The intention of the Parent in founding the Teaching--namely, "to save all humankind"--implies that God the Parent desires to lay a path that will help all human beings live the Joyous Life, which is the purpose of human creation. God the Parent's intent in creation, which is expressed as a desire to see our Joyous Life and to share in our joy, is indeed the point of departure and destination of everything.

Let us, therefore, take a moment now to ponder over the Joyous Life. Part XIV of the Ofudesaki starts with a set of verses expressing God's impatience and pity over the way people tended to be depressed for fear of the authorities. Then comes the following verse, which reveals the goal of human existence.

The reason Tsukihi began human beings was the desire to see you lead a joyous life [yoki-yusan].

Ofudesaki XIV:25

We may say that this verse is the clearest scriptural description of God's intention in creation.

The term yoki--based on dictionary definitions referring to a state of feeling bright and cheerful as well as a quality that energizes and vitalizes all things--may be seen as indicating a sense of feeling bright and cheerful, spirited and full of energy.

The term yusan is commonly used to refer to going on a trip for pleasure or sightseeing, but originally it seems to have been used to denote a spiritual state in which a sense of bright cheerfulness that is free of any trace of cloudiness allows one to savor the beauty of scenery as well as live a carefree life.

Based on this, we may say that the Joyous Life, which God the Parent tells us is the purpose of human creation, means to live with the complete clarity of mind and a sense of bright cheerfulness and spiritedness while maintaining a spaciousness that has the calmness or leisure to allow for delight in all things. Moreover, what God the Parent desires is the kind of world in which each and every human being lives in that manner.

We may still have a long way to go before the Joyous Life of all humankind is realized, yet a reliable path leading to the Joyous Life was laid because God the Parent was openly revealed by taking Oyasama as the Shrine. In addition, through the sincere efforts of our many predecessors guided by the everliving Oyasama, that path has spread and expanded to become what it is today.

More than 160 years have now passed since the founding of the Teaching. This is not at all a short period of time, but from the perspective of the grand mission of reconstructing the whole world as the Joyous Life World, we should say that our endeavor has barely begun.

Today we are able to follow the path without having to worry about the authorities' interference or persecution, which tormented our predecessors. Yet, because of the present splendid situation, there is all the more cause for concern that our resolve may be slackening and our progress slowing.

It is vital to further strengthen our conviction of faith that we will spread this path throughout the world and one day certainly realize the Joyous Life of all humanity so desired by God the Parent. Braced by that conviction, we must spread the Joyous Life in wider and wider circles, starting right where we are.

The fact that the path publicly states the Joyous Life to be its goal means that any place where followers of this path assemble needs to be pervaded by an atmosphere of the Joyous Life. If you have not yet attained that level of progress, I would at least hope that efforts are being made to work toward the Joyous Life. This also applies at the level of individual followers of the path, for I believe that if each follower maintains a conscious awareness that the Joyous Life is his or her goal, it will spread to people nearby.

If, on the other hand, churches or any other places where Yoboku assemble are lacking the atmosphere of the Joyous Life or if the followers of the path on an individual level are moving away from the Joyous Life, then that is a problem.

If that happens to be the case, I would suggest that you ponder deeply in the light of the teachings and the Divine Model over why such a situation has arisen, what should be done to enable you to savor the Joyous Life, and how to make progress toward the Joyous Life.

In order for the Joyous Life to be realized as intended by God the Parent, it is essential that the mind be completely pure and clear. To put it another way, if the mind is completely purified, it should be possible to find delight even in things that people of the world ordinarily dislike, try to avoid, or see as sources of suffering, as indicated by the following verse from the Ofudesaki:

If only the mind is purified completely, there will be nothing but delight in everything.

Ofudesaki XIV:50

This, again, is not very easy to accomplish, but I think that, if we continue making repeated efforts to sweep our heart so that it becomes clearer and purer each day, our delight will steadily increase with the growing clarity of the mind.

We also read in a Divine Direction:

If the mind is made pure, no matter what others may say, anger will not arise.

