God and Man: Guideposts for Spiritual Peace and Awakening

GOD and MAN

Guideposts for Spiritual Peace and Awakening

Masahisa Goi

E-book edition

© 2014 Masahisa Goi

All rights reserved.

Published by Byakko Press

Originally published in Japanese as Kami to ningen (神と人間), Byakko Press, 1953.

Translated by Kiyoshi Emi and Mary McQuaid, with infinite gratitude to Kinuko Hamaya, Chikae Ishikawa, Phil Ouellet, and Pamela Perkins.

Contents

About the Author

Preface

Chapter 1: For the Future of Humanity

Chapter 2: The Relationship Between God and Human Beings

Chapter 3: Real World, Spiritual World, Subconscious and Physical Worlds

Chapter 4: Guardian Divinities and Guardian Spirits

Chapter 5: How to Overcome Karma

Chapter 6: True Religions and Mistaken Religions

Chapter 7: My Method of Prayer

Chapter 8: Conclusion

Questions and Answers:

Question 1: On the Birth of a Human Being

Question 2: On Birth Control

Question 3: Whether Our Whole Life Is Determined Before or After Birth

Question 4: On the Difference between People Who Will and Will Not Be Reborn

Question 5: Is It Possible to Be Reborn to a Different Sex?

Question 6: Differences in Human Abilities

Question 7: Will Sutra Chanting Really Console and Purify Spirits?

Question 8: What Should One Do to Obtain the Infinite Supply?

Question 9: Is Possession by ‘Animal Spirits’ Possible?

Question 10: Why Were Human Beings Divided into Various Countries and Races?

Question 11: On the Liking and Dislike of Religious Services and Religious Matters

Question 12: What Is the Function of the Subconscious Body?

Question 13: Differences between Christianity and Buddhism in Recognition of the Creator

Question 14: Why Does Misfortune Continue though You Live with Love and Appreciation?

Question 15: What if a Religion Asks You to Abolish Your Traditional Altars?

Question 16: What Are the Causes of Diseases that Are Beyond Medical Knowledge?

Question 17: Is It Effective to Change Your Name or Avoid a Certain Direction?

Question 18: On Daily Mental Attitude

Question 19: On What Jesus Christ Said about Committing Adultery in Your Heart

Question 20: How Can You Know All about a Person Just by Hearing His or Her Name?

Question 21: When Psychics Tell Us about Criminals or Lost Articles

Question 22: Do Mediums Truly Let Us Hear the Voices of Deceased People from Other Worlds?

Prayer for World Peace

Notes

A Message to Our Readers: Organizations Honoring the Peace Vision of Masahisa Goi

About the Author

Born in Tokyo, Japan on November 22, 1916, Masahisa Goi was a poet, philosopher, writer and singer. Though he aimed at a career in music, he found himself spontaneously drawn to the realms of philosophy and spiritual guidance. At the age of thirty he attained oneness with his divine Self.

Mr. Goi authored more than 60 books and volumes of poetry, including God and Man (his first and most fundamental work), The Spirit of Lao Tsu, Essays on the Bible, How to Develop Your Spirituality, The Way to the White Light, One Who Unites Heaven and Earth (his autobiography), and The Future of Mankind—to name a few. Of these, God and Man, One Who Unites Heaven and Earth, The Spirit of Lao Tsu, and The Future of Mankind have been published in English, along with I Heard It Like This, a collection of Masahisa Goi’s wisdom compiled by Hideo Takahashi. Translations of other works are now in progress.

Before departing from this world in 1980, he named Mrs. Masami Saionji, his adopted daughter, as his successor and leader of the world peace prayer movement that he initiated.

Preface

My life blazed

With the desire

To serve as a thread

Joining Heaven with Earth.

Throughout my life, this was my heartfelt longing: to play even one role in bringing the ideals of heaven into fruition on earth, revealing the pure land of heaven and letting perfect peace and joyfulness be realized in this terrestrial world.

This desire was transformed into prayer and action as the flame of my life continued to burn.

While thinking only of God,

Even my joined hands

Vanished in prayer,

Leaving only the blue sky

As I expressed through this song, my mind moved more deeply and quietly toward perfect trust in God. Then,

Where the vibrations of Heaven and Earth

United, and became

The roaring of the sea,

The sun rose.

And so I reached a harmonious state of mind where I experienced heaven becoming one with earth and myself becoming one with God. I entered the reality of Kuu,¹ and was reborn as one who could relinquish everything and attain all.

That was at a time when, here on earth, hidden karmic² causes had been triggered, erupting in the violence of World War II and leading to the defeat of Japan and the cold war, which seemed to be beckoning a third World War. This is how humanity had been—and still is—drifting gradually toward destruction.

