May I express my sincere appreciation to all of you for coming from near and far to attend today's Spring Grand Service for the 167th year of the Teaching. As we have just been able to conclude the Service, I wish to take this opportunity to share some of my thoughts with you. May I request your attention while I deliver today's sermon.

I need hardly tell you that the day of origin of the Spring Grand Service--that is, the day of origin of the anniversaries of Oyasama--is the lunar-calendar date of January 26, 1887, the day when Oyasama withdrew from physical life in order to hasten the spiritual growth of humankind, Her children.

Until that day, Oyasama had consistently demanded that those close to Her perform the Service. Yet the circumstances at the time were so serious that there was a real danger that the performance of the Service would alert the police, who might come promptly to stop the Service and arrest not only the performers but also Oyasama, who by that time was quite advanced in age. This meant that, in order to perform the Service as instructed by Oyasama, the people had to let go of their worries and ideas and their self-serving concerns, make their minds firmly single-hearted with God, and place total reliance upon God the Parent in their performance of the Service.

The stern yet compassionate training Oyasama provided during the final days makes us painfully aware that She strongly desired to make the followers understand that the Service was something that had to be performed at all costs. Perceiving and internalizing the intention of the Parent condensed into Her instruction to implement the Service was not something Oyasama demanded only of those close to Her at the time. The training She provided then is also meant for us today.

The steps to make spiritual growth are the steps to near the intention of the Parent. The intention of the Parent originated as the intent in the creation of humankind and the world--which was undertaken out of a desire to see our Joyous Life and share in our joy. Because of that desire, God the Parent drew forth the instruments, made arrangements for the complete tenfold providence, and conceived humanity at the Jiba of Origin.

Over long ages thereafter, God the Parent nurtured humankind with boundless and warm parental love. When the time promised during creation finally arrived, God the Parent became openly revealed in this world by taking Oyasama as the Shrine in order to save all humankind. God the Parent had felt pity for the way human beings, the children of God, were misusing the individual freedom of mind, deluding themselves, burdening themselves with worries and anxieties as well as illnesses, and even fighting among themselves, all because they were ignorant of the origin of any and everything and of their true Parent. God the Parent thus opened this path out of the single-hearted parental love that solely desires to save humanity. Single-hearted salvation is indeed the intention of the Parent embodied in the day of origin of the Teaching.

The Service is what was taught as a fundamental component of the path of single-hearted salvation. If we perform the Service joyously in unity of mind while melting into the mind of the Parent, God the Parent will become spirited and manifest the original workings that created humankind and the world out of the muddy ocean, thereby reconstructing this world as the world of the Joyous Life and enabling people's greedy minds like muddy water to become clear and pure as well as high-spirited and joyous.

The Service is thus the fundamental means to lead all humankind to the Joyous Life. It calls forth universal salvation, whereby illnesses will be cured, conflicts will be settled, humankind will be freed from calamities, and abundant crops will be assured. The Service will thus enable us to receive all sorts of blessings covering every facet of our lives.

That is why Oyasama repeatedly and sternly demanded the implementation of the Service all the way until She withdrew from physical life. That is also why, even at local churches in every community, the service is performed every month by receiving the truth of the Kagura Service, performed here at the Jiba.

Yet, while receiving God the Parent's workings through the Service is the most essential thing in order for our minds to become completely purified, that is not the whole story. We must also make a conscious effort to notice our mistaken use of the mind and work to purify our minds.

The Ofudesaki is full of references to sweeping the heart. We read, for instance:

What do you think this path is about? It is to cleanse the heart of everyone in the world.

Ofudesaki XVI:57

I shall make everything in the mind of each of you clearly manifest on your body.

Whoever you may be, when this is seen, the cleansing of the heart will be truly accomplished of itself.

Ofudesaki XII:171-172

Thus we are told that our mistaken use of the mind will be manifested on the body so that we can notice it.

Nonetheless, if one is to understand the significance of one's bodily disorder, engage in self-reflection, and replace the mind, one has to know that there is an intention of God the Parent behind what is happening to the body. It is, therefore, necessary for us to spread the teachings and convey the intention of the Parent ever more widely.

Oyasama bestows the truth of the Sazuke upon us so that we can even reach out to people who may not be able to understand the teachings merely by hearing them, for the Sazuke will enable them to settle the truth of the teachings in their minds by helping them directly experience God the Parent's workings, whereby they can be saved from any illness, however serious, depending solely on their state of mind.

All the arrangements Oyasama made for the path of single-hearted salvation--such as teaching the Service, bestowing the Sazuke, and revealing the origin of any and everything--were designed to fulfill the original intention of the Parent in creating humankind. Striving for single-hearted salvation, therefore, is indeed the path of spiritual growth that accords most fully with the intention of the Parent.

It so happens that the Spring Grand Service is performed at the time of year that is the coldest here in the Yamato region. The bracing coldness, it seems to me, is appropriate for helping us return our thoughts to the severe situation involving Oyasama's withdrawal from physical life, which of course was motivated solely by Her parental love for humankind. Indeed, it seems appropriate in this coldness to pledge our commitment to take steps to respond to Her intention.

The coldness of the weather also helps us give thought to Oyasama's final hardship of imprisonment, which took place a year before Her withdrawal. The majority of Her seventeen or eighteen hardships of detention and imprisonment occurred when She was in Her middle and late eighties, but Her final hardship, in particular, can never be forgotten.

That final hardship resulted from the fact that a group of followers who had returned to Jiba, buoyed by their high spirits, began to perform the Dance with Hand Movements at their lodgings. This soon became known to the police, who promptly came to the Residence, conducted an investigation, and arrested Oyasama, taking Her to Ichinomoto Branch Police Station.

Though it was the coldest winter in thirty years, Oyasama was forced to undergo detention and interrogation for twelve days on a bare wooden floor with no bedding provided. Nonetheless, She conducted Herself just as usual. In fact, even when She was subjected to interrogation all night long, She reportedly conveyed the teachings about the founding of the Teaching, the providence for the human body, the dust of the mind, and so on. When the sun arose, Oyasama noticed that the lamp on the guard's desk was still burning uselessly, and so She blew it out. Indeed, She carried on just as usual, naturally and spontaneously, wherever She was.

Also during that detention, She noticed a cake peddler passing by and told Her granddaughter, who was attending Her, to buy a cake for the guard, who She thought looked very bored. We cannot help but marvel at Her parental love, which knows absolutely no bounds.

She was finally released from detention on the lunar-calendar date of January 26, exactly one year prior to Her withdrawal from physical life.

For those close to Her, it must have been unbearable to watch Oyasama, at Her advanced age, being imprisoned or detained in police stations. Though we cannot speak of these hardships of Oyasama without shedding tears, Oyasama Herself joyfully and spiritedly went through those experiences while giving words of encouragement to the followers, who tended to get depressed. She would tell them that it was God the Parent who was taking Her and that, from each knot, buds would spring forth.

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