Tenrikyo-Ofudesaki - Look at Things in the World  -

The simple often overlooked poem quoted below is, like all of the poems in the Ofudesaki, profound in its implied meaning and intention. Some topics for pondering some of those meanings and intentions then come to mind:

• Change is a constant in nature, sometimes it is seasonal and recurring and sometimes from our point of view, change is permanent.

• The human body and self-centered imagination is highly adapted in its ability to deal with changes in our body and our environment.

• Resistance and unwillingness to accept unwanted changes of all kinds is for the human self-centered imagination the source of unnecessary suffering.

• The vast number of changes of all kinds that have occurred through all ages, changes that we would ordinarily call either good changes or evil changes, have happened either before human beings existed or have happened in spite of or outside of human control or agency. Because of we find many things to be beyond our control some higher powers and causes of change have been implied and imagined.

• In most cultures, at least those that we have any knowledge of, human beings have had to come to terms with the perceived evils of  illness, trouble, weakening and death and all human cultures have imagined suitable explanations for why those things happen; those explanations, usually passed on as stories that can be told to children, are so pervasive, easily internalized and so taken to heart as to constitute common truths of the world for almost all of the members of any given culture.

• Adhering and clinging to truths of the world is often associated with respect for traditions that have stood the test of time. This teaching differs in that it stands that view on its head and views traditional truths of the world as having been taught during the immaturity of our species and instead looks to the fundamental change that is the mature and intentional replacement, think of it as a needed upgrade, of the foundation of the mind.

• Although almost all members of any given culture adhere to the established truths of the world that are characteristic of that particular culture not all do and because change is constant in nature all of those truths of the world have also undergone changes and continue to do so even in this time and place. As always, how we manage those changes determines the state of our mind and the state and truth of our world. In the case of this teaching that being either unnecessary suffering or joy in all things.

• To reveal the actual origin and original cause of any and everything, including all human beings, it is necessary to quickly and completely calm the human self-centered imagination and, at least temporarily, clear it of all of the currently entertained thoughts and truths of the world. This is called revealing the true origin of the mind and making it the foundation of all of our future thinking. Not surprisingly there is now and always has been resistance to making that replacement of the foundation of our self-centered imagination and also not surprisingly that resistance has for many resulted in disappointment, fear, suffering and frustration.

• On a positive note, it looks like the agency of the human self-centered imagination that knows nothing of the truth of its origin has made a mess of its environment and more and more imaginations are beginning look for ways to fix it by  acknowledging the fact that this universe is a single conscious being. Which of course is what the mind that has returned to its original pristine condition, before it imagined anything, knows with certainty.

CONTINUE SURE GUIDES: SECTION IVc: