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| Masaharu Taniguchi |
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Masaharu Taniguchi was born in 1893, in Kobe, Japan. He majored in English Literature at Waseda University in Tokyo. Because of his inborn love and compassion for mankind, he was deeply concerned over the contradiction in life, and his heart was troubled with the suffering of mankind. With great care and much effort, he studied many of the philosophies and thoughts, both old and new, of the east and west, to find answers to the problems common to all people: "What is man?" or "What is the meaning of life?" In 1930, after extensive study, contemplation and while in deep meditation, the new light - the Truth, was directly revealed to him.
This realization came to him as if it were a commanding voice: "All evil things are nothingness. They could never be the product of Divine Will but of man' s deluded mind." Everything that occurs in man's environment is a reflection of his mind. The same is true with man's physical body." "The Phenomena are non-existent. That which is truly real and eternal is only God and His manifestations. Man is truly a child of God. He is already immaculate and redeemed." "Jesus Christ's Crucifixion means the perfect negation of flesh. If and only when man crucifies his flesh in this sense, can he acquire eternal life." He then acquired marvelous healing power. Many were healed of their disease merely by listening to his lecture or by receiving his visit.
At that time Taniguchi held a position as an English translator with a certain business firm. He began to save portions of his income in anticipation of the day when he could begin publishing a non-denominational Truth movement magazine. However, soon after he had saved a certain amount of funds, he fell victim to a theft. He searched within himself for the answer to this problem, and heard intuitively a Heavenly Voice saying, "The world is a reflection of the mind. The source of all necessary supply is already within you. Rise now! Begin your mission now!"
Immediately after this inspiration he published the first issue of his magazine, Seicho-No-Ie. Surprisingly enough, this magazine brought another sequence of marvelous healings to the readers. They recovered from various diseases such as cancer and tuberculosis. Their home life became harmonized. Countless blessings were brought about to them. People began to realize that this spiritual movement was not founded by man but by God in order to save humanity.
Seicho-No-Ie magazines seem to parallel closely those published by Unity School of Christianity. Sometimes, indeed, Seicho-No-Ie has been called the "Japanese Unity," although it does seem to have closer ties with Religious Science than with Unity in fact. The rise of this vigorous new religion in Japan is an interesting example of the interrelatedness of our world. Who, seeing Seicho-No-Ie in operation in Japan, would ever think of it as having any connection with a Western writer? But Fenwicke Holmes, brother of Ernest Holmes of Religious Science, was an influential figure in the development of Seicho-No-Ie. He collaborated with Taniguchi in writing the book The Science of Faith. There is in the book no indication of which author was responsible for any specific section, though internal evidence will sometimes indicate rather clearly the authorship. Curiously enough, Fenwicke Holmes had never been in Japan and had never met Taniguchi in person, but Seicho-No-Ie had published Holmes' Law of Mind in Action and others of his books, so it was natural enough that they should have joined in writing The Science of Faith. Holmes' Calm Yourself has had a wide distribution in Japan.
On June 17, 1985, at the age of ninety-one, Masaharu Taniguchi made his peaceful transition to the higher spiritual world. Over his lifetime he wrote more than 400 books and the Truth of Life series has surpassed the 14,000,000 mark to become an all-time bestseller.
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