I truly believe that by understanding the soul, we can have joy in this world. In the Ofudesaki, God tells us that we do not understand the soul. God tells us that we must ponder what comes forth from our hearts/souls. To many, this will not make sense because they do not understand the soul. I have attached a step by step illustration of what the soul does.

1. Conception and the formation of the body

2. The soul enters the developing body. The soul contains our thoughts and our fate.

3. Birth of the baby

4. The soul restores our thoughts (evil and good)  from our previous life. We have control over our thoughts.

5. Fate surrounding the soul brings upon suffering, obstacles, and    temptations.

6. Acting upon our evil thoughts when these obstacles occur.

7. This results in the fabrication of more negative fate (suffering) around the soul.

8. It also results in more negative thoughts in the mind.

9.  But if we understand the soul, we understand our negative fate as an aide to purify our minds

10. We then ponder what negative thoughts are in our minds, and not act upon them when suffering, temptations and obstacles manifested by the soul occurs. This results in causing no suffering to others, but also does not produce any negative fate or negative thoughts to oneself.

11. death

12. The body decays and turn into ash

 13. The soul leave the body after death with all our thoughts and our fate. In this example, the soul has less evil thoughts and negative fate then when it entered the body (see 2). The soul then enters another body, and the cycle continues to purify our minds and our souls.

In summary, it is our souls that bring upon suffering. But we can use these obstacles to purify our minds, by not acting upon these evil thoughts that are agitated or turned on by these inconveniences.

References: Ofudesaki