The Ideas of Mokichi Okada (1882-1955)
Mokichi Okada was born in Tokyo in 1882. During his life, Okada was confronted with the fact that material prosperity does not necessarily lead to human happiness. It was in Nature that Okada discovered the causes and effects of the problems facing humanity and the principles on which to create an ideal civilization. A new civilization - a world of art imbued with truth, virtue, and beauty coexisting in perfect harmony with Nature - would emerge.
What is the Zuisenkyô (Health Oasis Garden) Concept?
In creating a truly healthy civilization that is in harmony with Nature, Mokichi Okada began to construct small prototypes of such a true civilization. At the prototypes, people could directly experience what true civilization is like and could incorporate it into their daily lives. Although industrial society makes agriculture remote from our daily lives, farming has always been an integral part of human culture.
Okada desired to create a model of an ideal city or community, where healthy food is produced and distributed locally, while preserving the ecosystem. He created prototypes in the cities of Hakone and Atami, both places of abundant natural beauty within Japan's Izu-Hakone National Park. Two of his main prototypes he called Shinsenkyô (God's Enchanted Land) and Zuiunkyô (Land of Auspicious Clouds).
He then planned to construct more practical prototypes that could be created throughout the world. These prototypes he called Zuisenkyô (Health Oasis Garden). The three major components of Zuisenkyô are:
With this spirit, we began construction of a Zuisenkyô prototype in Fresno County, California.
What is Nature Farming?
The philosophy and practice of Nature Farming arose from Mokichi Okada's research, in the late 1930's and 1940's. He discovered that if our agricultural methods respect the soil and enhance its innate power, then our food will always be rich in natural energy and will nourish and support our health. Human beings can thrive only by living in harmony with Nature.
Okada discovered that everything on Earth, including vegetables and fruits, has a visible, physical side and an invisible, spiritual side. Healthy uncontaminated crops have an abundance of this invisible energy, which gives more energy to those who consume the crops. Unlike some of the practices of organic farming, Nature Farming holds this view of Nature as fundamental. Although we in MOA formulate Nature Farming Guidelines and certify the crops of Nature Farming in Japan and in other nations, we never forget that Okada's view Nature is the basis of this Nature Farming practice.
In the United States, MOA has published the Hawaii version of the MOA Nature Farming Guidelines. In conjunction with the Hawaii Department of Agriculture and the University of Hawaii's College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, MOA is working to establish a model of sustainable agriculture through Nature Farming that is suitable for the tropical climate.
Here in Fresno County, an important agricultural hub of the U.S., we began Nature Farming in 1999. Though still a beginning, crops are enjoying the power of Nature, and we are receiving excellent comments from consumers.
What is Okada Purifying Therapy (OPT)?
Okada Purifying Therapy (OPT) is a method of curing illnesses, as developed
by Okada through more than 30 years of research with over 20,000 people. Okada
taught that all life arises from an inseparable union of spirit and body. Accordingly,
he said human beings are comprised of a spiritual body and a physical body.
Okada also taught that spirit precedes body; that is, the physical condition
is a mirror image of the spiritual condition. He explained that illnesses,
which afflict the physical body, are caused by the accumulation and solidification
of toxins in the regions of the physical body that correspond to clouding on
the spiritual body. Toxin and accumulation and solidification also dulls the
body's natural healing ability, causing further toxin accumulation and solidification.
When OPT is administered to key points, clouding on the spiritual body is eliminated,
the correspnding toxins in the physical body are liquefied and purged as natural
healing ability is gradually activated, and health is proportionately restored.
OPT is the act of channeling and focusing spiritual bio-energy directly to the spiritual body. OPT utilizes this bio-energy to cure illnesses by treating their root cause. The most distinctive characteristic of OPT is the view of illness as a purification process. Needless to say, this view is unprecedented and unparalleled in Western and Eastern medicine, as well as in the various types of folk medicine.
Medical research has explained that our bodies support life because homeostasis is sustained through truly elaborate and exact mechanisms like circulation, respiration, digestion and absorption, internal secretions, metabolism, nerves, etc. However, Okada actually discovered another important auto-support function of the body he referred to as the purification process. He explained that pathogenic substances that accumulate in the body are purged before they exert an adverse effect on life. The health of human beings is maintained through this process.
Typical examples of this purification process are coughing, expectoration, nasal discharge, perspiration, diarrhea, fever, pain, itching, nausea, paralysis, malaise, etc. However, it is evident that efforts were made throughout history in the East and West using various medicines to suppress these symptoms often experienced during the common cold, etc. (as harmful illnesses.) Okada pointed out that this is the very cause of poor health in human beings and one of the greatest mistakes in the history of mankind.
On the other hand, OPT directly removes and eliminates the accumulated causes of diseases without the accompanying pain. To understand the fundamental principle of OPT, a general understanding of Okada's ideology and philosophy, beginning with his theory of the purification process and including his theory on dualistic world existence, is indispensable.
