E27049

     Healing disease is seen as the purpose of the Johrei in World Messianity, but actually Johrei’s objective is not limited to healing, so I will write about the point that Johrei’s significance is far greater. Simply put, Johrei is a way to give birth to happiness. We know that disease is purification whose function is to remove the clouds on the spirit, but the removal of clouds on the spirit is an action that eliminates all the sufferings of the human race as well.
     Impoverishment and fighting are also manifestations of purification, part and parcel of sickness, poverty, and conflict, the three great miseries of humanity to which I always refer. Of all the activities of purification, disease is the most serious. Disease threatens human life itself, and so, when disease is eliminated, poverty and conflict will resolve themselves in due course. As the elimination of these miseries are fundamental for happiness, it is quite evident that the cause of unhappiness are the clouds on the spirit. The simplest and most infallible method to remove clouds on the spirit is Johrei, which is why I declared at the start of this essay that merely healing sickness is not the sole purpose of Johrei. Let me explain in further detail.
     I have written about the spiritual and physical worlds before. To repeat, the human body breathes in this physical world and its spirit lives in the spiritual world, so the condition of the spirit in the spiritual world directly influences both body and spirit. As the condition of the spirit reflects on the physical body of the human being, the fate of each human individual lies ultimately in the spiritual world. The spiritual world, as the physical world, is divided into many separate levels. Basically, we can say there are three levels, each divided into sixty sections, each further separated into twenty levels with one hundred and eighty-one levels overall. The very top, level one is reserved for the Creator, the Supreme God, so any other divine being belongs to one of the other, lower one hundred and eighty levels.
     Each of the vertical levels spreads out horizontally as well, from the bottom hell to the top heaven, so if, for example, your spirit presently belongs to one of the bottom sixty levels, or within that bottom level, to one of the lowest twenty levels, it is on a level comparable to the depths of hell, a world full of the worst misery. Reflected onto the physical plane, it translates into the pit of adversity. As one goes up through the next twenty levels, suffering eases, and more so, the next twenty levels higher. The amount of pleasure and suffering differ on each level upward.
     After leaving the bottom sixty levels, one enters the middle range which, more or less, corresponds to our physical world. The next sixty levels going upward are the realms of heaven or paradise, conditions of happiness and bliss, where only those qualified to be in paradise can dwell.
     Since the fate of the human being is determined by the spiritual level to which its spirit belongs, each individual should try to proceed to the next highest level. As advance is made upward, unpleasantness and suffering eases and happiness increases, because decreases the need for suffering in order to purify.
     As long as the spirits of individuals belong to one of the lower levels, trying to think or scheme themselves out of hell and into a better situation is useless. Such is divine law which as is the law of the spiritual preceding the physical, strict and immutable. Thus, to become happy, you must purify, lessen the clouds on your spirit, and strive to be qualified to proceed to the next higher level. There is no other way. Herein lies the tremendous significance of Johrei.

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“Jôrei to Kôfuku” has previously appeared in translation. The citations are given below for reference.

     “Johrei and Happiness,” Meishu-sama’s Teachings, Booklet One, 1996, page 20.

     “Johrei and Happiness,” Meishu and His Teachings, no date, page 40.

     “Jyorei and Happiness,” A Hundred Teachings of Meishusama, no date, page 126.

     “Preaching Versus Johrei and Happiness,” Foundation of Paradise, 1984, page 282. This version combines “Jôrei to Kôfuku” and “Osekkyô” (E27-152). “Jôrei to Kôfuku” starts at the sixth paragraph.