66 years ago, on April 19, 1954, ten months before his ascension, Meishu-sama received a purification—a brain stroke.
After this purification, Meishu-sama said something over and over again—something that was truly grave and important for us followers of Meishu-sama. He said, “From now on, we enter the world of sonen,” that is, the world of mind and thought. “From now on, we enter the world of sonen. Johrei is not so important anymore. Sonen comes first, so pray in your hearts.”
I repeat. Meishu-sama said, “From now on, we enter the world of sonen. Johrei is not so important anymore. Sonen comes first, so pray in your hearts.”
Maybe many of you did not know this statement of Meishu-sama until today or until very recently, but now that you know, what would you do about it? What should we do about it? Should we just ignore it? Should we just interpret it in a way that suits us? So that we can continue what we’ve been doing up until now? Or should we receive it just as it is?
Let me emphasize that this statement, “From now on, we enter the world of sonen. Johrei is not so important anymore” is not something said by Kyoshu-sama. It came from Meishu-sama. It came from Meishu-sama! “Johrei is not so important anymore”—it came from Meishu-sama!
And you know what else? For a very long time, we’ve been ignoring it. This statement of Meishu-sama was published in our official church publication in 1955 right after the ascension of Meishu-sama (Heaven on Earth, no. 68), but we’ve been ignoring it for a long time, saying that “Johrei is the most important practice for us” when Meishu-sama in fact said that it is no longer that important.
One day, when you go to heaven and meet Meishu-sama, he might ask you: “I said to you that Johrei is not so important anymore and that from now on, we enter the world of sonen. Remember this? What have you done about it?” He might ask you something like this.
How are you going to answer this question? What are you going to say to Meishu-sama?
So, we have to decide. How should we respond to this statement of Meishu-sama regarding Johrei and sonen? It is up to each one of us to decide.
To those who decide to ignore it or interpret it in a way that suits their needs, I have nothing to say, except that I hope they can become true followers of Meishu-sama one day.
To those who are willing to accept it and believe in Meishu-sama with all their heart, I have good news: we have Kyoshu-sama with us.
If we accept this statement of Meishu-sama a hundred percent, it is clear that we cannot have Johrei as our main practice any longer, as he is saying that it is not so important anymore. How can we continue something that Meishu-sama said is not so important anymore? And, for us, it is quite hard—isn’t it?—if we have to abandon Johrei altogether.
But Kyoshu-sama is saying that we don’t need to abandon Johrei.
He is saying that the true Johrei is not done by us—with us raising our hands. He is saying that the true Johrei is done by God. Within each one of us, within all humanity, God is raising His hand of Johrei to us. Kyoshu-sama is saying that God emits His light of Johrei to each one of us so that we can return to where the light is, to where God is—so that we can be one with God and live with Him in heaven.
Meishu-sama said, “Johrei is not so important anymore.” Kyoshu-sama is saying that what Meishu-sama meant by this is that the physical act of raising one’s hand when practicing Johrei is “not so important anymore.”
Meishu-sama said, “From now on, we enter the world of sonen. . . . Sonen comes first, . . . so pray in your hearts.” Kyoshu-sama is saying that what Meishu-sama meant by this is that we have to acknowledge that God and His hand of Johrei exist in our hearts and that the true work of Johrei, by God, is carried out within us all the time.
Kyoshu-sama is saying that what Meishu-sama meant by his statement is that God will no longer carry out His work of salvation through us raising our hands of Johrei, but God will carry it out through our hearts.
And what does it mean for God to carry out His work of salvation through our hearts?
In our everyday lives, through many things—like through our relationships with our family, friends or neighbors—many emotions come to our hearts, don’t they?
Those emotions come to you because the light of God is illuminating your hearts. Imagine: when light shines on something, it creates a shadow, doesn’t it? It is exactly like this. All the negative thoughts and feelings you have are like the shadows. God is illuminating your hearts, and He is showing you the shadows so that He can save them.
Our task is to obediently surrender what we feel into the hand of God, because He is always raising His hand of Johrei to us. He is always illuminating our hearts.
Meishu-sama said that from now on we need to pray in our hearts. He is saying that from now on, that is the task of his followers. So let us pray in our hearts and surrender whatever we feel into the hand of God, because that is how we can truly serve in the work of Johrei in the era of sonen.
Now, I need to say something else. When Meishu-sama said that “From now on, we enter the world of sonen. Johrei is not so important anymore,” is he only talking about Johrei? Did he refer only to Johrei? I don’t think so. I think he is also referring to all the physical activities that he left for us including Nature Farming and Art.
Think: Meishu-sama is saying that we are now entering the world of sonen—the world of mind and thought. Sonen, our mind and thought, is something invisible, isn’t it? Meishu-sama is saying that we have entered the world where things invisible come first. That means until then, we were living in the world where things visible came first. And what was the visible activity that was held in the highest regard in our church when Meishu-sama made his statement? Johrei. Isn’t that right?
By saying that “Johrei is not so important anymore” and that “we enter the world of sonen,” Meishu-sama was telling us that God’s salvation will now be carried out not through things visible like Johrei and other physical activities but through things invisible like our sonen, mind and thought.
How revolutionary Meishu-sama was!
He must have known that his followers relied on Johrei so much, but he said that it was not so important anymore. He said that it was time to move on. Why? Wasn’t it because God told him so? Wasn’t it because God told Meishu-sama, “I will now use the sonen of all humanity to advance My salvation”?
And receiving this will of God, Meishu-sama left us this message that is so crucial for us followers of Meishu-sama.
So, how can we ignore this message?
How can we turn away from such an important message that Meishu-sama left for us? And remember, he was in a lot of pain from the brain stroke, too. He left this message while in such pain. Why? Wasn’t it for us? Wasn’t it for all humanity? Wasn’t it for the salvation of all humanity? So now that we know this message of Meishu-sama, how can we ignore it any longer? How can we ignore it?
And we have to remind ourselves: he left this message more than 60 years ago. “From now on, we enter the world of sonen. Johrei is not so important anymore.” He left this message more than 60 years ago!
The time has come for us to wake up. We have to wake up! We can no longer ignore what Meishu-sama left for us. How can we do that?
The time has really come for us to accept Meishu-sama—to accept his true will. And we must thank Kyoshu-sama for allowing us to accept the true will of Meishu-sama.
Actually, “thanking” is not enough, is it? Who taught us the importance of surrendering our thoughts and feelings to God? Who taught us the true meaning of Johrei? Who taught us the true will of Meishu-sama? Without Kyoshu-sama, I am pretty sure we’d still be wandering in the darkness, carrying out the divine work in ways that are convenient for us. Without Kyoshu-sama, we’d still be ignoring Meishu-sama and his true message. We really have to engrave this deep into our hearts, and we should never take any credit for the new faith of Meishu-sama that Kyoshu-sama is now revealing to us.
One last thing: Meishu-sama said that the name of Messiah is the holy name that can bring final salvation. So let us do everything in the name of Messiah so that we can serve in the salvation of the whole world.
Thank you and may God’s grace be with you all.
PDF file: Masaaki-sama’s Message No. 2 – “A new era,” September 2020
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