Great Construction

Reading Testimonials (Hikari 16)

     There are more accounts of blessings sent to me than can be carried in the issues of the newspaper Hikari and in those of the journal Chijôtengoku that are both published by the Japan Kannon Church. Those testimonials that have been published so far amount to over several hundred, and reports continue to arrive each day. One cannot avoid tears from the sentiment conveyed in each report that overflows with appreciation and excitement. All will agree there has never been salvation of such great scale.
     It is in these testimonials, however, that we discover a serious problem. When individuals come down with a disease, without exception they first see a doctor, but there are simply too many actual examples in which the more medical treatment is administered, the more the condition gradually worsens. If specialists and professionals read these accounts, I wonder what thoughts might come to them. They are sure not to help but have doubts about medical science itself and to also have arise within them great interest in the Johrei therapy of the Kannon Church. Such doubts and interest comes about because there is just too great a distance between the superiority of Johrei over the inferiority of contemporary medical science, in addition to the fact that the great defect in the fundamentals of medical science must yet be perceived.
     In the past twenty some-odd years I have published and lectured at length about the fallacies of medical science. There have been instances when my books were banned, when our publicizing efforts have been obstructed as contrary to the Medical Practitioners Law, when we were blocked by the iron curtain of the accusations of interfering with medical treatment, and times when we have been unable to express our ideas to a sufficient degree. If we do encroach upon the laws and regulations in some way, it is because the project for the salvation of humanity will be set back, and probably will be postponed by that much salvation of humanity from misfortune. Here is the dilemma. If as our primary focus we keep silent, it is inevitable that there will be no results from the activities for the task of salvation. Even as we continue to show good results, criticism does not cease; the Pharisees continue to publicize in the mass media articles full of falsehoods and fabrications and to use any method they can to move the authorities to act against us.
     There is also one person who tried to destroy us under the pretext that our work is a superstitious and heretical religion.
     In almost all the accounts of healing, there is no one who has come to the Japan Kannon Church in the beginning stages of their affliction. Even though the writers of the testimonials have expended every effort, whether through all sorts of medical treatments or with other forms of healing, their condition still deteriorates, sometimes getting better but finally worsening, until in ultimate despair, they hear about the Kannon Church, and there is no exception to the fact that all doubt heavily at first. It is not unreasonable that they doubt the efficacy of Johrei. Until they come to us, they have tried all sorts of treatments and they think that Johrei will be like all the rest. They have no expectation of recovery, and with an attitude as if grasping at straws, they reluctantly receive Johrei. But, from the first time they do receive Johrei, to the extent of bewilderment they marvel at the remarkable effect. Unanimously they all describe a joyousness, a feeling for which they have no words to express.
     We always ask ourselves if those who read these testimonials and whose doubts are still not dispelled may somehow not be normal. There is probably nothing other than to diagnose such individuals as being mentally perverted. If there are any readers of these testimonials whose doubts are still not dissipated, it would be best if they visit the writer of the account and directly query themselves. We do not push our faith on others, and it is sufficient that the facts are recognized without error as facts.

 Hikari, Issue 16, July 2, 1949
translated by cynndd