In the preceding section, I discussed the relationship between material construction and spiritual construction. Yet this spiritual construction through which we refine and polish our minds may never be complete. The time will probably never come when we can say "This is enough." Just as spiritual construction continues without end, its correlate, material construction, will probably also continue without end. This is taught as the "endless construction."

In the Divine Directions we find that construction in the Path is also referred to as "temporary construction." All of the buildings that were successively constructed in the Home of the Parent, even those that have been torn down to be replaced by others, were the fruits of the followers' determination to complete marvelous structures. The Main Sanctuary of Church Headquarters today is also an exquisite building, and one can hardly look at it--or the Foundress' Sanctuary or the corridor or even the stone steps--without being aware of the tremendous amount of sincerity that went into this construction. Yet, even these buildings, however, splendid they may be, are only temporary constructions. Never can we say that the construction has come to an end. The individual buildings were of course completed and no doubt were the fulfillment of the highest potential for each period in which they were built. Nonetheless, in the long course of the Path, it turns out that these were indeed "temporary constructions," what we could call milestones toward the next new construction. Yet, the actual buildings resulting from the construction are not nearly so important to God the Parent as the mind of sincerity which is applied to the construction, for this is the true goal behind all construction. We can say that the buildings themselves were only the means toward this end.

In the Songs for the Service, we are taught:

Digging up the earth of the Residence,
You just carry it from one place to another.

Mikagura-uta XI:6

Ever so remarkable is this work of construction;
Once begun, there shall be no end to it.

Mikagura-uta XII:7

Forever continues the carrying of earth.
If yet it continues, I, too, will go.

Mikagura-uta XI:5

The "endless construction" refers therefore to the construction that goes on forever, and continues without break. The present construction of the Oyasato-yakata building complex is also such a construction that goes on without break. When one wing is completed, we begin on the next. As we work to complete this building, dedicating our true sincerity to God the Parent, our sincerity shall be accepted and we shall be guided ever closer to a world filled with joy.

(The above is a translation--first published in the September 1990 issue of TENRIKYO--of an article excerpted from Omichi-no-kotoba by Yoshikazu Fukaya, published by Doyusha Publishing Company.)