• The teachings of
Mahikari do not condone charitable acts.
Sukyo Mahikari claims to be a community service
organization, but I think they define community service rather
differently than the rest of us. Similarly, Sukyo Mahikari is registered as a charity in many countries,
without performing any acts that fit the normally accepted definition
of charity.
To everyone except Mahikari members, community service and
charity mean giving financial, practical, or other help to people who
need it. To Mahikari members, community service and charity take the
form of offering okiyome and promoting teachings concerning divine
principles. During my 10 years in Mahikari, these were the only things
I saw offered to the community.
According to Sukyo Mahikari teachings, okiyome and spreading
Mahikari teachings certainly can be defined as the highest contribution
one can make to society. These are regarded as giving people the
opportunity to become spiritually purified and help God fulfil his
divine plan, which is regarded as the most important thing for anyone.
For people who sincerely believe Mahikari teachings, it is
logical to regard these things as charitable acts. For people like
myself, who no longer believe the teachings are valid, these things are
a waste of time, or worse.
The flip side of the coin is that acts which most people
regard as charitable, such as feeding starving people, providing
disaster relief, etc., are regarded as being a disservice. According to
Sukyo Mahikari teachings, any hardships we receive are the result of
our karma and spiritual impurities, and experiencing those hardships
helps erase that spiritual impurity. Hence, any charitable acts (in the
usual sense of the word) are obstructing God's arrangements and
interfering with people's chance to become more purified.
Members are taught that there are only two ways to erase
spiritual impurities. One way is to suffer hardships, the other is to
dedicate oneself willingly to divine service and give lots of okiyome.
So, if a Mahikari member is experiencing difficulties of any kind, they
will receive no practical help with the problem itself. Instead, staff
will simply advise them to increase their divine service and give more
okiyome.
Sound harsh? Well, yes, these teachings are very harsh.
The odd thing, though, is that Sukyo Mahikari contains some
of the most generous, caring, and altruistic people you'll ever meet.
Many are extremely generous with their time, and devote an enormous
number of hours per week to giving okiyome and performing other divine
service. Mahikari seems to attract the sort of people who want to save
the world, and who are prepared to put enormous amounts of energy into
attempting to do that. That is fine if they are in fact contributing to
saving the world... but a dreadful waste if the teachings of
SukyoMahikari are wrong. These people could be helping to feed the
starving.
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