The Body and Soul

Posted on July 11, 2019 by heaventruth

What makes each of us different besides the shape, size and characteristics of our bodies? It is the absence or presence of the five evil thoughts of greed, arrogance, miserliness, covetousness and self-love. These are neural pathways in our minds.  This combination of neural pathway defines who we are as a person. The absence or presence of these pathways determines how we think and act when situations arise in our lives. We are our thoughts.

We know that our bodies are not static. They go through the stages of life, and eventually cease to exist. Therefore some will say that the body is not important in relation to our mind.  Oyasama (Miki Nakayama) once said that we must adorn our minds (with good thoughts) instead of our bodies (with possessions). The body ends, but does our minds continue? Enter the mysterious soul.

It is the soul that carries our pattern of thoughts for eternity from one lifetime to another. The body is only a temporary dwelling borrowed from God.  Unlike the body, the soul has no color. It is this soul that programs and creates our mind upon entering the developing newborn.  With this said, we cannot usually change our borrowed bodies, but we can change what is most important. We can change our thought patterns from evil to good. We have free will to act or not act upon our thought patterns that were established by our souls. By not acting upon our evil thoughts, the neural pathway for these evil thoughts becomes weaker; and we can eventually purify our minds of these evil thoughts.

God tells us that the purified mind only brings upon joy in our lives.  In summary, it is the mind we must adorn first. With the attainment of the purified mind, the body will follow and prosper.

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Path of the Soul

Posted on July 5, 2019 by heaventruth

In this world, there are two paths that people believe in. There is the path of the world, where you can do whatever you want and get away with it, so long as no one sees you do it; and there is the path of the soul, where everything you do comes to bear upon yourself.

God tells us that there is actually only one true path, which is the path of the soul. In the path of the soul, even if no one sees you do it, your soul will keep account of your actions as a merits or demerits, and will eventually release them back to you as joy or suffering. If one is aware of this path, when suffering occurs, one will calm his or her mind and ponder; one will then not act on any evil thoughts that were elicited by the soul. This will purify their mind, and bring upon only joy by their soul.

If one is not aware of the path of the soul, when suffering or temptations occur, one will be at loss and will succumb to the negative thoughts in responding to the suffering, temptation or obstacle.  This will continue the buildup of negative thoughts and the cycle of suffering brought upon by the soul.

What path are you on?  God tells us not to be too satisfied or dissatisfied by the current situation you are in. We do not know if suffering or joy is around the corner; but if we are aware of the path of the soul, we will be able to begin the process of attaining joy even if suffering occurs.   

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Heaventruth.com

Posted on July 3, 2019 by heaventruth

I am always trying to help people understand the soul. The world will be such a great place to live if we can understand what comes forth from our souls. The following is a revised opening statement of my home page heaventruth.com

 

However serious an illness will become, I never say that it will not be cured. 12-52 Ofudesaki /Tenrikyo

 

Illness may be God’s guidance to help you understand the soul.

 

Introduction to the soul/heart:

Do you have an illness that doctors and medicine cannot cure?

In the Bible, Jesus and his disciples cured the blind and healed the sick. In the beginning of the Tenrikyo religion, thousands of people were cured of their illness; but where are the miracles now? 

What are the ingredients to make these miracles happen now? Does this require believing in God and having faith? Does it require making a large donation or making a pilgrimage? The following is from Tenrikyo’s sacred scriptures:

The saving of those whom doctors are unable to save is the foundation of the path. You tell them the teachings (about the soul). They listen and they are healed.Oct 17, 1893 Osashizu /Tenrikyo

 

GOD WILL HEAL YOU IF YOU UNDERSTAND THE SOUL

 

Discussion:

Why will God heal us if we understand the soul?

Understanding the soul uncovers the mystery of why we suffer or have joy. By understanding the soul, it gives us the opportunity to attain joy and become spirited.

Why do we suffer? Why are some people afflicted with cancer? Why do people suffer from diseases? Why do people get into accidents? Why do bad people appear in our lives? Are these all coincidences or planned by God?

