Tenrikyo

Joyous Life Lecture

by Yoshinori Onishi

INTRODUCTION

I'm delighted to be here and to have this opportunity to share with you the path to the Joyous Life.

Although this is supposed to be a lecture, please bear in mind that my presentation is merely one follower's way of presenting the path and that there are many other ways in which to present this path, just as there are many other paths that one might choose to follow. So I hope that later on we shall together be able to discuss any insights, ideas, or questions you might have concerning the path to the Joyous Life or, more generally, concerning how to live our life joyously without making it a burden. I would be very interested in any questions, comments, or any kind of feedback that you might like to share with everyone here.

Now, to begin with, there are two things that I want to make sure all of us understand in order to make this occasion meaningful and worthwhile for everyone here. The first thing is the term "Oyasama," which, of course, some of you are already familiar with. But for the benefit of the others, let me just say that Oyasama is the term that the followers use to refer to the woman who taught the path to the Joyous Life. And in this lecture, too, we will refer to Her as Oyasama for convenience sake. The other thing that I want to make sure we all understand is that the purpose of human existence, according to Oyasama, is to live a life of joy and harmony, or to lead the Joyous Life. We live in order for the joy of life to be experienced. And this applies, not just to me and my friends, but to every human being on this planet. Oyasama originally taught this path in 19th-century Japan, but it is not a Japanese path; it is a path by which anyone can nurture and cultivate the innate capacity to lead the Joyous Life, because the Joyous Life is every human being's birthright.

Nonetheless, if Oyasama were here and told you that each and every one of you here can attain the Joyous Life, some of you might say: "Sure, but my apartment is not good enough. My wife is not very understanding. (Or: My husband is a bit difficult.) Maybe I cannot live the joyous life during this lifetime. I'll try to live the joyous life next lifetime." Well, you don't have to move to a better apartment or wait for a more suitable time in order to lead the Joyous Life. Your joyous life is not at the mercy of someone else, either. If you have a body and mind, you have the capacity to lead the Joyous Life. You can start taking charge of your life today. We have an opportunity to live the Joyous Life today -- in fact, right now.

You might say, "Yes, I have a body and mind, and I'm 35; but so far, the Joyous Life hasn't happened." To this, Oyasama would say something like, "Well, that may be because you have forgotten the basic principle that the state of your mind becomes the state of your world." Your state of mind shapes the life you lead. So if you want the Joyous Life, all you have to do is to make your mind joyous, and that'll make the state of your world joyous as well. All you have to do is to work with the mind. External circumstances are often difficult for us to change. But we don't have to worry about circumstances if they prove impossible for us to change. All we have to change is our mind. We just need to work with the mind.

"Wait a minute," you might say. "If the state of my mind becomes the state of my world, does it mean that, if I wish I had a big house with a swimming pool, I will be able to get it simply by wishing?" Maybe, but then again, maybe not, because if I wish I had a big house with a swimming pool, my state of the mind is characterized by the desire for things to be different from what they are. So even if I managed to acquire a big house with a swimming pool, that desire for things to be different from what they are might cause the big house to look like it was not really what I wanted after all and, consequently, I might end up being unhappy or not joyous.

Then of course, you might say, "If that's the way it is, it seems like a waste of time to work with the mind." Then, Oyasama would say, The relationship between the mind and the body may seem a bit tricky, but working with the mind is not a waste of time. Changing your state of mind will definitely change the state of your world and of your life, because that is simply how the mind works--except we don't normally think so because the mind plays tricks on us, as it were, so that we can't see the workings of the mind exactly as they are. So let us first take a look at how the mind may be tricking us in our day-to-day life situations.

NATURE OF MIND: DISCLOSING THE MIND'S TRICKS

Let us begin by examining whether or not we see things and hear things as accurately as we normally assume we do. We sometimes imagine that our eyes do our seeing for us, but it doesn't really work like that. The eye is only an instrument through which our mind sees. That is why we can all look at the same object or situation and perceive it quite differently. In fact, the world we perceive differs from one person to another. The same can be said about our ears. We can all listen to the same talk and, depending on the content of our minds, hear quite different things. The world depends on our mind. No matter what we see or hear or what situation or problem we encounter -- the world we perceive is analyzed and interpreted through the mind.

This means that we can comprehend only as much as our mind can comprehend. If our minds are very limited, so will be our understanding of the world. If our minds are not limited, neither will be our perception of the world or our understanding of it. Thus, Oyasama says, "The state of our mind becomes the state of our world." So, for example, if my self-image has become distorted and twisted, or wounded and torn with despair, that will be the mind through which I see and hear the world.

