Having gratitude and showing appreciation is what separates the people we often hear as “having all the luck” from those who complain and blame others for all their perceived problems.

One of the 21 Precepts of the Church of Perfect Liberty (PL) that was revealed to its founder, Reverend Tokuchika Miki by God on September 29, 1947, is: “All Things Progress And Develop.” The meaning of this is that all things improve. The truth is that things or situations in this world basically change and improve but do not get worse. If things are actually getting worse it’s contrary to this basic truth of God and it’s people who are making the mistakes.

God gives blessings for all things to become better and better. Therefore, day by day we human beings have to move in the direction of improvement.

However, sometimes things do get worse than they were previously because people make mistakes, but since they don’t know they are making mistakes they suffer by having various concerns, or they get confused, or they have unnecessary worries that things will really become even worse. If human beings understand the truth in this world they don’t have to suffer so much or face such difficulties.

Reverend Tokuharu Miki (1871-1938), who founded Hito-no-michi, the predecessor of PL, taught that: “The way of human beings toward God is to only have appreciation.” First of all, we should not forget to appreciate God that we are living because He is letting us live. We can show this appreciation by thanking God each time we receive a blessing and give thanks each day for everything that happened throughout the day. Even if we had unpleasant things occur we have to learn to accept them as experiences to help us improve our lives and then give thanks to God that we had the opportunity to learn something through them. If on the other hand, we tend to take such occurrences as a reason to blame others and things, our lives will not improve.

If we don’t have an attitude to appreciate, then we tend to blame God and others for our personal problems and human misfortunes. This negative attitude will definitely prevent us from progressing as human beings.

People who complain about God are blaming Him instead of themselves. This is an indication of their selfishness. Then, with their faith, they only appreciate it when they gain money or when things are going smoothly; basically they are happy only when things meet their own convenience. One can’t really call this as having a true faith. We human beings should even appreciate that somehow we have been able to live one more day just as we are.

There are people we all know who take everything for granted and never show any appreciation to others for their efforts. It’s as if we owed them a living.

In reality however, our present lives in society rely on a multitude of different types of tasks by thousands of people each and every day. As one simple example, just think about the fresh vegetables we eat. We are dependent on the seed companies who provide the seeds to the farmers, then the farmers who grow the vegetables, the distributors who sell them to the stores, the shippers who deliver them and finally the grocery store staff from whom we purchase them. If it’s prepared foods, then there are a few extra levels of effort involved before getting them to market. Moreover, if we think of the cars and trucks we own, the houses and apartments we live in, the clothes on our backs, we begin to realise just how much we depend on others to survive in this society. Just thinking about this should be enough to make us feel grateful for the efforts of others.

Since God has given us all the raw materials we need to survive on this planet, showing appreciation and giving thanks to others, is in essence giving thanks to God.

When something good happens normal human beings can’t help but to feel grateful and express their appreciation.

However when things go well we often like to pat ourselves on the back thinking, “What a great job I did.” If things continue to go well, we are apt to become conceited, thinking: “This is such a snap. I can do this every time.” It’s just when we start to think this way that things suddenly don’t go the way we wanted. To get the results we want, we must do our utmost effort and then, when we are successful, we must thank God. In this way, we may be successful every time, as long as we don’t forget to show our appreciation.

If we don’t have a mind to appreciate, we may have wonderful things happen, but then suddenly we may be unable to have them recur. Often we tend to misunderstand if something went smoothly, thinking it’s because of our own ability. If we think or express with the attitude that we did something great we end up making mistakes or having accidents.

If we have gratitude and show appreciation to God when things are going well, then we can do them even better the next time. However, if we forget to show appreciation and believe it will still go well the next time, then normally we will find we haven’t understood things very well or we’ve forgotten our past experience. Therefore, even if we think we can use the same method for our next effort, we may be unable to do it.

The correct way is to always have pure appreciation for everything, and whenever something happens lets show our appreciation to God. By always being grateful and showing our appreciation whenever the opportunity arises, we will be more successful and lead more enjoyable lives.

(Author’s note: I’ve used the term “God” but in PL we often say Mioya-ookami “the creator of the universe” and we think of God as the whole of everything. Thus one could also substitute “The Universe” for God.)

To explain PL’s unique powerful Oyashikiri Prayer, the move­ments we make in performing it and the five syllable word ‘O-ya-shi-ki-ri,’ were received from God by Reverend Tokuchika Miki, PL’s spiritual leader. He originally prayed to God for a unique prayer form that PL could use when it first started in September 1946, and as a result, the basic form PL now uses was revealed to him. Later on he prayed for a word by which the mem­bers could immediately reach God and this word, Oyashi­kiri, was revealed to him on May 29, 1958. This divine word used within the original prayer form is what constitutes the Oyashikiri Prayer.

