Articles and exerpts from a variety of books, on the teachings of Tenrikyo
Oyasama once told a follower: “Change your habits and temperament.” Anecdotes of Oyasama, no. 123 Imagine that you are a child who has gone to school with a smear of peanut butter on your face. Others look at you and snicker. You have no idea what is going on. You…
Oyasama once said: “Here are some grapes for you. Like these, in the world, everybody is to relate to each other with round minds.” Anecdotes of Oyasama, no. 135 “In peace sons bury fathers, but in war fathers bury sons,” said Herodotus, who lived about twenty-five hundred years ago. Throughout…
According to Oyasama, the divine voice within Her once said: “You cannot save others if you live in a mansion with a stately gate.” Anecdotes of Oyasama, no. 5 In Aesop’s Fables, there is a story that goes something like this: One day, a shepherd caught a pig, which squealed…
At the beginning of the Teaching, when Oyasama’s husband, Zenbei, was unable to agree to God’s request to receive Her as the Shrine of God, the following divine words were spoken: “It is natural that you are filled with anxieties at present, but after twenty or thirty years have passed,…
Oyasama says: “Work on top of work, saying to yourself, ‘Just a little more, just a little bit more’; this is not greed, it is work that comes from true sincerity.” Anecdotes of Oyasama, no. 111 If a baseball player consistently has two hits in five at-bats for a .400…
Oyasama says: “I have been waiting for you, waiting for you.” Anecdotes of Oyasama, no. 10 When we are utterly at a loss, for example because of illness or other circumstances, we surrender to Oyasama with the kind of simplicity we would normally not show. This is because we cannot…