In Oyasama's teachings, what limits the mind is metaphorically spoken of as "dust," which works just like the dust on the lens through which we see an object. The dust on the lens distorts the image we get and reduces the accuracy of our perception, thus preventing us from seeing things as they are.

Therefore, the path Oyasama taught lays more emphasis on actually working with the mind rather than on trying to change outward, tangible forms. This path is about sweeping away the dust of the mind. We are taught: "If only the mind is purified completely, there will be nothing but delight in everything." (Ofudesaki XIV:50) In other words, we can take advantage of the principle that "the state of our mind becomes the state of our world." If we completely sweep away the dust which limits the mind, our experience of the world will also become unlimited and unrestricted, and we can even experience total freedom in the world.

But what exactly is this mind-limiting dust? How can we identify and stay away from the dust of the mind? Well, Oyasama has provided us with a list of varieties of mind-clouding dust, and these include hatred, grudge-bearing, anger, greed, and arrogance. Of course, you might say, "Well, life is full of ups and downs, and it is really not very easy to stay clear of those states of the mind all the time." True, says Oyasama. But just because something irritating has happened, for example, you don't have to react to it by getting angry. You have the innate "freedom of the mind" to choose what state of mind you are going to have. Circumstances do not have to determine the state of your mind. Unpleasant situations do not have to give rise to harmful and self-limiting states of mind within you.

The thing is, though, that many of us often fail to exercise this freedom of the mind. Instead of being free, our mind often mechanically follows its conditioned, automatic, reaction patterns. Our mind has lost some of its freedom and become limited because it has been subjected to intense conditioning over the years -- practically being the composite of our individual experience, environment, memories, pleasures, and sufferings.

So, if we want to disentangle ourselves and become free, we need to train our attention. We need to notice how we get caught up in things that happen in our lives. This means paying attention to what our body and mind are doing as we proceed through each day. Please take a moment now and notice what your mind is doing. There is a teaching that says, "One day, a lifetime," which encourages us to live each day fully as if this day were our entire lifetime. It is possible to learn to live fully in the moment, rather than being lost in the dreams, memories, plans, and commentaries of the discursive mind. There is a big difference between taking a walk at the beach and really being there and taking a walk and spending the whole time wondering what's for dinner this evening. We can become more proficient at paying attention to what our body and mind are doing, moment to moment.

Providing that we pay close attention, we can choose skillfully how to respond to situations, instead of reacting to them "on automatic pilot," as it were. This is possible because of the freedom of mind that God gave us. This freedom, if skillfully used, allows us to be in any situation without automatically judging it to be disagreeable, unpleasant, or whatever. When something happens, we can choose whether to allow the mind to get agitated and caught up in it, or to respond to it in a more wise and sensible manner.

Of course, you might say: "Well, all this talk about the freedom of the mind sounds very nice, but human nature being as it is, we can easily react to situations in a not so sensible manner. So, if anger (or any other dust of mind) arises within us, are we in big trouble?" Certainly not, says Oyasama. You don't have to think such a thought. If anger arises in the mind, you can still choose not to get caught up in that emotion, and it'll go away after a while. So providing that we pay attention, we can use the freedom of the mind to prevent ourselves from getting caught up in whatever emotion or feeling has arisen. There is a difference between being lost in an emotion and being mindful and aware of an emotion. If we get lost in anger, for example, we might act on it and do something we might regret later. On the other hand, if we are more conscious or aware of our state of mind, we can handle it more sensibly. With close attention, we can see whether a particular response we are about to make is motivated by the sincere desire to understand, to love, to help or by the desire to defend our little ego, the refusal to see another's point of view, or a lack of patience and loving care. In the Songs for the Service, Oyasama tells us to forget our cruel thoughts and uncover our loving heart. The skill required here is simply remembering to pay attention and exercise our freedom of the mind so that the mind may remain calm, open, and spacious.

One simple way of reminding ourselves to exercise this freedom of the mind may be to ask ourselves such simple questions as "Am I getting caught up in my ideas, my emotions, etc.? Am I getting lost in my own point of view so that I can't understand my wife's point of view, my neighbor's point of view, and so forth?"

Now, let me recapitulate what I've said so far concerning the rather tricky nature of the mind. As we have seen, the mind seems to play tricks on us so that it's easy for us to forget the principle that the state of our mind becomes the state of our world. However, by paying close attention and exercising our freedom of the mind, we can reverse the situation and use this principle to our advantage -- if the state of our mind becomes the state of our world, all we have to do is to make our state of the mind joyous and happy in order to make the world joyous and happy.