What will become of the world? Are the days of the last judgment at hand as the Bible prophesies? Is the end approaching for the majority of mankind?

Faced with the karmic fires which push and rage in societies, nations, and the world, are our individual desires for harmony of no use? Are the world’s ideologies for peace without meaning? Will heaven rescue humanity in the end? Frightened by these uncertainties, the world is unable to embrace hope for tomorrow and everyone feels lost, not knowing where to turn.

At this crucial time, I believe that if humanity can understand its true identity and connect with God, it can rise above this uneasiness and confusion to reach true spiritual peace and awakening, and eventually bring about peace in the world. I wrote this book with the intention of explaining, in the most understandable way, about God, spirit, human beings, karma, and cause and effect.

I believe that even those who have no knowledge of me at all, as well as those who are already acquainted with me, will be able to understand the message in this book.

Masahisa Goi

March 1953

Chapter 1:

For the Future of Humanity

Since human beings first appeared on earth, how many times have the stars circled round in the heavens? How many times have the first frosts of winter settled on the land? In thinking of this, we can start to imagine how long mankind has been dreaming of, seeking, and earnestly desiring complete peace—a world without fighting or fear; a truly joyful world with no sorrow, no poverty, no disease and no separations.

From generation to generation, these desires have fostered the appearance of many saints such as Sakyamuni,³ Jesus Christ and Mohammed. They have allowed artists to leave their names with us, and have shown us a vast array of thinkers, politicians, scholars and inventors, working through vertical and horizontal planes and in every field imaginable. By now, it would seem that every flower of culture and civilization must have bloomed, and that every fountain of thought must surely have been exhausted.

Yet, even having reached such an age of culture and civilization, people in this present world are still far from complete peace, and are gasping under precarious living conditions with fighting, fear, sorrow, ageing and illness, poverty, hardship and separation. How can this be? In terms of outward appearances, clearly, the difference between modern and ancient times is like the gap between heaven and earth. The advancement of material culture has brought extreme conveniences to our modern-day life. If we looked only at these conveniences, it would seem that people today ought to feel happy, as if living in heaven. Yet what is the actual situation? Certainly, the progress in our living conditions has made it easier for us to get things done at the material level, and has given us some sense of comfort. Yet this sense of comfort cannot give us the power to resolve the anxieties of mankind. Though different in style, people today are fundamentally no different from people in non-civilized times, in that they are continually experiencing feelings of instability that could lead to collapse at any moment.

Why is it that today’s lifestyle, with gas, electricity, running water, trains, cars and airplanes, where people can attain almost anything they wish for with the power of money, leaves them just as mentally insecure as they were in non-civilized times? It is because in the present age, as in ancient times, people’s lifestyles do not rest on a firm foundation. People feel vulnerable, threatened by crisis situations that could bring destruction in a moment, even tomorrow. No matter how much the superficial standard of living might improve, unless we resolve such problems as warfare, natural disasters, the suffering of illness, the inequalities of life—and the most fundamental one, which is the fear of the death of the physical body—humanity will not find happiness.

Will it ever be possible to extinguish such miseries as warfare, natural disasters, the pain of illness and the agony of death? To this I reply Yes, it is possible. The great ones of old, Sakyamuni and Jesus Christ, overcame these hardships, and they taught and guided their disciples through their own experiences. Their disciples conveyed those teachings verbally and in writing, resulting in the Buddhist Sutras and the Bible. These have provided light and guidance to people’s hearts up to the present time. Whether it be the Sutras or the Bible, both inscribe the principles for delivering humanity of its suffering and illusion. If all human beings were to perform such actions as are taught therein, it is certain that heaven would manifest itself on earth. Unfortunately, though, people have used those scriptures merely as mental and spiritual food without putting put them into practice. In other words, the majority of mankind could not understand the true intention of the two saints. Nonetheless, the influences they exerted have taken deep root in people’s hearts, gradually turning into a powerful light that is about to reveal itself on the surface.

Now, the karma of humankind is about to disintegrate on a grand scale and the light of truth is about to shine brilliantly. ‘Those who connect with truth will remain, and those who do not will go to ruin.’ Before these words of a saint can come true, I shall describe in as much detail as possible the relationship between God and human beings, spirits, subconscious and physical elements, and life before birth and after death. I shall also write about how human beings can best live, and offer guidance on how they can discover a truly happy way of life.

Chapter 2:

The Relationship between God and Human Beings

What is a human being?

In answer to this question, I would expect to find extremely few people who can clearly state what the human existence is. This question, which passes through people’s minds without ever really capturing their attention,