Is illness good or bad? Illness is a result of our bodies fighting off an enemy, like bacteria, viruses, or cancer. So illness is good, in that our immune system is creating these malingering symptoms in fighting off theses invaders of the body. It is the bacteria and viruses that are our enemies, and our immune system, or illness is erroneously blamed.

In the Heaven’s Truth Church (Tenrikyo), the Book of Prophecy (Ofudesaki) tells us that illness can also be God’s guidance to purify our minds of evil (greed, arrogance, and self love). God places illness on our bodies to tell us that we are using our minds contrary to God’s intentions. It is these illnesses that can be cured if we ponder, and purify our minds. Like in our immune system, illness is not bad; it is our mind of greed, arrogance, and self-love, like the viruses and bacteria that are the bad ones.

There are religions that believe the illness and death are God’s punishment for our sins; but illness may be God guiding us to remove our sins or evils (greed, arrogance, and self love) from our minds. Illness as God’s guidance, something to ponder over.