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The Truth of Origin is sometimes referred to as the "story of the truth of the Service" because its main aim is to help us understand the Kagura Service. That is to say, it is a story that teaches us why people can be saved by the Service and why the Service is performed in the manner that it is.
It is also called the "story of creation," but it is not a simple tale of human creation. It is a story that teaches us the unchanging fundamental truth of how human beings and the world originated and developed. It is so important that we may consider it to be the basis for all the teachings.
It may be outlined as follows:
God the Parent created human beings to see the Joyous Life of humankind and, thus, to share in that joy.
God summoned a fish and a serpent, planning to make them into models of husband and wife. God obtained their consent and received them, promising that when the years equal to the number of their first-born had elapsed, they would be adored by their posterity.
Further, God summoned six other creatures usable as instruments. After obtaining their consent, God received them and, after consuming them to test the flavor of their minds, determined their natures. Then God decided to use them as the instruments according to their natures.
God consumed all the loaches in the muddy ocean and made them the seeds for human beings. Then God the Parent (Moon-Sun) entered the models of husband and wife and seeded nine hundred million, ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine children at the Jiba of Origin.
The first children thus born were all half an inch (5 bu) tall. They passed away for rebirth after ninety-nine years. Then, they were reborn and passed away for rebirth again after ninety-nine years. They were reborn again and, when they grew to four inches (4 sun) in ninety-nine years, they all passed away for rebirth for the third time.
After that, human beings were reborn eight thousand and eight times as worms, birds, beasts, and the like. Then they all passed away except a she-monkey. She conceived ten human beings at a time, five male and five female. They were born half an inch (5 bu) tall and grew taller gradually. Land and sea, heaven and earth, and so on came to take form so as to be distinguishable. When humans reached five feet (5 shaku), the whole universe was completed, and human beings began to dwell on land.
Human beings lived in water for nine hundred million and ninety thousand years, were trained in wisdom for six thousand years, and were instructed in letters for three thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine years. The promised time when the years equal to the number of the first-born children had elapsed was the day of origin of the Teaching.
The Truth of Origin clarifies why, by whom, when, where, and how human beings were created. One of the characteristics of Tenrikyo is that the path of salvation is taught by clarifying the origin, or the fundamental truth of all things.
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