The hands above the head movement of the prayer form is sim­i­lar to the prayer of the Tibetan monks and it represents our self in complete oneness with God, while the position of the hands together in prayer under the chin with the head slightly bowed, is common to Christianity and many other religions.

The word Oyashikiri itself, even uttered separately from the prayer form, is used by PL members all over the world when they face difficulties. Repeating Oyashikiri out loud or in our minds has a calming effect. It is also well known in PL to have saved the lives of countless members in dangerous situations over the years.

It’s important for PL members to learn the Oyashi­kiri Prayer and to use it to assist them for important matters such as pain, illness, misfortune, praying for success in getting a new job, praying for a sick family member, praying to pass an exam, and for countless other things.

Quite often my wife and I will do the Oyashikiri Prayer for things either together or separately, depending on whether they are for family or personal matters.

PL also has the Shikiri Prayer which we can use for many things throughout the day. This is a short, sincere and firm prayer to God using the PL prayer form and asking assistance for things like: ‘I’m going shopping. Please bless me to drive safely there and back and for me to find the things I want to purchase.’

I personally pray the Shi­kiri Prayer many times each day to ask for God’s blessings through­out the day. Then in the evening, while doing my evening prayers, I give thanks through the Shikiri Prayer for the things that have happened during the day. Even for negative things I give thanks that I had the opportunity to learn through them.

The main thing that those performing these prayers must understand is that prayers alone will achieve nothing. God expects us to do our human effort as well and the results we receive are directly proportional to the efforts we make.

Bill Trotter

It seems that traditional religious and social moral values now mean very little and the perpetrators of such acts have absolutely no idea there is a consequence for everything they do. They seem to believe that if they don’t get caught everything will be fine. But getting off scott-free does not exist in our universe; we must always pay for any senseless actions against others.

One of the things I really like about the PL faith (theChurchofPerfect Liberty) is the understanding that we all have a bank account of virtue with God. What this means is that most of us are born with a certain amount of virtue within our family stream from our ancestors. If however, we are so unlucky that our parents or ancestors were involved in harming others for their own convenience, then the balance of this bank account may be negative or we could say we have a bank account of vice. In other words the account has gone into the red.

On the other hand, if our parents and ancestors always did their best to harmonise with others and help them, then the bank account we inherited may have accumulated a great deal of virtue. In this case other people may call us lucky because we will have many positive things happen in our lives.

In PL we not only consider the social consequences of what we do, but also God’s universal laws for humankind. God’s laws that we are most familiar with include the laws of physics, such as the law of gravity and other laws for natural phenomena. But His laws for humankind operate the same way.

Thus God can’t be thought of like a person who metes out punishment to some and favours others. We think of God as the whole, the totality of everything, the energy of the universe and His laws are equal and unyielding for everyone.

God’s laws work by action and reaction. In other words, if we do our best for others whether it’s for our family or other people, that’s an action and the reaction is that we build virtue for ourselves and our family. If however, we harm or even kill others then that’s our action and the reaction through God’s law for humankind is that we create vices for ourselves and our descendants.

To explain what I mean, let’s take the example of suicide bombing terrorists who kill many people with no thought for those they kill and maim. These fanatical individuals have instantaneously created huge vices for their families and their descendants. The reaction is that such violent acts are completely contrary to God’s law that’s stated in PL Precept 14, ‘World Peace Is Everything.’ In other words, the order of the universe is towards peace and harmony, where acts of terrorism are completely and absolutely unacceptable. Thus the consequences for the surviving family members will be dire until this debt to the universe is repaid, if it ever can be.

If however we move along with the flow of the universe; the direction in which God’s creation is moving, then we will be fortunate and be able to build virtue for ourselves and our descendants. But if we move against the flow of the universe, contravening God’s laws, we will create misfortune for ourselves. Also, depending on the severity of our actions, this misfortune may negatively affect our present and future family stream as well.

Some of these misfortunes that are created could also include things like never being successful in life, having numerous financial disasters, suffering from many serious sicknesses or having accidents occur among one’s family members. These sorts of calamities can continue generation after generation until the debt of vices has been repaid.

If however some family members became aware of what has happened and realise the vice that’s been created in their family stream, they could do their best to overcome this debt of vice by working toward world peace in helping others. If they do their best effort in this regard, their own family fortune will gradually improve.

Thus, even though we don’t see the vices and virtues of each family, their family history could tell us a great deal. In PL we have ways of determining the cause of a Mishirase (an illness, accident, misfortune or suffering) and these can reveal whether they are the sins of ones’ past family line or caused by one’s own incorrect unconscious habits.