God tells us that the events in our lives are not haphazard coincidences or instigated by God. God has been a spectator since the creation of mankind; but will begin to help us understand the soul.

 

Though until now God has never come out into the open

no matter what unpleasant occurrences one experienced. 8-67 Ofudesaki / Tenrikyo

 

God tells us that it is our own soul that brings upon joy or suffering to us:

 

Above all else, guard your heart/soul,

for everything you do flows from it. Proverbs 4:23

 

God sees our ominous future by looking at what our souls have collected; and tells us we do not understand the soul:

 

Looking all over the world and through all ages, I find no one who understands the soul/heart.* Ofudesaki 1-1 / Tenrikyo

 

God tells us that it is our own soul that monitors our actions by collecting and storing our merits and demerits, and it eventually releases them as joy or suffering back to us. We reap what we have sowed.

 

God has descended from heaven to teach us about the soul and teach us how to live the joyous life.

 

What is the soul, and how do we purify it? 

The soul has also been called the heart or the spirit. Scientists have not yet located and verified the existence of the soul in our bodies, but many of us believe that it exists. From a hypothetical perspective, the soul is who we are. “My soul exist, therefore I am” would be an analogous phrase to what the great philosopher Descartes once said to prove his own existence.

Our souls are who we are; and our bodies are transient dwellings borrowed from God, that we utilize to seek “True Joy”. Our physical bodies eventually decay, but our souls continue for eternity. Our souls are like little suitcases that carry our essence. They collect, store, carry and distribute information from one lifetime to another.

What information does our souls carry?

Metaphorically, some suitcases (souls) will be described as more heavy and distorted, containing negative thoughts (see figure 1)  and its associated ominous fate ; while other souls will be described as light and symmetrical in shape, containing positive thoughts and positive fate. Most of us will have souls somewhere in between the two extremes. What makes each soul different? To find out, one needs to understand the relationship between the mind and the soul.

 

IMG_1295figure 1

Evil thoughts (?) are arrogance, greed, self-love, miserliness, and covetousness. ? represents good thoughts.

 

By what mechanism does the soul operate?

Upon entering our developing bodies, the soul programs our mind with our previous thoughts (like greed and arrogance)from our past life. It transfers and collects our individual attitude of thoughts from one life time to another (see figure 2). Because of this, each of us has a distinct individualized mind. The following is from the Ofudesaki:

Even between parent and child, husband and wife, and siblings,

their minds all differ from one another. Ofudesaki 5-8 /Tenrikyo

There are no surprises to what thoughts our bodies receive from our souls. We have the same thoughts that we have acted upon in our past lives. For example, if we acted upon the thoughts of greed in our past lives, we have the same thoughts of greed in this lifetime.

 

figure 2

The soul enters the body and creates the mind, using the body’s complex neural system. ? represents good thoughts.

 

From these same thoughts that we have acted upon in our past lives, the soul brings forth joy or sufferings as fate to our bodies (causality or karma). For example if we acted upon the thoughts of greed in a previous life, the soul may manifest suffering or obstacles to remind us of the thoughts of greed that still persist in our minds today.

We now know that evil thoughts in our minds are the sources of our sufferings. It is these evil thoughts that influence us to act negatively when temptations or obstacles delivered by our souls occur in our lives.

How do we remove these evil thoughts from our minds?

We cannot just will or wish (pray) our evil thoughts from our minds since they are like dusts that are ingrained in a mirror; we cannot easily sweep them away. Much effort will be needed to eliminate them.

Fortunately God gives us free will or control of our minds; and also we have help from our souls to eliminate evil thoughts. How does this happen?

God tells us that we can eliminate evil from our minds by pondering and not acting upon them when the soul manifest suffering, temptations and obstacles in our lives. It is because God grants us free will or control of our minds, that we can ponder and resist acting on what evil thoughts are in our minds. Many would believe that fate delivered by the soul is not desired, but it actually helps us realize that evil exist in our minds when obstacles occur in our lives. We can eliminate evil thoughts when our souls manifest fate, by calming our minds, acknowledging our evil thoughts, and resist acting upon them. By this process we can gradually purify our minds using both our fate and free will.

