Do we not have the idea that our bodies belong to us and, therefore, we can use our bodies just as we like? The truth is, however, that we can use these bodies in the way we want only because God the Parent enters our bodies and provides them with a variety of boundless blessings.

Take, for example, the blessing of breathing. Breathing does not require any effort on our part. In fact, we are breathing without being aware of it. We just take it for granted. But once our breathing gets disturbed, all we can do is gasp for air. No matter how little this blessing of God the Parent may be disrupted, we are incapable of restoring our breathing through our own effort.

The teaching of "a thing lent, a thing borrowed" refers to this truth.

We are taught that all of us have borrowed these bodies from God the Parent. Thus, from God the Parent's point of view, they are things lent and, from our point of view, they are things borrowed. We are also taught that God has given us the mind as our own and we are able to use it as freely as we like. If the mind is ours and we have the freedom to use it, we also have total responsibility for how we use our mind. To this mind God lends a body and provides it with a variety of blessings according to the way the mind is used each day.

The Ofudesaki instructs us as follows:

All human bodies are things lent by God. With what thought are you using them?

Ofudesaki III:41

All human bodies are things lent by God. Do you not know the free and unlimited workings of God?

Ofudesaki III:126

So long as you remain unknowing that the body is a thing borrowed, you can understand nothing at all.

Ofudesaki III:137

A Divine Direction teaches us thus:

The human body is a thing lent, a thing borrowed. Each way you have used your mind is reflected in this world....When you have the thought, "What a situation is his," you should settle your mind with tanno. Everything is reflected in this world. However large your treasure, of what value is it if you suffer from illness? There may be no greater misery. Free and unlimited blessings depend on your mind.

Osashizu, January 8, 1888

Let us offer our thanks to God for having lent us these bodies. At the same time, let us remember at all times that the way we use our minds each day is of primary importance.

(The above is a translation--first published in the April 1995 issue of TENRIKYO--of an article excerpted from Omichi-no-kotoba by Yoshikazu Fukaya, published by Doyusha Publishing Company.)