BE GRATEFUL ALWAYS, AND ACCEPT THE WHOLE OF GOD’S LOVE
Message by Rev. Tetsuo Watanabe, President of SKK
October 1 & 2, 2007, Grand Autumn Service
Hall of Worship, Atami Sacred Grounds, Japan.
Good morning, and welcome to our Grand Autumn Service. We have just solemnly completed our Grand Autumn Service, offering our gratitude to God and Meishu-sama for the daily blessings and protection received. During the service we also offered our pledge that under the guidance of Kyoshu-sama we will keep practicing our Sonen Jissenand deepen our faith that we are connected to Meishu-sama.
Today, we received Johrei from Kyoshu-sama, and also his guidance. By listening to his guidance, I realized once again the importance of our returning to our inner essence, the paradise within ourselves, together with our ancestors. We should continue our efforts to elevate ourselves spiritually, so that we can be more in harmony with the wish of God and Meishu-sama.
[Introducing the pilgrimage groups from abroad, October 1 only:]
Many members from abroad are here attending today’s service, so let me introduce these groups to you:11 members from Korea, 103 from Thailand, 9 from Australia, 10 from Angola, 6 from Mozambique, 1 from the Democratic Republic of Congo, 12 from the U.S.A., 2 from Venezuela, 1 from Peru, and 86 from Brazil, totaling 248 members from 11 countries. Please welcome them with a loud applause. Thank you very much.
Today is designated as “the day of art.” Kyoshu-sama talked a little about the exhibition of paintings by Sandai-sama. Did you visit the museum and see the exhibition? I saw those paintings on display on September 28, which was the opening day of the exhibition. Those art pieces by Sandai-sama gave me such a peaceful and free feeling that by looking at them I felt so refreshed and felt as if I was in a cool breeze. Sandai-sama received her artistic sense from Meishu-sama, and it is expressed in these paintings. The exhibition is open until tomorrow (October 2), so please visit the museum and the art exhibition by Sandai-sama.
[Introducing the Ambassador from Israel, October 2 only:]
First,I would like to introduce to you our special guests. Ambassador Nissim Ben Shitrit, Ambassador from Israel to Japan, and his wife, are here. Please warmly welcome them with your applause. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to come here. Please visit our museum, and also enjoy the view of our Atami gardens.
Listen To Messages From Ancestors Through Your Family Members
Now is a very comfortable, mild season, with a clear sky every day – a very good time to enjoy art. After this unusually hot summer, and after the hurricanesthat brought much damage to many parts of Japan, you must be relieved with this mild weather.
Extreme weather, hurricanes and earthquakes are called natural disasters. But Meishu-sama taught us that they are caused by the spiritual clouds, which are created by the negative thoughts and words of people; so, they are not natural disasters, but man-made disasters. If people continue producing clouds through their negative thoughts and words, those disasters will increase in number and scale. We have to be careful to have positive, correct thoughts and words so as not to create spiritual clouds, and at the same time, we have to spread this truth to many people, in Japan and all over the world.
Some time ago I talked about three steps to take to have Meishu-sama appear in our lives. These three steps are: to be purified, to become aware, and to be grateful. Today I would like to talk a little on the second step, which is to become aware, that is, for us to become aware and to notice messages coming to us from our ancestors.
Many of you probably think that it is not easy to hear the silent voices from our ancestors. We have to understand that those messages from our ancestors appear in each one of our family members and other people connected to us who are living now. Ignoring and neglecting one’s family members means to ignore one’s ancestors. It is important to be close to one’s family members and to try to discover messages from our ancestors through them. Paying attention to and being considerate of each family member is to be considerate of your ancestors. Paradise in one’s home can be achieved through such efforts.
Suppose a child comes to its mother and says, “Mom, I want to tell you something…” To this, sometimes the mother says, “Be quiet. Leave me alone now. Right now I am thinking to myself what the messages from my ancestors are,” and thus the mother does not want to listen to her child. That is not the right move. Your ancestors are trying to give messages, through your husband, through your wife, through your children and mother and father, through your in-laws. You can try to listen through these people.
