On the morning of October 24th 1838 the Nakayama family felt that they needed help. Specifically they felt that they needed the help of an ascetic monk, Ichibei Nakano of Nagataki Village. Ichibei, an ascetic monk, was known for his power to effect cures through the use of ritual formulas and incantations. Such an exorcism usually involved the services of a medium. Since Ichibei's usual medium was not available at that time Miki Nakayama agreed to act as a medium for the healing ritual that was intended to employ the power of ritual magic to cure the ills of the Nakayama family. The intention of human beings to employ ritual incantations and prayer to seek the help and protection, or to influence  higher supernatural powers to satisfy our  self-centered fears, anxieties and concerns is deeply ingrained in the story of the long human journey extending all over the world and throughout all ages. It was a powerful force in Miki's time and remains a powerful force in the world today.

Wherever this kind of natural appeal (natural because the truth of origin had not been taught nor was it known) to supernatural powers appears in the history of human experience there are, depending upon the time and place, logical paths and reasoned actions and attitudes that flow from each and every common worldly truth concerning such powers that are held in any human mind. For that reason, though the names of various gods and spirits etc. change through time and the admixture of cultures, the powers attributed to them tend to remain determined by similar commonly held truths that flow logically from the certain or uncertain truth of their existence. Concerning those old and deeply held truths it is often simply said that you either believe or you don't and that is in most cases the end of the discussion.

   The particular healing ritual favored by the Nakayama family and practiced by Ichibei Nakano assumed the certain truth that the evils of illness and misfortune were caused, often without rhyme or reason, by the supernatural malevolent actions of gods, curses and spirits and that oracles, incantations and prayer rituals could  be used to either counter or gain favor with those supernatural powers.  The ritual incantations required to rid a person or a family of such misfortune were relatively expensive and though most people in the village would like to have been able to avail themselves of the miraculous power of incantations and ritual magic to heal, many would not have been able to afford Ichibei's fee. Though the Nakayama family had made use of Ichibei's healing ritual incantations several times before, because Ichibei's usual medium was unavailable on this occasion Miki Nakayama agreed to stand in for her. This was to be the first (and only) time that Miki would act as a medium in this kind of ritual.

The standard instruction for a medium in most rituals is for the medium to completely empty their mind and in so doing create a clear path between the human and spirit worlds so that the ritual magic would be able to effect the expulsion of the gods and spirits that were causing evil in the human world to be sent out of the members of a household and back to the spirit world from which they had come. Because of Miki's true sincerity she followed the instruction exactly as given and intentionally emptied her mind of all thoughts. It was that truly sincere compliance with the instruction to empty her mind that brought about the causality of returning her mind to the truth of its origin.  At that moment her self-centered imagination sank back into its origin and She awakened to the knowledge and understanding of the original Parental Heart, the truth of origin, the original cause of any and everything.

Though on that morning of October 24th 1838 everyone else present was to remain the same, Miki was never the same again and from that moment on begin to show and teach a model of Her single-heartedness with the dynamic power of the truth of origin and to strive to open a path of intentional single-hearted salvation for everyone in the world equally. Pause for a moment and ponder; Miki awakened accidentally but since She now knew and understood the one truth of origin She was in a position to show the way for all human being equally to intentionally awaken and merge with that truth of their origin, just as She had.

The fact that Miki dramatically changed while everyone else remained the same is of great importance when we discuss the dynamic mission of Tenrikyo and the efforts to maintain the narrow path opened by God the parent as well as efforts to expand and open new paths of single-hearted salvation for everyone in the world equally. When we speak of a dynamic we are talking about power and the work done or the results that flow from a particular kind of power in the world. For instance, these days we are aware of the power of nature, of prayer, horsepower, manpower, steam power, nuclear power, personality power, supernatural power, wind power, mechanical power, healing power, electrical power, miraculous power, military power, monetary power, solar power and political power to mention just a handful. In each case there are logical truths and a way of reasoning that flows from the use of such powers and those truths make a real impact on the world regardless of whether those powers actually exist or are purely  imaginary.

