Tenrikyo Ofudesaki - An Object Lesson in Priority and Sincerity -

There is a light hearted story concerning one of the early Services that employed the vocalization or chanting repetition of  one of the names of God, as a way of calming and settling the mind so that it could be opened to the reason of heaven. That kind of service is of course not unique to this teaching and has for a very long time been widely recognized that when sincerely practiced is an effective way of calming the imagination.

Farmers are notoriously busy and hard working, often taking advantage of every bit of daylight to complete their chores so when instructed to perform this service some of them wondered how they could work it in with their priorities and how much time it would take to complete the ritual. Having been told to just do it for the length of time that it takes for a stick of incense to burn down; it isn't very difficult to follow their reasoning that the ritual magic that they expected and which was being invoked could be completed and worked twice as fast if they broke the incense sticks in half.

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