Tenrikyo Dynamic Mission - LIMITED AND BOUND

Day after day, the mind of God hastens
to show you free and unlimited workings quickly.

As "free and unlimited workings" shown quickly sounds appealing we might ask what, where, when and how will free and unlimited workings be shown and we might also wonder why there is so much talk about the difficulty of realizing God's free and unlimited workings when God is in such a hurry to show them to us?

Clearly there must be some problem either with the promise of being shown free and unlimited workings quickly or with our understanding of the what, where, when and how God's hastening to show free and unlimited workings actually means.

It is common for us to take the position that we have free use of our mind or self centered imaginings. Certainly we can think whatever we want. Doing whatever we want is however a different story. For example, just ask anyone who has ever tried to deal with an illness, change a principle truth, kick an addiction or a deeply rooted habit or a conditioned thought pattern. In those circumstances, though we can think whatever we want we find ourselves as not really being captains of our own ship. In many instances our "free use of mind" has gotten us into a jam both individually and collectively.

When we look all over the world and through all ages and ponder we find numerous instances of people who after exercising the power of their self centered imaginations to create right and truth find themselves standing stunned amidst the ruins of their personal life, their fortunes, their romantic relationships, their families and even their entire tribe or nation.

Historically the effort to circumvent such disasters has depended on moral ethical codes the truth of which is testified to by their antiquity. The feeling being that ancient teachings are tried and true. The problem for our species is that they have gotten us to where we are now and where we are now is a world of suffering and injustice for tens of millions of us. Of course for those of us who are satisfied with the way things are going for our self, the suffering of tens of millions of people is not a problem as long as we can take comfort in the self centered truths of our world.

The poetic metaphor "the course of the path in the muddy ocean" speaks to our boom or bust experience of being lost in the truths of the world created by our self centered imaginations. In response to our pleas for help the promise of being shown free and unlimited workings is the revelation of the step by step plan to show all human beings equally the way out of the dark and muddy waters of our mind. The Tenrikyo Dynamic teaching is not a new or revised ethical teaching, it is a teaching that shows the way to awaken to the true origin of our mind by intentionally exposing our innermost heart, the origin and core of our being.

THE CURRENT LIMITED AND BOUND USE OF OUR SELF CENTERED IMAGINATION

When the Tenrikyo Dynamic teaching speaks of the fact that the current free use of our self centered imagination has unintentionally ended up being limited and bound, it is describing the tendency or our self centered imagination to form principle ideas and truths upon which we base our thoughts and actions as we go about our daily activities. Our ordinary language reflects this tendency as we speak of "taking an idea or an experience to heart" or as in the case establishing a fundamental pillar of our reasoning as "a hardening of the heart" so that no other contrary idea or way of reasoning can be entertained. Over time we become bound and limited to our principle ideas as truths of the world and can find our self unable to see anything outside of the created truths of our world or the consequences that may flow from adhering and being bound to them.

It is common to teach our children to memorize the basics we deem to be needed for success in life. Typically we memorize the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic and in my case religion. For many of us that is all that we need for getting along in the world. For others who may have a greater interest or mental capacity that interest may lead to an understanding of a particular subject or topic. In most cases our mind becomes bound to the "truths" that we memorized and we often never ponder them deeply or move beyond them. The Tenrikyo Dynamic differs in this regard.

In general we describe the principle ideas and the truths of the world that we are bound to and limited by either as natural truths that are apparent either intuitively as a matter of direct experience, or as matters of faith and belief in the truths accumulated by our imagination as a matter of education.

Ultimately, the Tenrikyo Dynamic teaching is not a belief system and does not teach or require belief in any ideas that can be grasped by the human imagination. Instead it concentrates on showing the means to reveal the true heart or core of the mind and hastens the knowledge and understanding that comes as a result of pondering the free and unlimited state of mind that remains when all thought is quiet and the imagination is completely settled. In the Tenrikyo Dynamic teaching any and all of the means that intentionally settle or purify the minds of the world are referred to as services "zutome", the sincere work of intentionally purifying and settling the self-centered imagination so that the true origin of the mind can be known and understood.

Of all of the ideas and truths of the world that our self centered imagination is bound to there is one idea that is the same for all human self centered imaginations and because it appears so naturally and appears to be so obviously true it is the most difficult idea to overcome and settle. That truth of the self centered imagination is the natural and  fundamental ideas "This body is mine, I am this body".

Yikes! Tenrikyo Dynamic teaching intends to reveal a single original truth that is so deep that it runs counter to a fundamental worldly common truth of the world that up until now been naturally experienced by almost every mind in the world in all times and places.

From the point of view of the Tenrikyo Dynamic teaching, what is called the truth of origin, the true origin of the mind, is not concerned with believing any ideas either principle or trivial. From the point of view of the Tenrikyo Dynamic teaching, knowing and understanding the true origin of our mind and the truth that the body is a thing borrowed can be proven by any mind in all times and places by testing the truth of the statements.

That test for proof is a test that all human minds are capable of taking. The test requires the complete calming and settling of the self centered imagination so that the mind can awaken to, know, ponder and understand what remains. The result of that test is the same for all human minds and is free and unlimited as opposed to the ordinary bound and limited worldly common state of the human imagination that depends upon imaginary truths centered on a body. Since the test is intended to be carried out quickly it doesn't require any ideas or beliefs to do other than the faith that the test be carried out sincerely, quickly and in the proper order.

To make the one original truth available to all human minds God intends to use the same causality that was used at the creation of the universe. That causality depends upon the sincere efforts of awakened human intermediaries to show the way of passing quickly tested proof from one awakened mind to another until every mind that wants to awaken to its true origin has the opportunity to do so. The proper procedure and ordered steps to the test are: True sincerity of intent, quickly totally settling the self-centered imagination and deeply pondering the implications of the free and unlimited workings of the mind that remained.

It is common in the world and indeed the problem is clearly shown in the model path of God the parent ("Hinagata") for human minds to have intention for salvation but fail to sweep or settle the imagination or to sweep and settle the imagination and then fail to ponder deeply on the original mind that remained. Instead quickly refilling the mind with the self centered intentions and truths of the world and remaining without benefit of God's free and unlimited workings. Looking all over the world and through all ages it is apparent that there have been and continue to be paths of salvation that are long on sweeping and purification of the mind but very short on pondering deeply and understanding clearly the one truth that this universe is the body of God and that human beings are things borrowed from God.

Because of the difficulty that we have in distinguishing between our true original conscious heart. And the many imagined truths of the world that rise out of that one true original conscious heart as the free use and creations of our self centered imagination, the role of human intermediaries has become complicated and duel in function. That means that we can act as intermediaries of the teaching that quickly leads to single-heartedness with the original mind of God as a means of working on the purifying and settling our own mind or we can act as intermediaries after knowing and understanding the true origin of the mind by looking for means to open new paths of single hearted salvation for all of the minds of the world.