Tenrikyo Dynamic Mission - ALIENATION - (Kara, Tenjiku)

We are taught that the truth of origin, the truth of where we were and are created, the original native place of all human beings equally, can be realized, known and understood by the state of our mind either "clear or muddy". Which is to say that the truth of origin is revealed through the state of mind that is metaphorically the "mind like clear water" and which conversely cannot be known or understood by the mind that is muddied by our day to day worldly common, shallow, self centered thoughts.  Once we settle this simple truth we see that all of the various means of showing the need and the means for returning our mind to that original condition consist of metaphors that indicate the one truth, our degrees of alienation from that one truth and the various means (suitable for our time  place and our maturity) of exposing that one truth through our totally settled, purified, mind like clear water.

Recall that human alienation from the truth of our origin is natural to us. In the past all human beings were born and lived their entire lives without the knowledge or understanding of the truth of origin. Though we may naturally be alienated from the truth of our origin we in general are not fond of being totally alienated  from each other in our common worldly activities. All human beings build common worldly relationships that insulate us from the anxiety, fear and the damaged mental health that is commonly associated with feelings or lack of feeling in the face of total alienation from our fellow human beings and the universe that we inhabit.

Those relationships start with our ideas of our-self (our self image or who we imagine our self to be) and then extend to our family, to our friends, our community, our culture and may continue on to our broader connection with what we take to be our common civilization.  Taken together for just a single human being those relationships can be very complex and difficult to clearly understand. For many of us it is difficult even to come to a clear understanding of ourselves. In the teaching of the reason of heaven this is simply put as the very important recognition that no two human minds are exactly the same. Indeed it is important to understand that in the teaching of the Reason of Heaven there is no expectation that they will ever be the same. Though we all share the same original consciousness (the mind of God) the contents of our imaginations are all different. Like snow flakes we appear from a single origin,  are unique and merge back into our single origin.

For some of us, in trying to find happiness and self-satisfaction as we make our way through the multitude of relationships that make up our common worldly experience, it is possible for us to become quite dissatisfied with our situation. It is a very important aspect of the teaching of our original parental consciousness that the truth of origin, the one truth that brings true satisfaction in all matters, our native place, cannot be found in any of our worldly common ideas and truths no matter how sincerely we might be inclined to look for it there. This condition, according to the Doctrine of Tenrikyo, is the condition of being lost in the darkness of our self centered imaginations without any sure guide. The one and only sure way to overcome the alienation that is causing suffering in the human world is to return our minds to their origin, which is their original pristine condition and then bring that understanding and knowledge back into our world as the foundation for the joyous life that is intended in our creation. To do that we may need a sure guide which is what the Tenrikyo Dynamic is offering.

 

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