"I'm still not convinced," you might say. "How can we be sure that if we work with the mind, that will change the state of our world. Is there any guarantee that this is really so?" Yes, there is, Oyasama would say. This guarantee happens to be an absolute guarantee. The guarantee is God. Every effort we make in working with the mind is rewarded by God, who created humankind and the world in the first place and who in fact is the universe itself. God personally responds to our effort. All our efforts and all our states of the mind are noticed and rewarded by God because we are part of God and we are never, ever separate from God -- not even now! So we can profitably work with the mind, secure in the knowledge that we are not wasting our time by doing so.

OUR IDENTITY: TWO POINTS OF VIEW

"Wait a minute," some of us might say. "Though you said we are all part of God and we are never separate from God, I don't think that things look that way. I am me, and look, this is my hand and this is my body, don't you see?"

Then Oyasama would say, Yes, your ordinary day-to-day way of looking at things works like that. But you don't always have to look at your life in that way. There is another way. There is more to life than that.

Oyasama would suggest that you ponder the possibility that the whole universe, including any and everything there is, is the body of God. If this is so, our body is also part of God. It belongs to God, not to us. The reason our body looks like it is our own possession may be that we have been borrowing it from God for a very long time. If we borrow something from a friend for a week, we remember which friend we borrowed it from. But if we borrow something for ten years, we might forget which friend we borrowed it from. Imagine borrowing something from the time of our birth until now. It should not be surprising if we had trouble remembering that it is not our own possession but something borrowed, lot alone who it actually belongs to.

But let us now take a closer look at how we came up with our ordinary, everyday way of looking at things whereby we think, "This is my body." And the best thing to do to examine this ordinary, everyday point of view is, I think, to inquire into the nature of the mind-body process which we normally call "I, myself."

Apparently, what we are is a changing process. All the cells of our bodies are continually getting renewed. All we experience is in a process of continual change, but we don't normally think so. We think we are static, concrete, solid individuals because that's what our senses, the five senses, make us believe.

The five senses -- which is to say, seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching -- lead us to feel and conceive ourselves to be separate organisms, giving us the sensation that "I myself" is an isolated center of feeling, thinking, and action -- a center which is located in and bounded by the physical body and is separate from God and alienated from the rest of the universe. Such is our normal sensation of who we are. But this idea that we are lonely beings temporarily visiting the universe runs counter to everything that is known in modern science concerning humankind. The subatomic particles (or waves) that make up the universe are the same particles that have been in existence since the beginning of time. Over an unimaginably long period of time, those particles have combined and become functional instruments of creation. Some of those functional instruments are the instruments that make up our human existence. Therefore, we are not 19, or 24, or 40 years of age. All of us are horribly old. We are billions of years old, as old as the universe. So it is not as if we had come to the universe from somewhere else; rather, we grew out of it in the same way that flowers and blossoms come out of a tree. Every person is an action of the universe, a unique expression of nature, if you like.

From this viewpoint, the sensation of ourselves as isolated egos inside bags of skin is an illusion or an imagination. And this is what is referred to as "the self-centered imagination" in Oyasama's teachings.

So, everything in the universe is made up of the same stuff and interrelated in such a complicated, intimate, and inseparable manner, so that we might just as well say that the whole universe is, in fact, One Being and that we are all part of It, despite all appearances to the contrary.

But why do we exist? Well, Oyasama says that originally there was this single, formless, and immortal Being (whom we often call God). But finding that condition to be tasteless, the Original One fashioned out of Itself instruments through which It can experience Itself as a wonderful variety of things and beings. The intention in creating this appearance of variety and change is so that the creation may be experienced as something like "joyous play" or the Joyous Life.

We are, therefore, expressions of God or unique actions of the universe. God's life and consciousness are flowing through us. And as such, we are participating in the joyous creation, the joyous play. The only thing is that our true identity as God's actions is, normally, not very obvious because we have acquired our own identities as particular individuals in somewhat the same way that actors and actresses become those characters that they are pretending to be. Our identity as a particular individual is, in fact, something we require in order to live in the world, to participate in the "joyous play," but the catch is that we can get lost in that identity. As long as we are having fun, that is fine. But if acting and living based on the self-limiting identity becomes a nightmare, the best thing to do is to take a break from that self-centered imagination -- from the thought that "I am this separate ego inside a bag of skin and alienated from the universe."

Please imagine that we are watching a scary film on TV. At first it is fun, which is what a film is meant to be. But if it becomes so scary that we can't stand it any more, what do we do? We just turn off the TV set. Then it becomes apparent to us that we were simply staring at a box, and we don't feel scared any more because we have stopped imagining things. Our life can be like that, too. Sometimes it seems like a nightmare. If we can't stand it any more, one good way to get out of that may be to turn off the self-centered imagination and stop imagining that we are separate from God. Then we can see our original and eternal unity with God.

