Great Construction

The Definition of Superstition

     “Definition of superstition” is a phrase that has not been widely heard, but that superstition does indeed have a definition is of interest. To take as a superstition something that is not a superstition is also one form of superstition. To do something because it is thought to be good but have it lead to a bad result is also due to superstition. The ingestion of a medicine that does not work thinking it will work and recommending that medicine to others is similarly a superstition as well. Though more abundant harvests are to be had from not using than from using fertilizers, that fertilizers are used on farm land is also due to superstition. To commit evil acts thinking they will not become known and then be caught in a net also stems from superstition, but in these instances of superstition only the degrees or levels of stupidity of the perpetrators differ.
     Company officers and government officials who think they can steal large amounts of money in secret but who are exposed thus becoming criminals are also examples. To believe that strict, rigorous education will produce outstanding human beings only to have them turn out unbelievable juvenile delinquents is also a superstition, a superstition about education. I could go on forever, but I think my point has been made. Incongruous, though, is that trivial matters like divination, horoscope reading, and fortune slips are seen as superstition and roundly criticized. Yes, no doubt these are superstitions, but they are only superstitions of low degree, not enough to cause major problems. Because such insignificant examples receive all the attention, not perceived are the great, wide-reaching examples of superstition that I previously listed.
     As regards religions as well, there are superstitious beliefs and true beliefs. There are those beliefs that are seventy percent true and thirty percent superstitious. But, then again, there are also some beliefs seventy percent superstitious and thirty percent true. Of those religions that are seventy percent true, the seventy percent of the true inspires and wipes out the thirty percent of superstition. And of those religions seventy percent superstitious, the thirty percent of the true obliterates the seventy percent of superstition. It would be fair to say that of all the people in the world who have faith in some level of the divine, almost all the religions and faiths belong to one of these two groups. Those whose outlook is materialistic see this situation backwards. Viewing only the superstitious aspects of both groups, exaggerating those points, and attacking superstitions are journalists and members of the intellectual classes who comprise the majority of this type of critic.
     When it comes to religion, that there exists no such thing as false belief or superstition, nor that there may be any such thing as an absolutely true belief is truth. Whether in religion or any other field, the fewer elements of superstition, and the more are there elements of the true, that much more is its value, so it may be expected that with the keener insight, mistakes and errors will not be made. Such is roughly how I define superstition.

Kyûsei, Issue 74, October 18, 1950
translated by cynndd