Equality of the Soul

Posted on May 14, 2013 by heaventruth

I’ve use the term arrogance in many of my blogs. But the term may go into one ear and go out the other.  Instead of arrogance, let’s use the words “superior to”. When we feel superior to someone because we are more educated, more religious, have more authority, or more athletic, we are wrong. We are definitely wrong when we feel superior to someone because of race, religion, or gender. What we attain or have on this earth does not make us superior.

But being more educated, more religious, or wealthy is not an evil. These are laudable goals. But attaining these goals does not make one superior from a standpoint of being a human being. We are equal because we all initially had a pure heart (soul).

In many religions, we consider the heart (soul) originally pure. Some would say we all borrow our hearts from God. Because our innermost hearts are pure, we are all equal in the eyes of God.

It is because our hearts become contaminated with evil (arrogance being one of them) that we believe that we are superior to others. It is said that when we are able to remove these evils (greed, arrogance, and self love) from our minds, our pure hearts will be in harmony with God; establishing a joyous world with everyone helping each other.

 

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Situations + Arrogance = Anger

Posted on May 13, 2013 by heaventruth

Anger causes stress, high blood pressure, irrational behavior, and actions that we may regret later. These are result to oneself, and do not account for the sufferings that anger  causes to others.  If we can remove anger, our lives will be more happy and healthy.

How do we prevent these explosion that result from the anger within? I have proposed a formula

Situations    +       Arrogance       =      Anger

Situation are what we perceive to be negative actions by individuals. We cannot control when these situations arise.

Arrogance is the thought that we are superior to others. We may erroneously think that we are superior because of education, experience, authority, age, race, religion, or even gender. Sometimes we become so arrogant that we think we are always right. Arrogance is something that we can control and eliminate.

According to our formula, we need both the situation and arrogance to produce anger. Since we cannot control the situations that arise daily,  the only thing that we can control is our arrogance. Without arrogance anger will not arise.

The next question is how do we remove arrogance from our mind? This may be as difficult as removing greed from our minds. To be continued.

Heaven’s Truth Church/Tenrikyo Church

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Happy Mother’s Day

Posted on May 12, 2013 by heaventruth

In the Tip of the Writing Brush, it is said to know the “origin”, or why God created mankind. On the same basis, I remind you today to remember your origin. Without your mother you will not be here today. I am sure her wish for you at your birth was for you to live a joyous life. HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!

Heaven’s Truth Church/Tenrikyo Church

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The purity of the human heart.

Posted on May 12, 2013 by heaventruth

 

There are sayings, to ponder from your innermost heart, give from your heart or listen from your heart, implying that the heart is pure, or was originally pure.  Some may call this heart the soul of the individual, an intangible collection of positive and negative energy.

 

But the mind that creates evil thoughts pollutes the heart (soul), and hardens the heart (soul) with negative energy.  The person who has this heart is considered evil by society. A person that creates positive thoughts has a pure heart and considered light hearted and spirited.

 

But even the most evil person in the world once had a pure heart. It is only because evil (greed, arrogance, and self love) thoughts have penetrated his heart, that his soul is hardened. This soul is said to be weighted down by evil; and sinks to the bottom, making it easy for God’s judgment.

 

In essence human beings are meant to have pure hearts. We are influenced by our environment in causing the mind to produce evil or positive thoughts. It is with this reasoning, that we must teach people to eliminate greed, arrogance from their minds.  When this happen, their hearts (souls) will be lightened and spirited.

 

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The Appearance of Arrogance

Posted on May 12, 2013 by heaventruth

Sometimes we become more arrogant without becoming aware of this evil. As we become educated, wealthier, religious, established in our jobs, and attain more authority, we may risk becoming arrogant. It is not evil to become educated, wealthy, and religious or hold political or social status. But it is wrong to believe that one is a better human being because one has attained these positions. But there are also obvious examples of arrogance, like believing one is better because of race, religion, or gender.

Why is this arrogance so dangerous and disruptive in our lives? What happen when we mistakenly believe that one is better than another human being? The emotion of anger easily appears. Anger leads to grudge bearing, and eventually to hate.  This leads to violence and sufferings in our homes, in the streets, and in the world. Arrogance also leads to the atrocities of human beings. Arrogance led to slavery in our past, and it continues to affect females all over the world today. Would these recent atrocities have occurred, if there were no arrogance?

Often we do not realize that the dust of arrogance has permeated our minds. But we usually are aware of the emotion of anger when it arises. It is usually our arrogance that causes the anger. If we are wary to remove arrogance from our minds, anger will not arise.  Without anger, the world will definitely be a better place to live.

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Purpose of Religion

Posted on May 11, 2013 by heaventruth

What is the purpose of religion? Many will say that it is to teach people God’s truth.  What God’s truth is can be debated by most of our religions.  Some say religion serves to explain our purpose on this earth. Others say that it explains our final destination. It subsides our fear of our nonexistence.  Some religion, propose a comforting parenting God, who cares much about his children; and there are other religions that propose a demanding and vengeful God.

Religion should make an individual feel good about themselves and the world. Many times, when we feel good and spirited, we want to share what made us feel good with others.  This is spreading the religion out of love for mankind. Religion that is forced on others is done for the opposite reason. It is done out of arrogance, or the feeling that one is superior to another.  Religion by itself does not make one spirited and good; it can only guide the individual.  One becomes spirited and good by free will.  

