Become a Person Who Wishes for the Happiness of Others

Message by Kyoshu-sama (our current spiritual leader)

Annual Ancestor Service, July 1 & 2, 2008.
Hall of Worship, Atami Sacred Grounds, Japan.

Greetings to everyone at today’s Annual Ancestor Service.

With a deep sense of awe, I realize that God, Who is our true
parent, has lived from the beginning of time, is living now, and is living for
all eternity. God is making us alive, and is raising and nurturing us with
His breath of eternal life, with His consciousness and with His soul.

Meishu-sama was not only born as a child of human parents – as a

child of parents with physical bodies – but he was also newly born as a
child who fulfilled God’s Will, as the Messiah. I believe that this Will of
God, which was fulfilled in Meishu-sama, is the one that should be fulfilled
in all humanity, too.

The reason we have been born on Earth with our consciousness is so

that we can attain the consciousness of Heaven and then be newly born as
true children of God. For that purpose, God connected us to Meishu-sama,
and is guiding us to grow and progress in God’s eternal nurturing.

During today’s Annual Ancestor service, I offered my sincere

gratitude to Meishu-sama the Messiah for this fact, and offered my praise
to God, Who is with Meishu-sama. And I prayed that God’s wish be
accomplished, together with our ancestors through our father’s lineage
and through our mother’s lineage – who are all alive in the consciousness
of the cells of our bodies.

You members of the Izunome Kyodan are doing your best to give
service in the three pillars of our activities, namely, Johrei, nature farming
and health food, as well as salvation through art and beauty, and also in
the construction and beautification of the Kyoto Sacred Grounds. You are
doing so with the intention of cultivating faith in Meishu-sama as the
Messiah and also of building paradise within your own minds and hearts. I
am grateful for, and respect, your efforts in these areas.

I understand that you are putting much effort into the practice of
Sonen in order to cultivate gratitude within yourself, and from this
practice, circles of salvation are being produced. I have received many
written testimonials and faith experiences from members in Japan and
throughout the world. By reading these written testimonials I am learning
a lot, and also I can share in your joy and gratitude.

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 Serving God is the essential idea of Sonen Practice. So, many of
you, instead of just being satisfied with your personal joy and gratitude,
seek to understand the core meaning of love for others as taught by
Meishu-sama, and to start to bring happiness to others, with a fresh mind.
I really appreciate your sincere search for spiritual growth. I am happy
that these efforts are bringing about circles of happiness, and I pray that
you will receive spiritual strength from Meishu-sama and will be guided by
him in your endeavors.

As members of Sekai Kyusei Kyo, we would like to be used in God’s

work of the salvation of humanity and the building of Paradise on Earth,
and we wish to serve God and share God’s blessings with many people
and thus practice love for others.

On this point, Meishu-sama composed many verses, such as, “How

big and beautiful are the hearts of those who put the welfare and
happiness of others first, even before their own,” and “Strive to become
the kind of person who wishes for the happiness of others always;
because God loves such a person best!” [Prayer Book, page 41 or 43, and
Prayer Book, page 42 or 44]

Whenever I read these verses by Meishu-sama, I can feel how

generous and humble God is. I hope that I would like to become such a
person who wishes for the happiness of others as much as possible.
However, in reality, most of the time I tend to think of my own welfare
first, such as wanting to become more fortunate, to receive more
blessings, and to be liked by others. Most of the time I do not have such
generosity within me as to be able to wish for the happiness of many
people or for blessings for others before my own happiness and blessings.
When a difficult problem for me is solved, I feel happy; and I am satisfied
with that, and that is the end of the story. I am usually preoccupied with
my own situation and do not have much room within my mind to think of
the fate of other people.

I hope I can become the kind of person who wishes to share God’s
blessings with others, but I am not sure if I am able to generate naturally
that kind of love. Probably I do not have that kind of strong love within
myself yet. Probably I have given up pursuing such generous thoughts
from the beginning, that somebody like me, who has many attachments
and a strong ego – and is full of shortcomings – cannot possibly become
such a loving person to wish for God’s blessings for others.

