Human Mind (Ningen gokoro)

by Yoshikazu Fukaya

Oyasama clearly explains in the Ofudesaki:

Whatever is said, it is all by Tsukihi. Never is there mixed the least bit of a human mind.

XII:70

Oyasama was the Shrine of Tsukihi. God the Parent entered Her and gave us the teachings. Oyasama's teachings were all the intention of Tsukihi, God the Parent, and, therefore, have not a thing of a human mind. The human mind here refers to the mind of Miki Nakayama, who lived as the housewife of the Nakayama family. It is thus made clear that what Oyasama taught has nothing to do with Miki's mind.

A human mind is in direct contrast to God the Parent's mind that precedes such distinctions as that between good and bad. Generally speaking, however, a "human mind" signifies the mind which, oblivious of God the Parent's working and intention, thinks only in accordance with practical wisdom, academic learning, or accepted norms and practices. It thus refers to the mind that is far away from God's intention, the mind that does not accord with God's intention.

This, however, is not to deny the significance of practical wisdom, academic learning, morals and ethics, or accepted norms and practices. The point is that unless our thinking is based on an awareness of God the Parent's boundless working, no matter how sharp and efficient it may be, it cannot go beyond the realm of the known, which covers a very limited range of time and space.

God the Parent instructs us as follows:

Everything has been the work of God. Nothing whatsoever can be understood even by scholars. It cannot be easily understood. Nothing proceeds according to a human mind. Not a thing has been born of a human mind.

Osashizu, August 25, 1887

However clever it may be, human thinking can do no more than tiding you over for the moment.

Osashizu, February 18, 1896

Everything in the world is created by God the Parent and sustained through God's working and, therefore, is beyond the grasp of our petty human thoughts. Thus, so long as we preoccupy ourselves only with accepted norms and values, practical wisdom, or academic learning, God the Parent's intention, as well as God's wondrous working in the world, will remain foreign to our minds. To be sure, a human mind that is intensely interested in seeking immediate benefit or fame alone will be nowhere nearer measuring up to God the Parent's intention than it is.

God says:

A human mind eclipses the truth of God.... A human mind makes things so complicated that there will be no help forit.

Osashizu, May 22, 1895

We are reminded here that our concern with social obligations, personal sentiments, or common sense, if motivated by a human mind, will only lead us to make light of the truth of God the Parent, thereby bringing about a really complicated situation.

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