“Life is a workbook to be solved, and we are here to grow our capacity of love and wisdom.” ~Keiko Hoshino
The Laws of the Sun is one of the first books written for Happy Science, and it was written out in a 68-hour period by Master Okawa through automatic writing. The Laws of the Sun is intended to encourage people to think of themselves as members of one community and one human group, as all human beings, for all their differences, spring from one source, and speaks on matters of the soul and spiritual progression.
Keiko points out that there is only one Eternal Father who can be thought of as being the father of all teachers - the Buddha, Confucius, Jesus and the like - so the teachings in the book can be applied in one’s life, regardless of one’s religion. She points out that the spiritual laws that apply to all are the law of attraction / the law of same frequencies and the law of cause and effect, and that spirituality is logical, rather than chaotic in nature.
Spirits, Keiko also remarks, are vibrational energies, and souls are the spirits which inhabit human bodies. Spirits have eternal life and undergo a process of reincarnation for the souls to evolve by learning lessons in each life, to progress to higher planes of existence. We human beings also live in a multidimensional universe, which has nine planes of wisdom, and the more powerful one’s wisdom the higher the plane one can access. Angels are manifestations of great love and wisdom, and aiming to become one of these is one of the goals of spiritual progression.
Master Okawa notes that all human beings are children of the Creator, and there is no sin except to not believe in the Creator. The intent of development is to enable everyone to become a generator of love. The basic essence of love is giving without expecting any return, and the next level is that of nurturing love, which requires wisdom to properly nurture oneself and others. Forgiving love is the next step, as forgiveness is ultimately for oneself. Keiko remarks that it is not possible to forgive from a standpoint of “I am right and you are wrong,” that anger and other negative emotions is toxic to one’s soul, and and that forgiveness is very important for one’s inner peace and serenity. “We are not perfect,” Keiko notes, and we human beings all makes mistakes, which the Creator forgives us for.
Evil is part of the educational process for one’s soul, with evil essentially being an option which one can recognize and then decide whether to select it or not, and the Creator ultimately trusts that each human being will choose good over evil. The anatomy of the soul is explained in the book, where the predilection to follow love or evil is concerned, with negative energy attracting more negative energy, which makes one more prone to choose evil over good. Each of us has the seed to invite evil or happiness, so each of us has to recognize that it is within us to choose our paths.
Wisdom is essentially an understanding of a broader perspective, with the ultimate wisdom being that of being able to understand the mind of the Creator. Understanding where others come from enables people to choose good and love and is actually a form of loving the other person. The negative incidents in one’s life are learning points and are a disguised gift from the Creator, which enable humans to become wiser and more loving.
“You already have inner strength within you, and all you have to do is to cultivate it; and it starts with believing that you can take control of your own life.” ~Mia Tomikawa
Master Okawa wrote the book to encourage everyone to get through the inevitable crises that pop up in people’s lives by cultivating a mind strong enough to manage these. Mia mentions that there are life crises that take place in particular in the decades of one’s life - in childhood, for example, there’s the family squabble or crisis; in one’s twenties, there’s the job crisis and in one’s eighties,there’s the coming to terms with destiny. Master Okawa notes that our minds and our souls are things which will last beyond death, and cultivating a strong mind enables one to handle the challenges that life throws one’s way. Mia also notes that, in Japanese, the word “mind” actually encompasses the mind, the heart and the soul, which are a person’s total being.
According to Master Okawa, who bases this structure on Eastern philosophy, there are three stages of growth for all human beings:
Becoming a sharp, intelligent and capable person, which manifests when one is young.
Becoming dynamic, which is necessary to become a leader who can work with and guide others.
Becoming calmer and more profound, which is necessary for one’s old age.
To create a strong mind, one needs to believe and have faith in oneself, first off. This requires having faith that new paths will open up as one lives, and becoming more courageous and being forgiving are two ways by which one can cultivate a strong mind. Forgiving is a way to let go of resentment and hurt, for the grudge that one holds against another will torment one within, and thus weaken one. Taking responsibility for one’s life is another key to creating a strong mind, as blaming others or events for one’s lack of happiness removes one’s capability to be happy.
The fear of failure and making mistakes is ever present, and this is due to one’s desire to protect oneself or one’s ego. Overcoming this fear requires a change in mindset, where one sees the failures and challenges of life as lessons given and situations to be learned from, rather than the “bad” thing that these are commonly made out to be. Master Okawa notes Thomas Edison as an example of someone who never saw failures or mistakes but instead saw opportunities to learn from, and this is the perspective necessary to create a strong mind. Not having challenges in one’s life means that one will never grow or find true happiness, as growth enables that.