Nevertheless, the important point is that we need to teach people that there is a consequence for all their actions. Perhaps only then will everyone understand that one way or another they are all ultimately accountable for all their negative actions and especially those that disturb others’ lives.

Bill Trotter

The information centre was quite new, very large and had a great deal of material. It even had a room with a huge horizontal relief map of the area in large scale. There was also a number of staff and volunteers to assist those seeking information and a very pleasant senior gentleman came to help us. He was very enthusiastic and explained the history of the region in great detail as he was pointing out the areas we wanted to see. We soon learned that Geelong used to be an important port for sailing vessels and that during the gold rush of the 1800’s thousands of foreigners, including many Chinese came to try and make their fortune. Indeed the town has many beautiful old brick buildings from that era.

The gentleman assisting us kept handing us more and more maps and at first it was quite interesting, but I think he just loves the history of the region and we got him going with all our questions. He began giving us material on many places we knew we wouldn’t have any time to visit and explained about each of them in exquisite detail. Nevertheless, he thought they were all worth a visit. Slowly I began to get annoyed because we couldn’t get away from him and the more I became irritated, the more he continued even more enthusiastically. He even began giving us maps he had already handed us. Anyway, we were finally able to gracefully thank him and make a quick exit. But by that time I was very irritated because we wanted to spend time looking around, not viewing countless maps and brochures.

As soon as we left I began to sneeze, and within about 10 minutes I had developed a full head cold. I couldn’t believe it! Never before have I had a cold that consumed me so rapidly. My nose and head were completely stuffed up.

We drove to our motel where we found there had been a mix up with our reservation being cancelled and they had no more rooms. However, the couple running the motel were very apologetic and managed to find us a room in a nearby motel which turned out to be cheaper and almost the same quality.

I realised that I was suffering from a full head cold because of the irritated state of mind I had while at the visitor information centre. So I took out my portable Omitama (prayer symbol) and did a sincere prayer of apology and then rested for awhile after taking several vitamin C pills we had with us. I had hoped to get rid of my cold as quickly as it had developed. Unfortunately God was not going to let me get off that easily.

I knew that I would have trouble going to the wedding the next day in the state I was in, so I did an Oyashikiri Prayer several more times that day. By the time I went to bed my situation had not improved at all. Surprisingly though, when I got up the next morning I was completely free of the cold. I didn’t even have so much as a trace of it.

To ensure it wouldn’t return, I immediately did a prayer of appreciation to God and again apologised for having had such an irritated state of mind.

As a minister, I have to be very careful because God is very strict if we do things that we know we should not be doing. This is particularly true if we are teaching others not to do things like being irritated, but then we do them ourselves. In my case it was even worse because I noticed later on that a recent Mioshie (divine instruction) I was practising had the line: “I shall not have a mind to be irritated about anything.” I had forgotten this line.

I think I recovered overnight because I took my Mishirase positively as God’s severe teaching. Nevertheless, I was shocked that I could become ill so rapidly and I felt as the First Founder (Tokuharu Miki) did when he said the only thing he feared was God. I realised just how rapidly we can have a Mishirase occur if we do things that are contrary to God’s way. The problem is that we may not even notice we are doing them and that’s the fearful part. So we have to be alert at all times.

I truly appreciate that God gave me an opportunity to fully understand and practice the line in my Mioshie. Sometimes we need a shock like this to clearly realise our bad habits so that we can change them and improve our lives.

Bill Trotter

In writing this article I’m expressing myself. Then if I get up for a break to go and get a cup of tea, I’m expressing myself the whole time from getting up, walking to the kitchen, filling the kettle with water and starting it, getting a tea bag and putting it into the teapot, taking a mug from the cupboard, pouring the boiling water into the teapot, waiting for the tea to steep, pouring the tea into my mug and then adding milk I’ve taken from the refrigerator and then walking back to my computer with the tea. While doing all of this I’ve done nothing other than express myself and even my brain has been operating by thinking, but there again that’s myself expressing through my thoughts.

Even if we are driving, working at our job whether it’s a government desk job or working as a labourer, an engineer, an architect or a doctor, all we do all day long is express ourselves and when we are asleep, we are still expressing as we breath, dream, move around and perhaps snore.

However, there is a difference in how you express yourself in doing things in daily life versus how I do them, or how my wife does them. For example, in getting a cup of tea as I mentioned above, there may be some very subtle differences such as how long you let the tea steep in the pot and do you heat up the pot by washing it out with some of the boiling water before putting the tea bag into it. Thus your tea may taste slightly different than mine.

