Tezuka Osamu drew like 500,000 pages of manga, but had assistants do most of the backgrounds. Me thinks that Okawa has reams of ghostwriters and besides, when one is only cherrypicking platitudes from Buddhism, Christianity, etc. I bet that turning out the pages isn’t too hard. I have read some of Okawa’s writing but didn’t see anything there that you can’t get just as easily from the Buddha manga, The Watchtower, Wikipeida, Jesus Christ Superstar, and The White Album. If there is something truly original to Okawa that I’m missing, I’m open to being enlightened. I’m also open to being enlightened on how Jesus and Buddha end up going hand in hand with “blow the crap out of North Korea”.

Without Great Revelation, it is impossible for anyone to have such wealth of wisdom to publish books of such volumes. And the number of publications keep increasing. They range from deep spiritual messages and philosophies, to managing daily lives successfully such as relationships, work etc. So it’s wrong to say that we don’t learn about human relationships and “spending all your time meditating and retreating into the community of a fringe church group”.
It’s really a lie!

Many of us have full-time careers in the secular world, and through the teachings of Happy Science, we relate with people much better and we respect other religions.
Without proper understanding of another’s religion, you simply criticize.
Such kind of attitudes are the cause of religious conflicts throughout the world.

The original Japanese name “Kofuku-no-Kagaku” in English means “Happiness” (Kofuku) and “Science” (Kagaku).

The English name “Happy Science” is adopted for its clarity, simplicity and ease of pronunciation, in order to share the teachings of “Kofuku-no-Kagaku” with people all around the world regardless of their country of origin or level of English.

You should read the testimonies of some of his books from Amazon.
http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/switch-language/product/193005162X/ref=dp_change_lang?ie=UTF8&language=en%5FJP

From what I can gather, it’s basically Okawa “channeling” pretty much anyone he can think of big in the world of religion, in a sort of universalist grab-bag of prophets and seers.

Think of what you are saying. Have you heard of a new religion that didnt promise utopia in one form or another?

English description of what the happy science teaches:

“The happiness that is taught at Happy Science is the happiness that runs through this world and the next; it is another name for “enlightenment.” The teachings of Happy Science are based on the Buddhist spirit. Through learning and practicing the Truth, you will be able to deepen your character, build better relationships with others, create a harmonious family, and improve work skills. In the process you will gain much “nourishment for the soul,” which has the power to shine through to your next life as well.”

So you have to learn “the Truth” in order to get happiness. The basic tenets of this Truth are:

“Love” which is the Buddhist concept of compassion (does that mean doing good deeds to earn merit?)

“Wisdom” – i.e. pursuing knowledge by studying “The Truth” which I assume is Okawa’s writings

“Self-reflection” – Follow an eight-step path to “get rid of any impurities in the mind, and restore the state of mind that attunes to the heavenly world while being on earth.” And finally

“Progress” – this one is a little iffy since the description forgoes details in favor of name-checking “Mahayana Buddhism” and “Hermes’ teachings of development and prosperity.” Apparently following these teachings give you “the happiness of a peaceful mind” and “a positive happiness gained through experiencing success, as well as the path to the creation of a utopia on earth.”

They also believe in reincarnation and connect this search for The Truth and happiness to cycle of reincarnations that culminates in nirvana.
http://www.kofuku-no-kagaku.or.jp/en/whatsirh/doctrine.html

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I agree that pursuing happiness and inner peace are worthy goals, but personally I don’t need to subscribe to Buddhist superstitions to get there. As a Baptist-raised agnostic, I think it’s more important to keep your feet on the ground and try and deal with your human relationships in reality instead of spending all your time meditating and retreating into the community of a fringe church group.

While there are many Japanese who wear their deep unhappiness on their faces, I dont think they would be very well served by this religion. One of the most refreshing things about living in Japanese society is its relative lack of dogmatic zealotry. In the realm of politics, in the US the leftwingers are just as zealous about their causes as the right-wing Christians are about swearing and abortion. And then people come here and conclude that Japanese people just arent interested in political speech.