Tenrikyo-Ofudesaki - Already Told You What is Known to Me

For anyone who would like to understand this teaching and follow it to its promised conclusion, taking the time to sincerely ponder the significance, both then and now, of the poem below is a gift and an opportunity that should not be passed up.

Certainly, Miki Nakayama speaking from the point of view of the mind of God; the mind that is known and understood by the totally purified "mind like clear water" is the master teacher of this path of returning the mind to its origin and quickly settling it again, naturally with the original conscious mind of God that it appears within and which is the true origin of all human minds in all times and places. We might ask then what the problem was that kept followers, who heard the teaching directly from the master, from understanding what was being taught. They spoke the same language. Usually, this disconnect in understanding is attributed to a failure to understand the intention of the teaching.

Ponder this: all of the poems show a conversation between the point of view of the mind of God, the point of view that is known and understood by the totally purified "mind like clear water" and the various misunderstandings based on common truths of the world, that occupy the minds of those for whom the poems were written. Poetically this is the conversation in the "Muddy Waters". We can, if we so desire to, settle the meaning and intention right now by identifying with the point of view that is the totally purified mind like clear water and letting go of the mud and debris of common truths of the world that have accumulated in our mind and are depressing and obscuring that one truth; in so doing keeping it hidden from us.

In brief then, there is no true thought content in the teaching; the goal is to complete the work of settling the mind and enjoying the certainty of what remains as the point of view of the mind of God, the original fundamental conscious cause of all that exists.  This one task can be described as the replacement of the insecure foundation of our self-centered thinking with the sure knowledge and understanding of its original conscious foundation. After making the replacement we will still have a self-centered imagination centered on a body but it will be upgraded to one that is settled on a permanent and secure foundation.  Poetically this is the setting up of the "Kanrodai".

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