Missionary Movement
Happy Science after the "Financial Times": Its Unprecedented Path to a Global Religion (Part2)
Master’s National Tour Inspired a Missionary Movement
Since the early 1990s, Master Okawa has mainly preached his Dharma based on Buddhist concepts in order to solidify Happy Science’s teachings. He has also constructed head temples (Sohonzan), temples (Shoja), and branches (Shibu) all over Japan. After laying his foundation, Master Okawa launched a nationwide lecture tour in 2007. He visited local branches all over Japan almost every weekend to preach his law. He lectured more than 30 times in the latter half of that year. He has been preaching more than 100 times every year since 2009.
Why did he make sermons at such a rapid pace? Master Okawa discussed his passion for them during one of his lectures on tour:
I have continued my work with a burning sense of mission and responsibility. In the past three years in particular, I have given at least one lecture each week. As a part of my preaching tour, I delivered sermons all over Japan and even overseas. This is something I have continued without fail. People often ask me, “How are you able to continue without rest?” or “How do you maintain such a strong passion to continue?” It is, in fact, my sense of mission that keeps me going.
So why, then, do I have this sense of mission? Why do I feel this sense of responsibility? It is because I am the mission itself. My very existence is the mission itself. I believe that preaching the Truth is the purpose of my life in this incarnation. […]
No matter how true and universal the teachings of a religion are, after two or three millennia, they cannot withstand the change of time and they become outdated. So, every 2,000 or 3,000 years, one of the ninth dimensional spirits, who stand above tathagatas or archangels, returns to this world to create a new religion. We, the ninth dimensional spirits, are born onto Earth with a mission to create new civilizations.
The length of our lives is no different from that of an average person. In just a few decades, we must establish the core of a civilization, which will remain for the next few thousand years. For this purpose, I have been very active over the past 20 years. I believe that all my work has been to prepare a new civilization for future generations. (The Laws of Salvation)
Since the first day of Happy Science, Master Okawa has made tireless efforts to spread teachings that make people happy. He has devoted everything to his mission to spread the truth as well as to urge his disciples to do the same:
I have the slogan “laying down my life” up on the wall in my office. There are two meanings to this phrase. When disciples utter this phrase, it means that they’re willing to lay down everything for the Buddha, including their body life and possessions. When the Buddha says this phrase, it means to devote his life to Dharma. Thus, I’m spreading truth as though it was Ryuho Okawa’s last fight or as though everyday was my last. I don’t care when I expire.
As I’m spreading the truth, and devoting my entire life to it, I hope you’ll devote your life to missionary activities as well. I believe that there is no greater religion in the world than Happy Science. The greatest religion in the world ought to become truly the greatest in the world. So, it will be. These thoughts will realize. My words will surely materialize. It may take ten, twenty, or thirty years, but I have no doubt that Happy Science will become the number one religion in the world.
Never give up until you become the greatest in the world. Keep fighting generation after generation –––– this is my message to you. (Laying Down My Life)
Master Okawa’s nationwide tour dramatically inspired Happy Science members to spread the truth.
A Worldwide Revolution To Make All People Happy
Master Okawa’s teachings not only save people’s souls, but they also have strong power to influence the government. Because he predicted China’s military expansion would cause security threats for Japan, he founded a political party, the Happiness Realization Party, in 2009. Although it doesn’t have seats in the Japanese Parliament yet, the HRP has strongly influenced Japanese politics with its foresight on policies and activist demonstrations in the streets.
In fact, many of the current Abe administration’s policies are in the line with HRP’s, which Master Okawa derived from his teachings. Master Okawa resumed recording spiritual messages at an incredible pace in 2010, as our website has reported, to inform people of the heavenly world’s policy suggestions. Spiritual messages, as critical intelligence, have also been revealing what world leaders have been thinking at their sub-conscious levels.
The HRP hopes to gain seats in the coming 2016 national elections, but the party’s goals are far greater than just participating in Japanese politics. Master Okawa explained the purpose of the HRP as follows in his book The Happiness Realization Parry Manifesto:
Happy Science has engaged in a variety of activities, and has proposed many policy suggestions. In the course of this work, Happy Science has made a wide range of specific, concrete policy proposals to politicians, a practice which we intend to continue. However, in the end, these proposals have never been anything more than indirect suggestions.
Yet, if we examine the basic teachings of Happy Science, the fourhold path of love, wisdom, self-reflection, and progress, the teaching of progress clearly contains the objective of establishing a Buddhaland Utopia on earth. This notion points to the establishment of a Buddhaland Utopia on earth, not in Heaven only.
Now that phrase “a Utopia on earth” is in one of the main concepts, therefore, proactive and specific deeds should follow. It is fair to say that we have been waiting for such opportunities. […] The title of this book is the Manifesto of the Happiness Realization Party, it is intended to stand in full opposition to Karl Marx’s The Communist Manifesto from 1848. The Communist Manifesto has been a cause of suffering for humanity for more than one hundred and fifty years.
Because the end result of The Communist Manifesto was a civilizational experiment that attempted to build solely materialistic nations, the Manifesto of the Happiness Realization Party has aimed to be the polar opposite of the Marx’s work.
The Manifesto of the Happiness Realization Party declares that we affirm the existence of God and Buddha; that we gather together the power of those who believe in Buddha’s Truth so as to create a movement to materialize a utopia on earth; that we establish political activities in Japan; that we spread our movement to people in every country around the world; and that we intend to incite a simultaneous worldwide revolution in the correct meaning of the phrase.
In this way, our intention is to do exactly opposite of what Marx did. It is our hope to separate humanity from all political movements which make people unhappy, to stand in opposition to such movements, to sink the roots of Truth into the earth, and to run a government or participate in politics based on this Truth.
We would like to bring these hopes into reality.
The objective of this new political movement is to realize revolutions on a global scale to create utopia. However, what the HRP intends to achieve is the opposite of the Marxist philosophy of violent revolution. The HRP aims to achieve the “greatest happiness of the greatest number” of people through peaceful and lawful activities into every country’s political system.
Concerns that people might have regarding the HRP stem from their ideas about the separation of church and state, but Master Okawa has insisted that the purpose of religion and politics is the same: making people happy. He noted that the difference between religion and politics is in their approach only, and therefore, they’re in position to supplement each other. He stated in the Happiness Realization Party Manifesto:
The establishment of a political party is but one aspect of Happy Science’s movement to make the world a better place.
Although we will continue to increase the number of Happy Science branches around the world, I think that, in the end, we must also be able to realize many different policies.
For example, there are areas in which religion alone is unable to bring real, concrete salvation such as India today.
I watched the movie “Slumdog Millionaire,” and I thought to myself that the slums depicted in that film were beyond the range of religion to save. Slums such as those could never be saved unless politics and the economy spring into action. Even if one wished to get rid of the slums, religion alone would not be unable to accomplish it unless politics and the economy were to improve. So, I feel that politics must get better.
In reality, the work of religion and the work of politics are not separate——they overlap. If public policy doesn’t work, then those like Mother Teresa work tirelessly to bring relief to the poor; in a sense, it is a political task. Politics and religion overlap here, because they are doing specific activities to save people rather than spiritual work.
In this sense, I believe that politics and religion cannot be completely separated, but are mutually complementary instead.
The HRP is a critical part of diverse activities of Happy Science, of which the ultimate aim is to save all of the people on earth. While religion saves people’s souls through teachings, political reforms can reduce the numbers of unhappy people through public policies. The foundation of the HRP is a manifestation of Master Okawa’s aspiration to make the world a happier place through every possible means.
