Tenrikyo Ofudesaki - The Services -Intention, Beginning and Completing the Work-
The human self-centered imagination is naturally inclined toward misunderstanding the intention of the Services as we ordinarily process information too quickly for the intention of the work to be internalized, understood and settled. The intention of the "Services" or "Work" is then designed to calm, clear and settle our self-centered imagination just long enough for it to be able to make clear the distinction between our imagination and the original consciousness, the original cause of all things that remains when the imagination is totally quiet. The self-centered imagination cannot capture the truth of its origin, it works the other way around, the origin accepts the return of the sincere imagination, but the imagination can work to settle, clear and get itself out of the way so that its true origin shines forth fully and is revealed.
The performance and completion of the Service is central to the methodology of Tenrikyo "the Reason of Heaven". The Service or Work that is hastened then has to do with the state of our mind. At any given time our mind might reflect the intention of a person who has decided and determined to sincerely do the work of intentionally settling their mind in preparation for returning it to the reliable and stable foundation of its original pristine condition; in that way awakening to the truth of its true origin as the foundation for a joyous life.
Conversely, most of the poems deal with the minds of persons who seek help but for various valid reasons have determined their mind to decline to sincerely begin one of the "Services" and instead have chosen to remain as they are, continuing to rely on the shifting and insecure foundation of their self centered imagination while continuing to search for a way to put an end to the dissatisfaction that is attached to and flows from that state of mind. The Tenrikyo Doctrine describes that state of mind as being lost in the self-centered imagination without the knowledge of any sure way to get out.