OFUDESAKI 16-76
OFUDESAKI 16-74
OFUDESAKI 16-73
WHAT ARE WE PRAYING FOR?
Lets review our daily Service we call the Youki-tsutome. It is not called the yoki-tsutome (Joyous Service), but the Youki-tsutome (Timber Service). In the Ofudesaki, this Service is also referred to as the teodori, or hand dance, since it only uses the hands to perform the Service. This Service is also called the Kagura Service when it is performed at the site of human creation, where the the temporary Kanroudai exist today. This is also where God descended from heaven in 1838 to save the world.
OFUDESAKI 16-72
OFUDESAKI 16-71
What Do We Teach People?
What do we tell people when we decide to do missionary work. In the Mikagura-uta, it is called hinokishin, or a person’s contribution to God. Do we tell them the history of Tenrikyo? Do we teach them our prayer (Youki-tsutome) to save others? Do we teach them the Yorozuyo and the 12 dances that accompany it? Do we tell them about Oyasama? These are all things that are important, and should be presented later on. But initially we must teach them how to attain health and happiness by explaining to them three things they need to know.
- The soul (mune)
- The pure mind (shinjitsu)
- Illness as guidance (you) they may receive from God to help them understand the soul and the pure mind.
OFUDESAKI 16-70
The Teachings to Save the World
Suppose I tell you that if you can understand the soul (mune),and the pure mind (shinjitsu), God will help you purify your own mind so you can attain health and happiness for eternity. It is our own soul that collects our demerits (negative energy) from acting on our negative thoughts. It stores them as our negative fates, and manifest them as suffering or illness when the right opportunity arises. The right opportunity may not develop until the next lifetime. We reap what we have sowed because of our own souls. It is our own soul that monitors our behavior.
When our physical bodies stop functioning, our soul takes these negative fates and their associated negative thoughts to heaven, and eventually the soul returns back to earth to start a new life. Death erases our memories but does not erase our thoughts and their associated fates. This is why suffering or joy appears, and why each of us have different thoughts (good or bad) when we are born. Some will say that suffering (karma) is unfair, since they can not remember what they have done in their previous life. But because of the fates that appear, your own soul is showing you what evil thoughts you have acted upon. Does this mean that you are destined to suffer because of your past evil actions? God tells us you do not have to suffer if you understand the soul, and the pure mind. God tells us when suffering (fate) comes from the soul, we should not blame others, but we should ponder our own minds that created the fate. When we do not act on our negative thoughts, we can gradually purify our minds with each fate that appears. God tells us to test this out ourselves, to purify our minds, and attain health and happiness.
But some of you may not be convinced of the soul and the pure mind, to test it yourself. This is where God will help you.