The following passage, from a book entitled Joyousness Day after Day, illustrates how we always live in the embrace of God:

Let us say, for example, that we have boarded an airplane and are about to take off. It is a rainy day and the skies are heavily overcast. . . . By all appearances the day is just about as gloomy as it could possibly be. Yet, once the plane soars up and bursts through the layer of clouds, there is the Sun, shining as radiantly as ever, as it had been all along, and in that instant we become aware of a world that is perpetually illuminated at maximum effulgence. In the world below, it may be a gloomy day of rain, but never is it a world apart from, or devoid of, the Sun. The clouds and mist are merely blocking the Sun. The clouds and mist in this analogy correspond to the dust in the mind. (Joyousness Day after Day, 45-46)

God is like the Sun, always shining on all beings and things impartially at its maximum intensity. God never stops loving us or caring for us. The appearance of separateness between God and us is only due to our cloudy mind.

EXERCISES

Oyasama taught us certain exercises that can help to reinforce our sense of inseparableness from God. All these exercises draw on the basic teaching that the universe is the body of God and that we are all part of God. One of these exercises uses a list of ten blessings of God which we might profitably ponder over. These ten blessings are taught as pervading the human body as well as the rest of the universe. In terms of the human body, these blessings provide for the eyes, warmth, skin and joining, bones and support, eating and elimination, breathing and speaking, and so on and so forth. All those things and functions -- which in effect cover everything our body and mind do -- are seen as manifestations of God's workings. So this teaching of ten blessings can be used to help us remember how inseparable we are from God, wherever we may be, whatever we may be doing. For instance, every time we eat, we can remember that eating is possible at all because God is working within us, and whenever we see something with our eyes, God is enabling us to see -- or God is seeing through us, as the case may be. Further, God is constantly breathing through us, so to speak, as long as we are alive. All we need to do is to remember to notice it, and it can help us put things in proper perspective. Please take a moment now and notice your breathing. That's God breathing through you. Paying attention to our breathing as an action of God can be done anytime, anywhere, to help us remember our essential oneness with God.

The second exercise I should like to talk about is "selfless and thankful action," or hinokishin in Japanese. This begins with a sense of gratitude for the gift of life. Oyasama explains that we are given life by God, who is showering us with all kinds of blessings which enable us to be alive. When a joyous feeling of gratitude for these blessings wells up within us, it finds spontaneous expression in actions that are beneficial to others, society, and the environment. Selfless and thankful action comes from a sense of well-being and gratitude for the gift of life. But selfless and thankful action can also work like an exercise to reinforce our joyous perception, for any kind of other-centered activity tends to weaken our self-limiting attachment to self-interest and self-pity and, thus, it can bring a sense of spaciousness and openness, which helps us to find joy in everything in life, which, after all, is pervaded by God. If we are feeling down, maybe we can try to do something unselfish for others or society, temporarily forgetting about our self-interest and self-pity, and see what happens. You never know. Maybe we begin to feel better.

There is just one more exercise or practice I should like to describe briefly. It is called the service. This service can be done by anyone, anytime, anywhere. It involves singing the songs for the service and performing certain hand movements. The first part of the service goes like this: Ashiki o harote. . . . If anyone is interested in learning this service, any one of those people affiliated with this Center will be delighted to show you how to do it. It's not very difficult to learn.

Essentially, the service is designed to help us sweep our mind clean by removing the dust of the mind, by letting go of the self-centered imagination. How can that happen? Again we start with the basic teaching that "the universe is the body of God," which includes us, our body, and our mind. Please recall that our well-being and security are absolutely guaranteed because we live in the constant embrace of God -- we are part of God's body. According to Oyasama, the fact that the universe is the body of God is obscured only by our self-centered thought that "I am this body." However, when we wholeheartedly focus on the songs and hand movements of the service, no room is left for our self-centered imaginings or thoughts. The self-centered imagination thus becoming quiet, the service uncovers the mind like clear water, in which it is effortlessly known that the whole universe is God's body, that we are all actions of the universe, and that our essence is joy and freedom and never bound by the body or anything else.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

In closing, then, let me just recapitulate the teaching "the state of our mind becomes the state of our world." We are all born with the capacity to lead the Joyous Life, and whether or not we can actually realize the Joyous Life depends on our state of mind alone. And God is always there to help us, moment to moment, for we are never, ever separate from God. Thank you for listening.