It is interesting that cancer of the heart is a rare occurrence. Can we find the answer in religion? In the Heaven’s Truth Religion (Tenrikyo), God tells us that mankind was created from Heaven and earth. God used the instruments or creatures of the sea and the pure heart of God in creating mankind. We all have the pure heart of God in each of us. But whether God is actually talking about the physical fist size organ as the heart, or an abstract nonphysical entity, often describes as the soul, is unknown.
But ever since the first sin, our pure hearts (souls) have become surrounded by our evil thoughts of greed, arrogance, and self-love. God tells us in our religion, these dusts are what prevent our pure hearts from bringing upon joy. These dusts surrounding our hearts also bring upon disease like cancer, which can spread to all parts of our bodies. These dusts also develop into sufferings and misfortunes upon oneself. Again one must wonder why the heart is not prone to the malignant cells that ravage many of our organs. Could it be because the heart or soul is from God? If this is so, is the following verse from the Ofudesaki (Tip of the Writing Brush) relevant?
Among all mankind, there is no one who is evil.
It is only a bit of dust stuck on. 1-53
If this is true, the evils that we must destroy are the thoughts of greed, arrogance, and self love. We must eliminate these thoughts from our minds, and from the minds of the people we think to be evil.
God wants us to understand the soul.
Looking all over the world and through all ages, I find no one who understands the heart (soul). Tip of the Writing Brush 1-1
Why does God want us to understand the soul? Because our souls determine our future. We suffer or have joy depending on what surrounds our eternal soul.
The soul is who we are. The soul is an amalgam of positive energies; by itself it brings upon joy to ourselves because of these positive energies. There is “Good” in everyone because of our original pure soul; but our souls have accumulated negative energies around them; this is why we suffer. Let us further explore the soul/heart.
The soul is an individualized ethereal positive energy source from God that enters our borrowed bodies at birth or shortly after; and it leaves our lifeless bodies at death to return to heaven. During our earthly stays, it collects our evil thoughts as negative energies; and it eventually releases the negative energies back to us as sufferings.
The eternal soul carries our negative energies. These energies transform into our former thoughts and also manifest into sufferings, temptations, and inconveniences that come back to us as fate or illness. When the soul enters our bodies after birth, the negative energies around the soul converts back into our former thoughts, and permeates our minds; death does not erase our evil thoughts. This will explain the origin of anger in innocent children. Our evil thoughts do not disappear with the demise of our bodies; the soul carries them until we are able to remove them from our minds. These negative energies surrounding the soul also manifest into sufferings, temptations and inconveniences that come back to us as fate or illness. The biblical proverb, “We reap what we sow” would appear to be true.
By these inconveniences that the soul delivers, they help us eliminate evil thoughts from our minds; these inconveniences work to remind us of the evils in our minds. These evil thoughts are greed, arrogance, miserliness, covetousness and self-love. All other evil thoughts are derived from or a combination of these five categories of thoughts; for example anger and hate are derived from arrogance. These evil thoughts when placed into action causes sufferings to others; but unknown to most of us, they also brings upon suffering back to the perpetrators of the evil actions as a result of the soul.
How does the soul eliminate evil from our minds? If we calm our minds and ponder; and do not act on our existing evil thoughts when faced with what the soul metes out (sufferings, inconveniences and temptations), these thoughts from our minds gradually subside. Our minds becomes pure, and the evil surrounding our souls are eliminated. This results in a pure soul void of negative energy, which brings upon a joyous life for the individual.
For many people, the purification of the mind will be a long process, dependent on the amount of negative energy they have accumulated around their soul, which is also equivalent to the amount of evil thoughts in their mind. These sufferings that the negative energies manifest will test their resolve of not taking action on their evil thoughts. But if they continue to control their evil thoughts by not acting on them, the evils in their mind will be eliminated. There is a saying that from knots (sufferings), buds (opportunities to remove evil thoughts) will sprout if we understand the soul.
But suppose we do not understand what the soul does? If we act on our evil thoughts when the soul distributes its negative energy, others will suffer and our minds will continue to produce more negative thoughts. This increases the negative energy surrounding our pure soul, causing the soul to bring upon more suffering upon ourselves. From knots, knots will continue to sprout if we do not understand the soul. Do not ignore the manifestations of the soul. This is why we must not blame others for any inconveniences or sufferings; they are manifestations of our own souls. We must look within our minds to understand why the soul brings upon sufferings, temptations and inconveniences.
It is this soul/heart that will continue for eternity, inhabiting sometimes imperfect bodies, and sometimes producing unimaginable sufferings; but it is the soul that brings upon these conditions by releasing these negative energies surrounding it. This religion explains how to remove these negative energies surrounding the soul, so we can uncover the pure heart/soul and live the “Joyous life”. The following verse summarizes the path of the soul/heart.
“In the world’s path, you can do whatever you want and get away with it, so long as no one sees you do it. But in the path of the heart/soul, it all comes to bear on yourself”
OUR BELIEFS FROM A RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVE:
God descended from heaven to teach us about the soul. He encouraged the early followers to remove evil thoughts from their minds, often placing temporary illness on their bodies to help them understand the relationship between the mind, body and soul.
God told his followers that shared joy is true joy. We can not have true joy while others suffer. We must share these teachings with others. He gave them special instructions to bring others to our places of worship. God told his followers that he would begin to place illness on others in relationship with the evil thoughts in their minds to help them understand the soul. God gives them a preview of what sufferings they may endure if they continue to harbor evil thoughts. This special guidance is what makes this religion so unique. We pray for the salvation of others!
This guidance as illness is only initiated with our special prayer (Joyous Service) that God has granted to us. When people we have introduced the soul come to us to be healed, we further explain the soul and God’s teachings. They are then healed and are able to understand the soul; and begin to purify their minds. This process of purifying the mind, spreading the truth, and praying continues until all mankind is purified of evil in their minds. God hastens for the day that all minds of the world are pure. When this occurs, there will be heaven on earth for all of God’s children.
OUR PATH:
To continue to purify our minds of negative thoughts ( sin/evil ) when confronted with temptation and sufferings manifested by the soul.
To spread and share God’s truth; telling people that illness and suffering may be God’s guidance to help one understand the soul/heart. This conveyance of God’s truth is called hinokishin .
To pray daily with our special prayer (Joyous Service), asking God to help people understand the soul/heart and to sweep evil from their minds.
Evil sweeping. Save them please, Universal Saving God .
To heal the people whose minds have been revealed when God guides them to us; and teach them about the soul (heart), causality and true sincerity. True sincerity is a mind that ponders over suffering and obstacles that the soul delivers, and accepts these inconveniences in a joyous manner. This will make our minds pure and spirited; and by the principle of causality will bring forth joy in the future due to the pure soul (heart).
GOD’S PROMISE:
All mankind will live a joyous life with everyone helping each other.
WHAT WE ASK YOU TO DO:
Heaven's Truths, in Healing the Body 