The dynamic power that Miki and her family looked to for help depended upon their sincere expectation of miraculous results flowing from the supernatural healing power of ritual formulas skillfully employed by a healing monk. In later years the power of gods, spirits, curses, ritual magic, incantations, formulas of worship and the like were described by God the Parent as being  non-existent though they were taught by God the Parent at an earlier immature time of our human journey. 

After awakening it was Her expectation that our species has matured to the point where the dynamics, logic and reasoning that flowed from the supernatural truths that She had once embraced, though capable of making an impact in the world, should be viewed as being non-existent creations of the human imagination. We can clearly see and know from Miki's model story that even  non-existent and imaginary dynamics can cause great fear and suffering in a human mind. That pitiful condition continues even now to cause problems for those of us that insist upon clinging to them instead of returning to and relying solely upon the deeper reality of the dynamic power of the truth of origin. That original dynamic is known and understood through the reasoning and logic resulting from pondering the original consciousness that remains as the original foundation of the truly sincere and totally settled mind like clear water. 

After awakening, Miki was solely interested in giving all human beings equally the ability to quickly and intentionally awaken to the free and unlimited dynamic power that flows from the knowledge and understanding of the truth of our origin. From Her awakened point of view all of the other kinds of dynamic power in the world fell into the category of worldly common truths. From Her new point of view, the point of view that flows from the dynamic power of the origin, worldly common dynamic powers (the debris and mud in the water) and the reasoning and truths that flow from them though not necessarily evil (and in general worldly common dynamics are in fact biased toward the good) are however off topic and in the way of quickly exposing the free and unlimited dynamic power of our origin that She is talking about.

As we progress we will explore the fear that we have of removing the debris and mud from the water. Water being a metaphor for the human mind and debris, dust and mud being metaphors for the worldly common thought creations of our self centered imaginations. Currently the dynamic power of the self-centered imagination holds sway in the world and is doing as it pleases.   Her expectation was that human reasoning based solely on common worldly dynamics be replaced by a way of reasoning that is informed in all matters by the  very real and quickly provable original dynamic power of the truth of origin.

That does not mean that human beings are expected to live without the dynamic power of the self-centered imagination. The Tenrikyo dynamic then hastens us to quickly awaken to a new way of reasoning that flows from a self-centered imagination that has returned to the truth of its origin. The self-centered imagination rising again from the origin and informed by the knowledge and understanding of the one truth at the core of the mind returns to the day to day world bringing with it the dynamic reasoning that flows from pondering, knowing and understanding the original consciousness that remained when the self-centered imagination was made quiet, like clear water - Tenrikyo followers trace this out on their chests when practicing the work of the "Teodori". For the self-centered imagination this that has returned, knows and understands its origin the completion of this work or service is an upgrade to free and unlimited use of the self centered imagination and not a reduction of function.

Efforts to open a path of single-hearted salvation based on returning human self-centered imaginations to their origin and in so doing revealing a new foundation for human reasoning began in the fall of 1838 when Miki Nakayama was forty-one years old. In about 1876 when Miki was seventy-nine years old the following poem was to appear in what we now call Book XII of the Tip of the Writing Brush:

So the days come and go, but at no time is there anyone
who is able to understand My intention.

After thirty-eight or so years of tireless effort no one was able to understand the intention of Her teaching! It is reasonable to ask why that was so. How come? What was going on? If our predecessors didn't understand, how can we be sure that we do now? Fortunately we have been provided with a clear description of why our predecessors were unable to understand as well as both the means and the method to test our own understanding so that we can make sure that we are on the direct path for quickly awakening to the one truth of origin? Hopefully we can explore this together and by discussing this question among ourselves find our way to a deeper understanding of God the Parent's intention.