• Family discord
results if not all family members belong to Mahikari.
The US site claims that Sukyo Mahikari promotes family
harmony. This might be a valid claim if all members of a family are
equally enthusiastic about practicing Mahikari. However, as a former
member, I hear much more about the family discord that results when
some of the family members are Mahikari members, and some are not.
Picture a husband and wife and their children. Maybe both
parents joined Sukyo Mahikari at one stage, but later one of them left
Mahikari (or was never a member). One parent believes Okada's
teachings, and thinks that the other parent is disturbed by attaching
spirits. The other parent believes that the teachings are false, and
thinks that the first parent is a victim of mind control. How can these
people be expected to communicate properly, let alone be harmonious, on
that basis? Meaningful conversations between members and non-members
are almost impossible due to the enormous difference between their
perceptions of reality.
Both parents will have very different ideas about bringing
up the children. One will regard immunizations as being poisons, and
the other will regard not having immunizations as irresponsible. One
will want the children to go to dojo and receive light. The other will
regard Sukyo Mahikari's influence as distinctly dangerous. One will
want to give the children okiyome when they are sick, and the other
will think they need medication. With those sort of pressures, its
quite likely the couple will divorce eventually. As I'm sure you can
imagine, there have been some very bitter custody battles under these
sorts of circumstances.
What if both parents remain members of Sukyo Mahikari, and
they therefore both agree about bringing up their children to believe
Okada's teachings? The family might be harmonious while the children
are young. The parents will probably do their best to make sure the
children all receive okiyome every day...if possible...but that might
be rather difficult if the parents have followed the guidelines that
discourage contraception.
When the children reach 10 years of age, there will be a lot
of pressure for them to receive kenshu, whether they want to or not.
The teachings say that, if the spiritual level of the parents rises,
this will be reflected in their children. Accordingly, if children do
not want to receive kenshu, do not want to go to dojo, or do not
conform to expected behavioural standards...you guessed it!...its
because the parents are not sufficiently purified and need to make more
effort to serve God. This predictably has two effects. The parents may
become increasingly totalitarian as they try to make their children
conform to expectations, and they will probably increase the amount of
time they spend at dojo (which reduces the amount of quality time they
can spend with their children). This can be a rather miserable time for
all the family.
Predictably, sometime during their teens, some children will
decide they no longer believe Sukyo Mahikari teachings, and will want
to stop being members. This must be their parents' worst nightmare.
Okada taught that people who have heard the teachings, and then
rejected them, will be judged by God and eventually "beaten to a pulp".
Can you imagine what it must be like for a parent, who has made every
effort possible to nurture a child who will be "saved by God", to face
the thought that their child will be judged by God in this way? Okada
said that members should not worry about people who persist in
rejecting the teachings, and just accept that this is their fate. How
can a parent do that?
The parents are likely to do everything they can think of to
cajole/bribe/force/threaten/manipulate their child into following the
teachings. I imagine the family harmony level would be about zero at
this stage. Depending on the child's age, he or she may leave home, or
be sent away to school, or whatever.
This article is supposed to be about family
harmony/disharmony, so I probably should not digress too much into what
this time is like for the rebelling child/teenager/young adult. Suffice
it to say that two of the most difficult processes in that person's
life happen concurrently. Most people will understand one of
these...the process of separation from parents, spreading wings,
fighting for autonomy, dealing with parental disapproval, and finding
ones own identity. The second is the process of leaving Sukyo Mahikari.
I went through that process as an independent adult, so in my case that
process was not complicated by any sort of family harmony issues. Even
so, trying to bridge the gulf between the perception of reality that is
Mahikari, and the after-Mahikari perception of reality, was the most
hellish experience of my entire life.
Going through both the above processes at the same time
strikes me as almost impossible, yet many young people from Sukyo
Mahikari families have had to do exactly that.
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