Through all generations, the world everyone, looking at.
The understanding of the heart, person there is not. Ofudesaki 1-1
Understanding what the heart is, will reveal why we suffer or have joy.
Understand Why We Suffer or Have Joy -3
It is the heart (soul) we must understand to find out why we suffer or have joy in our lives. The following is from the Ofudesaki, the most sacred scripture in the world.
This filter, where do you think it is.
The heart and the mouth (actions) are the sand and filter. Ofudesaki 3-11
Interpretation:
God is telling us that the heart is like the sand in the waste removal system. It collects waste. What could this waste be? Could it be the demerits of our evil actions? It collects and stores it. What does the heart do with these demerits? More to come!
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Understand Why We Suffer or Have Joy -2
It is the heart (soul) we must understand to find out why we suffer or have joy in our lives. The following is from the Ofudesaki, the most sacred scripture in the world.
This path, if you truly think about it.
What your hearts brings forth, all ponder. Ofudesaki 2-15
Interpretation:
God is telling us the heart brings forth our fate. It is not God that does this. What is the heart? More evidence to come!
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Understanding Why We Suffer or Have Joy
It is the heart (soul) we must understand to find out why we suffer or have joy in our lives. The following is from the Ofudesaki, the most sacred scripture in the world.
Looking all over the world and through all ages,
there is no one who understands the heart(soul). Ofudesaki 1-1
The Truth
Just wondering why our religion is not growing in membership like some of the major religions in the world. Some will say that even the major religions like Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism are also not growing, and the world is becoming secular. In the Ofudesaki, there are verses from God telling us that there will be a rich harvest of new members. But why is this not occurring today?
What do you believe is the message that God wants to deliver to everyone? As many of you may believe, is it to perform the Service? Is it to make a pilgrimage to Ojiba? Or is it like Christianity to accept Jesus, but in our case Oyasama? What does God require from us?
It is my sincere opinion that God wants us to understand the mune or heart and share this information with the world. Why would God want us to understand the heart? Understanding the heart will give us the answers to our existence. I will further expound on this later. But first, let me show evidence of why I believe God wants us to understand the heart.
In the first chapter of the Ofudesaki and the first verse of the Mikagura-uta, God tells us that we do not understand the heart, and continues to tell us throughout the 17 chapters. In song 11 of the Mikagura-uta, God tells us that by spreading the truth of the heart, the Joyous Service will bring upon a harvest of new members. Why has the heart not been emphasized in our religion? Many people in the religion may incorrectly translate the mune in the first verse as God’s heart. What is God’s heart? Many people will interpret it as God’s mind. We do not understand God’s mind. This makes sense, but is this the correct translation and interpretation of the word mune?
What is this mune or heart that God tells us that we do not understand? God tells us in verse 3-11 that the heart is the sand in the purification of our mind. So we can presume that the heart collects and stores some type of waste. Could this waste be our evil actions of what we have done? Further explaining the heart, in the Ofudesaki, the words “mune no uchi yori” appears many times. We can presume that something is manifested or comes from our hearts. Could this be fate that comes from our hearts? To summarize the heart, it collects our evil actions as debits and stores them. It eventually, when opportune time appears, releases them as our negative fate. Does this not sound like we are talking about innen, karma, and reincarnation. The understanding of the heart makes possible the understanding of innen and reincarnation. We reap what we have sowed. It is not God that punishes us for our actions. It is our hearts showing us what we have done before.
Now we understand the heart as an intangible organ in our bodies, how does this make our lives better? How do we remove our negative fate? What happens in our lives when suffering or obstacles brought upon by our hearts appear in our lives? Most of us will take action upon what thoughts are in our minds. If we have evil thoughts like greed and arrogance in our minds, we will probably act negatively toward what appears. This could be criticism and angry words, or even negative actions toward others. This will inevitably create more dusts or evil thought patterns in our minds. God tells us that when suffering or obstacles appear in our lives, to calm our minds and ponder the dusts of greed, arrogance, covetousness, regret, and self-love in our own minds; and not take action upon the obstacle. By doing this, we can eliminate these evil thoughts gradually. When our minds are purified of these dusts, our hearts will only bring upon positive fate only. This is why God tells us in the first verse of our most sacred scripture, that we must understand the heart. We have our special prayer asking God to help us, but without understanding the most important concept that God wants us to understand, our prayer will fall on deaf ears.
