Tenrikyo-Ofudesaki - Why Waka Form Poetry
Waka form poems originated in the Yamato region of Japan and over time have undergone several different transformations of form. The form employed in the creation of the poems "Tip of the Writing Brush" is in lines of 5-7-5-7-7 syllables. That meter is unimportant for this discussion however it is significant that this style of poetry is often crafted to reveal the details of an intimate conversation or exchange between different persons or points of view. In working to understand the deep meaning and intention of the Poems it is important to keep that fact in mind otherwise it is really quite easy to mistake the "point of view of a child", that is the point of view of the self-centered imagination and cultivate that mistake, thinking that it is the point of view of the original Parental mind or the point of view of Single-Hearted Salvation or the Mind of God. In which case nothing is changed and the point of view of the self-centered imagination continues to prevail as the foundation for truths of the world.
The human self-centered imagination is naturally predisposed toward not knowing or even denying its original parental consciousness and it is the dissatisfaction of that imagined state of mind that these poems address.
It is of course crucial then that the reader make a sincere effort to distinguish and separate both points of view presented in what might be poetically called the conversations in the "muddy waters".