Ingenuity means ‘ideas’.

People often think that ideas come to you if you sit there daydreaming, or that some people are born with a natural talent for ideas. But from my own experience, I can say that this is not necessarily the case.

Ideas come to you through the accumulation of a certain process: trying to study and learn from new things, and when questions arise, undertaking further study to try to discover more.

‘Knowing’ is an important thing. It is almost impossible to pioneer in something without background knowledge of the field. And taking that pioneering discovery and turning it into something constructive is not an easy thing.

Accumulation of Learning

If the consumption tax is raised by 3% it is said that, for instance, a newspaper will lose 3% of its readers. Newspapers will face difficulties, and so they will have to use their ingenuity in order to survive.

Newspaper companies such as Sankei and Yomiuri Shimbun have adopted a Happy Science approach. What I mean is, they have started to confidently publish their strong opinions, like we do at Happy Science.

I read on Yomiuri Shimbun this morning, something that sounded very much like what the leader of the Happiness Realization Party has been saying. They seem to be studying our teaching very closely. Our party leader often compared Japan’s reaction towards its national defense crisis to an ostrich that tries to hide from its attackers by sticking its head in the sand, and Yomiuri copied this metaphor.

It is clear that the press is studying Happy Science’s opinions and is using them. Happy Science is so tolerant that no one here complains when other people take our opinions. For the press, it kills two birds with one stone: Happy Science members rejoice, and people who don’t read my books have no idea that those new ideas came from there.

To sum up my first point: ‘making effort to know’ is very important. What is the difference between mankind and animals? Physically, humans have no chance against animals. Putting small animals aside, we cannot possibly win physically against horses and bulls.

The difference is in our thinking. The world nowadays is based upon learning. So what is important is the content, and the daily and voluntary effort we make to accumulate that learning.

Training to Win the Orthodox Way

“All warfare is based on deception”, said Sun Tzu. It points to a strategy often used in battles by the minority. Surprise attacks come under this category. But a better way would be to train so that you can win through orthodox means by facing the enemy head-on. Only when the situation is severe should you use unorthodox means.

Similarly in baseball, curveballs are only effective if you can also use four-seam. It is pointless if you can only pitch curveballs. Only when the pitcher can use a whole variety of pitches, such as curveballs and changeups, can we actually make it challenging for the batter.

So we have to first train to pitch a straight four-seam. Meaning, we have to properly study the orthodox required knowledge and skills suitable for our work.

Even with things as simple as striking up a conversation to spread my books to people, you would need a topic of conversation. If you take with you a newspaper cutout of an article showing the Happy Science Academy cheerleading squad winning first place in a world tournament, it will make your words twice as convincing.

If you keep giving abstract explanations and saying, “Happy Science has an Academy too”, it will just end there. But if you show them an actual article about the Academy, all of a sudden your explanations become convincing.

We need more of this sort of effort.

Julius Caesar’s Ingenuity

Another thing is to discover new things and ideas while putting in the basic daily effort. This is a great strategy.

For instance, military tactics are not used in the world of religion, so they become radical new ideas until the other religions begin copying us.

Happy Science is very open about our strategies, but our hidden tactics are very effective. Being a pioneer is a very notable thing.

In Julius Caesar’s “Commentaries on the Gallic Wars” he’s recorded many of his tactics. I was studying them just yesterday.

When the Romans advanced into what is now Central Europe, they had battles in Gaul, modern day France. In one notable battle 50 thousand Roman troops lay siege to 80 thousand Gallic soldiers in a fortress, but a further reinforcement of 250 thousand Gallic soldiers, including thousands of cavalry, surrounded the Roman besiegers.

The situation was 50 thousand Romans against 300 thousand Gallic tribesmen. Anyone would think that the Romans would lose, because they were sandwiched between Gallic troops. Almost certainly the Romans would be wiped out.

But what Caesar did was, before the Gallic reinforcements arrived, he dug a huge ditch and built walls around the besieged fortress.

His enemies were astonished. The Romans built a wall around the Gallic fortress so no one could get in, and built turrets so they could see the battlefield at all times.

Caesar did this to cut food supplies from reaching the Gallic troops inside the fortress. By the time reinforcements arrived, the Gallic troops inside the fortress were ready to surrender. This is how 50 thousand Romans defeated 300 thousand Gallic troops.

This is one fantastic military tactic.

Muhammad Invents Trench Warfare

In religion, Muhammad is well known for having fought battles.

Muhammad fought the first ever trench war during his migration to Medina after his defeat at Mecca. I have spoken about this a number of times, but it seems the God Hermes was guiding him from Heaven.

Trench warfare is now common, and involved digging a trench with a depth of about 2 metres in the ground to avoid enemy bullets and peek out to make your own shots. Of course a lot of damage is involved when people aim inside the trenches from above, but generally it is an effective way to remain safe.

In the battle where Muhammad invented trench warfare, it is said that he defeated Mecca forces ten times greater than his own. It is said that he also used bows and arrows. This victory led to his later final victory. He used this military tactic to emerge victorious and became the religious leader who unified the Middle East.

When other people do not know your pioneering idea yet, it can become very powerful in decisive moments.

A similar battle in Japan was the Battle of Sekigahara (1600) when Ieyasu Tokugawa fought against Mitsunari Ishida’s troops that far outnumbered him. Ieyasu himself couldn’t make it to the start of the battle because the Sanada army had captured his son. Ieyasu knew that Hideaki Kobayakawa would betray Mitsunari, but it took so long that Ieyasu decided to fire a canon into Hideaki’s camp. This startled Hideaki who had no choice but to bring forward his decision, and ended up siding with Ieyasu. This became a turning point for Ieyasu’s victory.

In this way tactics and decisions make a huge difference to the end result.

Well Earned Victory

In general, what is important is to keep studying things that are related to your job and to ponder over them. Ponder over things that you put into action, but if you come up with other new ideas, it may bring about a great victory. Have a think about this.

In the past Happy Science has make surprise attacks of its own. When you turn small things into big things you need tactics that make the minority able to defeat the powerful. That means using tactics, detour strategies, and surprises that no one has tried before.

This is fine while you are still small, but when you get bigger you have to begin ‘facing head-on’ strategies and aim for a well earned victory.

Towards the beginning of his career Hideyoshi Toyotomi would volunteer to be the rear guard of battles that almost guaranteed his death. Nobunaga Oda was praised highly when he put his life on the line to save his sister who had married into the Asai family.

But after he became a regent, he changed his tactics to guarantee victory: attacking with greater numbers than the enemy. Wherever possible, he tried to win by making the enemy surrender without shedding a drop of blood.

Like this, you must change the way you fight according to your growth level. While your forces are still small and weak, fight using ideas that other people don’t think of. You can use unusual but impressive methods to win. When your forces begin to grow, and you make a number of allies, adopting a ‘head-on’ style is important too.

Small religions sometimes fool people to draw them in, but this would give it a bad reputation. Aum Shinrikyo (former terrorist group from the 1980s) would often use free food as bait to invite people and make them join their yoga classes, and gradually draw them further in.

Military tactics are fine, but there is also a danger of becoming ‘swindlers’ and ‘liars’, so please be careful about this.