Nevertheless, the main difference in your tea and mine will be the amount of ‘Makoto’ we each put into making it. Makoto is a Japanese word, but in PL we capitalise it because we give it a much stronger special meaning. That meaning is to do things with your ‘full heartfelt sincerity’. When you do things with your heartfelt sincerity people can notice the difference. It’s because you are also putting your mind into it, which is more than just concentrating on doing your effort. It’s almost like putting the energy of who you are into it; it’s putting your soul into it.

None of us were born exactly the same. Each of us have our own unique individuality that we were given at birth. This is the most precious gift we have ever been given, and we received it with the expectation that we express it fully throughout our lives. Thus, we should always be expressing ourselves with Makoto. When we do this our true unique individuality will shine through and we will experience true human joy.

In talking about expressing our Makoto, I’ve used the rather mundane example of making tea. However let’s take something more complicated than just making tea, something like writing, painting a picture, making furniture, singing a song or even acting, then we start to see huge differences between the results of how you did any of these things versus how I or anyone else did them, especially if they have been given a natural aptitude to be able to do them and have seriously practised doing them.

Let’s suppose we each had the same aptitude for doing something like singing, then what will separate us in the results will be our Makoto. You can clearly distinguish the difference when one person has done their Makoto effort and another person has not, even if they have the same aptitude. The person who has done their Makoto effort will experience more joy and the results will be quite clear. Furthermore, the expression of who they are as an individual (their uniqueness) will clearly stand out.

We can certainly see examples of this in singers as diverse in styles as John Lennon, Elvis Presley, Susan Boyle, Luciano Pavarotti, Eric Clapton and many hundreds of others. Again in writing, there is such diversity with even a few well known authors such as Robert Lewis Stephenson, Charles Dickens, Emily Bronte, Bryce Courtenay and countless others. However the important point to remember is that the major difference between all the singers and all the writers is their unique individuality which stands out for all to see and recognise as theirs.

By hearing a singer and reading a book of a well-known author we all know and recognise the distinct personal differences between each of them. This is true whether it’s singers, writers, sculptors, painters, remarkable politicians, architects, surgeons, home builders, or whatever they happen to be, it’s their individuality that stands out. Also, if they are well known, they have obviously put their Makoto into their expressions.

However, our individuality is clear in whatever we are doing if we do it with our Makoto effort. All these singers and writers I’ve listed and any other well known people you wish to add were all normal people who expressed themselves with Makoto. As a result their individuality is there for all to see.

Nevertheless, we all express our individuality in some way, but the uniqueness of who we are becomes clearer and more outstanding the more we put our Makoto into it. So even if it’s making a meal for our family, raising our children, working at a store or some other business, if we do our Makoto effort our individuality will be reflected in it and we will feel the true joy of having done our best.

One of the meanings of the first PL Precept, ‘Life Is Art,’ is that we create art in our lives when we express ourselves by doing our Makoto effort. Thus ‘art’ can be created by those who do their full sincere heartfelt effort in all they do, no matter how elegant or mundane and their unique individuality will be reflected in what they’ve done.

Bill Trotter

A truly humble state of mind is demonstrated by those who can apologise easily to others. However, people who think they are right won’t apologise. They tend to be conceited and those situations for which they don’t apologise will not improve. For example, you should apologise to your child if you got unnecessarily angry with him or her or with your spouse or basically with anyone you relate to in daily life.

When we begin in PL, the Mioshies (God’s divine instructions) we receive are rather gentle, but as we grow in our understanding they become much stricter. Then, as we begin to receive Mioshies that state “to apologize,” if we sincerely apologise to God, we can get rid of the problem. In fact, we can completely erase the problem if we are serious enough by taking the apology to heart before God.

To illustrate this point, I will use the example of a situation which occurred with a PL couple in Japan. This couple had a daughter who was in the third year of high school and she had always been very thoughtful and pleasant, but suddenly she left home. The couple was quite surprised, so they immediately asked for a Mioshie.

This Mioshie really shocked them because it said that there was a time when the wife was pregnant that she had a state of mind of separating from her husband. Also, the content indicated they were fighting every day and said to apologise for this sin. Actually, the husband had a girlfriend at the time and he wouldn’t come home until 1:00 a.m. or later and they would fight every night. Both the husband and wife had the content in their Mioshies to apologise to God. However, the wife’s Mioshie was stricter because in addition to wanting to separate, she also tried to commit suicide.

They both accepted their Mioshies from the bottom of their hearts and started to ask forgiveness. They went to church every day to offer Hosho (PL’s blessed voluntary offering given by its members) and do the Oyashikiri Prayer even though they were extremely busy in their business.

One month later they received a letter from their daughter and the very next day she returned. She had been influenced by bad friends and was living with them. But she couldn’t forget her mother and one night she had a dream about her and then suddenly changed her mind and returned home. God had allowed the parents to be free from their Mishirases (divine warnings) by their sincere apologises for their mistakes.

