the radio in my family. I am especially interested in politics, economics, education, philosophy, literature and social issues. I never neglect to study them. So, I am going to introduce my knowledge of them one by one in my book.

In short, I am a religionist, researcher of politics, economics and education, writer, a critic of civilisation and art and music, special medical scientist, poet, painter, calligrapher, architect, gardener, agriculturist and so on. I am versatile, indeed.

Senju-Kannon has forty arms and each of them has twenty-five different functions. It means it saves people in a thousand ways. I always think that God makes me play the role of Senju-Kannon. I still have many things to write but they make this much longer. So, I will stop writing here and leave the rest to readers’ imaginations.

The above is myself from my viewpoint.

Translated by N.H.