This Month’s Message: The Long Way Around

Oyasama once said to someone who had come asking for help after having been to many places to pray:

“You have come the long way around. What a pity! You could have met all those gods if only you had come here.”

Anecdotes of Oyasama, no. 10

Let’s take a moment to consider how people generally come to embrace Tenrikyo.

Do people compare the teachings of different religions and choose Tenrikyo after finding its teachings better than other religions? Those who do so might turn out to be fewer than expected. The main reason why people become followers may rarely come from the relative merits of the teachings.

In fact, many people seem to believe that they have been drawn to the path by the everliving Oyasama.

Rather than saying, “I decided to embrace Tenrikyo,” it might be more accurate to say, “Oyasama guided me to the path.”

Even those who believe that they chose to follow Tenrikyo after comparing the relative merits of different faiths may have been guided to it by Oyasama, who had made elaborate arrangements to enable that to happen. It might just be that they are unaware of it.

The everliving Oyasama’s invisible hand may be behind the fact that one is following this path now.

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