Apologising is the payment of a debt which has been built up. It’s erasing a dirty blackboard. Since we are all imperfect it is easy to make mistakes.

The depth of an apology can be illustrated by the following example. Some years ago, the main secretary to the Second Founder made a very bad error and was quite upset by it, so he verbally apologised to the Second Founder.

However, from that time on the Second Founder treated him coolly. The secretary thought that Oshieoya-sama (the Second Founder) no longer liked him. But one day when he was talking to one of the Yusos (a minister at a high spiritual level) he happened to mention about the error and the Yuso asked him whether he had deeply apologised to God and that perhaps his verbal apology was not deep enough.

He took these words seriously and the very next day went alone to the Founders’ Tomb where he did Hosho and apologised very deeply to God for a long time. Later that day, he saw Oshieoya-sama and before he could say anything, he asked him how he was and was very cheerful to him. He was amazed because no one knew he had gone to the Founder’s Tomb to apologise. But Oshieoya-sama lived by his intuition and his reaction to the secretary was based on this intuition that comes from God.

Through a sincere apology we can develop a completely refreshed Shikirized (having a firm decision before God) state of mind. Even if we recognise our errors, it’s usually our stubborn conceited attitude that keeps us from apologising.

Those having truly humble states of mind can admire other people’s positive attributes without pinpointing their faults. They can also apologise sincerely, even though the person to whom they are apologising may also be at fault as well.

As I mentioned previously, apologising is to pay a debt and like owing money to a bank, if you can repay the debt you will be able to have a fresh start for a new loan if you need one. If you repay God’s debt by apologising, God will give you a refreshed mind for a new start.

We are now watching a TV program called ‘The One’ that is trying to find the best psychic from ten psychics in Australia. The first day they had to find a rescue helicopter in a large thick forest area and four out of the ten psychics successfully found it. It was fun to watch it because each of them was wearing a tracking device so we could see what they were doing and hear what they were saying in their effort to find the helicopter.

In the second week, they had to find a jewel thief (an actor) who was sitting in a moving train and they only had his knapsack from which to get some feeling of who he was. Next they had to discover what kind of health problems two people had out of four volunteers.

Every week one person who doesn’t perform well is eliminated and the last psychic remaining will be announced as ‘The One’; the most gifted psychic.

We had a similar program last year and the chosen one from seven psychics was Charmaine Wilson fromBrisbane.

I’m always interested in and respect people who have psychic abilities. However I truly believe that the most gifted psychic that I have ever heard about was the PL Spiritual Father, Rev. Tokumitsu Kanada (1863-1919).

Shortly after we joined PL, our minister had a section from a printed copy of Rev. Kanada’s biography and upon reading it I was startled by his abilities. Then in 1998, I had the opportunity to visit the holy land of Shizen-sha near Osaka, a group which shares the same origin as we do with Rev. Kanada’s teachings, and they are the ones who had published the book of his biography and I immediately bought one.

I was so interested in his biography that I translated it for my husband who doesn’t speak Japanese. Rev. Kanada had an uncanny ability to heal the suffering of all kinds of people. He would not only tell them what their health problems were, but he could also pinpoint their mental habits that were the cause of their suffering. Sometimes he even accurately pointed out the wrong doing of their ancestors that was the cause of their suffering.

He not only healed sicknesses but he could also point out where there were mineral deposits that could be mined and he could even predict the stock market. However he didn’t like to use these abilities to help people make a profit without their effort, so he stopped doing this.

Rev. Kanada could see ghosts and was the first person inJapanto take a picture of one using a photographic camera plate. He could also remove ghosts that were disturbing others.

One day, when travelling by train, he was looking out at the rice fields they were passing through and noticed some were doing very well and others’ did not look too healthy and he discovered the cause of the difference through his intuition. This lead to his divine instruction to help the rice farmers and he was also able to provide great help to  farmers that had insect problems.

He was becoming so popular that the authorities were worried and he was twice called into a police station to have his psychic ability tested. Both times he had people placed before him and he was asked to tell the police what their health problems were. He successfully pointed out in great detail the health of each individual. Both times the authorities were completely convinced of his psychic abilities and let him go.

He was an extremely humble man who treated all people with pure respect. He knew he could help people even after his death, so he gave his will to his disciple Rev. Tokuharu Miki, the successor of his teachings. After five years of strictly following Rev. Kanada’s will, Rev. Tokuharu Miki himself received almost the same psychic abilities to continue the teachings to help other people. These abilities were also later passed on to his son, Tokuchika Miki, PL’s founder.

