Tenrikyo Dynamic Mission A SURE GUIDE

Two interpretations of the phrase "a sure guide" as found in the "Doctrine of Tenrikyo" come to mind. The first assumes that "sure guide" refers to the tireless efforts of our original parent to guide or lead us to the direct knowledge and understanding of God's mind by showing us the sure quick way to  merge back into that original consciousness. That is to say that we are invited to actually know and understand the mind of God, not as a believer or bystander but as a recipient of a proven truth given to any mind that has totally merged its self-centered imaginations back into the original mind of God. The original consciousness  that our self-centered imaginations rise up in. The second assumes that any mind that has become single-hearted with the mind of God can bring the reasoning, knowledge and understanding of that original state of mind back into the world and can use that newly created self centered imagination as "a sure guide" for the realization of free and unlimited workings in all future matters.

 Let's begin our reflections with the interpretation that it refers to a "sure guide" to lead us to single-heartedness, being one with  the mind of God ("kami ichijoo") and the knowledge and understanding that flows from that state. When we desire to go somewhere or achieve something that is important to us there are a number of choices that we can make. In this case we are speaking about choices that will lead to single-heartedness with the mind of God.

• We can move about randomly and hope that we can realize single-heartedness with God, perhaps by relying on luck, or fate, or prayers, or magic, or on alcohol, or on drugs. Single-heartedness with God can happen in the course of any of those actions but it is a very rare occurrence. The actual emphasis and expectation usually being on some intention other than single-heartedness with God. Miki Nakayama became single-hearted in the midst of a magical incantation but not because of her intention or because of the ritual but because of her true sincerity in following instructions and emptying her mind.

• We can ask around among people who have never been single-hearted with the mind of God but who  have an opinion or opinions about single-heartedness with God and about whether such a state of mind exists or doesn't exist and how to become single-hearted with God or even the impossibility of becoming single-hearted with God and then see how the opinions and advice that are available measure up against our own intentions, expectations and common experience up until that point.

  
  

  The present path: what kind of path do you think it is?
  Though it seems to you to be unclear,
  
  I already see a broad path ahead. Your are saying
  that it is over there, but it is already before you.

  
  




• We can seek the sure advice and instructions from someone who has been single-hearted with God or indeed even better, someone who lives and remains eternally single-hearted with the mind of God and who is willing to make the effort to help us to quickly and intentionally prove, know and understand single-heartedness with God through our own mind. This is the way of Tenrikyo Dynamic, the way of intentional awakening to single-heartedness with the mind of God. It is a way taught directly to us from the mind of God and as such is the quickest and sure guide for anyone who would wish to return to their origin, know and understand the mind of God and enjoy the free and unlimited workings that flow from the that knowledge and understanding. It is quick because we are already there. There is nowhere that we need to go and nothing that we need to learn. We need only muster the true sincerity to totally quiet our self-centered imagination and savor the truth that remains.

When on October 24, 1838 during the course of a healing ritual in which Miki had agreed to act as a medium she suddenly and unexpectedly stopped the ritual.  From that point on Miki, whose mind had been replaced by the mind of our parent of origin became a "sure guide" for anyone who wished to learn the truth of origin, the original cause of all things in detail and to return to single-heartedness with the mind of God enjoying the free and unlimited workings that flow from that state of mind. That She can be such a "sure guide" is because Her original parental mind lives eternally and is tirelessly willing to give sure instructions to anyone who would like to quickly test Her path of intentional awakening and surely come to merge with, know and understand the mind of God.

We can put ourselves in the position of those were present at that ritual exorcism on October 24, 1838 and entertain the same doubts that certainly came to the minds of those who were present when Miki interrupted and put an end to the healing ritual. Anything was possible. Perhaps she had been possessed by the same kinds of demons, spirits or gods that the magical ritual was intended to exorcise. Perhaps she had lost her mind and become mentally unstable. Perhaps she intended to move into Ichibei's business and run her own magical ritual exorcisms or perhaps her mind had actually been replaced and taken over by a new god among others that no one had ever heard of before as it is said that she had claimed. 