Osashizu, March 22, 1887

Nearing the mind of joyousness by constantly sweeping dust from the mind and purifying the mind can certainly be done so long as we remember to do so in our daily lives. As human beings we can only live our lives through mutual help and support, which involves a lot of people including our own family members. If there is anyone close to us who is suffering from an illness or any other problem, I wonder if we can really remain peaceful at all. I rather doubt that we can feel joyous in such a situation. We naturally want to do anything we can to help that person feel better and be saved.

As we can see from this example, joyousness felt by oneself alone is hardly sufficient, and indeed a Divine Direction tells us:

Only when your joy brings joy to others, can it be called true joy.

Osashizu, December 11, 1897

I am sure there are many ways to bring joy to others around us. Yet I think the most noble thing to do--and this is something that anyone can do so long as the willingness is there--is salvation work. When we come across people who are depressed over sufferings of illness or other troubles, therefore, we should try to help them understand God's parental love being shown through those difficulties so that they can change their orientation of mind, because the surest way to make them spirited is to have them see God the Parent's blessings, which can be given in response to sincere prayers offered by relying totally on God.

Surely, in the course of visiting sufferers time and again to administer the Sazuke, many of you Yoboku have witnessed blessings of salvation so miraculous as to even surprise doctors. Moreover, through listening sincerely to people who are at a loss how to deal with problems and doing everything in your power to work with them to find a way to have their prayers accepted by God the Parent, many of you must surely have seen a path suddenly opening up where least expected and eventually bringing a settling to the problems.

The joy at seeing people rejoice in the blessings that have freed them from the sufferings of illnesses and other problems and the elation of knowing that God the Parent and Oyasama have provided the blessings for them can only be savored by those who have implemented salvation work. As for the people who have received blessings of salvation, such experiences offer a precious opportunity to awaken to God the Parent's blessings and to settle the divine intention in their hearts. Working for single-hearted salvation is, indeed, the most important task for us to perform in order to advance toward the Joyous Life.

We have just a little over two months left this year, the year that we embarked upon with the recognition that this second year of the "three years, one thousand days" season could determine the results of our pre-anniversary activities.

On this day two years ago, I indicated the guidelines for our anniversary-related activities through Instruction Two, saying that all Yoboku should strive to sprinkle the fragrance of the teachings and engage in salvation work while maintaining the mind of saving others at all times. We then sought to ensure a thorough understanding of the purport of that Instruction throughout the Tenrikyo community. We called on all Yoboku to get to work and heighten their activities while making sure that those activities would proceed in a concerted manner. Then, this year, we once again urged all church head ministers and others in leadership roles to take the lead at the forefront of the pre-anniversary activities.

Throughout next year--the final year when we are to complete our pre-anniversary activities--I hope that, building on what has been done so far, you will implement your activities so thoroughly that you will have no regrets later.

To that end, I want to suggest that you take this opportunity to once again reflect on the way you have been conducting your activities. For instance, concerning the implementation of the pledges you must have made in anticipation of the anniversary, you might like to take a fresh look at your goals and make preparations and arrangements for embarking on the coming year, the year for completing your pre-anniversary activities.

Throughout that concluding year, let us do our utmost to complete what we have set out to do so that, on the occasion of the 120th Anniversary of Oyasama, we may bring joy to the everliving Oyasama by showing Her a level of spiritual growth befitting that season. I sincerely request in this regard that you conduct your activities in unity of mind.

Before I conclude, allow me to say a few words about the westward expansion of the Sanctuary precincts. As I mentioned in my Service prayer today, the work of raising the ground level has been done through earth-carrying hinokishin since June last year. This work was initially scheduled to continue until next year, but we are now able to complete it much earlier than that, thanks to the cooperation of all directly supervised churches and the enthusiastic hinokishin provided by large numbers of followers. I, therefore, want to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation, and now I would like to bring my remarks to a close by once again thanking all of you who have joined in this effort. Thank you for listening.

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