You Are Saved by the Truth of Saving Others (Tasukeru-ri ga tasukaru)

by Yoshikazu Fukaya

All people seek pleasure and pursue happiness. There is no one who does not wish to live a life filled with happiness. In the Ofudesaki, Oyasama teaches:

And though each of you throughout the world has been pondering until now,

To My sorrow, no matter how deeply you have pondered, you have no mind to save others.

From now, Tsukihi requests you, everyone in the world, to replace your mind firmly.

To explain what kind of mind it is to be: it is none other than to save the world single-heartedly.

Hereafter, if all of you throughout the world save one another in every matter,

Know that Tsukihi will accept that mind and will provide any salvation whatever.

Ofudesaki XII:89-94

Moreover, Oyasama tells us:

Ponder from your innermost heart to understand. Through saving others, you will be saved.

Ofudesaki III:47

Oyasama likens the mistaken use of the mind which prevents the realization of the Joyous Life to "dust" so as to help us recognize it and then sweep it away on a daily basis. God the Parent requests us to cast away our selfish and greedy mind and replace it with the mind of true sincerity.

The mind of saving others is not compatible with the greedy mind. Our thoughts attached to self-interest, such as concerns about our own convenience, cannot allow us to help others be saved. Only when our mind of true sincerity--which is exclusively focused on saving others, having put aside selfish motivations and greed--is at work can we help others be saved. We will then be unable to stand by and watch the sufferings of others; instead, we will accept their sufferings as our own, wish to help those sufferers be saved by any means, and single-heartedly devote our utmost, sincere efforts to their salvation without any expectation of reward, whether in the form of favorable results or any expression of their gratitude. Such is the mind of true sincerity that God the Parent is longing for. God the Parent promises to accept the mind of true sincerity and provide us with any salvation.

Indeed, in Kakisage, we read:

The mind of saving others is the real truth of sincerity alone and, by this truth of saving others, you are saved.

Kakisage

People throughout the world are seeking happiness and salvation. God the Patent, however, can only open the path of true salvation for us when we single-heartedly devote ourselves to saving others, forgetting the selfish and greedy mind.