What happen when we act on our evil thoughts?

When we act on our evil thoughts, more evil thoughts are created in our minds (figure 3) ; and our soul collects the demerits (negative energy) created by these acts, and eventually releases them as sufferings, temptations and obstacles (see figure 4). 

 

figure 3

When we act on our negative thoughts (?), we cause suffering to others, and create negative energies (-) or demerits that convert to more negative thoughts  and also demerits which the soul collects and stores.

 

figure 4

Our negative energies (-) or demerits around the soul manifesting into delayed sufferings, obstacles and temptations to ourselves.

 

When we do not act on our negative thoughts, there are no negative thoughts created and no demerits that the soul collects. (see figure 5)

 

figure 5

No demerits or negative energies (-) and negative thoughts (?) created if we do not act on our evil thoughts.

Eventually by this process of not acting on our evil thoughts when our soul manifest sufferings, we can purify both our minds and our souls; where only joy flows from our souls and only positive thoughts from our minds (see figure 6).

 

IMG_1337figure 6

Our positive  actions create positive energies (+). Some of these energies convert back to positive thoughts; and some are collected by the our souls as merits. These positive energies of the soul manifest into joy by the exchange of energies. The symbol ? represents good thought

 

Understanding the soul explains how causality, innen and karma function as nature’s justice. When we understand the soul, we realize that our present obstacles are the result of our own past evil actions that we do not recall (actions of past lives). We should not become angry at the messengers of our souls. Do not blame your spouse, coworker, strangers, or even God. It is easy to act with retribution when you feel that you have been wronged. It is also easy to blame others, even blaming God when suffering occurs. We must look within our minds to understand why our souls deliver these obstacles.

God compares the digging up of a root of a tree to the process of  purifying our minds. As we must have strength and persistence in removing a long root, we must have persistence and strength not to act upon our evil thoughts when inconveniences occur in our lives. We must not be discouraged by what our souls bring forth in suffering; some of us may have longer roots (more sufferings) because we have more evil thoughts to remove from our minds. When we purify our minds (completely dig the root out), our souls will bring upon only joy.

God tells us that God is not a spectator anymore, but will begin to work to have the world understand the soul. God tells us in our sacred book:

The sick must not be left to suffer. I trust none of you would leave the sick to suffer. Those whom doctors consider to be beyond their help will merely be left to die. Saving such people is called the basis for teaching. October 17, 1893 Osashizu / Tenrikyo

 

The healing of the body is of primary concern when we are sick. Most of us will give up all our material wealth in order to be healthy again. It is from this perspective of health, that God will heal you from any illness if you truly understand the soul.  God grants us the blessings of healing in order to have us understand the soul, and begin the process of purifying our minds of greed, arrogance, anger, enmity, miserliness, covetousness, and self love.

 

GOD WILL HEAL YOU IF YOU TRULY UNDERSTAND THE SOUL

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The Distorted Mirror and the Mind

Posted on July 1, 2019 by heaventruth

There is a verse in our sacred book that I find interesting about the human mind and the way we think. I often reflect to see if I have a mind like a distorted mirror.

Ikana ki mo oku yosete wa aru keredo

Igami kagami wa kore wa kanawan 3-50

Though I have gathered many and varied trees,

those that are like a distorted mirror will not do. 3-50

We all have seen the distorted mirror at the carnival section of the local fair.  We make funny faces, knowing that the images we see are false image of our bodies.  In the verse above, God compares our minds to the distorted mirror.  As the distorted mirror does not reflect the true image, our minds may not see truth or reasoning.

One may ask why can we not understand truth or reasoning when it is presented to us.  Have you ever presented the facts and attempted to reason with a stubborn and opposing person, but were unsuccessful. You can see this in politics or religion, where facts and reasoning do not matter.  One side, no matter what the crisis is, remains in opposition to the other faction.  Truth or reasoning does not matter.

