This is one of the most important verses in the Ofudesaki. God is telling us we do not understand our own soul. It is our own soul that monitors our behavior. Because of the soul, we are held responsible for our own actions, We reap what we have sowed. If the world understood this, there will be peace and prosperity for everyone.

これはおふでさきの中で最も重要な一節の一つである。神は我々に、自らの魂を理解していないと告げている。我々の行動を監視するのは、他ならぬ我々自身の魂である。魂があるゆえに、我々は自らの行いに責任を問われる。蒔いた種は必ず刈り取られる。もし世界がこの真理を理解すれば、万人に平和と繁栄が訪れるであろう。

What is Tenrikyo? Ten is heaven, ri is truth, and kyo is teachings.  Tenrikyo is the truth of heaven that is written in the Ofudesaki. What are the truths that are in the Ofudesaki?

1. We must understand the soul that is present in our bodies.
2. We must purify our minds. When the mind is pure, only health and happiness will come from our own souls.
3. We must share these truths with the world.

Let’s go over each of them briefly. 

The soul in each of us monitors our behavior. It collects the demerits from our negative actions, stores them, and eventually manifest them back to us as suffering when the right opportunity arises. These opportunities many times do no appear until the next life time. When our physical body stops functioning, the soul leaves our bodies and ascends to heaven, and eventually returns back to earth to start over. The soul does not transfer our memories, but it does take with it the non manifested fates and their associated negative thoughts to the next destination. We do not get a fresh start when we are reborn. Our fates that we have created and their associated thoughts still remain.

How do we purify our minds, so that only health and happiness appears from our own souls? God tells us when negative fates appear from our own souls, not to blame others who are messenger of our fates, or even God. Instead we must ponder our own minds for what negative fates are associated with the suffering, and not act upon them. This is how we gradually purify our minds. Again when the mind is pure, only health and happiness will appear from our souls.

How do we spread these truths tof the world?  God knows how difficult it is to convince people of the soul, and the pure mind that will bring upon only joy.  God has therefore granted us a special prayer, asking God to help us convince the people we have spread the teachings. This is the Youki-tsutome. Unfortunately Our current church leaders tell us that this is a prayer asking God to purify our own minds.But  by understanding our own soul, we should be able to purify our own minds.  When God accepts our sincerity when we perform this special prayer, God places illness as guidance to the people we have introduced the teachings. When they understand God’s guidance, they will come to our places of worship to heal their illness. We perform the Osazuke, and they are healed. They are further informed of the soul, and pure mind, so they can purify their minds by themselves. This is how the teachings are spread to the world.

In summary, our teaching are very simple, but Church leaders have placed importance on rituals and ancient customs. I remember the Bishop telliing us that we must perform the Yorozuyo and 12 dances with perfection before God gives us blessings??  Again our prayer(Youki-tsutome) is very simple. We are asking God’s assistance in spreading the teachings to others.   Please for those people that do not agree with me, do not introduce Tenrikyo scholars, and their interpretaions of the teachings, and other Tenrikyo books. I am only getting my information from the Ofudesaki, our most sacred scripture. Please give me the verse from the Ofudesaki  that disagrees with my assertions. Thank you.