It is with the buffet of religions, that we sometime choose to guide us on this earth.  Choose the ones that make you good and spirited. For some this may be difficult to find in any religion, and for others it will found in any religion.  Share your findings with your friends, and the world.

Heaven’s Truth Church/Tenrikyo Church

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Selling Religion

Posted on May 11, 2013 by heaventruth

Have you noticed that religion is run like a product these days? They give us what we want to hear. They give a future that is bright and cheery. There usually is only one tenet that one must believe. This belief is repeated over and over, usually associated with every favorable outcome. Usually nothing negative is mentioned in these sermons. Everything is simple and happy. We come out of the sermon feeling good about our future and ourselves.

When we have something that makes us feel good about ourselves, we want to share it with others. When more people attend, there are more contributions. It is a win/win situation for everyone. But do these inspirational generic sermons really help us?  Do they make us understand our purpose, our relationship with others, and our relationship with God?

Sometimes when we are offered two choices, one easy and the other difficult, we tend to choose the easy path. The easy path may not lead to God. Something to ponder!

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How about Religion?

Posted on May 11, 2013 by heaventruth

There are 133 million people in the United States. There has been about  12 million reported crimes in the United States annually. How many more crimes are there that are not reported? Our jails are at capacity, with judges releasing presumably the  less dangerous back on our streets.

How do we protect ourselves from these crimes. Should we build more prisons to isolate these evil people from society? Should we arm ourselves to protect ourselves? Should we place surveillance cameras in all public facilities? How far can we go to protect ourselves. We end up losing part of our individual freedoms as we protect ourselves from evil people.

So our premise today is that there are evil people. Our solution is to catch and isolate them from society for as long as the judicial system allows us to.  But we are finding out that there are not enough resources to apprehend and isolate all these criminals. This system does not work.

How about if we give every criminal a salary and free health care upon their release. Instead of the tax payers paying for police and correctional salaries, we can pay the inmates not to commit crimes?  But does being poor make one more likely to be evil?  Probably not, a salary for inmates and free health care will not work.

How about a free education to the evil people in prison, and after their release? If they didn’t take an advantage of our free educational system in our country before, they probably won’t benefit from this.

The question still remains, what is the best way to combat crime and evil?  How about religion???

Heaven’s Truth Church/Tenrikyo Church

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Where is our faith?

Posted on May 10, 2013 by heaventruth

Yesterday, I was at the social security office and noticed all the security that was implemented to prevent the employees from getting hurt. There was a security officer with his metal detector, and firearm.  The outside of the building was protected by cameras.  Once your number was called, the clerk on the other side was protected by bullet proof glass. The small opening on the bottom facilitated exchange of documents, and provided exchange of conversation. The process was not people friendly.

How much must we spend to protect us from the evils of a few.  How much liberty must we lose for this protection? Can we protect ourselves from all the unexpected? Can we rely on God to protect us?

With all the money spent on protection of life liberty of pursuit of happiness, it appears that the world places more emphasis on the people protecting themselves, than relying on God to protect themselves from evil.

If this is true, are we are to believe that most people believe that this powerful God who created this universe is helpless against the evils of society. Does this mean that we have no faith in God? 

How can we become like the early missionaries who were fearless in spreading their religions, relying on God to protect themselves  where ever they traveled. Many were ridiculed and persecuted. Yet they continued  to have complete faith in spreading God’s truth.

How do we gain this faith in a perceived dangerous world? Would it be possible to walk in a gang infested neighborhood without worries of harm to oneself. Would it be possible to have your children play in your neighborhood without adult supervision?  Many of us will not be able to.  We do not have complete faith in God.  Many will profess that they have complete faith in a God that will take care of them in heaven. But why can we not depend on  God to protect us on this earth? Where is our faith?

Heaven’s Truth Church/Tenrikyo Church

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What causes people to be evil/revised

Posted on May 9, 2013 by heaventruth

What causes people to be evil or bad? Is it their childhood on how they are raised? Is it ingrained in their genes? How do we make evil people good? Is it possible?

We try to teach the inmates job skills in trying to keep them from returning to incarceration. So being employed, or having income prevents one from evil? If that is the case, we need to give good paying jobs to bad people. Don’t think it will work.

Child services tries to take away children from abusive and derelict parents. So early negative experiences cause evil? Should we take away children from evil people? Should we prevent evil people from having children?  Don’t think society will go for it.

Mental hospitals use to remove part of the brain to treat disruptive behaviors. So our genetic make up cause evil? Would we ever go back to lobotomies to remove evil? Definitely not!

If we cannot prevent evil people from acting, how do we deal with evil people? Presently and in the past, we have apprehended and imprisoned them, preventing them from contacting society. Some states have even executed the most evil. But how long can we continue to keep these evil people away from the public. We are running out of resources. We must find out what causes people to be evil.

In the Tip of the Writing Brush, it is stated:

Among all mankind, there is no one who is evil.

It is only a bit of dust stuck on them. 1-52

These dusts are said to be greed and arrogance.

When we have a mind of greed, we only care about our families and ourselves. We forget that the world is our family.

When we have arrogance, we feel that we are superior to others. It causes anger within us, leading to hate and grudge bearing.

If greed and arrogance make us evil, how do we remove these evils from our minds? Could our religions give us the answer?

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