Some would say that God has given us a complex neural system where thoughts are too easily ingrained in our minds.  Our Central nervous system is programed to have neural pathways facilitated when they are used over and over. This expedition should make our choices easier, but when mistaken thoughts are utilized over and over, our minds begin to act like the distorted mirror. This is why thoughts are difficult to deprogram in our minds. For example, if we act on our greed, we tend to become greedier.  It is like the alcoholic, or the gambler who continues on their path of destruction.  It is the same with the politician who believes that the opposition is evil, even when given proof that facts prove otherwise.

We need to sometimes question our beliefs and ideas that we have in our minds. When we confront people with other ideas, or when we read opposing views, we must not rush to judgment. We must always be cognizant that our beliefs and ideas may be incorrect because of past thoughts that are ingrained in our minds. We must be cautious not to act immediately on our existing thoughts and ponder the information given.  This is how we deprogram or sweep our minds of mistaken thoughts.  

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Who We Are

Posted on June 30, 2019 by heaventruth

God created human beings to live the joyous life.  Let me rephrase it correctly. God created human bodies, so we can live the joyous life.  What are we? Are we our bodies?

The body plus the soul is who we are as human beings.  Because of our bodies, we are able to run, jump, and accomplish feats that no organism can accomplish. Our neural system gives us the ability to entertain thoughts. God has loaned us the perfect bodies to live the joyous life.  But suppose we were only given the body of a frog or an insect. What limited joy and potentials will we have with such a body?

In our religion, we believe that God created the perfect body, so we can attain true joy. In our sacred book God describes taking a serpent and fish from the muddy oceans, and adding to them the good qualities of the other creatures in the sea to begin mankind. With evolution, our bodies have evolved to where they are now.  The body is only a temporary dwelling borrowed from God that the soul uses to attain joy.  We believe that it is the combination of the body and soul that creates who we are.  Some will say that it is the mind that is created by the soul entering the body. We are essentially our minds. It is our minds that then interact with the soul and body in creating joy or suffering in this world. We have free will because of the mind. We determine our own fate. Let me further explain.

Let us review the three ingredients in making the Joyous life. The first is the body, which is loaned from God. This body can be perfect or imperfect, but is only a temporary dwelling for the soul since it eventually decays when the body dies. Most people think that the body is who we are. We are black, white, tall, short, female, and male, beautiful or ugly.  

The second component, which is the most important, is the soul. The soul has also been also called the heart or spirit. Many people will agree that the soul lives for eternity.  Metaphorically the soul is like a little suitcase, carrying our vital information from lifetime to lifetime, from one body to another.  It stores our fate and its associated thought in the form of energies.  The energy in the soul enters the mind after birth, somehow programing the thought patterns in the brain to a specific thought inclination like of greed, arrogance and self-love. This chemical, electrical synaptic neural pathway that was reestablished, becomes receptive to its associated fate that the soul eventually releases. This neural pathway becomes stronger (more evil thoughts) when we act on these thoughts, and more negative energy (fate) is created. This neural pathway becomes weaker (less evil thoughts) when we do not act on these evil thoughts, and creates no negative energy or fate around the soul. It is the fate surrounding the soul that stimulates its associated evil thoughts in the mind.

The third ingredient is the mind, which is created when the soul enters the body. The soul programs our neural system with the thoughts that we had previously in our past life, reestablishing our unique individualized mind. The created mind essentially is who we are. We have free will to act upon our thoughts, especially when our soul delivers sufferings, temptations or obstacles in our lives. Our actions upon these evil thoughts originating from the mind, determine if we are on the path to joy or on the path of suffering.

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Understanding Karma and Causality

Posted on June 29, 2019 by heaventruth

Many religions believe in causality or karma, but none have succeeded in explaining how the process works. We all have heard the expression of “What we sow, we reap”. In the Ofudesaki, God tells us that we do not understand the soul. It is the understanding of the soul that will help explain how karma or causality works as nature’s justice.

