Tenrikyo-Ofudesaki - Sure Guides - Not by Force
When
we ponder over the history of our species we find that there is and always
has been an acceptance and expectation that with power comes the ability to
inflict violence in pursuit of self-centered goals. War lords have always
been fond of Gods that violently settle scores, judge, punish and vanquish.
Indeed the very definition of a government is a body that claims a monopoly
on the means to use violence and that claim, even now, always has some kind
of imagined heavenly connection in support of that common truth of the
world. Of course that claim isn't limited to governments, there are still
many traditional cultural claims where the male heads of households still
claim that right to violent power. Then, in our own time and place, there
are the real or imaginary outbursts of violence that are provided to
us as
entertainment.
The unnecessary and unintended violence of the human world flows naturally from the selfishness and greed that can attach to self-centered imaginations that have no guide beyond the satisfaction of bottomless selfish desires. For that reason our original parental consciousness is working tirelessly to get us to return our self-centered imaginations to their origin, their place of manufacture so that they can be repaired and upgraded to deliver the intended joy of life that such a powerful tool as the human self-center imagination, when awakened to the truth of its origin, is capable of delivering.
Employing violence and force to achieve ends is not compatible with the model of parental love. Violence and force are very much a part of the vocabulary of the self-centered imagination that knows nothing of its true origin and as such those expectations are addressed in the poems. Indeed we have nothing to fear from our original parental consciousness; the very nature of our parental consciousness, though actually unimaginable, can be thought of as being high spirited love itself and joy in the free and unlimited, instrumental appearance and experience of life.
So I shall press upon you everything with the reason in verse.
I shall press, though not by force or word of mouth.
I shall press by the tip of my writing brush.