Interpretation:
God will never force people to behave. It is up to us to purify our own minds.
OFUDESAKI 7-60
Interpretation:
As human beings act on their evil thoughts, the regret, or negative energies accumulated by God increases. How does God release these negative energies?
OFUDESAKI 7-59
Interpretation:
God will begin to guide other to help them understand the heart. This becomes possible by purifying our own minds, spreading the truth of the heart to others, and finally performing the Joyous Service. When all these 3 are completed, God will begin to save the world.
OFUDESAKI 7-58
Interpretion:
Whatever God says (in the Ofudesaki), there is nothing to fear.
OFUDESAKI 7-57
Interpretation:
The day referred to is is January 26, 1887 when Oyasama passes away. This is the day, God begins to work to save the world.
Illness Comes from your Mind
Ever since the beginning of human beings, there has been much effort and resources to find cures for illnesses. Millions and possibly billions of dollars have been spent to find the cure for cancer, and other maladies that affect us. Progress in medicine of course has extended the lives of many, but we still experience love ones who have succumbed to these diseases.
The herculean efforts of researchers and scientist are to be complimented, but in the Ofudesaki God tells us what the cause of illness is. This is why the contents of the Ofudesaki is a bombshell in saving ourselves of any illness. The following is from the Ofudesaki:
Nani nitemo yamai to yute sarani nashi
Kokoro chigai no michi ga aru kara 3-95
Whatever happens, what is called illness furthermore is nonexistent.
because mistaken minds’ path exist
Kono michi wa oshii hoshii to kawaii to
Yoku to koman kore ga hokori ya 3-96
These paths are regret, covetousness, self-love,
greed, and arrogance. These are the dusts.
God is telling us that the source of illness is these dusts or evil thoughts that are present in our minds. If this is true, can we prevent cancer or any illness if we can remove dusts from our minds?
In the Mikagura-uta Song 10 , God confirms the origin of illnesss:
Yamai wa tsurai mono naredo
moto o shiritaru mono wa nai
Though illness is so trying,
There is no one who knows the origin.
Kono tabi made wa ichiretsuni,
yamai no moto wa shirenanda.
Until this time, everyone
the origin of illness you did not know.
Kono tabi arawareta,
yamai no moto wa kokoro kara.
This time it has been revealed.
The origin of illness is from your mind.
If we take this as absolute truth, can we cure cancer? If we purify our minds, can we cure any disease, even the illness of the covid virus? I was wondering if some of you personally have purified your mind to recover from cancer or any other illness? Also, how does one tell others that their cancer is from their minds, without causing any animosity?
OFUDESAKI 7-56
Interpretation:
The words in the Ofudesaki, and the future predictions are all from God.
Understanding our own hearts
Most of us agree that there is a part of us that will continue for eternity after our bodies cease to function. In the Ofudesaki, God calls this the mune or heart that we do not understand (verse 1-1). I have drawn a diagram showing what the heart does for each of us.
(1)
The heart collects our demerits (negative energies) that were created by acting on our dusts or evil thoughts. These thoughts as mentioned in the Ofudesaki are regret, covetousness, self-love, greed, and arrogance. Verse 3-11 tells us that the heart is the sand that collects the demerits that were created by acting upon the dusts in the mind.
(2)&(3)
The heart releases these demerits as our fate, in the form of illness or inconveniences to our own bodies. In the Ofudesaki, there are many verses that have the words “from what comes from the innermost heart”, or “mune no uchi yori”. God tells us to ponder what comes from our hearts (verse 3-47). Our fates come from the heart. In the Ofudesaki, and the Mikagura-uta, God tells us that illness comes from our own minds. By looking at the diagram, one can see that the origin of illness does come from the mind.
(4)
When we die, our souls collect the dusts in our minds. Remember God tells us that our minds are ours to use, while our bodies are borrowed from God. God will not interfere with our thoughts, and it is up to us to eliminate our evil thoughts. We take our dusts to our next lives. The diagram does not show it, but when our hearts enter our next incarnation, these dusts will be distributed to the mind, restoring our previous proportion of dusts in the mind.
I have attempted to describe the function of the heart; but I have not described how to purify our minds and our hearts. This information is all in the Ofudesaki, and in the future, I will attempt to describe and use diagrams in doing this
The Evil Thoughts in our Minds
Interesting that people continue to say that there are 8 dusts that we have to remove to purify our minds. In the Ofudesaki, there are only 5 dusts that are mentioned.
Kono michi wa oshii hoshii to kawaii to
Yoku to koman kore ga hokori ya 3-97
These paths are regret, covetousness, self-love,
greed, and arrogance. These are the dusts. 3-97
Some may say that it does not matter if there are 5 or 8, as dust is dust. But I believe that the three that are not mentioned in the Ofudesaki are not dusts, but arise from the 5 dusts, especially the dust of arrogance. Anger is an emotion derived mostly from arrogance. Hate originates from anger, while grudge bearing also is an action taken because anger exist.
God tells us when inconveniences or obstacles appear in our lives, we should calm our minds to ponder the dusts in our minds. The problem arises when we ponder anger, hate, grudge bearing , we are not going back to the origin of these emotions and actions. If we do not remove the source which I believe comes from the dust of arrogance, we will not be successful in eliminating these emotions and actions that cause others to suffer. Remember we must go back to the origin!
What is the heart?
Most of us have wondered why our religion does not grow. Why does God tell us we do not understand the mune or heart in the first verse of the Ofudesaki? Could it be that our lack of understanding of the heart is preventing us from spreading God’s teaching to the world? Song 11 of the Mikagura-uta may give the answer to the question why our religion does not grow. I will summarize song 11 below:
Forgetting greed, we spread the teachings. This becomes most important for the Joyous Service to be effective in bringing new members to our places of worship. Forever continues this spreading of God’s truths. This is a contribution (hinokishin) if it occurs. The truth from the residence, you dig it up and carry it to another location to spread the teachings. Until this time, everyone did not understand the heart. What regret! This year accompanied by the Joyous Service (fertilizer), many people we cultivated and brought to our places of worship. How delightful, how grateful!
Song 11 is interesting in that it gives us instructions on how to bring new members to be saved. It tells us that we need to spread the truth of the heart if we are to save others.
OFUDESAKI-GOD'S TEACHINGS 