Tenrikyo Ofudesaki - Key Ingredients of the Service - The True Art
All of the "Services", that is the numerous ways of working to purifying the mind to reveal the one truth of its origin, have the same intention, elements or ingredients brought together and prioritized in various proportions and preparation times.
What differs among the services is the way in which they are prioritized and completed. It is a fact that the main ingredient and determinant of the outcome or completion of the service is the degree of sincerity that is committed as the first priority of the work at hand. The degree of sincerity needed to complete the work is total or true sincerity. When speaking of the mind then the metaphor "mind like clear water" and the hastening to understand the truth by the terms "clear" or "muddy" is as simple and easy a teaching as there ever was. After grasping and accepting the intention of that teaching the only question that remains is a matter of priority or when to determine the mind to do it.