Having been a PL member since 1981, I firmly believe that all of us who wish to sincerely follow and put our minds into the precious PL teachings, can through deep faith and practice be given the necessary psychic abilities to help others through the PL Founders, even though we may be just ordinary people who have not received any ‘psychic gifts.’

I feel I’m extremely lucky to have found these teachings and will do my very best to continue translating all the major printed material for the English-speaking world to learn from and understand.

誰が一番の霊能者

今、オーストラリアのテレビで“The One” という１０人の霊能者の中から一番すぐれた人が最後の一人としてオーストラリアの一番すぐれた霊能者として選ばれる番組があります。最初の日は、大きな広い森の中に、救助用のヘリコプターが設置してあり、どこにあるかを一人一人が直感で見つけてヘリコプターまで決められた時間内に着く事で１０人の中の４人が無事ヘリコプターにたどりつきました。この場合、森の中をあるく霊能者の状態と何を言っているか、どこで間違いをおかしたかが分るよう装置を付けてあり、見ていてとても興味がありました。

２回目は、電車の中にすわっている宝石泥棒を演じている人をみつけるのです。同じ日の次の課題は、４人の健康に問題のある人の中から２人の問題を指摘する課題でした。

毎週、与えられた課題が上手く出来ない人の中から１人が去り、最後に残った１人がオーストラリアで一番の霊能者とされる。去年も同じようなのがあり、７人の霊能者の中から最後に残ったブリスベーンのウィルソンさんが霊能者と指摘されました。

私は昔から霊能者には興味があり又、それぞれの違った能力を尊敬していました。でも私が霊能者として、もっとも尊敬する方は私達の教えの幽祖、金田徳光先生だと思います。ＰＬに入会して、すぐに私はＰＬ教師にプリントされた金田徳光伝の一部を見せてもらい、金田先生の霊能者としての力に、ただ驚きました。その後１９９８年に機会があって金田徳光伝を出版された自然社にお参りし、自然社出版の金田徳光伝を買いました。自然社では、金田徳光先生を教祖として大切にまつっておられます。私は金田先生の伝記で金田先生の一生を知り主人は日本語が分らないので英訳して渡しました。金田先生は信じられない程の霊能者で、多くの人を病気から救い、又、病気の原因がそれぞれの心癖にある事を指摘されました。その上、先生は病気の原因が先祖が間違った事をした事を指摘され病気が治った事も何度もありました。先生は、病気を治すだけでなく、鉱脈がどこにあるかとか株式市場も立派にあてられました。でも、鉱脈を教えたり、株式で努力もせずに利益を得ようと集まる人には、教えられませんでした。先生は、日本で初めて幽霊の写真を撮られたり、幽霊で害のある家の問題を解決されたりしました。

ある時、先生は弟子達と汽車で旅している時、稲のよく実っている畑と実っていない畑を見て、その原因を理解されました。これが、稲作農家のみおしえとなり、その後、果樹園でひどい害虫の問題があり、それにも、原因を指摘され、実行された会員さんは、問題を解決されました。

金田先生の評判は人から人に伝わり、大変な人気となり、この事で先生は警察署に２回程呼び出され、先生の霊能力を試されています。２回とも警察は先生の前に人をつれてきて病気の問題を指摘させられています。先生は、どの方の問題も細かく正確に指摘されました。２回とも警察は、先生の霊能性は間違いないと分り、家に帰る事を許されました。

先生は、本当に謙虚な方で、いかなる人も尊敬され、助けておられます。それだけでなく先生は、死後も幽界から力をかす事が出来ると知っておられ、先生の教えを弟子の御木徳一先生(初代教祖)に遺言としてのこされています。御木徳一先生は真剣に金田先生の遺言を５年間守り、ついに金田先生と同じような霊能者となられ、先生の教えを世に伝えられました。その能力は御木徳一先生の息子の御木徳近先生(二代教祖)にも与えられ、先生は戦後新しくＰＬをおこされました。

私と主人は、１９８１年にＰＬに入会しました。　私はＰＬ信仰者は誰でも、ひとすじにこの尊い教えを心から信じ、実行していけば、霊能者ではなくても教祖様達の残された霊能性を頂き、必要に応じて人世の為になれると信じております。

私は、この教えに出会えた事をとても感謝し、私に出来る最善を尽くして英訳し、後世に残していこうと思っています。

Just before I was sent to a new posting as a minister at a location where they were about to build a new church, I was given three instructions by the Area Chief:

1. The present church building is being provided by a special assistant minister and it has about a dozen cats. First, you have to become friends with the cats.
2. The cats are disturbing our art of propagation, so please find a way to eliminate all the cats before the completion of the new church.
3. Don’t worry about failure just do as you see fit without compromising.