Maria’s Experience
This story is about a woman named Maria, whom I guided to Johrei about 40 years ago. Maria is now about 70 years old. One day recently, Maria came to visit me and she wanted to share her big blessing she had received through Sonen Jissen. She said, “This is a kind of family secret, something we feel ashamed of. If I shared this story with somebody, that person will tell everybody. But I believe you can keep a secret, so I am going to tell you about this special blessing.” So I said, “O.K., I will not tell anybody. Please tell me about that blessing.” Now, I am going to share with you that secret big blessing. Of course, Maria is a made-up name.
Maria’s daughter, married to a nice husband, had a cute baby girl named Nettinya. But one day, she left home to live with another man. Many years passed, and Maria learned that her granddaughter Nettinya was resentful of her mother, and that the daughter (who had eloped with a man) also was regretful of her unfaithful action.
Maria’s mother had found a boyfriend and left home, just like Maria’s daughter. Maria could not forgive her mother; and she hated her so much that she did not even go to her funeral. But since she learned of Sonen Jissen, she began reflecting on herself, in light of the background of how her grand-daughter Nettinya was feeling.
Maria felt there was a connection between these sad stories, and she also reflected on why she herself did not commit such adultery, like her mother or daughter. She realized that her husband had died at a young age of 30 and she became a widow, and therefore she did not have an opportunity to commit adultery. Maria realized that if her husband had lived, she might have done what her mother and her daughter did, finding a boy friend and abandoning her family. Maria realized that her mother was a kind of victim, simply a link in the chain that had continued from her ancestors. Maria regretted her resentment and mentally apologized for hating and resenting her mother for so many years.
Maria realized that unless somebody stopped this chain of events, her grand-daughter Nettinya would experience the same fate. She realized that her mother’s sadness, and her ancestors’ sadness,was expressed and reflected as Maria’s sadness, her daughter’s and granddaughter’s sadness.
After realizing this, Maria talked to and prayed to her mother in the spiritual realm, “Please forgive me that I criticized you, blamed you and resented you for all this time. I am going to surrender and leave my past bitterness in Meishu-sama’s hands.” She then prayed to Meishu-sama, “I now surrender my mother’s suffering to your hands. Please accept it, purify it and heal it.” Maria also talked with her daughter about this chain of ancestors’ suffering, and prayed the Sonen Jissen Prayer together many times.
Four days later, the daughter called Maria and said, “Mother, I have wonderful news. Nettinya called me and said she wanted to see me. So I visited her immediately, and we hugged each other.” Since then, the cold relationship between the mother and the daughter was repaired, and they now live with a close and warm relationship.
What do you think of this story by Maria? Many of you may be suffering in the chain of disease, poverty and conflict that continued from your ancestors. Kyoshu-sama gave us a tool, called Sonen Jissen, which can end this chain of suffering and change it to a chain of joy and happiness. I want many of you to start practicing this tool of salvation, and also share it with other people.
Accept Purifications As God’s Love
Many of us are now practicing Sonen Jissen and also Gratitude Sonen Jissen. But do you know why it is important for us to be grateful always?
On what occasions do you feel grateful? Maybe when you receive some blessings from your purifications, or when your prayers are answered, or when something wonderful happens to you suddenly.
But, how do you feel when the opposite happens to you, such as when blessings you wished for did not come or your prayer was not answered, or when something bad or unfavorable happened to you? You are unhappy and complain on these occasions, and you cannot feel grateful. This is a natural feeling for anybody. We would like to avoid those unfortunate events, such as disease, poverty, and conflict.
However, one of Meishu-sama’s poems in our Prayer Book says, “Illness is a cleansing action, a purification of one’s spiritual body – one of God’s wondrous blessings.” [Prayer Book, page 66 or 68.] Meishu-sama also taught us that purification is an expression of God’s love for us. If so, whatever “unfortunate events” or sufferings we experience, we have to accept them with gratitude, based on this teaching. But in reality, many of us say, “Ah, this is a purification. So, there is no other action for me than to accept it, even though I don’t like it.” If these purifications are expression of God’s love toward us, we have to accept them with gratitude.
