This article is concerned with how "distinguishing"--or "making a distinction," as this term is also translated--is used in the Ofudesaki.

The term refers to a process that will allow for understanding. Let us begin by looking at this verse:

Hereafter, My only concern will be the preparations quickly to distinguish between Kara and Nihon* step by step.

Ofudesaki IV:33

"Distinguishing" may imply the idea of separating one thing from another, and this verse and other such verses (e.g., IV:57-59) may at first appear to support such an interpretation. Yet the context and the intended meaning of "Kara " and "Nihon" indicate that the act of "distinguishing" has more to do with making it possible for understanding to occur. Consider these verses:

Hereafter, I shall make a distinction between Kara and Nihon. When it is done, the world will settle.

Until now, those in high places have not understood. They thought My teachings to be worldly common.

From now, God will enter their bodies and make the distinction clear in their minds.

Ofudesaki II:34-36

That the process of "distinguishing" facilitates understanding is also implied in such passages as these:

The high places rule this world, but Heaven is also high. I shall make a distinction between the minds of the high places and the mind of God.

Ofudesaki IV:104

If you see this, be convinced, whoever you may be: I shall distinguish between good and evil.

Ofudesaki V:6

What do you think this working is to be? It is solely to distinguish between good and evil.

Ofudesaki XIII:40

When the distinction between fire and water in the high places is made, joyousness will settle of its own accord.

Know that the distinction between fire and water will be made by the performance of the Joyous Service at this place.

Ofudesaki VI:5-6

From now on, I shall bring understanding by making a distinction in the innermost hearts of both the high and the low all over the world.

Ofudesaki IV:107

Furthermore, distinguishing and understanding, on the one hand, and purification, on the other, are also interrelated, as is indicated in a number of passages throughout the Ofudesaki.

* These terms refer to the distance and proximity, respectively, between the intention of God and a person's understanding of it. For further explanation, see the note on verse II:31 in the English version of the Ofudesaki.