The Light of Mystic Wisdom(Chiten15)

Question: A member who is the eldest son is married and lives separately from his parents, about three blocks away. The parents practice no faith of any kind, do not perform memorial rites for their ancestors, nor do they make offerings on their family altar, so would it be all right for the eldest son to take the family altar to his home and look after the ancestors?

Question: When a person passes away whose relatives and acquaintances have already all died, and there is no one to look after the deceased spiritually, it is all right to inter the remains in my own family plot with my ancestors?

Answer: There should be no problem, but the weaker the relationship you had with that person in the physical world the lower the level the spirit will be in the spiritual world.

Question: This is the year of the tiger with five yellows and is said to be not good for construction or marriage. Is this true?

Answer: This is a superstition, so all who wish to do these things should go ahead and do them. If you think doing these things in such a year is bad, spirit will become weaker and in that breach, evil spirits can enter.

Question: In your words for the new year, you said that the spiritual world has already entered the world of daylight, but does that mean that the spiritual world will become only a world of gods and that the buddhas will disappear? Or will the buddhas of each sect continue as before?

Answer: The change will not be all at once. Gradually the world of Buddhism will change to the world of gods. What should be noted, though, is that the highest reaches of heaven have been prepared and that the Buddhist hell and purgatory are slowly disappearing.

Question: In a physical condition where you have less energy because of a lack of sleep and you try to channel Johrei, or, if you are drunk and try to channel Johrei, will the Johrei have any effect? Are doing such things disrespectful towards God?

Answer: Medical science holds that a lack of sleep is not good for the health, but I have always said that this is an error. Lack of sleep does not affect me at all. On the other hand, too much sleep can dull the functions of the brain. The women who work in the red light districts in Japan are very quick witted, and this is the category of people who get the least amount of sleep. In most cases, the most important factor is the nerves. I won’t say that alcohol is absolutely bad either. It is a matter of being flexible to meet the circumstances. But the case of a member who drinks to excess and gets drunk is not good. Such actions are proof that that person is not really an individual of faith, so this person’s Johrei will become less effective. There is no problem if you channel to a non-member who is drunk, though.

Question: I have come to understand how great this path is and believe in the great purification to come. I had been thinking of getting married. In the unfortunate case where someone gets romantically involved with and gets to the point of thinking about marriage to another person who does not believe in the path or in the great purification, should this be thought of as a temporary marriage? In the case of marriage with a person like a doctor or a school teacher who does not believe in the great purification, what kind of experience will the couple have during the great purification? How should such circumstances be handled?

Answer: Do not worry about such things. If you fall in love with someone, it is all right to marry them. Even if you fall in love with someone who doesn’t believe, eventually they will believe. You should understand that falling in love is God’s way of beckoning two people to marry.

Question: According to one doctor, when a myoma of the uterus about the size of a three-month old fetus is surgically removed, material which seems like fine hair and fangs come out of the growth. Is there some spiritual meaning to this?

Answer: This is possible. It is called extrauterine pregnancy, but what is cut out is not the fetus of a human being. It is the reborn spirit of a small animal, like a dog or cat. This pet was cherished like a human child in its former life, and because of that affinity, it is reborn. Normal pregnancy is impossible with such a spirit. There is no reason for the child of a human being to have fine hair or fangs.

Question: Female, age forty-six, has been a member since August. She lost her husband four years ago to tongue cancer. She has lived alone and worked since then, but since last June has felt lethargic and her tongue, lips, fingertips, arms, legs are so numb, she can’t work. She started receiving Johrei a month ago and the lethargy has been greatly relieved, but the numbness is still there. She has a Kannon Screen in her family altar. Does this purification have some relationship to her husband’s spirit?

Answer: This condition is caused by possession of her dead husband’s spirit. Prayers should be chanted as often as possible, and the teachings should be read to him. Her condition will gradually improve. She will be healed, but recovery will take quite a while.

Question: My elder brother was suffering from a nervous breakdown and suddenly disappeared about thirty years ago. The family had a Buddhist ascetic read the situation spiritually and he told us that my brother had drowned. The fourth year after my brother went missing, my elder sister (the second daughter, then twenty-one years old) became insane and at the same time, my left side, especially around the head, became affected by neuralgia. When I was around twenty-two years old, through practice of faith in the Nichiren Sect, I was able to become a little healthier, and my sister also made some improvement. A year later, I had a relapse and decided I did not have enough faith, so at Narita Temple, I fasted for twenty-one days and prayed for better health, but instead, my condition worsened and I seemed to be having a nervous breakdown. I joined in October last year and have improved considerably. About fifty years ago, one of the family’s servants fell into the family well and died. In my mother’s family, my mother’s aunt came down with lung disease and was told that if she ate animal brain tissue, she would improve. She tried it but still died. How can my family be saved?

