Great Construction
ACTUALIZATION OF THE TRUTH (2nd version)
What is the true purpose of religion in the first place? The answer is, of course, actualization of the truth. Well then, what is the truth? The answer is, of course, what nature is as it is in itself. That the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, that if man is to be born, then man is to necessarily die: this is, what Buddhism says, "All living things must die" or "Those who meet must part", and also that man breathes the air and lives by eating foods; of course, all these are truths. To such an extent that I have to say these obvious facts, the present state of mankind has been deranged
For this reason, when you see disgusting events all over the present society: disorder, conflicts, chaos, crimes, etc., you probably cannot deny that there are more conditions that lead mankind to unhappiness rather than to happiness. If so, we must think about where in the world the cause lies. As I see it, this is exactly because the basis of every thing has been too far away from the truth. And the whole story is simply that while people have moved away from the truth, yet they have no consciousness of this state. But why? Let me consider and tell you the truth, the contemporary people have already become unable to get even the slightest idea of truth itself. One reason is probably that they cannot afford to direct their thoughts to what truth is, because they are too busy struggling with pressing problems of everyday life. There is another reason, though: even the religion, which is crucial for bringing the solution, has not had enough light to see clearly the truth itself so far, and has often taught untruth thinking it to be the truth. If the religion had had the ability to teach the truth in a true way, human society should have had to be much better than now. Or rather, I think, heaven on earth may have been realized to some extent. However, the heavenly time has come and the divine will is here to be revealed, and God would preach the truth through me and carry out the actualization of the truth by using me as well. Therefore, since all kinds of discourse that I expound make clear the truth itself in the simplest way for everyone, if my readers, being free from all prejudice with a clean slate, read my writings closely and with appreciation, the truth will come vividly to mind.
So that, I will explain the most familiar matters to begin with; people fall ill just because they are off the truth in some sense, and the reason why medicine cannot cure the illness is also its being off the truth. Politics is to blame; current thoughts are unsound; crimes are increasing; people are suffering from lack of money, deflation or inflation; all these come to happen precisely because something is off the truth. If there is nothing off the truth on the side of humans, whatever is right should be as well under way as they wish, for God has created human society in such way. Therefore, it is not so difficult for us to realize an ideal society of virtue and beauty, as well as for man to live a joyful happy life; that is to say, the possibility consists in this that heaven on earth will arrive, which I advocate.
Such being the case, my remarks may seem to be very odd in some points, but actually there is no oddity at all. They are quite as a matter of course. People find oddity in what I say because they see it with untruthful eyes. They think my view to be heretical all the more because the reality of this world is heretical.
God has granted unlimited freedom to man. This is the truth. Plants and animals other than human beings have been only given limited freedom, in which the honor of man consists. Then, what is the freedom intrinsic to man? Let me say: man has freedom because he exists in the middle point between the opposite extremes, which means that if man is elevated he will become a god, while if he is degraded he will become a beast. When this reasoning is pushed forward, we get to this: it depends on man's way of doing whether this world becomes so joyful a paradise or, on the contrary, so miserable a hell.
This is the truth. If so, which of these two should we choose? Needless to think of, it is quite natural, excluding a born natural devil, to prefer the former.
What follows straight from the above is that the former, that is, the realization of heaven on earth is exactly the ultimate purpose of mankind, and the achievement of this purpose is nothing but the actualization of the truth. And so, since it is the primary mission of religion, I continually teach the truth both by writing and by speaking; still further, as an actualizer of the truth, by day and by night I am acting with my best efforts.
Jikan's Thoughts on the New Philosophy of Life (Jikan Library Book XII),
January 30, 1950 (the 25th year of Showa)
The 1st version: Heaven on Earth, No. 7, July 16, 1949 (the 24th year of Showa)