OFUDESAKI-GOD'S TEACHINGS

Anger management

We are taught in our religion that if we have anger, we do not know God’s truth.  Anger arises from arrogance.  It is this belief that we are right, or that we are superior that causes this anger. This anger is not a good feeling. It causes our blood pressure to rise, our heart rate to increase, and sometimes actions that we regret.

We often see this on the road. In extreme cases, we call it road rage. How many times does anger arise when someone tails you closely on the freeways, or when someone cuts right in front of you? Sometimes it is by accident, and sometimes it is done on purpose. How about when someone continues to drive slowly on  the fast lane without moving to the right. Does anger arise? Do you feel like teaching him or her a lesson by pulling in front of them and driving slowly?  This type of anger is  an example of arrogance.

In my instance, I was making a right turn on to a major street. Apparently my judgment was not correct, or the approaching car was  too fast.  As an old Toyota Corolla passes me, the window rolls up, and I see the middle  finger of a white haired elderly lady. I was more surprised than angry at that time; a grandma flipping me off?

What can we do to suppress anger in our lives?  We must not place more emphasis on ourselves. We must sweep arrogance from our hearts.  By praying, God will also help you eliminate arrogance, as well as greed and self love from your minds.

“Evil sweeping, save us please, Universal Saving God”

Try this prayer. See if anger becomes less frequent in your lives.

“Evil sweeping,  save us please, Universal Saving God”

God wants us to understand the soul.

Looking all over the world and through all ages, I find no one who understands the heart (soul).  Tip of the Writing Brush 1-1

Why does God want us to understand the soul? Because our souls determine our future. We suffer or have joy depending on what surrounds our eternal soul.

The soul is who we are. The soul is an amalgam of positive energies; by itself it brings upon joy to ourselves because of these positive energies.  There is “Good” in everyone because of our original pure soul; but our souls have accumulated negative energies around them; this is why we suffer. Let us further explore the soul/heart.

The soul is an individualized ethereal positive energy source from God that enters our borrowed bodies at birth or shortly after; and it leaves our lifeless bodies at death to return to heaven. During our earthly stays, it collects our evil thoughts as negative energies; and it eventually releases the negative energies back to us as sufferings.

The eternal soul carries our negative energies. These energies transform into our former thoughts and also manifest into sufferings, temptations, and inconveniences that come back to us as fate or illness. When the soul enters our bodies after birth, the negative energies around the soul converts back into our former thoughts, and permeates our minds; death does not erase our evil thoughts. This will explain the origin of anger in innocent children. Our evil thoughts do not disappear with the demise of our bodies; the soul carries them until we are able to remove them from our minds. These negative energies surrounding the soul also manifest into sufferings, temptations and inconveniences that come back to us as fate or illness. The biblical proverb, “We reap what we sow” would appear to be true.

By these inconveniences that the soul delivers, they help us eliminate evil thoughts from our minds; these inconveniences work to remind us of the evils in our minds. These evil thoughts are greed, arrogance, miserliness, covetousness and self-love. All other evil thoughts are derived from or a combination of these five categories of thoughts; for example anger and hate are derived from arrogance. These evil thoughts when placed into action causes sufferings to others; but unknown to most of us, they also brings upon suffering back to the perpetrators of the evil actions as a result of the soul.

How does the soul eliminate evil from our minds? If we calm our minds and ponder; and do not act on our existing evil thoughts when faced with what the soul metes out (sufferings, inconveniences and temptations), these thoughts from our minds  gradually subside. Our minds  becomes pure, and the evil surrounding our souls are eliminated. This results in a pure soul void of negative energy, which brings upon a joyous life for the individual.

For many people, the purification of the mind will be a long process, dependent on the amount of negative energy they have accumulated around their soul, which is also equivalent to the amount of evil thoughts in their mind. These sufferings that the negative energies manifest will test their resolve of not taking action on their evil thoughts. But if they continue to control their evil thoughts by not acting on them, the evils in their mind will be eliminated.  There is a saying that from  knots (sufferings),  buds (opportunities to remove evil thoughts) will sprout if we understand the soul.

But suppose we do not understand what the soul does? If we act on our evil thoughts when the soul distributes its negative energy, others will suffer and our minds will continue to produce more negative thoughts. This increases the negative energy surrounding our pure soul, causing the soul to bring upon more suffering upon ourselves.  From  knots, knots will continue to sprout if we do not understand the soul. Do not ignore the manifestations of the soul. This is why we must not blame others for any inconveniences or sufferings; they are manifestations of our own souls. We must look within our minds to understand why the soul brings upon sufferings, temptations and inconveniences.

It is this  soul/heart that will continue for eternity, inhabiting sometimes imperfect bodies, and  sometimes producing unimaginable sufferings; but it is the soul that brings upon these conditions by releasing these negative energies surrounding it. This religion explains how to remove these negative energies surrounding the soul, so we can uncover the pure heart/soul and live the “Joyous life”. The following verse summarizes the path of the soul/heart.

“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. But in the path of the heart/soul, it all comes to bear on yourself”

OUR BELIEFS FROM A RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVE:

God descended from heaven to teach us about the soul.  He encouraged the early followers to remove evil thoughts from their minds, often placing temporary illness on their bodies to help them understand the relationship between the mind, body and soul.

God told his followers that shared joy is true joy. We can not have true joy while others suffer. We must share these teachings with others. He gave them special instructions to bring others to our places of worship. God told his followers that he would begin to place illness on others in relationship with the evil thoughts in their minds to help them understand the soul. God gives them a preview of what sufferings they may endure if they continue to harbor evil thoughts. This special guidance is what makes this religion so unique. We pray for the salvation of others!

This guidance as illness is only initiated with our special prayer (Joyous Service) that God has granted to us.  When people we have introduced the soul come to us to be healed, we further explain the soul and God’s teachings.  They are then healed and are able to understand the soul; and begin to purify their minds. This process of purifying the mind, spreading the truth, and praying continues until all mankind is purified of evil in their minds. God hastens for the day that all minds of the world are pure. When this occurs, there will be heaven on earth for all of God’s children.

OUR PATH:

To continue to purify our minds of negative thoughts ( sin/evil ) when confronted with temptation and sufferings manifested by the soul.

To spread and share God’s truth; telling people that illness and suffering may be God’s guidance to help one understand the soul/heart. This conveyance of God’s truth is called hinokishin .

To pray daily with our special prayer (Joyous Service), asking God to help people understand the soul/heart and to sweep evil from their minds.

Evil sweeping. Save them please, Universal Saving God .

To heal the people whose minds have been revealed when God guides them to us; and teach them about the soul (heart), causality and true sincerity. True sincerity is a mind that ponders over suffering and obstacles that the soul delivers, and accepts these inconveniences in a joyous manner. This will make our minds pure and spirited; and by the principle of causality will bring forth joy in the future due to the pure soul (heart).

GOD’S PROMISE:

All mankind will live a joyous life with everyone helping each other.

WHAT WE ASK YOU TO DO:

Please share this website with others and tell them about the soul/heart.

Heaven’s Truth Church     Tenrikyo     Heaven’s Truth Church     Tenrikyo