How do we introduce others to our religion? What does God want us to teach to others. What if understood, will make a difference in their lives? The first verse God tells us we do not understand the “mune”. Is the mune what God wants us to understand, and spread to others?
Lets consider what mune is. Tenrikyo Church Headquarter translates mune as God’s heart or God’s mind. Yes, we probably do not understand God’s mind, but is this what God wants us to understand? Mune is probablly not the physical heart that keeps us alive by pumping blood and oxygen. In the Ofudesaki, God infers that the mune is the soul, or entity inside our souls. It is this soul that continues after our bodies stop functioning. Because of the soul, we exist for eternity.
What is the function of the soul/heart while it exist within our bodies? God tells us to ponder what comes from our hearts/souls. Our fates come from the heart/soul. The heart/soul collects our demerits from acting on our evil thoughts, stores them, and eventually releases them to manifest as negative fate, when the right opportunity arrives. The right opportuniy often does not arrive until the next lifetime, resulting in delayed karma. Therefore, it is our own hearts/souls that monitors our behaviors. We reap what we have sowed. When our bodies die, the soul collects our evil thoughts and their associated fates, and exits our bodies to continue to our next lives. God or death does not remove our evil thoughts or their associated fates. We continue with them to our next life. There is justice for everyone because of our own souls.
If everyone believes in the soul/heart, they will be afraid to act on their evil thoughts. This is good, but their evil thoughts and their associated fates are still present in their minds and souls. People do not want to suffer, even if they know why they are suffering. We cannot just accept our punishment, and say we deserve it. This is called tanno by some people. How do we remove our evil thoughts and their fates that eventually will manifest as sufferings? God tells us we must understand the Original pure mind. The Original pure mind is a mind without disappointment (regret), covetousness, self-love, greed, and arrogance. This is the mind we must attain by understanding our own hearts/souls. This is a mind that will eliminate suffering now, and negative fates that are stored in the heart/soul.
How do we attain the Original pure mind? By understanding what our own hearts do, we can purify our own minds, and remove the fates associated with them. When suffering or negative fate appears from our hearts/souls, God tells us to ponder our own minds for evil thoughts instead of blaming others or God. When we identify the evil thought or thoughts we should not act upon them.This is the way we purify our minds. When our minds become pure, we will only be able to act on our positive thoughts. Our hearts/souls will settle, and release only positive fates. This is true happiness.
To understand the Original pure mind, we must understand the Origin of human beings.In the story of creation, God from the earth, used the sea creatures in the muddy ancient ocean to create the perfect human body. From heaven, the pure mind of God was placed into the first couple. This condition of the pure mind and perfect human body should only bring upon positive fates or joy from the heart/soul. But evil thoughts have attached to our minds, and this condition is not compatible with the perfect body. This is why there is suffering in the world. God wants us to return to the Original pure mind.
In summary we must first understand our own hearts/souls. Then we must understand the Original pure mind that will only bring upon joy from the heart/soul. It is this mind without disappointment (regret), covetousness, self-love, greed, and arrogance that will only bring upon joy from our hearts/souls. This is what we must first understand and and implement in our own lives first. For most people, this is the end result, happiness. For for a few, we want to spread these teachings to the world. This is the part we will need God’s help, to convince the world of God’s teachings.
In the dissemination of the teachings, some will easily understand the teachings and implement them in their lives to attain happiness. But for many, convincing will need to be done. This is where we ask God to help us do this. God has given us a special grant or prayer called the Joyous Service. With this Service we are asking God to help sweep evil thoughts from the people we have spread the teachings to, so they can be saved and have happiness in their lives. How does God convince others to sweep evil thoughts from their minds?
God sees the evil thoughts in people’s mind. With our prayer, God places illness dependent on the amount and type of evil thoughts one has in the mind. God is showing these people what illness may come upon them if they act on these evil thoughts. Remember we usually act on our thoughts. God is showing them their future lives. These people will come to our places of worship to be healed of the guidance given, and will be further instructed on the heart/soul and the Original pure mind, to be saved.This is how the teachings will spread to the world. We must first spread the teachings to others before asking God to help save them. It is the heart/soul and the Original pure mind we must convey.
For further information, these two books, Guide to Happiness, containing the English translation of the Ofudesaki and Curing Illness, containing the English translation of the Mikagura-uta are good resources to understand God’s teachings to save the world. They are both available on Amazon.com. The smaller book (Curing Illness) will be a good resource to hand out to people, to spread God’s teachings.
OFUDESAKI-GOD'S TEACHINGS 