Our souls carry information from one lifetime to another in the form of energy. These energies upon entering our bodies (matter) are converted to our past thoughts and its associated fate; it is these current thoughts and associated fates that the soul collects before our demise and exits our bodies to ascend to heaven.  The soul is who we are, and uses our borrowed bodies (matter) in an attempt to live the joyous life.  We can either create more positive thoughts and it’s associated positive fates, or we can create more negative thoughts and it’s associated negative fates while the soul resides in the body. Let me explain with some examples:

George is a salesperson working in a large corporation.  He is hardworking, but has problems with his immediate supervisor Bill.  George thinks his supervisor does not like him.   Bill often criticizes George, and they often have words that increase stress at work.  George often feels intense anger, and often confides and complains to his coworkers his displeasure of Bill.  In the teachings of Tenrikyo, George is creating more negative energy by acting upon the evil thoughts that were activated by Bill’s criticism. In this case the evil thought of arrogance were elicited by Bill’s criticism of George.  By telling his coworkers, George has created more evil thoughts of arrogance, and it’s associated negative fate by acting upon his thoughts of arrogance.

If George were to understand the soul, he would ponder why his soul has brought upon Bill’s anger. He would calm his mind, and understand that Bill is only the messenger of his soul.  George would then not act on his thought of arrogance and anger.  By this process, George is eliminating his evil thoughts and not creating it’s associated negative fate. George is beginning to purify his mind and his soul. This will result in his soul only bringing upon positive fate.

It is this suffering that the world cannot understand. We tend to blame our sufferings, temptations, and obstacles in our lives to others. We do not understand that our souls are bringing these occurrences to purify our minds.  We believe that God has descended from heaven to teach us about the soul and how to live the joyous life.

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Do We Need to Believe in God?

Posted on June 27, 2019 by heaventruth

What makes Tenrikyo so different from other religions? We don’t really have to believe in God or attend church to have a joyous life. For those Tenrikyo members, please hear me out before telling me I am wrong and crazy. In the human body, God has created the perfect body to live a joyous life without sufferings.   But in this world, we see sufferings and obstacles that our bodies encounter everyday.  Why do we not see the joyous life that God promised at the creation of mankind?    We believe that God through Oyasama has descended from heaven to teach us how to live the joyous life.

God tells us that we do not understand the soul or heart.  What is the soul? Many of us believe that our bodies die and decay while our souls live for eternity. Although some believe that we live for eternity in heaven or hell, we believe that our souls ascend to heaven and return back to our human vehicles (bodies) to continue our journey on earth. Some would call this the repeated cycle of sufferings; but maybe it should not be suffering, but joy.

It is the soul that is like a light suitcase, carrying our thoughts and fate from one lifetime to another.  The soul is who we are, and our bodies are temporary dwellings that we borrow from God to attain joy.  The interaction of the soul and body makes possible the creation of our minds that usually gives us free will to use our bodies as one wishes.  After the soul enters the developing body, our souls reestablish our disposition of thoughts from past lives by programming the mind. For example, if we had thoughts of greed and arrogance in our past lives, these thoughts are transferred from the soul to our minds in this lifetime.   The soul without the body is said to be only a collection of our thoughts and fate in the form of stored energy. At this stage without the body, these collections of information are not changeable, since energy cannot be created without matter. It is only when the soul enters our bodies (matter), can energy be created by our actions. The movement of matter creates energy (E=mc2).  It is the movement or action of our thoughts that create positive or negative energy. It is these energies that our souls collects, maintains and releases. Let me explain further explain.

Our souls are self-regulators of our minds. As we mentioned before, it programs and creates our minds. It also collects the energy from the actions of our thoughts.  Some may say that it acts like Santa Claus; it knows when we are good or bad.  It collects our merits and demerits in the form of energy.  It is this information that the soul takes with it when our bodies cease to function, continuing our quest for the joyous life in the next life.

