Fall Festival
Rev. Masanobu Taniguchi Gives an Address
Let’s Understand the True Meaning of the “Seven Lighthouses”
On November 21, the 35th Ryugu Sumiyoshi Hongu Fall Festival and the 32nd Ryugu Sumiyoshi Reigu Fall Festival were held at the Seicho-No-Ie Main Temple in Nagasaki Prefecture. On the following day (November 22), a Ceremony to Commemorate the Birth of Rev. Masaharu Taniguchi was held. The President of Seicho-No-Ie, Rev. Masanobu Taniguchi, served as the Chief Priest at these ceremonies. Mrs. Junko Taniguchi, President of Seicho-No-Ie White Dove Association, was also present.
On November 22, Rev. Masanobu Taniguchi addressed the 1,352 attendees for 27 minutes in the worship hall in his capacity as the Superintendent.
The President began his address by celebrating the birthday of Rev. Masaharu Taniguchi, saying “Congratulations” together with the attendees. He praised Rev. Masaharu Taniguchi for his achievement of authoring about 400 books and building the Main Temple.
Rev. Masanobu Taniguchi next referred to the “Seven Lighthouses” (Note: the Japanese word, todai, can be translated as lighthouse or candlestick) at the Main Temple. He introduced the fact that before they were physically built they had already been written about in the “Divine Messages of the ‘Lighter of the Seven Golden Candlesticks.’” The President also pointed out that at the beginning of the Seimei no Jisso (Truth of Life) there is a quotation from the Revelation of St. John the Divine before the “Divine Message of Grand Harmony” and that the “Seven Golden Candlesticks” already appear in that quotation. He said that the structure which Rev. Masaharu Taniguchi created at the inception of Seicho-No-Ie symbolically shows the goal of the Seicho-No-Ie Movement.
The President next introduced the fact that the “Divine Message of the Seven Golden Candlesticks’” (Here kansei (completion) is given the phonetic reading, nanatsu, or 7) states that Seicho-No-Ie’s goal is to extinguish the three darknesses of sin, sickness and death. Since our ceremonies and rituals are conducted in the Shinto style, we are sometimes misunderstood to be a Japanese religion, but the expanse of our goal is not limited to Japan. He stressed that this is the reason why it is named Humanity Enlightenment Movement.
The President also explained that the present Bible translated in the colloquial Japanese uses a different word, “candlestick,” for “lighthouse” but that the meaning is the same. He also noted that the number “7” (nanatsu) means completion and that the “Seven Golden Candlesticks” also mean “all over the world.” He then introduced all the names of the “Seven Lighthouses” at the Main Temple and gave a detailed explanation of the first “Lighthouse,” Tenson Korin Sumera Mikuni Joju To (Descent to Earth of the Grandson of the Sun Goddess and Realization of the Imperial Nation Tower).
Noting the fact that Seicho-No-Ie has the same number of divine messages as the Kanzeon Bosatsu, who changes into 33 different appearances to save humanity, Rev. Taniguchi said that this shows that the answer is provided according to the seeker. He then quoted the “Divine Message of Kunmindoji (Ruling of the Nation by Both the Emperor and His People) of December 28, 1945, and referring to the descent from divinity, he said that human beings created a myth to express man’s sacredness. He said that the awareness of a child of God within people demands the holiness from within those at the top of the political world and that this is true of the American Presidential election and Japan’s general election.
Rev. Taniguchi next introduced the “Divine Message of Daiwa no Kuni (Nation of Grand Harmony) of January 6, 1946, and explained that Tenson (the Grandson of the Sun Goddess) means the one who realizes God’s will and that Tenson Korin (Descent to Earth of the Grandson of the Sun Goddess) is a symbolic expression that God’s will is realized on earth. The President made it clear that the final goal of our Movement is to realize God’s will all over the world and the entire universe, including Japan.
Mentioning that there are people who say that Seicho-No-Ie is not promoting the Movement of the past, Rev. Taniguchi cautioned that right now the earth’s environment is in a critical condition, and therefore, the past thinking that the nation’s interests justify the means will lead humanity to self-destruction. He stressed the fact that we are now promoting the Movement that focuses on the harmony between God, nature and human beings.
At the end of his address, Rev. Taniguchi touched on the fourth of the “Seven Lighthouses,” Sangai Banrei Shikkai Jisso Kaiken Jobutsu To (All Spirits in Heaven and Earth Manifest Their True Image and Attain Buddhahood Tower). He urged the attendees to worship at the “Seven Lighthouses” with special attention to the fact that everything manifests their True Image in the relationship between the natural world and man. In concluding his address, the President stressed that by understanding that the “Lighthouses” are for praying for harmony between nature and man, we can give today’s Movement fresh energy.
The Ceremony began at 10:00 a.m. After the singing of the national anthem, there was a message by Rev. Kazuo Isobe, Chairman and CEO of Seicho-No-Ie. Mrs. Kimie Kita, the head of Shiga Missionary Area White Dove Association, and Rev. Masanori Morita, Bishop of Seicho-No-Ie Republic of China, gave congratulatory messages on behalf of the domestic followers and overseas followers, respectively. After Rev. Masanobu Taniguchi’s address, there was the Headquarters Awards presentation and so forth. The Ceremony came to an end at 12:05 p.m.