‘World of Divine Light, Issue 5’, published on 25th January 1936
There have been many kinds of religions until now, but they include serious errors. It is because God was not able to reveal the truth under He’s universal providence. Therefore, no matter how human beings tried hard, they couldn’t find out the truth, so that they lost the ways. Consequently, human society could not be improved. In a word, human beings have not been informed of the truth until now. Such as religious doctrine and scriptures were provisional, as we say, only conditional teachings and theories. Therefore, since the time of Shakyamuni, even though holy and great persons have preached in various ways until now, that was useless.
The truth is those who have ever been called holy or great persons did not understand the truth until they died so that most of them lost their way and died. There is a story of Bodhidharma who became enlightened after he kept sitting facing a wall in agony for nine years. However, it is uncertain how much he enlightened. Even Shakyamuni, who perceived the innermost truth, did not explain the truth in sutras.
Until now, various teachings of both major and minor have appeared, and even now a large number of new religions are emerging. It is because true teachings have not appeared after all. If teachings of absolute value had appeared, other various theories and teachings would have no room to emerge. Taking medicine for disease as an example, various kinds of medicine are provided one after another. It is because previously made medicine cannot heal disease. If medicine which truly healed disease were produced, the problem would be solved and there would be no room for new medicines produced. Another example is smallpox. Since it was discovered, the other vaccine has never been found, as the problem was solved just by it. As for teachings, if the real one appears, any other teachings are integrated into it. Therefore, all the other teachings such as eight or nine sects of Buddhism have no importance of existence, and there would be no place for any new religions. Various sects and churches of religion have still existed, which is the evidence that the absolute one did not yet exist. It is also strange that there has not been anything called ‘Kannon’ sect or church until now. That is God’s profound providence, which is preparation for the unification of all religions in the future.
At last, teachings of ‘Kannon’, though it is insufficient to be called ‘teachings’, or in fact, power of Kannon appears. Then, the time has finally come that all teachings are united into one throughout the power of Kannon. Therefore, the teachings of Kannon is extremely simple. As I previously told about the sun, that is the sun.
As Mr Shimizu told before, the moon of ‘Ananai’ is hidden and now the light from the east will come out. It means that the curtain of the night will be closed and it will become daytime. If this concept is applied to the world, the moon of ‘Ananai’ or simply the moon is western civilization. As the light from the east comes out, western civilization will be swept out.
In terms of teachings until now, Buddhism is the most numerous of all. There are indeed 84,000 sutras, which number represents countless in Buddhism. As I have said before, it could not be necessary to have written such numerous teachings. As so many teachings were written, no one could have become enlightened. Therefore, many people lost their way.
Truth should be extremely simple. If not, the greatest number of human beings cannot be saved, can they?
Then, why were so many letters in teachings used? Let me explain it in comparison with light. To illuminate by candlelight, many candlesticks have to be lit. Indeed, dozens of candles have to be lit to illuminate one room. That is the reason why sutras, the Bible, and other kinds of sacred writings used a lot of letters. Besides, the sentences of sutras or the Bible are very difficult to understand. That is also strange. It is absurd that people value them because they are difficult to understand. Here is an example, my dear readers. When seeing a play, is there anyone who says that the play is interesting because he or she doesn’t understand its story? If such a person did exist, he or she would be mentally ill.
Until the sun comes out, there’s nothing for it but to put up with gloom while lighting many candles or turning on numerous electric bulbs.
On the other hand, Kannon Society is quite simple. All you have to do is to face the sun. To illuminate your home, it is enough to open the door. As for human beings, it is enough to open the window of their heart. As Mr Okaniwa told the old story of ‘Sawaichi in Tsubosaka’, until now, people couldn’t have received blessings, unless they had to have strong religious faith like him. As today’s Kannon Society, when you pray to the scroll granted for only 1.50 yen, your diseases are cured well. So quite a good time has come.
A few days ago, a woman came to my house. She came upstairs and said, “Teacher, the figure of Kannon in the hanging scroll downstairs is alive. When I was praying, it emitted light, and at the same time, its eyebrows moved, eyes blinked and then smile with its mouth open. Then, standing Kannon started to walk, so that I was astonished. It walked to the right, then returned to its original place. In the past, there was a story of a sculpture named Hidari Jingoro. His carvings were told to be alive and walked or flew. That story wasn’t made up, was it?” Then, I replied, “No, it wasn’t. If depicted Kannon could not do such things, how could it save the world?”
Translated by N.H.