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051001rev. Watanabe
051001rev. Watanabe
Tetsuo Watanabe
President
Autumn Grand Service
October 1st and 2nd, 2005
Good morning, everyone! Congratulations on this Autumn Grand
Service!
You must be feeling the coming of autumn. I hope you are all fine.
To Great God and Meishu-sama, we have just dedicated a warm
prayer for the Autumn Grand Service in this crisp air. I, together with
you, also would like to express sincere gratitude that we have Kyoshusamas presence today, and that we could receive Johrei and a very
important guidance from him.
I always feel strongly about the following questions every time I listen
to the guidance from Kyoshu-sama. They are:
1. Do I really believe in the existence of God?
2. Do I believe, from the bottom of my heart, that we were given a
life and an individualized part of God?
3. Do I believe, from the bottom of my heart, that we have paradise
within us, and that Meishu-sama is always there, nurturing and
cultivating us tirelessly?
You probably feel grateful that Kyoshu-sama is kind enough to give us
guidance through his personal experiences, responding to the above
questions, which concern the important foundations of our faith that
we need to confirm thoroughly. I encourage you to learn from Kyoshusamas words today by reconfirming these solid foundations of faith,
and then practicing them.
Here, I would like to introduce the members of pilgrimages from
overseas who are here with us today.
(1)Fifty two members from Thailand
One
hundred, two hundred, five hundred, and one thousand had already
been sent by Kandatas arrangement.
The number of people,
however, had increased and never seemed to decrease. That was
because the number of sinners has increased as more of them had
been sent down to hell one after another.
Kandata, intentionally or unintentionally, kept sending the sinners off
by saying, Next, Go! Before very long, some sinners started to
express their gratitude by saying, Gee, thanks. You should go before
us. Kandata replied by saying things like, You go ahead and take
care, Be well, No need to rush. You will be all right, for I will be
watching after you.
Although Kandata kept sending off more than two thousand, three
thousand sinners, the queue of sinners was never ending. But
strangely enough, Kandata involuntarily felt the surge of joy as he
kept sending off sinners one by one toward heaven, keeping his eyes
on the precious thread not being snapped off.
Kandata seemed to have forgotten his initial purpose of climbing up
the thread; but he was now single mindedly making sure that the
thread was never cut off, thereby sending sinners one after another
up to heaven.
This is the story. What do you think about it?
The other day I had a chance to tell this story to a young boy, who
was appeared to be in the age of rebellious stage. You say that
Kandata will help me survive even if I do evil things and fall into hell.
I replied, Well, it depends, you could be told, `Oh, its you. I have
been waiting for you to come. Since you have come all the way here,
you dont have to rush. I ask you to stay here helping me for, say, at
least 600 years. ` I am sure he would. When you see him, say hello
to him in my place.
When I went to see Kyoshu-sama and shared this post-fin story with
him, the first thing he said was, I think that the joy of Kandata was a
projection of Supreme Gods happiness onto him.
I was very
impressed. I, then, could learn many important things from the words
of Kyoshu-sama.
Kyoshu-samas comment reminded me of what Meishu-sama had
taught, If I have to go to hell after taking all humanity up to heaven, I
dont mind going. Meishu-sama also added, If you are the kind of
person who wants to send others to heaven, even if you have to go to
hell, you will be allowed to dwell in heaven. I have no doubt that
Kandata was physically in hell as he was, but he was, at least
spiritually, allowed to be in heaven. The joy that Kandata felt was the
most decisive evidence, because, as Kyoshu-sama said, it was
projected onto him from the joy of Supreme God.
According to a poem by Nidai-sama;
Yoki kokoro tsutomete okose kasanare ba
Itsuka makoto no zen-nin to naru
Do your best
To think and act virtuously;
And, as these thoughts
And deeds accumulate,
You truly will become a good person.
When we try to accumulate good thoughts and put them into practice
whenever possible, we will be allowed to have a soul which is
projected onto this present world of Gods joy, thus becoming a
person of altruism. Though at times our paths look dark or bright, we
can step firmly with full peace of mind, knowing that we are
individualized part of God, we will be nurtured by Meishu-sama to be
his instruments. Then, paradise within our innermost self will become
brighter as well.
In Heian Kyo Sacred Grounds in Kyoto, the second stage of the