May I begin by expressing my sincere appreciation to all of you for the efforts you are devoting to the work of the path in the course of daily life as well as for the trouble you have taken in returning to Jiba from near and far in the cold weather to attend today's Spring Grand Service.

Having duly been able to perform the Service, I would like to take this opportunity to share some of my thoughts with you. May I, therefore, have your attention while I deliver this talk.

The Spring Grand Service commemorates the lunar calendar date of January 26, 1887, which, I need hardly remind you, is the day when Oyasama withdrew from physical life. On that day--after Her repeated, stern urging--our early predecessors finally braced themselves for the worst and undertook the performance of the Service. Today's Service provides us with an opportunity to once again reflect deeply on the significance of that day, to take the intention of the Parent to heart, and to give thought to the feelings of the early followers, as well as to take a humble look at the way we are performing our tasks today.

In chapter 10 of The Life of Oyasama, entitled "The Portals Opened," we find Oyasama rigorously urging Her close followers to implement the Service. The followers were certainly aware of Her intention yet could not bring themselves to perform the Service because they were worried that doing so would result in Her arrest and imprisonment, which would endanger Her safety and well-being. This chapter describes the parental love with which She guided those followers step by step, sparing no effort to explain Her intention and convince them to make up their mind to perform the Service.

After reading this chapter, we come away convinced, above all, of the importance of performing the Service. As you are fully aware, the Kagura Service involves ten performers surrounding Jiba of Origin and symbolizing by hand-gestures the principles of God's workings through which human beings and the world were created where there had only been a muddy ocean. This Service is intended to manifest once again the providence that was shown during creation and represents a prayer that the world, which is in a state of chaos, be reconstructed as the Joyous Life. The Service is indeed the foundation of the path of single-hearted salvation.

This means that, without the implementation of the Service, the path of single-hearted salvation leading to the Joyous Life cannot be accomplished. That is why Oyasama so strongly urged the followers to perform it, even by confronting them with Her own serious physical condition, which eventually led to Her withdrawal from physical life.

To gain a deep understanding of the Kagura Service, we need to take a look at the Story of Creation. The story reveals who created humankind for what purpose, when, where, and how, besides telling us about the providence that has enabled us to reach the present day. This providence, which is explained in terms of its ten aspects, has been constantly at work ever since creation.

The most important theme of the Ofudesaki is the completion of the Service. The Ofudesaki systematically records the entire teachings while focusing them around the arrangements Oyasama was making for the completion of the Service, beginning with sweeping the Residence, assembling the Service performers, purifying their minds, setting up the Kanrodai, and installing the Shinbashira. From this, too, we see that the Service represents a crystallization of the core teachings of this path.

Through urging the implementation of the Service, Oyasama was also teaching what the basis of pondering should be for those of us who follow the path as well as how we ought to order our priorities.

However, given how the first Shinbashira was preoccupied with trying to prevent hardships of arrest or imprisonment from befalling Oyasama, who after all was at an advanced age and in poor health, it was perhaps understandable why he was hesitant about performing the Service. Oyasama's last hardship of imprisonment had occurred one year previously--in 1886--as a result of a group of followers performing the Dance with Hand Movements at an inn near the Residence. Their performance quickly became known to the police, and officers rushed to the Residence and searched the premises. They found a piece of cloth to be made into Amulets and, with this as evidence, they arrested Oyasama. After being questioned throughout the night, She was sentenced to twelve days' detention. The basis for this sentence comes from a law that prohibited those who were not priests or monks from performing prayers or incantations or from providing such things as amulets. The same law also forbade, among other things, setting up a place of worship without official authorization and assembling people for such purposes. This law thus made the performance of the Service a target of police intervention. Providing Amulets and engaging in salvation work were also subject to police investigation. It certainly was not surprising that the early followers wished to do whatever they could to gain official recognition for the teachings.

The dialogue the first Shinbashira had with Oyasama at Her bedside during the tense lead-up to Her withdrawal from physical life--on January 13, 1887, to be precise--was particularly poignant. To the inquiries he made while confiding his anxieties to Her, Oyasama responded in a stern yet thorough and painstaking manner, carefully explaining each and every aspect involved.

From his point of view, the first Shinbashira was desperately trying to find a way to postpone the performance of the Service. He asked for an extension, saying such things as: "We shall practice for the performance of the Service every night. Please give us an extension until we learn the proper movements for the Service"; and "We wish to build an institute and practice the Service so we shall be able to perform it in accordance with Your direction at this time."

When he told Her during the same dialogue, "If You permit us to establish Church Headquarters, we shall do as God directs," Oyasama gave permission to establish the church but went on to say, in effect, "But what about the Service which I am telling you to do immediately?" He replied, "We cannot defy the law." Then Oyasama said the following:

Sah, sah, because Tsukihi exists, the world exists. Because the world exists, things exist. Because things exist, your bodies exist. Because your bodies exist, law exists. Although the law exists, to resolve your minds is primary.

