Tenrikyo Dynamic Mission - PARENTAL LOVE

A MODEL OF PARENTAL LOVE

Our view of the Model of Parental Love may be influenced by the way in which as children we interacted with our own parents.


In general the Model of Parental Love as it is shown by the original parent of all can be experienced from two different points of view. The first point of view, the one that we are most familiar with, is the point of view of the child. From that point of view we can assume that God loves us and like our own human parents wants to shield us from harm and help us in every way to mature, be prosperous and happy in our endeavors.

It must however be mentioned in contrast that for many children the point of view of the child also involves exploitation, anxiety, guilt and fear of abuse or punishment. In some traditions stressing and cultivating this guilt, fear and punishment is of primary importance. The Tenrikyo Dynamic Teaching stresses the point that "The Model of Parental Love" is called a model of love because it is intended to be understood as a model of love and not a model of exploitation, anxiety, guilt or fear of abuse or punishment.

When we read the Life of Oyasama Manuscript Edition it is clear that Miki Nakayama was afraid of gods and spirits who she  sincerely imagined and deeply believed caused illness and suffering for herself and her family as well as various authorities who demanded to be obeyed and who could hand down punishments. It is also reasonable to expect that since she was a something of a model citizen that her family and neighbors shared in those same kinds of fears and beliefs. The couplet of poems below addresses imaginations of that flavor.


The second point of view of the Model of Parental Love is the point of view of the original parent of all human beings and for that matter of everything that exists. Knowing and understanding the point of view of the original parent as shown through the Model of Parental Love is the goal of the Tenrikyo Dynamic Teaching.

                                   The 3rd Shinbashira 1/26/1986

Though there were many people who were taught the true origin of the human mind and were finally able to make their sincerity conform to the mind of our parent, the dialogue between the mind of the parent and the minds of the children that is modeled and shown in the poems collected as The Tip of The Writing Brush are not concerned with minds that awakened but with minds that did not. The conversation modeled in the Ofudesaki is between the lost, often hurt and confused minds of the "children" who are unable to find joy in this life because they are lost in the darkness of their self-centered imaginations and on the other hand the tirelessly loving mind our original parent who desires only to see us all awaken to a free and unlimited experience of a joyous life.

When we set out to follow the instruction to replace the foundation of our thinking it is very easy for us to try and fool or trick the process by skipping the necessary steps and failing to follow them in their proper order. We unconsciously do this by holding onto some of the favorite worldly common truths that we had accumulated from the familiar point of view of our limited self centered foundation of thinking. In our common worldly daily activities we are ordinarily unaware of the truths of the world that have accumulated and inhabit and condition our self centered imagination and serve to form pillars of our common everyday thinking. In the terms of a poetic metaphor used in the Ofudesaki poems, the self centered imagination anchored as it is on a body and the truths accumulated in at are the basis of the point of view of "Kara". It is the point of view of a mind, of a self centered imagination that knows nothing of its true origin.

The two poems above are a good representation of the point of view of Parent and the point of view of the child. Our parent of origin wants us to know that it is powerless to help us if we continue to depend solely upon the truths of our self-centered imagination to find our way in the world. In that case our original parent can only "look on caringly". Further though we imagine otherwise, we know nothing at all of the truth of origin, the true origin of our mind. However our original parent gives tireless encouragement to us and promises that we can look forward to a broad path of single-heartedness that flows through the totally sincere mind like clear water as the knowledge and understanding that appears in the world as our parent's free and unlimited workings and the joyous life for all  human beings equally. Such a promise can be made because it is made by the one true and original consciousness that resides at the core of every human mind and is the true origin of all that exists.

For those who are ready to complete the service of purifying their mind by returning their self centered imagination to the place where it is originally made at the core of the mind the service can be completed quickly even now at this time. For those of us who find it difficult to slow down or stop the movement of our self-centered imaginings our original parent tirelessly works using all means to give us something to attach our imagination to as a means of hastening sincere single hearted devotion.
As an expression of Parental Love, since the children were slow in making spiritual growth and were unable to realize unity with the mind of God through the single-hearted salvation that is given to the totally sincere and purified "mind like clear water", our original parent provided those around Her with a person, a place, an object and a concept to attach their self-centered  imaginations to in single-hearted devotion. All of those parental gifts were appropriate for time, place and level of spiritual maturity and were intended to provide ways and means for truly sincere minds to awaken to single-hearted salvation quickly.




 

 

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