How to sort it out? How do we know that Miki's mind was replaced by the mind of our original parent? How can we be sure that the original parent exists and that Miki Nakayama is a sure guide to show us the way to single-hearted salvation, God's free and unlimited workings and a joyous life?

Well, we can quickly test Her claims and settle the question for ourselves. There is the rub. Though many were willing to accept a new god or two or even ten and integrate them into a worldly common set of ideas that kept things familiar and much the same, nobody wanted to test Her teaching and become one with the truth of origin through their own totally purified "mind like clear water". That may sound like it was too much to ask at that time and in that place but these days we are aware of  all kinds of experiments and processes that require a totally clean environment. To test the claims of the truth of origin it is necessary for us to quickly do the work of  opening our mind to reason, by clearing, settling and purifying it. Making the sincere completion of that work our first priority.

To guide our progress we are provided with both a Model Life against which we can compare our mind with the mind of God and a Model Path that we can use exactly as shown to quickly purify our own mind and become single-hearted with the mind of our true parent of origin. And through pondering the reasoning that flows through that totally purified mind come to know and understand God's free and unlimited workings in every matter.

Though we are guided by the tireless efforts of our original parent it is a good idea to reflect on the fact that God always has and continues to work in the world through instruments. In preparing all of the minds in  the world for single-hearted salvation God seeks out those who are willing to employ "all means" to make the purification of the human mind their first priority. Those people can then serve as "guides" to anyone else who would wish to hear of and quickly complete the work of purifying their own mind and then gradually all human minds so that they can be opened to the free and unlimited workings and the way of reasoning that flows through a human mind that has settled, knows and understands its true origin. Regrettably it is our nature to find this work of settling our mind to be very difficult and uninteresting. Frankly we have numerous other priorities supported by common worldly truths and would rather do something else. When we speak of the Shinbashira or for that matter any other person as being at the "core" of our effort to purify our mind we are acknowledging that persons sincere resolve to make staying  focused on the work of settling the self-centered imagination their first and overriding priority.   They are then in a position to act as guides for others to follow.

In the past I worked in a early twentieth century aquarium and natural history museum. Most people who visited did so for its educational and entertainment value. Visitors could easily get lost in the wonders of its exhibits and would often describe themselves as delightfully lost in the halls and buildings.  A much smaller number made the close examination of its contents and the world that they were drawn from their delight and life's work. They didn't budge much from their investigations and pretty much followed the same path to and from their offices and labs.  In contrast since I worked in the security and safety department I was aware of a different priority and knew that in an emergency one guard would have to quickly respond and provide such immediate care as they were capable of while another would have to guide emergency responders to any part of the facilities in five minutes or less ( in the case of heart failure our brains begin to suffer from a lack of oxygen and will be damaged or die in four to seven minutes.) Fortunately the number of times per year when such emergency action was called for was rather small when compared with the number of persons who visited and who worked there.

 Though that is good news it creates two rather large problems. For those who have to remain focused on their primary responsibility as emergency guides there is a problem with staying alert and prepared. The solution to that problem is to constantly drill the emergency guides so that they can refine each others performance and stay focused on their primary task.  The second problem is much more difficult. It is relatively expensive to train and maintain a staff of emergency responders to be ready and alert twenty-four hours a day, three hundred and sixty-five days a year. There was never any shortage of people with ideas concerning other useful things that could be accomplished by such a large staff. Often such ideas were eagerly embraced by emergency responders that would have actually preferred to do something else. Needless to say with each such change in priority that alert and efficient four or five minute response time moved farther and farther away. Interestingly the expectation that that rapid response would still be available remained even though the suggested additional actions would more or less guarantee that it wouldn't be. 

When we read the above quote it is possible for us to get the impression that the Shinbashira is being a bit hard on us. I suggest that instead we look at the above quote as a guidance. The Shinbashira in his role as the core of the path is guiding us to the next step in our effort to mature and understand. There is much to be learned from pondering the above reflections and commentaries that the 3rd. Shinbashira has shared with us, so let's step through those reflections and commentaries step by step and in so doing add some depth to our own self reflections as I believe that the above comments go right to the root of our misunderstanding of God our parent's teachings.

* I added the emphasis.

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