In this way, I try to provide many excuses to deny myself, to limit

myself, and to give up making efforts to serve God. Properly speaking, I
should free myself from these negative thoughts and look forward with a
more broad and generous attitude. But when I reflect on myself, I realize

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that I am preventing my development and am consciously limiting the
divine energy and guidance from God for my growth and progress,
restricting my own spiritual advancement.

In this respect, recently I came to realize one important element in

our being raised and nurtured by God.

Meishu-sama teaches us that we human beings are God’s agents

and representatives. God is the creator of the universe, and is giving His
boundless blessings to all His creations. If we are God’s representatives
and agents, then our duty is to serve in this work of God: that of
extending these boundless blessings of God to everything and everybody.

For this purpose, God prepared us in Heaven as individualized souls

of God, as potential true children of God, and then sent us to Earth,
making us alive in order to raise us and nurture us to become God’s true
agents and representatives to help in this divine work.

We humans differentiate what is private from what is public in our

world. However, God created the universe and is now governing the
whole of the world in total impartiality; so, everything God does in His
work is official and public. Naturally we human beings cannot be
separated from everything in the universe. Moreover, God is using us
constantly and is training us so that we can become His own children. We
usually think that we are doing something on our own, personally, with
our human efforts and intention. But it is better for us to think that we
are always being used, serving in God’s official and public work. Probably
I did not think about this point seriously in the past.

We believe that we need God’s help, and that God does not need
help from us, but in reality, I think that God is telling us He needs our
help, too.

God is wishing to use us human beings as His means and

instruments through which to extend His blessing to everything. We
should understand and accept this duty of ours; but since our minds and
hearts are still undeveloped and not advanced enough, we are not aware
of our God-assigned mission or of God’s way of thinking. We need to
confirm that we have this important mission, that we already had been
given such an assignment while still in Heaven, and reply to God
affirmatively that we are aware of our own mission. This should become
the basic attitude in our life.

We do not perform our mission with our own human power, but we
are simply being used by God in God’s official and public work. There is a
verse by Meishu-sama that says, “Once you realize that human power is
limited, you begin to understand that God’s power is limitless.” As this

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verse indicates, when you realize that you are putting too much trust in
your own human power, you really begin to know God’s great power. This
realization is not easy to attain. Therefore, we should always wish and
pray that we may be used freely by God so that God’s Will be
accomplished, that we may be raised and nurtured to become useful
instruments and agents of God.

Instead of thinking in many different ways on a human level, we can

simply hope and pray that God’s wish for people manifest itself in accord
with God’s Will, and that we may be used freely to relay God’s blessings
and power to those people. We are not the ones who give blessings; they
come from God. With this attitude, we can be used in God’s work most
effectively.

Through such a mental attitude, we can surrender everything to

God’s hands and we can have true gratitude. By trying to serve in God’s
work with such an attitude, we can be guided and used by God in a most
harmonious manner, in spite of our human shortcomings and imbalances.

The change from darkness to light, from night to day, occurred in

Heaven already, and this change is now being reflected to the Earth plane.
We can pray that this new phase of God’s work of creation may appear in
our present world.

There is another important point that I want to stress at this time.

This physical, visible world in which we now live is the final world in God’s
creation. This physical world consists not only of our thoughts and
feelings, but also of the words that we utter, that come out of our
thoughts, and these words can find expressions in this world. In this
physical and material world, we exchange words, including greetings such
as “good morning” or “how are you.”

Our thoughts are the most essential function of human beings and
are directly connected with God’s thought, which is said to be God’s Will or
the fundamental universal consciousness of God. However, if we want to
achieve more spiritual growth and advancement, and to serve God more
effectively, it is not enough just to think and project thoughts. God needs
not only our thoughts and feelings but also the words that we utter.

Usually we are using words freely, as if they are ours, but

essentially, words belong to God and are the expressions of God’s Will.
Meishu-sama taught us that words are very important because the
spiritual vibrations of words have a big influence. Meishu-sama composed
many verses on this subject, such as, “No matter how clouded the present
world may be, it can be cleansed and purified if people begin to utter
words of love and Makoto,” and, “The positive vibrations of words do not
have much influence unless these words are uttered by pure souls.”