Reincarnation and karma
In Japan, when disaster occurs, there are no media reports of looting, or scams upon the affected. Why in America, are there always reports of looting and the taking advantage of the victims of the misfortune? Could this be the result of their nonbelief in the after life? In Japan, the majority of people believe in karma and reincarnation. Some would say that this is nature’s justice. What we sow, we reap. In western countries, the worldly path of immediate joy and the thinking that you can get away with any evil actions if no one sees you doing it, or you don’t care if anyone sees you doing it. They do not see the future effects of their actions today. This is why we see the lootings in the streets of America after disasters. There are no consequences for the evil that is done.
Some, who question the concepts of karma and reincarnation, may question who punishes us for our sins or evil actions. Is it God that does this? If it is God, some may believe that they can hide their thoughts and actions from God; or they may even believe that God will forgive them for their sins or evil actions upon their earnest prayers or contributions to their churches. This type of thinking allows them to continue their evil actions.
In the Ofudesaki, the most sacred scripture of our religion, God tells us it is our hearts that is responsible for our own fates. It is not God or any external force that metes our rewards or punishment. It is our own eternal hearts that is temporary housed in our bodies that is responsible for what happens in our present life. One can imagine the heart, as an invisible organ that collects our debits (evil deeds) and our credits (good deeds), and eventually releases them back to us as suffering or joy. Of course, the cause and effect is not immediate, but often is delayed to occur in our next incarnation. But one may say that it is unfair that one suffers from the actions of the past that one has no memories of. What would be the purpose of this suffering if one does not know the cause of the suffering? Enter the concept of evil thoughts in our minds. These evil thoughts are regret, covetousness, greed, arrogance, and self-love. Some may compare these thoughts to viruses or bacteria that spread from one person to another. These are the thoughts that we often act upon, especially when obstacles occur. God tells us that there is no one who is essentially evil; it is only because dust has accumulated on their hearts. The more we act upon any of these evil thoughts, the more prominent the pathways will become. This is the reason that we are all different; we all have different amounts of these dusts in our minds. It is from these dusts, upon acting on them, that create our debits that the heart collects. Therefore, the heart houses both our evil thoughts, and the fates created by acting upon these same thoughts. It is this group of information that continues upon our physical demise. One can say that our hearts holds the template for our thoughts (5 types of dusts) and our fate that is to occur in our next incarnation.
How do we remove our negative fate? Remember the sources of these negative fates are our evil thoughts of regret, covetousness, greed, arrogance, and self-love. We must remove these thoughts from our minds. The Ofudesaki tells us how to do this step by step, and how to share this information will others. When the minds of the world are purified, God promises there will be heaven on earth for everyone! Next time, you see the rage and looting in the streets when disaster occurs, think about the regret of God.
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Tenrikyo
There are many leaders in the church that wonder why God’s promise of the Joyous world does not come. Why are we as a religion not growing in numbers? What information about the religion would you give to a person who you wanted to share the religion with? What are the hurdles that stand in the way of our religion? What is this Service that we believe would save the world?
All the answers to these questions are in the Ofudesaki, the most sacred scripture in our religion. God tells us that this world is constructed on reason, and will instruct us by reasoning in verse. There is no initial requirement of having blind faith in a God we cannot see. Faith in our religion comes after reasoning. Unfortunately like in many religions, there are leaders that instruct us to have faith in rituals, procedures or ceremonies that may not be supported by what is in the Ofudesaki.
This is why we must begin to clear our minds and become receptive to what is actually written in the Ofudesaki. We must respect our leaders, but at the same time question their teachings based on what is written in the Ofudesaki. Why is our religion so infinitesimally small compared to the major religions (kara) in the world? In the Ofudesaki, God tells us that eventually we (nihon) will take over kara (the world), and paradise will occur on the earth. But we are not even close to this prediction. No, I am not talking about the population of the world dancing in Japanese, dressed in our black service kimonos, with the accompanying Japanese instruments. This is not the paradise I am talking about. Yet many of our leaders believe that this must happen before the Kanrodai is erected. We all in our minds know that the Yorozuyo and the 12 songs will not be performed by the entire world, especially in Japanese.
