Great Construction
The Origin of Evil and Its Relation to Disease
In the preceding chapter, I described how the errors of our present civilization will be corrected and a new civilization constructed when the one percent of good will appear and manifest the absolute power of God in order to combat the ninety-nine percent of evil. Expressed simply, the direction of our civilization will reverse. What I write here is only a bare bones sketch of divine economy henceforth. It is unprecedented in conception and beyond imagination. In regard to divine economy, I would like to discuss the allegory of the forbidden fruit that appears in the Book of Genesis of the Old Testament. The fruit is metaphorical, of course, and the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden conceals a profound mystery of God. I will explain this mystery, but reading must be done with an open mind. As has been taught for ages, the act of eating the fruit signifies the birth of evil. Specifically, the fruit represents medicine, and through the use of medicines, sickness and disease came about, and through sickness and disease, evil was born. In antiquity, long before the Common Era, medicines began to be used as a way to cure illness, but who could have imagined that the forbidden fruit referred to in the Jewish and Christian sacred texts is none other than medicine. All who learn of this fact are probably astonished. The totally unimaginable reason will be thoroughly explained in both theoretical and practical terms, so I do hope that the situation our world faces today will become more comprehensible.
To review, human beings are composed of spirit and body of which spirit is primary and body is secondary. The origin of evil is cloud that forms on spirit. One basis of cloud is the possessing animal spirit that constitutes the secondary spirit but another cause are other animal spirits that later possess and cause the human being to perform acts of an animalistic nature. These are acts of evil. In simple terms, cloud on spirit equals evil, so, to eradicate evil, cloud on spirit must be eliminated. However, it is medicines that are another and the true cause of cloud, thus a great problem. Cloud on spirit is the reflection of impure blood in the physical body, and since medicines cause impure blood, if human beings did not use medicines, evil would not generate. Thus, the forbidden fruit, that is, medicines are the foundation for the appearance of evil.
But also importantly, the medicine that created evil in order to contribute to the progress of civilization played another important role. This explanation starts with the fact that the elimination of impure blood is a natural purifying or cleansing activity. Of course, as cloud accumulates on spirit, the clouded spirit reflects on the health of the physical body and interferes with the essential functions of the human being and body. But because human knowledge was retarded, the suffering associated with the natural purifying action of the body was taken to be negative, and in order to avoid the suffering of illness, the use of medicines was begun. With the use of medicines, though, purifying action is halted and the human body weakens. As the body weakens, the strength to purify also weakens, so the surface symptoms of physical suffering are alleviated to that degree. Weakening the vitality of the physical body and its purifying function were understood to be the curing of illness. This very error is the fundamental cause of the creation of suffering on every level and in all aspects of our present hellish world.
Accordingly, to alleviate pain the poisons in medicines simply reduce the natural healing power of the body. Moreover, not only do medicines not have any actual healing efficacy, they also become the cause of sickness. This ignorance is beyond description. It will be astonishing to learn that there was profound, divine intention for this blindness concerning disease, which I will now detail. To begin, two methods were utilized to make our civilization progress. The first, as I previously mentioned, was to create evil and put it in conflict with good, and the other was to weaken human health. I have talked about the good-evil conflict previously, so here I will discuss the weakening of human health. As can be seen from the history of humanity since primitive times, life was nature itself in the beginning, and food, clothing, and shelter were almost equivalent to that of the beasts as was also health and physical vitality so human beings roamed the entire earth constantly in conflict with all sorts of animals from beasts to poisonous snakes. Such could be said to have been all of human life in those days. As the need for such animalistic, violent behavior by human beings gradually declined, conflict between human beings began and gradually escalated. But through these extreme forms of conflict, human knowledge developed greatly, and after a long period of time, this conflict gave birth to culture. If conflict had not existed from the very beginning, and human beings had led a peaceful existence, humanity would have either remained on the same level as that of primitive times or might have made limited progress. The progress of knowledge, however, would have been slight, and how human beings would have continued to happily accept their underdeveloped lives can be imagined.
As related before, sickness came about and evil was created with the partaking of the forbidden fruit. But because this meaning has not been understood until now, human beings have fallen into a firmly-rooted superstitious belief in the efficacy of medicines, and thus has continued our greatest error. I mentioned above that primitive human beings were healthy in one respect, but as humanity conquered the beasts and came to enjoy a secure life, the strength of the human body declined and human knowledge advanced. Further development included the building of level roads and with the use of beasts and vehicles, human beings were able to travel and move things conveniently without walking. This was the situation in Japan, but in Western countries, in addition, coal came to be burned, and trains were developed to run over rails, to the point that we now have wonderful, convenient media of transportation like cars, airplanes, as well as other mechanical conveniences including radios and the like. Additionally, social institutions such as politics, economics, education, morals, and art—learning that covered all aspects of civilization—were created to try to decrease human suffering and were consummately developed to build the civilization we have today. All were none other than preparation for the construction of paradise on earth.
Thus, the fundamental reasons for the science of medicine were to create human evil and weaken human health, so that through these avenues our present civilization would and did come about. If, however, the present conditions continue as they have, human beings are in danger of exterminating themselves, so further development along present lines will not be allowed. It is the time for a transition in civilization, and thus God has revealed truth to me so that evil may be constrained to a certain extent. It is time for the construction of a world civilization in which good predominates over evil.
Creation of Civilization, unpublished, 1952
translated by cynndd* * *
“Aku no Hassei to Yamai,” now known as the fourth chapter of “Joron” (“Introduction”), the first of the three parts that presently remain of the manuscript for the volume Bunmei no Sōzō (Creation of Civilization), a book that Meishu-sama never published but which is now dated 1952 even though Meishu-sama had started writing it earlier, has appeared in translation. Citation is given below for reference.
“Outbreak of Evil and Illness,” Creation of Civilization, 1978, page 16.