"Story of Creation"
(Moto hajimari no hanashi)

It was with the intent of saving all humankind that Oyasama told the story of creation, which reveals the truth about creation. The story contains the fundamental teachings of Tenrikyo, and it is seen as important not to dismiss it as just a myth but to accept it as a story that genuinely reveals the truth about the origin of humankind and the world--the truth that will save humankind. Chapter 3 of The Doctrine of Tenrikyo, entitled "The Truth of Origin," includes a story of creation compiled mainly from the Ofudesaki but also based on early followers' manuscripts--including ones dating from 1881 and those from 1883--which represent their attempts to compile what they believed to be the "divine record" taught by Oyasama.

The story of creation tells us that humankind was created through God's warm parental love and extraordinary efforts. Involved in creation were those drawn forth by God to serve as models and instruments. The story says that they participated in creation in unity of mind.

We are told that Oyasama served as one of those models in creation, the one who played the role of the original mother of humanity. This means that She is endowed with the soul of Izanami-no-Mikoto, referring to the womb of creation.

In the story, God promises those who are to be made into models of husband and wife in creation that they will be returned to the Residence of Origin to be adored by their posterity when the years equal to the number of their first-born elapse. It is in accordance with this promise that God drew Oyasama to the Residence of Origin and--on October 26, 1838, which marked the arrival of the promised time--received Her as the Shrine of God.

The Residence of Origin--said to correspond to the Nakayama residence in Shoyashiki Village, Yamabe County, Yamato Province--is depicted as the place where humankind was first conceived, that is, the place where God's act of creation took place. Located in that Residence is Jiba of Origin, which is marked by the Kanrodai (the Stand for the Heavenly Dew) and which is described as the spiritual home of all humankind. God, the Parent who created humanity, resides at Jiba, and the everliving Oyasama, who remains at the Residence of Origin forever, is constantly watching over the spiritual growth of all human beings, who are Her children. Through Jiba, God's wondrous workings that will save all humankind will unfold.

In most manuscripts written by early followers, Izanami-no-Mikoto, who remains at the Residence of Origin for three years and three months after the original conception, gives birth over the next seven days in a seven-league area between Nara and Hase and over the ensuing four days in other parts of Yamato Province. Izanami-no-Mikoto goes on to give birth over the following nineteen days in the provinces of Yamashiro, Iga, and Kawachi and during the next forty-five days in the rest of the country. She thus spends a total of seventy-five days giving birth to all the children conceived.

The number of the first-born is nine hundred million, ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine, and the same number of years were to pass before the Teaching was founded on October 26, 1838. This was based on the aforementioned promise of God. The story of creation explains how the causalities concerning person, place, and time--namely, the Causality of the Soul of Oyasama, the Causality of the Residence, and the Causality of the Promised Time--converged at the founding of the Teaching.

God created and has sustained humankind and the world through wondrous providence because of a profound intention to see human beings live the Joyous Life and to share in that joy. Yet they have misused the freedom of mind that was given by God, and consequently the world has become far removed from the Joyous Life that was intended by God. At the arrival of the promised time--on October 26, 1838--God became openly revealed to humanity by taking Oyasama as the Shrine of God, taught the "ultimate teachings," and undertook the work of saving all humankind.

Oyasama taught the Service as the means of salvation and, to make its profound meaning easier to understand, told the story of creation, which metaphorically explains it. The Service, which symbolically reenacts God's work of creating humankind and the world, is performed joyously and in unity of mind by ten people who each represent one of the ten aspects of God's providence involved in creation. The Service takes place with the Kanrodai at center, the Kanrodai marking Jiba, the place of the original conception of humanity. Through this Service, the same wondrous workings of God that created humankind and the world can be manifested in order to save humanity.

The Ofudesaki says:

I begin things which have never existed, because I am God, who made the origin.

III:18

Now that I shall work salvation unknown until now, it is necessary to make the origin known.

IX:29

God--being the One who "made the origin," that is, created humankind and the world where there was no form--became openly revealed to build the Joyous Life World, an unprecedented undertaking. The verses imply that, to bask in this salvation offered by God, it is important to fully understand and become convinced of the "truth of origin," or the truth about creation, which is embodied in the story of creation.

The story is designed to explain the making of humankind in a way that is easy to understand. It says that humans were created and are provided for and enabled to be alive by God for the purpose of the Joyous Life and that the human body is "a thing lent by God, a thing borrowed," which is thoroughly pervaded by the complete and perfect providence of God.

The story uses symbolic and metaphorical language to give the intended audience a clear grasp of the providence of God. For example, the story likens the providence of eating, drinking, and elimination to an eel, which is a slippery fish capable of squeezing in and out of tight spaces without getting stuck. The story also describes God as using a flatfish, which is shaped like a fan, as the instrument for the providence of respiratory functions; a black snake, which is very strong and, even if pulled from both ends, will not tear apart, as the instrument for the providence of pulling; a globe-fish, which contains a poison that can result in death if consumed, as the instrument for the providence of cutting; and so forth. God also gives a sacred name to each aspect of divine providence. By using metaphorical language, the story seeks to help the people understand that humans, thus permeated by God's complete providence, are designed to be able to live the Joyous Life.

The story also says that, after the models of man and woman were established, God ate all the loaches that were in the primordial muddy ocean to test the flavors of their nature and decided to make them the seeds for human beings. This description, meant to reinforce the oneness of humanity and God, also emphasizes that all human beings are created as equal children of God.

Since God is the Parent of all humankind, all people throughout the world are dear children of God and are thus brothers and sisters. Although they may live in different countries and regions, they all come originally from God. It is essential for all people in the world to realize the universal brotherhood of humankind and help one another in that spirit.

This story also depicts the primordial human beings as spending three lifetimes--while growing to be half an inch taller in each lifetime than in the previous lifetime--before being reborn eight thousand and eight times as all kinds of life forms. Only after that do they become humans as we know them. In this aspect of the story, we find a process of generation and development unfolding through births and rebirths.

It is also worth noting that, in the story, land and sea as well as heaven and earth become completed in line with the pace of human development. That is, humans' living environment is always arranged as befits the stage of their own development. This suggests that the realization of the Joyous Life, which flows from God's providence, depends on human beings' spiritual development. It depends on whether they are able to live in full accord with God's intention.

The story of creation goes on to say that God trained humans in wisdom and letters. This means that we owe even learning and culture, as well as all other aspects of the human world, to God's providence.

There were times in the past when the story of creation was referred to as the "Ancient Record of the Muddy Waters." This title, however, does not appear on the cover of any of the aforementioned early compilations by Oyasama's intermediaries of what they believed to be Her story of the "divine record." It has been conjectured that those manuscripts came to be popularly known as the "Ancient Record of the Muddy Waters" because they typically begin with a reference to "muddy waters." There is no indication that Oyasama Herself used that title, which is unlikely to have been anything more than a common way for people to refer to the story.

(This article was first published in the December 2006 issue of TENRIKYO.)