Answer: Your family has much sin. Fasting should never be practiced. From God’s viewpoint, it is wrong. As far as brain tissue is concerned, that is something that human beings should never eat, so one will never improve by consuming it. There is no other way for salvation other than accumulating virtue through the practice of a correct faith.

Question: The child (male, two years old) has had fever and diarrhea for two weeks. The mother has continually suffered from vaginal discharge since the birth. Does the child’s condition have any relationship to his mother’s milk?

Answer: This mother has a lot of toxins. Vaginal discharge is very good. The more she discharges, the more she will heal. The child’s diarrhea is also purification so it is very good.

Question: A female, twenty-seven years old, last year got a lump in her lower abdomen and her ovaries and the lump were surgically removed. The surgical wound has not yet healed, she felt pressure in the chest area, and there were some nights when she couldn’t sleep. With Johrei, she has come to feel a lot better and is able to sleep at nights. The doctor calls it neuralgia, but what is really going on here? And, how should we channel Johrei to her?

Answer: It is a big mistake to think of this as neuralgia. To think like this after joining the church is disrespectful toward the Divine Light Tathagata. Channel Johrei to the affected parts and to the kidneys from the back.

Question: The Divine Light Tathagata scroll in a member’s home was hung straight, but in normal conditions when we face it, it seems to be leaning to the left. When someone prays in front of it, or the Amatsu Norito or Zengen Sanji is chanted, it imperceptibly moves to the correct position or else leans to the right. When the prayer is over, the scroll again moves imperceptibly to leaning left again. Why does such a phenomenon occur?

Answer: Daishogun is the son of Kunitokotachi-no-Mikoto. During the age of the gods, he created a lot of sin for himself. As a way of atoning for that sin, first he possessed Miki Nakayama, the foundress of the Tenrikyo Church so that she would take down its prophetic writings.

Question: I would like to ask about the teaching, “having faith in Buddhist sects that revere The Lotus Sutra is all right for one generation, but after that, it is all right to change denomination.” 1) In the case where the family temple belongs to one of the Nichiren sects and the family has supported the temple for more than two generations, what should they do? 2) If a person changes temple affiliation, should the altar tablets, rituals at the family altar, and location of the ancestors’ grave also be changed? 3) What should we do after we have joined this path?

Answer: Leave matters as they are. People who join the church should leave things as they are. Yes, there is an old saying, “the Lotus for one generation.” Among the Buddhist sects, those that stress The Lotus Sutra can be compared to a flower, which blooms then drops. The day eventually comes when the flower drops so it does not flourish long.

Question: In my family there is the tradition of pasting a piece of paper over the god shelf during a funeral. I believe that because the gods and the buddhas come from the same root, this tradition is not necessary, but what do you think?

Answer: Until now, such a practice was acceptable. It is said that funerals are defiling, but this is strange because all gods must have had the experience of dying. The closer one is to a divine being, the more light one receives and the more one is purified, so hiding the god is a mistake.

Question: In the Ram-Monkey (southwest) direction, I placed a large earthenware jar filled with water instead of making a pond. Is it all right to put goldfish in this jar?

Question: My family has had the tradition during the season of the Festival of the Dead of constructing what we call a “living spirit shelf,” which we make temporarily of wood and to which we move the ancestor tablets for three days only. What do you think about this?

Answer: Your family does this because sometime in the past an ascetic or some such person told your ancestor to do it. It has become a custom, but there is no need for it.

Question: My family has been affiliated with the Pure Land Sect of Buddhism for generations, and it is only my elder brother who is memorialized in a Zen sect. Because it is a Zen sect, his memorial name is different, so I would like to change his affiliation to the Pure Land Sect, but the Zen temple is far away, so I am thinking of making the change at a nearby Pure Land temple. Can this be done?

Answer: There is no great difference among the various Buddhist sects, but the Zen sects are of the higher levels so you should leave his memorial name as is. Before long, all the ancestors will join World Messianity.

Question: For some years after the funeral for economic reasons we have only had a wooden stick for a grave marker and have not put up a headstone. Is this all right?

Answer: This is not good. There is nothing so foolish as not putting up a headstone for economic reasons. The ancestors will arrange for you to get enough money to put up a headstone. After that, it is all right to burn the present grave marker.

Question: I would like to ask about yawning, its cause, and whether or not it is infectious.

Answer: The word “yawn” in Japanese has the same vibratory level as the Japanese word for “malevolent spirit.” When one becomes physically stiff, purification naturally starts and the spirit of toxins comes out through the yawn. In this way, the amount of the material form of toxins decreases. If one person yawns, other people see that, and are induced to yawn also.