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 In our everyday living, we usually utter our words as expressions of
our thoughts and feelings. But instead, if we can return these words to
God as God’s words, and utter them as words coming from our internal
divine essence, then these words can convey God’s Light and can have the
power to forgive and purify everything. Although Meishu-sama taught us
about the importance of the spiritual vibrations of words, I myself did not
realize it strongly, and I took this teaching of Meishu-sama lightly.

Everything in the universe has a name, and that means everything

in the universe is connected to God through the spiritual vibrations of the
name. The words we use in our everyday life are all connected to God
through their spiritual vibrations.

Instead of indiscriminately using negative words, such as words of

resentment or hatred, or those accusing and attacking others for their
seeming mistakes or shortcomings, we can use heavenly words – that is,
words of joy, gratitude and benevolence. By uttering positive and loving
words, their spiritual vibrations will resonate strongly in this material
world and will revive and activate our world spiritually, and change it to
heavenly state.

I am not saying that we have to use polite, diplomatic words. Even

if there are any elements or people that seem negative, only the blessings
from Heaven can change them to positive. So we can always say,
“Through Meishu-sama the Messiah.” Then we can wish for that person,
“May happiness come to you,” or, “May God bless you,” or, “May you find
peace.” And then finally we can wish, “May both you and I be used in
God’s work.” We can make it a habit to say phrases like these to
anybody.

But if we say these words to somebody’s face, the other party may
be offended. So we can say it after we see somebody. Or, ever better,
say these words of blessings many times in advance, secretly, before
meeting somebody, and in this way we can fill the room or the place
where we are going to see somebody with positive and heavenly spiritual
energy. The same can be true when we exchange Johrei with others. We
can say those benevolent words before meeting people and giving Johrei.

The most precious things that I can share with other people are the
spiritual vibrations of the words from God – the words that make me exist
with God’s love and truth, giving life and energy to everybody and
everything. But I feel I keep them to myself, and am not sharing them
sufficiently with others. If we really want God’s power to appear, we can
be grateful for the spiritual power of words from God, and wish that this
power be extended to many people instead of wanting to keep it to
ourselves. Such an attitude would be more in harmony with God’s wish.

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 Last month, we had our Paradise on Earth Service here. On June
15, 1931, 77 years ago, Meishu-sama received the revelation regarding
the transition from the age of darkness to the age of light. For a long
time humanity neglected and disregarded God, but in spite of this fact,
God made the change-over from the age of night, where human thinking
took precedence, to the daylight age, where God should take precedence.
I believe this is because of God’s profound love and forgiveness.

Many of us assume that we live solely in this world; and we believe

that the only standard and yardstick for life is good and evil from a
worldly point of view, good and bad in this material world. Therefore, we
do not easily understand where, in which areas, we are disregarding and
neglecting God.

Even if we do not exactly understand where we are ignoring God,

we can humbly accept God’s forgiveness, and we can put total trust in the
love of God, Who already accomplished the transformation in Heaven from
night to day. In this way, we can accept God’s wish inside ourselves right
now, even though belatedly, and we can honestly expose our small and
limited mind in front of God as it is, instead of trying to defend ourselves
that we are right and justified. Meishu-sama called it the treasure of
honesty. I believe firmly that to accumulate the treasure of honesty in
Heaven in this way, and face God with honesty, is the only way to receive
the forgiveness of God that God has already prepared in Heaven, not the
punishment of God.

Meishu-sama composed this verse: “God recognizes sincere, honest

people above all others, and grants them boundless, limitless blessings.”
[Prayer Book page 58 or 60] As this verse says, we can be more honest
and true to ourselves, and humbly face God while serving in this spiritual
path to share God’s blessings and love with as many people as possible. I
believe this is the way for us to be raised and nurtured by God as His
children, and I am happy and glad that I am taking this spiritual path
together with all of you.

In concluding my message today for this Annual Ancestor Service, I

offer my sincere gratitude to God, Who accomplished this change from the
age of night, where our minds were covered with darkness, to the age of
bright light, of totally new activities, together with all of humanity and
their ancestors. I pray that each one of you be blessed within right now
by God’s light and power, and that God’s breath of life, and Meishu-sama’s
blessings as the Messiah, remain with all of you.

Thank you very much.