Great Construction

An Age of Civilization Inspired
by a Hitherto Unknown Religious Sentiment

Part I

     I founded World Messianity and to the present day have continued advancing religious activities on the basis, needless to say, of the completion of the great goal of the salvation of humanity. If that is all my activities were for, however, my work would simply be the same as all other established religions, and there would be no need for any contribution on my part. The truth is, however, that unless the notions about existing religions that have permeated the brains of ordinary members of society are not removed, the reality of World Messianity can in no way be comprehended. That is because World Messianity is a super religion that transcends greatly the levels of religion, science, and all other aspects of culture that have come down to us today. Even to put an appropriate name to our activities is difficult. If pressed, it would be fair to say that World Messianity is the architect and producer, focused chiefly on religion, of a religious civilization to be created.
     For that purpose, the great opus I am currently writing under the title Creation of Civilization should be called, among other things, the basic plans, the blueprints for a new world civilization. When the contents of this work are understood by intellectuals the world over, existing culture will inevitably make a one-hundred and eighty degree change, so my projected volume will also be an explanation for the world civilization of tomorrow. As the significance of these changes are clarified, the entire world will begin to advance forward toward the great goal, the only issue being that of timing. The intellectuals of Japan and of the entire world, unless they are complete idiots, will find no reason not to celebrate the purpose of this goal.
     I have continued to stress that although our contemporary culture has accomplished astonishing progress there do remain questions about these advances because they have not been accompanied by happiness for all members of humanity. The reality is that rather than happiness, all of humanity seems to be on the verge of being thrown into a crucible of great unhappiness. That being the case, the cause of this tragedy should be self-evident: until now those in control of directing and leading civilization have committed great mistakes. This point must be thoroughly investigated and analyzed, fundamental fallacies must be made to come to the surface, and at this stage, all of humanity with cooperative spirit must start on rebuilding civilization.
     There is probably no one who does not understand nor who would deny this logic. The problem is the realization, the manifestation of the rebuilt civilization. It is clear from experience to date that contemporary culture which has progressed so far has no possibility of revitalizing itself. Indeed, from antiquity any amount of excellent individuals, from religious figures and philosophers to educators have labored, but in spite of their efforts, it is the actual situation that today there are no prospects for a new civilization. Just look! To speak only of the methods and techniques utilized to date, we have two avenues, that of the power of academia and that of the power of religion. I have already discussed the former at length, but to comment on the latter, there are the three great holy men who have appeared so far, Jesus, Shakyamuni, and Muhammad. In addition, there have been a great number of other great religionists, but probably due to issues of timing, there was a limit to the amount of power they could wield. Even so, in their times and during the ages since, down to the present, great numbers of the members of humanity have been able to receive blessings and obtain great amounts of salvation through the activities of these religious individuals, but what they were able to offer was not on the large scale that includes all of humanity which I am presently propounding, a civilization inspired by transcending religious sentiment. Thus may be estimated the greatness of the scale of my goal of global salvation.
     Here, the subject that must be addressed, the issue I always talk about, are the fundamentals of existing culture. Needless to say, existing culture is a structure based on the thinking that material aspects are the leaders and that spiritual aspects are the followers. Put in different terms, academic learning has come to be primary and religion, secondary. Therefore, firm has been the belief that as long as academic learning progresses, humanity will be able to attain happiness and good fortune. No room has been allocated to explore other avenues, and the progress that has been made has been narrowly focused. As such, it can be understood how much of a great and fundamental fallacy upon which our world has been built. The result has been the formation of the civilization which creates the unhappiness and misfortune we have today. In these circumstances has appeared World Messianity for the purpose of starting to brighten this world of complete darkness and ignorance into one of great, bright, divine light. The time for such an appearance has come so it is a felicitous event for which humanity should rejoice.
     As I am the bearer of this good news, it is necessary that the issue of who I am should be known, so I will write about myself here. To speak about the circumstances of how a person such as I came to live in this world, for the first half of my life I was a very average person, but everything changed completely when I become involved with religion. That is because there was something, at the time I did not know what, but something which was invisible to me that seemed to be directed towards me. When I felt that an object like a ball has been hurled at me, that ball enshrined itself in the very center of my abdomen. This experience occurred some thirty years ago. But strangely enough, this ball seemed to have a string attached to it, and somebody seemed to be freely pulling and loosening that string, so at the same time, I lost my freedom. At times when I myself thought of and started to do something, the string would tighten and not allow me do it. But just as this happened, it seemed as if the string were pulling me in another direction, and I went that way. Indeed, it is quite intriguing. I am only a doll being manipulated as a puppet.
     This is not all of my circumstances. From that time I began to understand various things that I had not known before. I did not realize what was going on at first, but as time passed, the process became more conspicuous. A great while before, I had heard of the expression, “What is known by studying is human wisdom; what is known though no study has been undertaken is divine wisdom,” so when I realized what was happening to me, I thought: “Of course, this is divine wisdom.” In whatever I meet with or encounter, I soon understand the reason and what will be the result. I understand to the extent no time is needed to mull it over. And, it is mysterious that this occurs only to the degree necessary. I receive all kinds of questions from my followers, and the answer promptly leaves my lips. Interesting it is that at times like this, I am taught by my own words. What I understand most thoroughly is particularly about all of the most essential aspects of human health. Those who have read my commentaries on medical science will readily understand. Medical science is not all, however. When I observe all aspects of contemporary civilization, I can only think of them, medical science included, as only of a level of tricks for children. Whether politics or government, economics, or education, all are of the level of what naughty boys of elementary-school age would do. The only aspect that I think has redeeming features is the arts.
     Readers may think me highly conceited when I say that the divine being within me is not able to utter a lie about the most insignificant matter, so I want you to believe what I say is true. Furthermore, the most important point is that I have been bestowed with a way to manifest invisible power, so I am able through the offices of my many followers to completely heal thousands of millions of sick people. Such is as all readers know, but to measure how wonderful that healing is, it would not be an exaggeration to say that medical science has a value of one to the value of our healing of one hundred. Another point, when I make plans and start to execute them, even when the plan requires a great amount of money, enough comes into my hands naturally without any deficiency, and the right people who are necessary to the project appear as well. Thus, if the knowledge I possess can be called “divine wisdom,” the deeds I carry out could be called those of “divine power.” All and every thing about my work proceeds in this way, so I am a human being completely without precedent in the world. There are other things I would like to write about, but it is sufficient if the reader understands only the most unusual points about me.
     When I keenly think about the kind of person I am, it comes to the questions of why was I born and for what reason do I differ from ordinary people? That I will explain here. I have established a religion known as World Messianity and am continuing efforts to save millions of people and create a happy and fortunate world. The rapidity of the growth of World Messianity is without precedent. And, the fact that there has not been a religion that could heal the sick as thoroughly as World Messianity could very well be the riddle of this century. To consider these aspects only, something great ought to be felt. It should be enough to read a paragraph of one of the testimonials carried in either of our periodicals to feel the sentiments of appreciation and enthusiasm of and how they pour out from the heart of the writer and fill the reader with tears.

Eikô, Issue 116, August 8, 1951
translated by cynndd