Some of you have told me that the Ofudesaki is difficult to translate and understand telling me that the Japanese language is complex, and has many meanings for a single word. Some have even told me that the Ofudesaki is not to be taken literally, but has obscure and hidden meanings that cannot be understood by our present mindset. These arguments go contrary to what is written in the Ofudesaki. God tells us that this is a world based on reasoning. The writings in the Ofudesaki are basic hiragana, written in waka form of poetry, which made it easy for the early followers to understand.
The answers to all the questions in the first paragraph are all in the Ofudesaki. This is why I had initiated the Tenrikyo Ofudesaki Study Group on Facebook. If we believe that the Ofudesaki are the words of God, then we must put much effort into finding the truths that it contains. The ingredients to save the world are in the 1.700 verses.
The Soul
What information if understood would change the world? What would happen if everyone understood the soul? God in the Ofudesaki tells us that when everyone understands the soul, there will be paradise on earth.
What is the soul? The soul has also been called the heart or the spirit. Scientists have not located and verified the existence of the soul in our bodies. We know that our physical bodies decay upon our death, but many believe that our souls will exist to continue for eternity.
We believe that the soul by itself is energy that contains our pattern of thoughts and our fate. Some may question how energy may convert to thought patterns and fate. Some say quantum physics may hold the answer? But until it is proven or disproved, all we have is our best ideas and theories that we fabricate from what we presently know, including information from religious doctrine.The following will attempt to define the soul according to our current knowledge, and verses from the Ofudesaki. Let us continue to presume that the soul is energy.
When the soul occupies our bodies before birth, the soul programs and activates our minds with our thought patterns in the developing neural system; while in the body, the soul also collects and stores our merits and demerits that were caused by acting on these existing pattern of thoughts. These merits and demerits are eventually released as our fate when conditions are favorable. We reap what we have sowed. The soul is who we are; and it also enforces justice for our behavior.
But some people will say that they can’t remember having sowed evil, yet they suffer. Others will arrogantly boast that they have done evil, yet they do not suffer. It is as if God places a wall in front of us by the prolonged lapse of time between cause and effect; we do not know what fate exist around the corner. This lapse of time between cause and effect often extends into our next lifetime. But why the wait? The soul waits for the right circumstances and conditions to distribute our fate.
These are the concepts of reincarnation and karma, where our memories are erased upon our death; but our pattern of thoughts and our fate are preserved to be manifested later in our next lifetime by the soul. Both our thought patterns we have acted upon, and our fate that were created by acting upon these thought patterns will continue on, even after our physical demise. This is possible because of the soul. Again we reap what we have sowed. We are responsible for our own actions!
Metaphorically, our souls are like little suitcases that contain our pattern of thoughts and our fate, exiting our bodies at death to ascend to heaven; and descending from heaven to enter our new bodies before birth. One can say that we exist both on earth and heaven for eternity because of the soul.
By what mechanism does the soul operate? Upon entering our developing bodies, the soul eventually programs our minds with our previous thought patterns (like greed and arrogance) from our past lives.
There are no surprises to what thought patterns our bodies receive from our souls. We have the same pattern of thoughts that we had acted upon in our past life. For example, if we succumbed to greed in our past life, we have the same thought of greed in this lifetime. The same neural pathways of greed are reestablished. One can say that our souls upon entering our bodies, eventually create and restore our own individualized minds!
It is these difference in the pattern of thoughts that make each of us unique. Some of us will have more or stronger negative thought patterns (see figure 2)than others. Others will have more positive thought patterns. It is these thought patterns that influence our behaviors and eventually determine our fate. God tells us to sweep away these negative thought patterns, so we do not act upon them. If this happens, we will have only positive thought patterns, leading to only positive fate.