The soul eventually releases this energy from our actions in the form of physical and chemical energy, manifesting an increase division of cells, or mutations of cells causing cancer or illness. It can also attract other negative or positive forces to us, like animosity or friendship toward us.  We must remind ourselves these occurrences in our lives are messenger of our souls. We must not blame the messengers. Who do we blame and what can we do when suffering, temptations or obstacles occur in our lives?

By this time, one surely must realize that we reap what we have sowed.  It is our soul reminding us with these obstacles that we have evil thoughts in our minds that we have acted upon. How do we remove these evil thoughts? Some of you may say that you do not have evil thoughts in your mind. Evil thoughts are not thoughts of murder or other heinous crimes; it is thoughts of greed, arrogance, miserliness, covetousness, and self-love.  Some of you may not believe that these are not serious sins; but what happens when these thoughts continue to accumulate in one’s mind?

God tells us that when the soul brings upon obstacles, we calm our minds and ponder, and not act upon any evil thoughts that may have been facilitated by these obstacles.  When this happens, no negative energy, and it’s associated thought is created. Remembering Einstein theory of energy, when no movement occurs, no negative energy is created.  Eventually if we continue not to act upon our inconveniences, we can purify our minds. When this happen our souls will become pure, and bring upon only positive fate.

Lets get back to you Tenrikyo members that I may have angered by telling people that God or the church is not necessary. When one reaches the state of a pure mind, God tells us that we will be spirited.  Can you imagine how wonderful it will be when we wake up spirited and full of joy when we wake up each day? You will want to tell other people, especially to those around you. This is why God has given us a special prayer (Joyous Service) to share these wonderful truths with the world.  It is with the performance of this special prayer that God will help us bring people to our places of worship if we spread the truth of the soul with a pure mind. Religion is necessary to spread the truth of the soul!

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The Broad and Narrow Path of the Soul

Posted on June 23, 2019 by heaventruth

When I first started reading the Ofudesaki, I would skip over these few verses because I did not understand them.  The following is from the Ofudesaki:

Yamasaka ya ibara guro mo gakemichi mo

tsurugi no naka mo torinuke tara 1-47

Over steep mountains, through tangles of thorns, along narrow ledges and

through brandished swords, if you come

Mada mieru hi no naka mo ari fuchinaka mo

Sore o koshitara hosoi michi ari 1-48

Yet a head a sea of flames, and a deep abyss if you crossover

you will arrive at a narrow path

Hosomichi o dandan koseba omichi ya

Kore ga tashikana honmichi de aru 1-49

After following the narrow path step by step, you will come to a path.

This is the trustworthy main path.

This is my interpretation of the first two verses.  God is telling us that when we decide to take the path of the heart, we will continue to have sufferings or temptations placed in front of us by our souls. If we ponder, and do not act on the evil thoughts that are energized by these obstacles, we can gradually purify our minds of these evil thoughts.  God is telling us that some of us will suffer more due to the amount of fate (dusts or negative energies) around our souls. It is the soul that manifests these sufferings that help us eliminate evil thoughts from our minds.  This part of purifying the mind is called the broad path.  We must understand the soul first to accomplish this. God tells us that this is a difficult path to complete because our ideas to follow this path may not be enough to get us through it due to the amount of obstacle that the soul may have accumulated. We must remember that the actions of our evil thoughts created these negative dusts that the soul collects and eventually manifest as suffering back to us. We reap what we have sowed.

God tells us in the 3rd verse (1-49) to take the narrow path after our minds and souls have been purified by the broad path. This is the stage of spreading God’s truth of the soul, and telling people that God will begin to help us understand why we suffer or have joy.  This occurs by planting the seeds or visiting others to convey the truth of the soul (hinokishin).  When this is done, God has given us a special prayer (Joyous Service) asking God to help sweep evil thoughts from those who we have spread the truth of the soul.  When God accepts our prayers, God guides these people we have conveyed God’s truth to our places of worship.  God tell us that the harvest (church members) will be full if we follow both the broad and narrow path.

