Tenrikyo Dynamic Mission - UNITY OF MIND

At any age as we go about our ordinary day to day activities we quickly learn that the world is full of varying opinions and interpretations of concepts, ideas and events; as well as their causes and if needed, passionate opinions concerned with solutions and cures for problems.


Because all of our minds differ in so many ways it is difficult to get things that require cooperation and coordinated effort done. In spite of that difficulty our human world is built almost entirely on the results of coordinated efforts that required cooperation to complete. That is to say, efforts that reflected a certain "unity of mind".

In pondering unity of mind five general ways and means of accomplishing unity of mind easily present themselves. They are: paid employment, forced employment (servitude, slavery), belief and ideologically motivated volunteerism and single-heartedness with the true origin of the mind.

Anyone who has every been in paid employment either as an employee or an employer knows that it is difficult and sometimes impossible to get everybody in line with the intended goals of any business or organization. In many cases a great deal of time and resources have to be applied to the task of getting everybody working on the same team and toward the same goal. Sometimes it can't be done and somebody gets fired and sometimes the business or organization just can't get it together and fails completely.

Historically and even today forced employment or exploitation is a popular solution for minds that are more or less totally consumed by greed, have a lack of knowledge of the true origin of the mind and know nothing of the true origin and close relationship of all human beings. In most of the world today forced employment is illegal which makes it hard to achieve unity of mind concerning it but it still exists and has a tendency to proliferate during times of war. The details of slavery and exploitation usually operate out of the public eye as it is frowned upon though both are often tolerated if kept out of sight.

Belief and ideologically based volunteerism seems like it should be a sure thing for forming unity of mind as all of the volunteers supposedly share a belief or set of beliefs but they too have  problems with differing minds as the variety of religious sects, ideologies and volunteer organizations, often with the same or similar stated goals, makes apparent. Viewed from an historical perspective this kind of unity of mind has a tendency to undergo modification and dramatic change. When we look all over the world and through all ages it is apparent that all ideologies and belief systems have so far have exhibited instability and all eventually fail the test of time.

Last but by no means least there is single-heartedness with the true origin of the mind. Single-heartedness is a different sort of unity of mind altogether. The term "single heartedness" is used to describe a self-centered imagination that has remerged or reunited with the original consciousness that it rises out of and appears within. That unity of mind is given to a mind, that at least for a moment,  has completely settled and doesn't entertain any thoughts, ideas, concepts or beliefs.  Since this unity of mind doesn't have any thought content it is impossible for the human self-centered imagination to imagine it and it is that fundamental simplicity that makes it difficult for imaginations that are used to looking for truth in ideas to understand. Though this single hearted unity of mind is always available and is unchanging it has often been the case that as an expression of parental love the one original parental consciousness has often provided self-centered imaginations with worldly common persons, places and things to attach to while learning how to calm, settle and purify the mind.





The purpose of the Tenrikyo dynamic teaching is to employ all means to hasten single-hearted unity with the true origin of the human mind. The intention is to employ all means in ways that are appropriate for the time place and maturity of any and every mind that would like to purify, settle, reunite and awaken to the knowledge, understanding and free and unlimited workings of its true origin.

There is a common worldly way to read these poems, so to get a start on understanding them it is a good idea to ponder that throughout these poems "water" is used as a metaphor for the human mind. Beginning then with that guide we can begin to understand the meaning and intention of all of the poems.

Through the mind like clear water can know and understand the truth of origin. That is single-heartedness. Anything else is common worldly thinking and that common worldly thinking can be metaphorically be expressed as weeds overgrowing and obstructing the path of single-hearted salvation.

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