Shoko Asahara

Shoko Asahara (March 2, 1955 – July 6, 2018 born Chizuo Matsumoto, was a Japanese cult leader and terrorist who founded and led the doomsday cult known as Aum Shinrikyo. He was convicted of masterminding the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, and was also involved in several other crimes. Asahara was sentenced to death in 2004, and his final appeal failed in 2011. In June 2012, his execution was postponed due to further arrests of Aum members. He was ultimately executed along with other senior members of Aum Shinrikyo on July 6, 2018.

• For the first time I stopped and thought, "What am I living for? What must I do to overcome this sense of emptiness?"
  This is a feeling which we all experience from time to time, only not as intensely. In a situation like that some people will change jobs, and some people just disappear. However, I set off in a completely different direction.
  The desire to seek after the ultimate awoke within me, and I began groping for an answer. That meant that I had to discard everything. Yes, everything that I had. It took great courage and faith, and great resolution.
  • Chonoryoku: Himitsu no kaihatsu ho, p. 21, 1986, quoted in Shimazono 1995, p. 385

• First of all, a red-hot energy is released from the mūlādhāra chakra in the coccyx and travels up along the backbone, entering the sahasrāra chakra at the top of the head. After that, kundalinī travels up through the sushumna channel, which connects the perineum with the sahasrāra chakra. Then kundalinī passes through the sādhisthāna chakra (genitals) to the manipūra chakra (navel), on to the anāhata chakra (chest) and then through the vishuddha chakra (throat), and a spiritual awakening occurs.
  • Same book as above, p. 113, 1986, quoted in Shimazono 1995, p. 388

• In my previous existence, I myself have killed someone at my guru's order. When your guru orders you to take someone's life, it's an indication that that person's time is already up. In other words, you are killing that person exactly at the right time and thereby letting that person have his poa.
  • January 4, 1987, speaking to his followers, according to an indictment, quoted in Watanabe 1998, p. 85

• Let me tell you straight, those who think that this world is full of pleasure are not suited for our practice. For their lives have not yet come to the dead end that provides the impetus for spiritual practice. Only after experiencing suffering are they ready to start practice. [...] when you come to the end of this process, when you run into that dead end, that's when you begin to experience suffering. That's when you become keenly aware of the suffering of being reborn into this world, the meaningless of it all. It is because your true self has accumulated many experiences that finally you become aware of this.
  • Initiation, 1987, quoted in Shimazono 1995, pp. 389–390

• Once you've achieved satori then you realize what you need to do now, or just what this thing called life is. Then you lose all interest in money.
  After all, you've realized that there is something much more important than that. How can I live each day to the full? How can I live in such a way as to seek after absolute freedom, absolute happiness and joy, which is what the true self really desires? Gradually you begin to focus on these points. Then you begin training and head towards gedatsu.
  • Initiation, 1987, quoted in Shimazono 1995, p. 391

• You can love all people. The ability to see all things as they are immediately brings one happiness.
  • Initiation, 1987, quoted in Shimazono 1995, p. 408

• We have to prevent those of false gedatsu from wielding any influence over people. For that reason I think I will have to show you eventually the true state and power of one who has attained gedatsu, as a kind of touchstone.
  • Mahayana Sutra, 1988, quoted in Shimazono 1995, p. 393.

• It is not wrong to presume that people today would obtain their rebirth in hell, or the realms of preta or animal, is it? The reason why is that they kill living beings, steal other people's belongings, pursue obscenities, lie, and drink alcohol. It is better to think that there is no means to redeem them anymore.
  • Mahayana Sutra, 1988, quoted in Watanabe 1998, p. 86

• It will be possible to limit the destruction if Aum works to produce large numbers of people who have reached gedatsu. The number of those who die at Armageddon will then be no more than a quarter of the world's population.... At present, though, my plan for salvation is behind schedule and the percentage of those who will survive is getting lower and lower. It is already impossible to limit the victims to less than one-fourth.
  • From Destruction to Emptiness, 1989, quoted in Shimazono 1995, p. 397

• The end justifies the means. Let's say there's a man whose vices are so many that he is certain to go to hell when he dies. If an enlightened individual determines that it's best to put an end to his life sooner and actually goes ahead and kills him, this act would be seen as plain murder in society in general.
  But in the light of our doctrine, the killing amounts to letting the man have his poa. As such, any enlightened person will see at once that both the killer and the person to be killed are going to benefit from the act.
  • Sermon, quoted in an indictment, quoted in Watanabe 1998, p. 85

• Since then I have continually increased the severity of my practice and have been able to investigate thoroughly the final stage of yoga. This is nothing else than the goal that I have set for myself.
  When I reached that stage, however, I realized that there are still more stages beyond, and I could not be satisfied. And so I began searching again.
  • Preface to Chonoryoku, 1991, quoted in Shimazono 1995, pp. 393–394

• You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish. He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake...
  • Declaring Myself the Christ, 1992, quoted in Metraux 2000, p. 44

• Let us look at the situation of Aum Shinrikyo now. When did the slaying happen to Aum? It began when Aum got involved in the election and declared freedom, equality, and benevolence for every being, especially for the Japanese, spreading the hospice movement and campaigning against the consumption tax at the same time. Since then, just like a Lamb who was slain, Aum has sacrificed its honor and position in society for the sake of its teaching.
  • Declaring Myself the Christ, 1992, quoted in Metraux 2000, p. 44

• Suppose there was someone who would accumulate bad karma and go to hell if allowed to live. And suppose an enlightened individual thought that it was better to terminate the person's life and gave the person poa ... Objectively speaking, it is a destruction of life.... However, based on the notion of Vajrayana, it is no other than respectable poa.
  • Vajrayana kosu, p. 83, published sometime after April 30, 1994, quoted in Watanabe 1998, p. 88, quoted in Walliss 2004, p. 176

• ... to dedicate one's bodily existence... For example, oppression from the government would be directed toward the supreme truth. Can you throw your body away? You might discard your own body. You throw it away without hesitation. This is the way of Tantra to dedicate one's body... It is the way of Tantra to abandon oneself for the sake of spiritual maturity.
  • Vajrayana kosu, pp. 58–59, quoted in Watanabe 1998, p. 90

• This is poa, understand? Do meditation. Repeat the phrase 'It was nice to be blessed by the guru, Shiva and those who have attained the Supreme Truth,' ten thousand times.
  • 1995, talking to the Aum members who had just committed the sarin gas attack, quoted in Watanabe 1998, p. 92

• It is time for you to carry out the plan of salvation. Let us prepare to meet our death without any regrets.
  • Radio broadcast shortly after the attack, quoted in Mullins 1997, p. 318, quoted in Walliss 2004, p. 195