I don’t like animals, especially cats. I get goose bumps just by looking at them.

So I went to my new posting with a heavy heart. At the entrance, I received a great welcome from all the cats, and I screamed. Everyone had come to greet me and the special assistant minister and members laughed loudly at me. I said to myself and to the cats, “Your future here is only until the completion of the new church. I’m not going to give in to any mistreatment you may cause me. Okay?”

The next morning while giving an arrival speech to the members, four or five cats interrupted me by jumping onto the lectern one by one. “I’m going to do my best effort to make church art, so I will give you interesting talks you will want to hear no matter how much these cats try to disrupt me.” I gave an impertinent speech and felt the members suddenly becoming quiet, but I continued to do my best, recalling the Area Chief’s words: “Do as you see fit without compromising.”

I was bothered by the cats’ disturbances, but after a month, these lessened because I didn’t take them seriously. As well, I felt my hatred of cats disappearing.

One day, while I was doing the Oyashikiri Prayer for Mr. T, who was one of the executive members of the church, the head cat sat on Mr. T’s Oyashikiri wishes and tried to disturb me. I told the cat, “Please move away because this is an important Oyashikiri Prayer.” However, he didn’t move at all.

These incidents continued for four or five days and I realised that it was a Mishirase (God’s divine warning). I reported this to the Area Chief. He gave me the consultation, “Live paying close attention to even small matters with an alert state of mind.”

That night the head cat came to my bedroom along with his subordinates. I got a weird feeling from their unusual cries, so I went to the special assistant minister’s room taking a club and a light with me.

The special assistant minister told me, “I can hear some noise at the construction site.” So I went out to the construction site by myself.

I saw Mr. T putting wood construction materials into a bicycle trailer. I yelled at him, “What are you doing there?” But he ran away, leaving his cart behind.

I reported this to my Area Chief by telephone and he told me, “Check the donations for construction materials and the relationship with each payment very carefully.” By doing this, we discovered the wrongdoing of Mr. T, who was supposed to be taking care of the accounting. I was given a stern order from my Area Chief, “Tell Mr. T that he is strictly forbidden to come to the church.”

For an incident like this, I felt I had to act right away. So I asked the President of Hoshi‑in (the member’s group that looks after church financial matters) to accompany me and I told this to Mr. T, in front of the church Omitama (prayer symbol). As soon as I finished giving the message to Mr. T, the head cat suddenly jumped between Mr. T and me and fell down screeching. Mr. T had thrust a dagger at me, but the head cat had sacrificed his life for mine.

After the head cat’s death, the other cats started to move away, one after the other, and before the construction was completed, they had all completely disappeared.

The special assistant minister was shocked because all her cats had disappeared. Interestingly, the Mioshie (God’s divine teaching) for this continued Mishirase was given only to her, and she deeply reflected on her mistakes. I also apologised to her from the bottom of my heart because I had caused her such sadness and suffering with the loss of her cats.

Through this experience, I learned the importance of teaching others not to compromise and I also reflected on my bad habit of rejecting things.

(From the “Book of Testimonies,” by Midori Oka, Printed by Geisei Publishing, 1997, pp.72‑76)

We refer to Perfect Liberty as a “spiritual religion,” but the term spiritual needs to be defined for readers to clearly understand our meaning. First of all, we don’t do things like communicate with the spirit world through mediums. Our means of communicating with God and His realm is through our effective prayers.

We believe God intended that we live our lives in the physical world in which we now exist, concentrating on doing our best in the present moment. Why else would we be born here? However, some people spend a great deal of their lives trying to understand the spiritual world or do extreme effort to prepare themselves for when they pass over after death. Therefore PL’s main focus is on helping its members live enjoyable daily lives doing their best effort at each moment. This is the way we can live fulfilled happy lives.

Basically we use the term spiritual to describe how theChurchofPerfect Libertywas created. Three generations of men, beginning in 1863 with the birth of Tokumitsu Kanada, dedicated their lives for world peace while teaching God’s true way for humankind. Reverend Kanada was born with amazing psychic gifts, which included being able to read other peoples’ minds, knowing the illnesses and disabilities of others just by meeting them, being able to take the suffering of others on his own body and then passing them off to God. Thus the suffering individual was freed of his or her illness. He performed numerous miracles like this.

Reverend Kanada could also pinpoint where precious metals were located underground. This very humble man also lived almost entirely by his intuition rather than his logical/intellectual mind. In 1916 he started his own church and two men, Tokuharu Miki and his son Tokuchika Miki became his disciples.