Parenting is important where giving a child the foundations necessary to create a strong mind are concerned. Parents need to enable and educate children to feel responsible for their own lives to create a sense of duty and responsibility, and Mia notes that kids in the United States are more responsible and independent when compared to kids in Japan. She notes that, in Japan, the parents make all the decisions sometimes to the point of spoiling them, so that they don’t take responsibility for themselves.
One’s accomplishments can create a bias against others, where one judges others by one’s own strong points. Master Okawa notes that people need to be more accepting of others who might seem weak from one’s point of view, as those others have their own gifts to bring. Praising others is part of having a strong mind, particularly as doing so enables others to become present to their own capabilities and to connect with one. This is, admittedly, hard to do where people who have hurt someone is concerned, but in the long run, according to Master Okawa, this will create a connection between the people concerned. This is not easy to do, where people who are hurtful are concerned, and Mia points out that practicing this is a process much like working out in the gym, where one’s muscles hurt the first few times but become stronger and more capable over time.
“If your success is not good for your soul, then achieving success doesn’t mean anything.” ~Bob Imai
Master Okawa is the spiritual leader who founded Happy Science in 1986, which is a movement which started in Japan, whose purpose is to enable people to find fulfilment and success through the principles of love, wisdom, self-reflection and progress. The movement now has some ten million members scattered throughout 160 countries, and Bob himself is a minister in Atlanta, Georgia. He came across Happy Science in 1990 while still an engineer researching on self-driving cars and experiencing some discontent in his life. He became a monk as a result of investigating into the teachings of Happy Science and has been connected with the movement since then.
The Laws of Success contains principles that both people and organizations need to achieve success. Bob notes that, in order to find true success, one has to know the meaning, purpose and mission of one’s life, as it is believed that we are spiritual beings who live several lives on this physical plane over and over again, in order to improve and nourish our souls, as this is the context in which the book exists. In this context, it is believed that we choose the kind of lives we will lead in the physical realm before we enter it, and that our mind enables us to access all the wisdom and knowledge we need to attain our success. That said, Bob notes that one does not necessarily have to believe in life after death in order to get something from The Laws of Success, as the book also comes from the context of harnessing the power of the mind, which has been behind successes, historically.
The pillars of success that support success are originality (we have our own, individual measures for success), shared joy (success is accompanied by joy) and a sense of unique contribution (true success contributes to society), and Bob shared Thomas Edison as an example who showed examples of all of these pillars in his life. Bob notes that success isn’t an outcome or a result, but that it is a process designed to improve ourselves. Self-realization is the basis of success, with visualizing one’s goal being the first thing to do. A positive attitude is also necessary to achieving one’s goal, after which one should then act on it. Bob notes that the path isn’t easy, so making habits to support success, as well as breaking down the tasks into small, easily achievable parts.
The Laws of Success might be thirty years old, and Bob points out that the principles within enabled Happy Science to grow from the small numbers in its movement that long ago to its present size. He remarks that The Laws of Success is similar to such books related to the Law of Attraction, such as The Secret, but that there is nothing in the latter that talks about the basis of such concepts, which is a belief in the spiritual realm.
Bob also advises that people meditate - by which he means people should just take a little time each day to sit in total silence - to access the wisdom that comes from one’s mind.
Kiyoshi "Keith" Shimada talks to Alexander “The Engineer” Lim, host of AuthorStory by alvinwriter.com about Master Ryuho Okawa’s book, The Essence of Buddha: The Path to Enlightenment.
“You are using only ten percent of your total energy.” ~Kiyoshi "Keith" Shimada
Keith has been involved with the Happy Science movement since 2003, and is presently involved with its North American operations. Happy Science itself, which was founded in 1986, originated in Japan but now has a presence in over a hundred countries around the world, and Master Ryuho Okawa, its founder, has published over two thousand books and has given two thousand five hundred lectures to date, based on teachings from such figures as Jesus, Moses as well as other teachers.
The Essence of Buddha is essentially a guidebook on Buddhism, not only giving an introduction to Buddhism but also covers various topics related to Buddhism. The individual who is presently known as the Buddha was born Siddharta Gautama, originally from a place in what is present-day Nepal some 2,600 years ago. He traveled to present-day India where he made his teachings well-known after forty years of travel, and his teachings then spread throughout the world. Although there are presently two different forms of Buddhism - Mahayana Buddhism, which is practiced in Japan, China and Korea, and which has reincarnation as one of its tenets; and Theravada Buddhism, which is practiced in Sri Lanka, Thailand and India, whose followers follow exactly what the Buddha taught, and which doesn’t have reincarnation as one of its tenets - there are also various sects within these two branches.