But how do we know if we have these evil thoughts in our minds? These negative thoughts always bring upon an emotion or temptation. For example, when we have the thought of arrogance, often the emotion of anger will arise. Temptation appears when we have the thought of greed or self-love in our minds. Depression will appear if we have the thought of self love or regret. The presence of these negative emotions or feelings are telltale signs that we have evil thoughts in our minds.
What do we do when anger, depression or temptation arises from these negative thoughts? Most people will direct their anger, depression or temptation at what appears to be the source, which could be an coworker, stranger, spouse, circumstance or even God. But if we understand the soul, we acknowledge that it is our own soul that brings upon these challenges or fate. Our past actions created our own fate. These obstacles are only messengers of our souls. Our efforts will be directed to calm our minds, and ponder our evil thoughts that created these obstacles; therefore not acting upon what emotions (like anger) were elicited by them. By this process, the neural pathway of the evil thought becomes less prominent, and the emotions they elicit will also decrease. This is how we gradually eliminate our evil thoughts ( and become spirited.
Eventually by this process of not acting on our evil thoughts, especially when our soul bring upon sufferings, we can purify both our minds and our souls; where only positive thoughts emerge from our minds, and joy flows from our souls.
What happen when we act on our evil thoughts?
When we act on our evil thoughts, we cause suffering to others, and more evil thoughts are created in our own minds (figure 5). The neural pathways for these thought become stronger, and the emotions they elicits becomes stronger to resist. This causes us to continually act upon our evil thoughts, causing more demerits which our soul collects. The soul eventually releases these demerits (energies) as fate (figure 6). The cycle of suffering will continue until we understand the soul.
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One Truth if Understood, Would Change the World
What information if understood would change the world? What would happen if everyone understood the soul? God in the Ofudesaki tells us that when everyone understands the soul, there will be paradise on earth.
What is the soul? The soul has also been called the heart or the spirit. Scientists have not located and verified the existence of the soul in our bodies. We know that our physical bodies decay upon our death, but many believe that our souls will exist to continue for eternity.
We believe that the soul by itself is energy that contains our pattern of thoughts and our fate. Some may question how energy may convert to thought patterns and fate. Some say quantum physics may hold the answer? But until it is proven or disproved, all we have is our best ideas and theories that we fabricate from what we presently know, including information from religious doctrine.The following will attempt to define the soul according to our current knowledge, and verses from the Ofudesaki. Let us continue to presume that the soul is energy.
When the soul occupies our bodies before birth, the soul programs and activates our minds with our thought patterns in the developing neural system; while in the body, the soul also collects and stores our merits and demerits that were caused by acting on these existing pattern of thoughts. These merits and demerits are eventually released as our fate when conditions are favorable. We reap what we have sowed. The soul is who we are; and it also enforces justice for our behavior.
But some people will say that they can’t remember having sowed evil, yet they suffer. Others will arrogantly boast that they have done evil, yet they do not suffer. It is as if God places a wall in front of us by the prolonged lapse of time between cause and effect; we do not know what fate exist around the corner. This lapse of time between cause and effect often extends into our next lifetime. But why the wait? The soul waits for the right circumstances and conditions to distribute our fate.
These are the concepts of reincarnation and karma, where our memories are erased upon our death; but our pattern of thoughts and our fate are preserved to be manifested later in our next lifetime by the soul. Both our thought patterns we have acted upon, and our fate that were created by acting upon these thought patterns will continue on, even after our physical demise. This is possible because of the soul. Again we reap what we have sowed. We are responsible for our own actions!
Metaphorically, our souls are like little suitcases that contain our pattern of thoughts and our fate, exiting our bodies at death to ascend to heaven; and descending from heaven to enter our new bodies before birth. One can say that we exist both on earth and heaven for eternity because of the soul.
By what mechanism does the soul operate? Upon entering our developing bodies, the soul eventually programs our minds with our previous thought patterns (like greed and arrogance) from our past lives.
There are no surprises to what thought patterns our bodies receive from our souls. We have the same pattern of thoughts that we had acted upon in our past life. For example, if we succumbed to greed in our past life, we have the same thought of greed in this lifetime. The same neural pathways of greed are reestablished. One can say that our souls upon entering our bodies, eventually create and restore our own individualized minds!
