Sometimes being correct or right may not be enough. For example, I was having a good day when one of my co-workers who was not having a good day, misunderstood some of my comments concerning a matter at work. I was dumbfounded by her claim that I had hurt her esteem. I was thinking to myself, how dare she ruin my great day I was having. Even though I was correct as confirmed by co-workers later, I had thoughts of arrogance. My choice was to calm my mind to suppress my arrogance, or to take action and follow through on what my arrogant thoughts were telling me to do. Unfortunately I succumbed to my thoughts, and confronted her publicly. As you can expect, taking action upon these evil thoughts brings upon more arrogant thoughts from both parties, resulting in exchanges of angry words.

The Heaven’s Truth Religion (Tenrikyo) teaches us that the path to a pure mind is a difficult path. It is difficult because although we strive to purify our minds of greed, arrogance and self-love, we are confronted by setbacks and temptations that encourage our minds to follow these evil thoughts. But God tells us that if we calm our minds, and take no actions upon the evil thoughts, these thoughts will gradually be eliminated from our minds. It may appear to be an annoyance or suffering when barriers appear, like the experience with the co-worker; but it may actually be God’s blessing in trying to help us eliminate these evils from our minds. For some people, due to the amount of evil in their minds, they may need many blessing to purify their minds. In my instance, I sometimes take a backward movement ignoring God’s blessing and take action on my arrogant thoughts. I use to apologize to God when I failed his blessings; but God tells us that he does not want our apologies. He wants us to show our commitment when God provides us with future blessings. I am so grateful to God that he continues to bless me as he blesses you, encouraging us to purify our minds.