One of the concepts covered is the Eightfold Path, which consists of:
Right view - how one sees things
Right thoughts - what one thinks
Right speech - what one says
Right action - what one does
Right livelihood - what kind of work one does
Right effort - how much effort one makes
Right mindfulness - what one thinks inside, as well as how one lives one’s life
Right concentration - this is essentially about meditation.
Keith pointed out that the Eightfold Path is related more about focus on thoughts, and that meditation is a key aspect of enabling one to live one’s life. During meditation, one must reflect on what one did and thought on things done in the past to guide oneself back to that right path, and Keith points out that one doesn’t have to be a monk to do so, as five to fifteen minutes of reflection are sufficient for the average person.
Enlightenment, according to Keith, is based on one’s purpose in one’s life. The belief is that people reincarnate and, when they return to the earth, they choose where and when to be born and who their parents will be as well as what their gender and their occupation will be. A goal is set for that person, and overcoming the hardships experienced during one’s life gives one wisdom, which is what enlightenment is all about. Keith points out that the specifics of enlightenment differ from person to person, but that the effects are the same, giving the analogy of climbing a mountain: there are many paths to the summit, but the end objective, the summit, will be the same, regardless of path taken and the challenges encountered.
The Six Parameters are focused on the actions one takes during one’s life, and these are:
Perfection of offering - does one love people, through one’s actions? Did you do something to help another?
Perfection of observing the precepts - being strict / disciplined on oneself; did you do what you said you would do today?
Perfection of perseverance - be mindful of time; don’t rush
Perfection of effort - is the effort one makes everyday correct or not?
Perfection of meditation - did one meditate?
Perfection of wisdom - essentially enlightenment
Keith also mentioned some other tenets of Buddhism - causality and the void - which weren’t covered in the interview, but which are covered in The Essence of Buddha, along with others.
Keith remarked that people don’t use ninety percent of their energy, which is wasted, and that applying the tenets of Buddhism can enable one to access this unused ninety percent of energy, enabling one to improve oneself, expand one’s influence and empower others.
“Be open to what you live for on this Earth.”~Kiyoshi Shimada
Kiyoshi Shimada has been a staff member for Happy Science for twelve years and had been involved with Happy Science for ten years prior to that, and over the course of time, he has been called in to help people who have been afflicted by evil spirits. According to him, Happy Science is a religious organization that believes in the Origin of Life, which is also known as God the Father or the Eternal Buddha, and that all religions can be united to avoid all the conflict and dissent among these. Likewise, according to him, Master Okawa has spiritual abilities and spiritual wisdom, the lessons of which he is passing on to people.
Kiyoshi related that Buddha himself encountered evil spirits during his meditations, which he overcame through enlightenment and by spreading enlightenment with others. The Buddhist methodology focuses on self-reflection, as, since like attracts like, someone with negative energy vibrations will attract negative beings (such as evil spirits) and negativity, while someone with positive energy vibrations will attract positive beings and positivity. Kiyoshi noted six factors which attracts evil spirits, which are:
Greed - desire for something one doesn’t deserve
Anger - particularly uncontrolled anger
Ignorance - of what is good and what is bad
Pride/conceit - “I am always right”
Doubt - doesn’t believe in anyone else
Wrong view - belief in something wrong that causes disharmony
Evil spirits, according to Kiyoshi, are beings that once lived on Earth, has had more negative impact on the world than positive impact, and have passed away, which means that it’s not just criminals who become evil spirits. Evil spirits draw their energy from negative energy, which can come from such emotions as fear, hate and sadness, and as this comes from people they would work to influence the living away from positive energies. He noted that evil spirits could also be passed on through those who are already affected by these, and that one’s ancestors who were subject to their influences in the past could seek help from living kin to get to the higher spiritual realms. He also noted that evil spirits located in particular places, such as cemeteries or where someone committed suicide, might also possess a person. He also remarks that, according to Buddhist belief, people are reincarnated time and time again until they learn the lessons they need to learn before moving on, and that self-reflection is important to learning these lessons.
Kiyoshi notes that people who engage in negative emotions are more likely to be possessed or affected by evil spirits. The symptoms of a possessed person are:
Having a negative/pessimistic /angry world view
Feeling like one is not in control of oneself (e.g. looking into the mirror and realizing that “that’s not me”)
Feeling unnecessarily cold/chilly, with occasional goosebumps
Having a heavy feeling on one’s shoulders
Time inversion, wherein one is active at night and sleeps by day
Hearing voices whispering in one’s ear (this is an indicator of a serious possession)
Wanting to commit suicide or to kill someone else (a red flag)
Kiyoshi remarks that the best way to avoid evil spirits is to achieve a correct way of thinking to create positive energy in the first place. The corrective actions that need to be done to exorcise an evil spirit, however, are:
Recognizing that an evil spirit is in action
Empower one’s life with positivity, serving the Truth, understanding one’s attachments and distinguishing between good and bad
Self-reflection, to bring one’s energy to positive levels, rather than to stay in negative levels
Smile and exercise one’s body to maintain one’s body fitness
Focus on work
Kiyoshi notes that Happy Science offers prayers or sutras for people to recite to expel evil spirits. He believes that teaching others to be positive and knowing the Truth will make people happier, and doing so is his favorite thing to do, and he dislikes making people unhappy. He is also looking forward to achieving enlightenment in the future.