The passage teaches that it is Tsukihi, God the Parent, who created this world in which all things exist, including human beings. Law is something that humans have formulated. Thus Oyasama explained the order and course of the world and how it has come about, and She taught that, even in the face of legal restrictions, it was of paramount importance to make a resolution to bring oneself into complete accord with the intention of God of Origin.

This instruction is not intended only for those around Oyasama at the time. Rather, it is meant to indicate what should serve as the basis for our pondering even now as well as throughout our long journey of single-hearted salvation leading to the Joyous Life, for whenever we find ourselves confronted with a dilemma between single-heartedness with God and human thinking, we ought to make a point of returning to the basis taught in the passage at hand. It goes without saying that this passage was not meant to suggest that laws should be ignored, but it instructed the followers to be sure to base their pondering on the fundamental order of priorities even if the law made it difficult to perform the Service. The passage told them that, even if they were to resort to a temporary expedient to conform to the law, they ought to maintain the spirit of always returning to the way they should be.

I believe we can say that this instruction applies not only to the issue of implementing the Service but also to all the ponderings and decisions of everyone trying to follow this path.

As it turned out, the official establishment of Church Headquarters did not necessarily guarantee the freedom to perform the Service. In fact, during the late 1880s and the 1890s, the government was so alarmed by the tremendous growth Tenrikyo was achieving that the Home Ministry issued a special directive to severely tighten control over Tenrikyo.

At present in Japan, we are able to perform the Service without having to worry about anything. However, the dilemma between single-heartedness with God and human reasoning could be seen as manifesting itself in a variety of ways. Even though we are not subject to legal restrictions, we could lose sight of what is fundamental and deviate from the way we should be if we allow ourselves to get caught up in our immediate needs and issues while trying to excuse inaction or justify a certain course of action on one account or another. This is something all of us need to be particularly careful about.

Exactly two years have passed since we observed the 120th Anniversary of Oyasama. To help us consider how we ought to perform our tasks in ordinary times following the special season of the anniversary, let us take this opportunity to look at how our early predecessors embarked--in the face of the unprecedented challenge of Oyasama's withdrawal from physical life--upon their new journey, which helped to ensure the continuity of the path to the present day. I suggest we do this by focusing our attention on the beginnings of our churches and the establishment of the Besseki system.

Those early followers had been saved by Oyasama, who had responded to their plea, and they had walked the path to make repayment for salvation while asking for and following Her guidance on every aspect involved. Not in their wildest dreams had they expected Oyasama to withdraw from physical life.

With the benefit of hindsight, we can now say that She withdrew from physical life to urge the followers to use their own initiative to work toward the Joyous Life World based on Her teachings, now that She had taught God's intention through spoken and written word, spent fifty years demonstrating the path of the Divine Model, taught the Service, bestowed the Sazuke, and revealed the truth of origin, thus completing all the arrangements for the path of single-hearted salvation.

However, because they could previously rely and depend entirely on Oyasama regarding any and everything, it is not surprising that, not only were they deeply saddened by the loss of their Parent of the teachings, but they felt utterly at a loss as to how to proceed from there.

To those distressed and traumatized people, the most reassuring and reliable guide was the Divine Directions delivered through the mouth of the Honseki. From that time onward, therefore, they made a point of requesting Divine Directions whenever they felt unsure about how to move forward as they gradually laid out the framework for Tenrikyo as a religious group while building the foundation for the path that has continued to this day. The Divine Directions provided the best evidence to show that Oyasama was, indeed, guiding the people by virtue of Her eternal life.

With the first Shinbashira as the core, the followers worked to organize Tenrikyo as a religious group while receiving the guidance of the everliving Oyasama, and the first concrete result of their endeavor can be said to have been the establishment of Tenrikyo Church Headquarters in 1888, followed by its relocation to Jiba later in the year.

Also in that year, the Besseki lectures were instituted, thereby making it possible for the truth of the Sazuke to be bestowed on more and more people. This had previously been referred to in a Divine Direction saying that Oyasama would "save the world from now." As the efforts of those who received the truth of the Sazuke to spread the teachings and save others resulted in many instances of wondrous salvation one after another in various regions and communities, the path began to grow and expand at an amazing rate. The miraculous blessings shown as a result of the administration of the Sazuke must have helped the people genuinely feel the everliving Oyasama's workings and become ever more spirited.

On March 8, or the lunar calendar date of January 26, of 1888, the First Anniversary of Oyasama was performed. Unfortunately, however, the police came to interrupt the proceedings and ordered the many followers who had assembled to leave the premises. The reason for this police action was that Tenrikyo had assembled people without official authorization. This led Tenrikyo leaders to begin taking concrete steps to obtain recognition by the authorities.

Since Tenrikyo's request for official recognition had previously been submitted to Osaka Prefecture with no success, a decision was made, this time, to apply to Tokyo's local authority with a view to relocating Tenrikyo headquarters to Jiba at a later date. Tenrikyo's application to Tokyo Prefecture was submitted in early April 1888 and was approved on the 10th of that month. Tenrikyo was now able to conduct its activities openly.

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