It is these difference in the pattern of thoughts that make each of us unique. Some of us will have more or stronger negative thought patterns than others. Others will have more positive thought patterns. It is these thought patterns that influence our behaviors and eventually determine our fate. God tells us to sweep away these negative thought patterns, so we do not act upon them. If this happens, we will have only positive thought patterns, leading to only positive fate.
But how do we know if we have these evil thoughts in our minds? These negative thoughts always bring upon an emotion or temptation. For example, when we have the thought of arrogance, often the emotion of anger will arise. Temptation appears when we have the thought of greed or self-love in our minds. Depression will appear if we have the thought of self love or regret. The presence of these negative emotions or feelings are telltale signs that we have evil thoughts in our minds.
What do we do when anger, depression or temptation arises from these negative thoughts? Most people will direct their anger, depression or temptation at what appears to be the source, which could be an coworker, stranger, spouse, circumstance or even God. But if we understand the soul, we acknowledge that it is our own soul that brings upon these challenges or fate. Our past actions created our own fate. These obstacles are only messengers of our souls. Our efforts will be directed to calm our minds, and ponder our evil thoughts that created these obstacles; therefore not acting upon what emotions (like anger) were elicited by them. By this process, the neural pathway of the evil thought becomes less prominent, and the emotions they elicit will also decrease. This is how we gradually eliminate our evil thoughts and become spirited.
Eventually by this process of not acting on our evil thoughts, especially when our soul bring upon sufferings, we can purify both our minds and our souls; where only positive thoughts emerge from our minds, and joy flows from our souls
What happen when we act on our evil thoughts? When we act on our evil thoughts, we cause suffering to others, and more evil thoughts are created in our own minds. The neural pathways for these thought become stronger, and the emotions they elicits becomes stronger to resist. This causes us to continually act upon our evil thoughts, causing more demerits which our soul collects. The soul eventually releases these demerits (energies) as fate . The cycle of suffering will continue until we understand the soul.
For more understanding on the soul, please visit The Tenrikyo Ofudesaki Study Group on Facebook.
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The Truth to Happiness
In the Ofudesaki, God gives us the ingredients to the Joyous life. This information is free for all to see. There is no donations needed, pilgrimage to a holy site, sacrifice or prostration before God.
The following is from tomorrow’s verse of the Facebook Tenrikyo Ofudesaki Study Group
Imamade wa nani yono koto mo sekainami
Korekara wakaru mune no uchi yori 3-43
Until now, whatever occurrence/matter was about the world (can get away if no one sees you do it).
From now, you will understand what comes forth from the innermost heart.
The heart is mentioned 71 times in the Ofudesaki, including the very first verse. What is the heart that God tells us that we do not understand? God through the Ofudesaki is telling us how we can purify our minds by ourselves if we understand the heart/soul.
It is the heart/soul that monitors our behavior, and distributes our merits and demerits (karma). The heart and the mouth are the sand and filter. It is not God that punishes or rewards us like many in the world believe. Remember God in the Ofudesaki tells us that he/she has been on the sidelines since the creation of mankind.
By what comes forth from our hearts/souls, we can purify our minds by calming our minds when obstacles occur in our lives, and not take action on our evil thoughts. This is sometimes difficult to do, since we often want to blame others for our problems. But if we realize that it is our behavior in the past that has resulted in our souls distributing justice by using occurrences or people around us, we can begin to purify our own minds.
It is this soul that God wants us to understand and share with the world. God will begin to help us do this by utilizing illness as guidance to help people understand the soul/heart. This is what God tells us when he/she tells us that God will begin marvelous things in verse 3-42.
Yes, we can live the Joyous life without God, but it is God that will help us spread the truth of the soul to the world, This is why God has descended from heaven to help us spread the truth of the soul.
To understand more of the Ofudesaki, please visit Tenrikyo Ofudesaki Study Group on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/458471844742952/.
Posted in Buddhist, Christian, Christianity, Heaven’s Truth Church, Hindu, Hinduism, Ofudesaki, reincarnation, soul, Tenrikyo
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OFUDESAKI-GOD'S TEACHINGS 