God and Man ～Guideposts for Spiritual Peace and Awakening
ー Written by Masahisa Goi
Chapter 6⑦： True Religions and Mistaken Religions
Religions that explain karma but do not teach how to purify it cannot free people from their errors. This is because they cause people to get caught up in the idea of karma and to gradually lose the infinitely free spirit that human beings innately have. This drives people into a life of anxiety that is far from spiritual peace and awakening.
If one explains karma, without fail one must teach how to purify the karma, and one must be sure to teach that a human being's original Self is God.
The same applies to teaching cause and effect in terms of the law of thought (law of the mind). To point out that this misfortune or that illness is 'all the shadow of your own mind' is an example in point. It is true that one's fate in the world of shapes and forms(※21) is all the shadow of the mind. However there are not many instances where the illness or misfortune that a person is experiencing now manifests a mistaken thought which that person remembers. Most illnesses or misfortunes are manifestations of thoughts that were stored in the subconscious, including thoughts from previous existences which a person cannot remember. Also, there are many cases where a person is responding to the mistaken thoughts of ancestors or other deceased people who are in some way connected with him or her.
I know very well that just telling people 'your misfortune (or illness) is the shadow of your mind,' without giving any thought to this principle, often hurts those people rather than helping them. Such words come from a lack of love, where knowledge is separate from wisdom. I do not think that a warmhearted, deeply loving person would be able to utter words that pierce into a painful spot or deep wound in another's heart. Rather, a loving person could not help feeling compassion for others in their misfortune.
However true the words may be, if the listener's state of mind is far from those words of truth, the words will have little effect. Or, if one preaches a lofty ideal to someone who is panting of hunger, the effectiveness will be almost nil.
Eye of truth come down.
Because you are so high
This world is dark.
So sang a poet.(※22) But this might be the cry of physical human beings in general. A teaching that ignores this cry cannot deliver humanity from its errors.
'Cause one' must be erased by 'effect one,' and 'cause two' must be erased by 'effect two.' 'Cause one' cannot be erased by 'effect ten,' and might be deepened by it instead. (Note: 'one' stands for a low thought and 'ten' stands for a high ideal.)
Even if you believe that beef (words of truth) is nourishing, if you were served nothing but beef at every meal, it might be too much for you. And if, because you said that you wanted to eat dinosaur meat (wanted to know the truth), a whole dinosaur were placed in front of you, you would be able to do nothing with it.
Leaders must always be guided by love and divine wisdom; otherwise they will lead humanity into misery.
Now, since I believe I have set forth some general guidelines on how to distinguish true religions from mistaken ones, I shall go on in the next chapter to describe my method of prayer.
※21: The world of 'shapes and forms' is the same as the physical, or phenomenal, world.
※22: The name of the poet is Genzo Sarashina.
To be continued in Chapter 7①
Dios y el Ser Humano (Spanish Edition)
Deus e o Homem (Portuguese Edition)