Although Tokumitsu  Kanada had many ministers in his church when he died in 1919, the only one he trusted to take over from him was Tokuharu Miki. In his will to Tokuharu Miki, Reverend Kanada gave him a very difficult task to perform over 5 years. He thoroughly dedicated himself to this task, which created many difficulties for both he and his family. Nevertheless when he successfully completed it, he was automatically given many of the powers that Reverend Kanada had possessed and he was able to start a new religion in 1924 and continue the teachings that Reverend Kanada started.

In September 27 1936, Reverend Tokuharu Miki named his son Tokuchika Miki as his successor. Then suddenly the very next day the police seized Tokuharu Miki. It was the beginning of the suppression of the religion called The Way for Humankind (Hito-no-michi) by the military authorities that hated this fast growing organisation that already had over 1 million members. They were afraid of the influence this religion would have on the people ofJapanteaching about working toward world peace.

Because of the many injections given to Tokuharu Miki to force him to make a confession agreeing he had committed treason, he became quite weak and was released, but never regained his full strength and died in July 1938.

Tokuchika Miki tried to keep the teachings alive through different means during the war years such as having meetings of a tanka poem group and starting a movie making company while his fight with the courts continued. Nevertheless he was in and out of prison while trying in vain to clear himself and the organisation from accusations of treason. He was finally declared guilty and thrown into prison where he remained and almost died many times, but was finally released by General Douglas MacArthur in 1945 and cleared of any wrongdoing.

On September 29, 1946, Reverend Tokuchika Miki declared that a new religion called Perfect Liberty Kyodan had been formed with the help of the former Hito-no-michi members and ministers. A year later he received the PL 21 Precepts from God as His way for humankind in this present era.

In 1936, when Tokuchika Miki was declared the successor to Tokuharu Miki, the same abilities his father had were passed on him when he did his oath with God to accept the position. He used these abilities to establish theChurchofPerfect Libertyand spread the teachings to many countries.

Tokuchika Miki always said he didn’t know anything, but when he needed to know something it would come to him. Also, when he was going to give a talk he prayed to God describing whatever group he would be addressing and asked Him that he be able to speak about topics that would be good for his audience. That’s all he did, he never prepared, and the words always just came to him.

In conclusion, I can say that the main aspect of PL that we consider spiritual is the high level of intuition that the 3 founders attained. Through this acutely developed intuition they were all able to receive direction from the spiritual realm.

In PL we help members reach the level of spiritual development they wish to achieve and everyone has the potential to reach a high level, but of course it requires a strong desire, a persistent commitment and effort. Nevertheless, nearly all of us can improve the everyday use of our intuition without too much effort and this can aid us in so many ways.

On March 11, 2011, we had an unimaginable disaster of massive proportions with a magnitude 9 earthquake, followed by a horrific tsunami and then the catastrophic meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear plant in the Tohoku area, beginning with a hydrogen gas explosion.

From the very foundation of our Japanese way of life we have been badly frightened, shaken and have had no choice but to change how we live and think.

Some people have said these horrendous events were punishment from God for the Japanese people who have forgotten their spiritual connections and have just been content in seeking a convenient and comfortable life since the war. The things we had thought were normal until that time were just gone in a flash. Therefore I think many people are confused about what they should do and believe.
Now more than ever, people need religious faith and direction. The PL teachings, beginning with “Life Is Art” and “To Live Is to Express One’s Self,” are like a guiding light to teach us to live positively, never giving up hope, which leads us to live a happier life.

Some of the PL members probably intuitively felt, “These massive disasters that have hit us must be ‘Mishirases’ (God’s divine warnings).” I can truly say that this huge disaster is truly God’s warning for our country and the Japanese people.
All things that exist in this world are connected to one another. We are living as part of the whole, which we call God and we have each been allowed to live.

If we compare God to the ocean, then each of us are like a drop of water. In other words, we can say it’s like a drop of water from a river. We are each given a part of the universal soul just like a drop of water from God when we are born and then that drop goes back to God again at our life’s end. We always have to live not forgetting God and have the state of mind to connect with Him.

The misfortunes or disasters you have encountered have not just been given to you, but are for all of us. In other words, other people’s misfortunes or disasters they have suffered are also yours as well. In this sense, the meaning of your existence is unlimited. Therefore you also have infinite freedom and responsibility to create and make art of your life.

You shouldn’t think of your life as being limited and inconvenient. You are connected to all people and also all things in this world. PL Precept number 7 teaches us that “Everything Exists in Relativity.” Also “everything is kamwaza” (God’s act). To cut our way through kamwaza is only by our Makoto effort (sincere heartfelt effort). Doing our full Makoto for everything is our art. We should always keep in mind that: “God gives us blessings and we should have nothing but gratitude.”

You’ve been given the freedom to create your own life by your art. The PL teachings guide you to enjoy this wonderful life by understanding this important responsibility.