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Becoming Spirited by Understanding the Soul

Posted on June 22, 2019 by heaventruth

In this world, many of us believe that we can gain happiness from the suffering of others. Look at the drug cartels, the trafficking of human beings, and the plethora of corruption and violence around the world. Look at the victims of these crimes, the homeless, the poor, the abused spouse, the drug addicts, the prostitutes, and the mentally ill. Me and I become more important than we.  What can a good person do to fight this epidemic of evil and help the victims of man’s selfishness? Will the imprisonment and eradication of evil people be a solution? Will spending billion of dollars to the victims be another solution?

In our sacred book, God tells us that there is no one who is evil. I am sure there will be people that dispute this statement, giving examples of terrorists, and mass murderers in the past. God tells us that there is no one who is evil; it is because there are evil thoughts or dusts that have contaminated his or her mind. It is these thoughts that when placed into action causes suffering in the world.  It is these thoughts that we must somehow eliminate, instead of imprisoning or eliminating the body we borrow from God. How do we do this on a large scale to help the world? God tells us that we must understand our souls. It is our own souls that help us purify our minds of evil thoughts. The following is from our sacred book:

This mind, prepare to clear it quickly.

Purify it by using a filter and sand. 3-10

This filter, where do you think it is.

The soul and the mouth are the sand and filter. 3-11

Everyone will agree that our souls are everlasting while our bodies decay when we die.  What is the soul, and what information does it contain? Metaphorically the soul is like a suitcase that carries our vital information (our essence) from one lifetime to another. Lets suppose it is made from some form of energy that modern science cannot detect now.  Imagine our souls carrying our thoughts and our fates in the form of energy from one lifetime to another. You can say that we own our thoughts.  The soul also collects our demerits (negative energy from the actions of our negative thoughts). God compares the soul to the sand in our sewage system that collects our human waste to recycle the water to make it pure. These demerits or negative energies that the soul collects eventually are released as fate in the form of sufferings, temptations or obstacles in our current or next life. We reap what we have sowed. 

What do we do when our soul delivers these obstacles and temptations in our lives? Do we get agitated, blame others and cause more suffering? God tells us to ponder our sufferings and temptations, and not act upon our existing evil thoughts. It is like the mouth that we use as a filter, preventing evil words from exiting. By this process of pondering, and not acting upon our evil thoughts when our soul delivers obstacles, we can purify our minds. Finally from the Ofudesaki:

After you have truly finished sweeping (mind becoming pure of evil thoughts),

you will be single hearted with God, and your mind will become spirited. 3-4

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The Fork in the Road

Posted on June 22, 2019 by heaventruth

When one encounters obstacles or temptations, it is like encountering a fork in the road. One can take the path of the world or one can take the path of the soul. In the world’s path, you can do whatever you want and get away with it, so long as no one sees you do it. In the path of the soul, it all comes to bear on you.  You reap what you have sowed.

In the path of the soul, one understands that suffering, temptations or obstacles are the result of our past actions on our evil thoughts; one then calms one’s mind and does not take action on any evil thoughts that may have been provoked by these obstacles.  This process gradually eliminates evil thoughts from the mind.

In the path of the world, one does not know where sufferings and temptations come from; and becomes agitated and takes action on any evil thoughts that may have been agitated by these sufferings or temptations. This results in the continual suffering of others. This behavior also results in the accumulation of more evil thoughts in the mind; and it results in more inappropriate actions when their souls deliver their fate, resulting in more negative fate and suffering in their lives. The cycle of suffering continues from one lifetime to another.

There will always continue to be a fork in the road or choice for those who choose the path of the world: the opportunity of change is always open. For those who choose the path of the soul, the path of the world would gradually disappear, leaving a straight path to a joyous and spirited life for eternity.

Evil thoughts are greed, arrogance, miserliness, covetousness, and self-love

Reference from the Anthology of Osashizu Translation

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