Date: 3/26/00 11:38:47 PM Pacific Standard Time

From: kuni@tenrikyo.or.jp (kuniharu shimizu)

John, that was a nice wrap-up you did in the last mail. I have nothing to

add to that. Just a very minor typo: It is not "Ashiki haroi", but "harai".

I am going on the road again tomorrow. I will be back on the end of this month.

Now my comment on verse 51 to 57.

The verse 53;

Among all humankind, there is no one who is evil.

It is only a bit of dust stuck on.

Why Oyasama is say "there is no one who is evil"? In here, she is referring to our soul. There is no evil soul to begin with. The reason goes back to the time when humankind was created. God the Parent used the nature of loaches for the creation of the human soul. According to late Rev. Ueda's explanation, the loaches live within mud, so their appearance might appear to be dirty. But the inside is very clean. (For Japanese, loaches are delicacy) So, no matter how evil the person may appear to be, his inner core, which is his soul, is clean, nothing evil. What makes him look evil is the accumulated wrong doings and thoughts of his own, which we refer to "dust".

Oyasama is very kind when she says that "It is only a bit of dust stuck on". What we need to realize is that though we started out with maybe a bit of dust at the beginning, we have accumulated quite a bit of dust through the repetition of many rebirths, which appears as the bad Innen. The dusts have turned into stains. It is very hard to get rid of indeed. And it is because of these stains in our mind, that we find it difficult to get off our own path and take a good leap on to the path of single-heartedness with God the Parent. However, there is a hope, a very assuring hope. The hope is; "Among all humankind, there is no one who is evil", as the verse states.

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Kuniharu Shimizu

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Wishing Joyous Life for all

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