“To me, if you mess up one time, in your one lifetime, and you’re in Hell forever, that’s kind of strict. We all make mistakes in life. God gives His forgiveness... even to the souls that have fallen to Hell.”~Yushi Hagimoto
Disclaimer: This interview was slightly different from other interviews conducted by AuthorStory, in that the person interviewed was not the author of the book itself, but has a good knowledge of the book and Mr. Okawa, the real author, as he is deeply involved with Mr. Okawa’s movement as a Minister. This interview also delves somewhat into philosophical and religious beliefs that readers and listeners may not necessarily agree with totally, and which may not necessarily reflect the views of AuthorStory.
Ryuho Okawa had studied international finance at Tokyo University and worked in the United States for a time. He had a spiritual revelation when, one day at his home, he felt a presence around himself and felt a need to hold a pen, and this resulted in his writing out “Good news” several times through automatic writing. He wrote the book with the idea that, if death put an end to everything, life would be meaningless, but if we could take all that we learned with us into a life after death, then one’s efforts in life would be more meaningful. In this respect, the concept of “happiness” is more along the lines of “fulfillment,” where one’s own life is concerned.
Yushi Hagimoto’s parents were already involved with Happy Science, but as a child and as a youth, he wasn’t really interested in it until he was drawn into Mr. Okawa’s view and vision at a lecture while he was a student. Once he graduated from college, Yushi then became a full-time member of Happy Science to attain the position of Minister that he presently holds.
“Happy Science” is a direct translation of the Japanese phrase 幸福の科学 (kōfuku no kogaku). In Japanese, nouns and verbs can be used in the same way, so the intention behind the phrase is actually something along the lines of “‘Sciencing’ Happiness,” in that the scientific method is used to get to happiness. The movement, according to Yushi, is based on certain principles that could be applied to achieving happiness in one’s personal journey.
According to Yushi, the book’s message is similar to other books on the afterlife that state that Heaven exists, where Heaven is happy and one can meet people who have already passed away. He notes that the established religions talk more about Heaven and Hell, while spiritualism deals with souls and spirits. Happy Science is a spiritual religious movement whose followers believe that there is both a right way and a wrong way to live, and in that respect it’s similar to the viewpoint of the established religions. The book, however, notes that there is a structure in Heaven and that scientists, professors and politicians likewise exist in Heaven, and that there are different levels to Heaven itself. According to Yushi, Mr. Okawa came upon this realization through a combined process of astral travel, where his spirit detached from his body to travel into the spiritual world, and also from what he has read.
Given that Mr. Okawa is Japanese, it’s not surprising that such Eastern concepts as boddhisvattas, “the red string of fate” and spirits in animal form are presented as examples in his book, and Yushi noted that such concepts have equivalents in other cultures, such as black magic and sorcery as it is known in the West. Yushi also said that, according to Mr. Okawa, space and time are gifts from God, and without the concept of time there would be no evolution of one’s soul.
Where the book is concerned, Yushi would remark to any who are interested in it that it’s a textbook for the afterlife, starting from the moment after death and then moving on to such topics as what happens to a person if he or she commits suicide, and could enlighten one, particularly if one has experienced death and has questions about it. Yushi believes that, if everyone reads this book, people would have a grander perspective on life, and that the world will be more peaceful, as people would have a perspective on life that isn’t limited to just one’s present lifetime. He also notes that love, in the context of the book, is essentially as the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” He believes that, a thousand years from now, the concepts and topics within the book will be common knowledge due to the spiritual awakening that is presently taking place.
Yushi believes that everyone should read the book, particularly in the West in order to make the conversation of reincarnation common. He also notes that Happy Science is a very innovative movement, with something new happening every year, and that Mr. Okawa is presently involved in interviewing spirits who have moved on into the afterlife, and some of these interviews can be found at spiritualinterview.com.
Yushi, who graduated as an electrical engineer, would very much like to see the technologies present in the afterlife that aren’t yet here on Earth, while he would not like to experience the deepest realms of Hell, which is where demons reside, and when he meets up with God, the Deity would meet him with the question, “Did you fulfill your mission?”
