In the preceding issue, I said that if someone can produce a certain quantity of written or musical pieces, that quantity will turn into quality. In his book, “A Method of Intellectual Living”, Professor Shoichi Watanabe wrote that it is usually quite impossible to write books up to a certain quantity. The same applies to paintings, calligraphies, novels, scripts, movies, cartoons and so on. However, if he or she continues writing, quantity will, at a certain point, turn into quality. The reason why he or she can keep producing is that they have a stored source within them. This internal storehouse pushes their ideas and pieces of work through a blast furnace to be produced systematically. Those are the people who are called “great authors” or “masters” of something. You need to have keen eyes for this point.

Whether You Are Smart or Not Will Not Be Determined in a Short Period of Time

Many Japanese people take “Eiken”, the English proficiency test, which grades their writing and speaking ability from a scale of 1 to 5 (grade 1 being the highest level). Some people feel jealous of others who pass the grade 1 Eiken a year earlier than them. However, this doesn’t determine who is smarter. It doesn’t matter whether you pass the grade 1 Eiken when you are 18, 22, 25 or 30. What matters the most is how you can utilize that English skill for your work effectively.

There is a person who didn’t attend college after high school and instead went to a 2-year private school specializing in travel and took a class specially designed to pass the Eiken test. That person passed the grade 1 Eiken at just 20 years old. Even students at Tokyo University rarely pass this test. Many employees at famous trading companies fail as well. Consequently, it’s not so easy to determine whether you are smart or not. Many factors need to be taken into consideration other than the time you have invested, degree of concentration and talent.
Please think about small, medium and large competitions. It is foolish to say who won and who lost for small competitions.

A famous author, Ms. Ayako Sone, once wrote about the benchmark for bad religious organizations and wrote it in a way where most apply to me. However, when truly bad religious organizations started to cause problems in Japan, she criticized herself for being too quick to judge, subjective and misunderstanding. It sounded like she was apologizing to me. With the emergence of truly bad religions, she might have thought that she spoke too harshly.

Difficulties in Doing Business Without Making Problems

Authors would understand that to keep publishing books, making public speeches and continuing religious activities for more than 30 years without presenting a big problem is not that easy. Although we have had some people who caused minor troubles along the way, that number is very small relative to the size of our organization. When the national tax administration agency came to Happy Science Headquarters to investigate our accounting record of the past 5 years, they could not find accounting errors of more than $10,000. They said it is unbelievable for a religion. In other words, they could not find unexplained expenditures like they normally do when they investigate large corporations. The larger the corporation, the bigger their unexplained expenditures are.

Prime Minister Abe has more than $12 million secret Cabinet Secretariat funds that don’t require receipts to use for unexplained purposes (at the time of this lecture). He is pressured to make this public now (at the time of lecture). He can use these funds to bribe opposing parties to quiet them in congress. If they say, “I’m going to ask this question to the Prime Minister tomorrow”, the Prime Minister’s secretary can offer $50,000 and say, “This secret money is untraceable. You might need it for re-election.” or “I’m giving this kind of money to our own candidates at the Bon festival (Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the spirits of one’s ancestors) at the year-end season, so please accept this.” This is just my imagination. I don’t know the truth but they could do this because there will be no proof and it will not be identified as bribes.

Even the Japanese Prime Minister can use more than $12 million for unexplained purposes, which should be secret. He must use these funds to handle the opposition and silence the people who disturb the street speeches.

Companies have this kind of money too. Our organization had a heated battle against one publishing company before. We were conducting protesting activities and on the third day, policemen came to our Kioicho Building, then our headquarters, and told us that this publishing company would hire Yakuza (Japanese mafia) members and warned us to be careful of our surroundings; They said “Since religious people are sober you will keep fighting with great enthusiasm, Yakuza will come around the third day, so be careful about yourself.” We heard that news in the morning and sure enough we started spotting many mafia-like people at the places where the protesters were. The police know this very well. Companies use this kind of money, so-called “funds used for unexplained purposes” that don’t require receipts. They will hire the mafia to frighten protesters so they will all go home. Most companies have this kind of money to hire mafia members or silence police. Police can be bribed to some extent too. In fact, the Kobe prefecture police station is said to be co-existing with the local mafia so nobody can tell.

You Can Maximize the Result by Doing the Job for a Long Time.

In a nutshell, you need to produce a large quantity of results by pursuing small, medium and large goals while at the same time, you should learn various things.

Someone like Yasushi Akimoto, whom I mentioned in the preceding issue, started his career as a lyricist, but can now be considered an entrepreneur because he invents many new innovations such as creating different singing groups and making them compete. Those who are always innovating and creating companies like that, know how to maintain success for a long time. They know how to maximize their results by continuing their efforts for a long time. For these people, it is not important whether or not other people had a smash hit, let alone feel jealousy towards them. After all, they have a large scale. Happy Science is not competing against authors. Authors can’t establish publishing companies. Even if they issue a magazine, it will most likely be discontinued shortly thereafter, often by the third issue.

Religious founders are greater than authors. They can provide for many people and create and develop many activities. Magazines will be published beyond the third issue and books will be published one after another. A religious founder’s capability is amazing. I am sure the public will soon recognize this point.

Please set a far-reaching goal, a medium goal that you can accomplish in ten years, and a small goal that you can achieve soon, such as until graduating or until the end of this year. If you have these goals, you will not be content with small successes and will not be conceited.

You might feel jealous or competitive. If your goal is far-reaching, it will take a long time to see who is the winner. You will not be bothered with small things.