In order to raise us and nurture us as his true children, God gives us blessings in the form of purification, and therefore, purification given to us is planned and set up by God exactly and specifically, which is beyond our shallow human understanding.
By studying Meishu-sama’s teachings and through giving service in God’s work, we can try to understand this great Love of God behind purification, and try to be grateful in whatever circumstances we may find ourselves. This effort, of being grateful always, is the surest way for us to reach God, the fastest way for our spiritual elevation, and the quickest way to find happiness.
Not Being Able To Accept 100% Of God’s Love
In our limited understanding, we humans in the past wanted only favorable results from God, or even prayed to a god that is convenient for us humans. This is what Kyoshu-sama says are our mistakes of the past 3000 years, the mistakes of having ignored and neglected God.
In many parts of the world, disputes between and among different religions are creating conflicts and wars. It is caused because many people accept their convenient and favorite god as the only correct god, and they reject gods of other groups and even wage holy war to purge and eliminate other gods. This is nothing but a self-righteous, narrow and selfish attitude.
We human beings, including our ancestors, regarded whatever gods were inconvenient and unfavorable as being evil and negative, and we disliked them, not recognizing them as another expression of God. That means, we accepted only half of God’s expressions, we did not believe or be grateful for the other half of God’s manifestations. This is how we, and our ancestors, disregarded and neglected God – that we could not accept the whole of God’s love, 100% of God’s love for us.
At this time, we need to correct our mistaken ideas on what is good and what is evil. We need to open our eyes on God’s great love and God’s blessings in everything, and see God’s love in what seems good as well as what seems wrong to human eyes. We can be grateful for everything that God gives us. When we spread this idea – to accept God’s love in its entirety and be grateful – to the world, we will be able to contribute to an increase in the welfare of humanity.
An Old Lady At The Nan-zen-ji Temple
Here is an interesting story. There is a Buddhist temple in Kyoto, called Nan-zenji Temple. Near the front gate of the temple, there was an old woman who was crying all the time. The priest of the temple asked her why she way crying every day. She said, “I have two sons. One is a merchant of straw sandals, another is an owner of an umbrella shop. When the weather is fine, like today, I think of my son whose umbrella shop cannot do much business and I feel sad. When it rains, I think of my other son, who has difficulty selling straw sandals, and I feel like crying.”
So, the priest gave her some advice, “You are thinking in the wrong way. When the weather is fine, think of your son who sells straw sandals. When it rains, think of the son who is in the umbrella business.” From that time on, this old lady lived happily every day, smiling all the time, whether the weather was fine or rainy.
If this old lady lives with this frame of mind, her sons would be able to live with the same mental attitude. For example, when it rains, the son with the straw sandal business would be happy thinking about his brother with the umbrella business, and when the weather is fine, the son in the umbrella business would be happy thinking about his brother.
If any given situation is unfavorable to you, the same situation may be favorable to others. When your first concern is other people’s happiness and welfare, you can have gratitude and joy in any situation.
This story of an old lady near the Nanzenji temple may be just a story, not a historical fact. But when we can be grateful always, for everything, we can accept the whole of God’s love, 100%.
Let’s Practice Gratitude Wherever We Can
“God’s love and will is behind everything.” “Both blessings and purifications come from God’s love, and we should be grateful for everything.” These are simple and basic teachings, but it is not easy for us to really understand and grasp these simple teachings. It is particularly difficult when you are in the midst of serious purification. If it could be done easily by everybody, Paradise on Earth would have been here a long time ago.
Kyoshu-sama’s guidance to us is, “Being grateful for everything is the beginning of our faith and also the final stage of our faith, it is the starting point of our faith and the ending point of our faith.” There are many aspects and deep meanings in this concept of gratitude. I would like you to understand this, and start practicing it. Then, God will show you the proofs and the results.
Let’s have strong faith in this great love of God, and let’s keep our peaceful and grateful attitude, whether we are in good health, or facing disease, poverty or conflict. I pledge to God and Meishu-sama to practice this myself, and I pray for your health and happiness in the coming months. Thank you very much.
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