Newpath Tenrikyo:  Tenrikyo's Dynamic Mission - JUST A NARROW PATH

 

God our parent of origin taught a number of different kinds of service ("tsutome", work) at particular times and primarily in a particular place. God's intention in teaching the various kinds of work or services is to prepare the human mind for awakening to the reason of heaven. The preparation of the human mind means finding ways of settling out the worldly common truths that occupy it from moment to moment so that only the truth of origin remains. In most cases that settling did not happen and instead common worldly expectations and interpretations gradually began to overgrow and choke the path that was intended to quickly lead  to single-hearted salvation in all matters and for all human beings equally.   When a path becomes overgrown with weeds and obscure it means that few if any people are walking on it.

Before we take an honest and sincere look at the way in which our predecessors misunderstood God the Parent's intention it might be useful to reflect on the fact that anyone reading this is a beneficiary of the sincere efforts of people who though they did not understand God's intention were still sincerely committed to providing those who followed with the opportunity to mature and do so.  Though clearly and persistently explained and given, it is in fact very easy to misunderstand the intention of our Parent of origin.

When the above direction was given ten or eleven years had passed since Oyasama wrote the poem :

We can see from these sources that misunderstanding of God the Parent's intention continued to be the norm. There were however two significant changes in the circumstances worth noting in this context. First, the number of people who misunderstood or failed to understand God the Parent's intention increased considerably and second, some of the sincere followers began to perform the Teodori and the Kagura Service even though they misunderstood their intended use. Fortunately we have been left clear instructions concerning the cause of our predecessor's misunderstanding and indeed the way to quickly remedy that misunderstanding has been taught and is still very much open and available to us today.  

When we think about misunderstanding it is valuable to recall that "real" common worldly truths, actions and results flow from  misunderstandings and those common worldly truths causally ("Innen") work themselves out in the world as a logical way of reasoning. For instance, if I imagine that men are superior to women or that for some reason, that makes sense to me, that I am closer to god than other  people then I can create in my own mind a multitude of truths in the world that are based on those truths of the world which may, to me, seem to be fundamental truths. It stands to reason then that since no one understood God's intention there were and continue to be real worldly common truths, actions and results flowing from the use of logic and reasoning that has as its foundation the misunderstanding of God's intention. It is not enough to acknowledge that God said something or another about misunderstanding, the topic requires some deep and honest self reflection to make sure that we have identified the foundation of those misunderstandings in all of their forms and understand the worldly common, truths, actions and results that flowed and continue to flow from those misunderstandings. Of course once those misunderstandings are identified we can, if we wish to, make any necessary adjustment or correction to the way that we use our own mind and enjoy the sweetness of God's free and unlimited workings as a return for our sincere effort. 

 Alternatively if our notion of God's intention is based upon a foundation of misunderstanding and we are complacent and comfortable with that misunderstanding then perhaps we can expect some difficulty and delay in intentionally awakening to the truth of origin.  Fortunately we have been given very powerful tools for identifying God's mind, the truth of origin and for measuring our progress in how closely our mind conforms and is in accord with God's mind.

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