As You Sow, So Shall You Reap
We read in the Divine Directions:
Listen and understand this truth called causality. Even if you try to cause something to happen, it may not happen. Even if you try not to let something happen, it may happen. Such is the truth of causality, I say.
Osashizu, May 31, 1894
Even if you desire something to happen, it may not happen. Again, even if you desire something not to happen, it may happen. I teach the world this order of causality.
Osashizu, September 3, 1899
About what is called causality, even if you desire something to happen, it may not happen. Again, even if you desire something not to happen, it may happen. This is causality, causality in the world. You have to go through your causality one way or another.
Osashizu, March 23, 1899
You might not understand easily if I speak of causality. Listen and understand the truth well. If things happen the way you wish, that is because of causality. If things do not happen the way you wish, that is also because of causality. If you all pass through life with no awareness of causality, with no awareness of causality at all, then there is no knowing what sort of causality will manifest itself. However hard you try to cause something to happen, it might not happen—such is causality. Were it possible for the power of money to make anything happen, it would be as though the one truth did not exist. Causality means that the power of money cannot cause things to happen.
Osashizu, August 26, 1890, vol. 7
Not understanding the truth of causality will never do. Causality refers to the same one truth as a “thing borrowed.” Something that comes about is a manifestation; something that does not come about is also a manifestation. From this, understand.
Osashizu, February 10, 1901
No one desires to suffer from illness. No one desires to be troubled by personal problems. And yet, what great numbers of people suffer from illness and sorrow over other troubles! Things that people desire to happen do not readily happen, and things that they desire not to happen sometimes do happen. Things do not always happen the way you like—such is the world. This, in my understanding, is due to the truth of causality.
Is causality, then, something that we human beings cannot detach ourselves from, no matter how hard we might try to? Is causality another name for fate or destiny, referring to some force that is beyond our control? Oyasama said nothing of the kind. Rather, She taught that what is called causality really refers to an accumulation of the mind’s dust and, thus, can be removed by sweeping it away.
You talk about causality, causality, but there are good causations as well as bad causations.
Osashizu, September 30, 1898
Causality might refer to a good causation or a bad causation, and all causations produce their results that accord with their respective causes. Such is the truth of causality.
Oyasama’s remarks about how causality is an accumulation of the dust of the mind might be referring to what is called bad causations. She taught that just as dust on clothes can be removed by shaking it off, the mind’s dust can likewise be removed.
The Path to Cancel One’s Causality
Says a Divine Direction:
You say that what is called causality is something you cannot cut through or rid yourself of even if you try to. It is, you say, beyond your control. When a disorder of the body occurs, wash and replace your mind. Causality means that things do not happen the way you expect them to. Because you find it hard to understand the truth of causality, you brush it aside as “causality.” In the eyes of God, there is no truth from which one should turn away. If you settle the difficult truth and the truth of the world, that is, if you fully become the foundation within and settle them, then all truths will become clear.
Osashizu, June 27, 1894
It is frequently said that causality is something we cannot cut through or free ourselves from—which is to say, something that is beyond our control. This, however, is not true. It is possible to cut through causality by washing our minds clean and replacing them when we encounter illness, for example. Yet, when it comes to the sort of causality that is so deeply embedded that it looks as though nothing could be done about it anymore, its removal will require that “you work your fingers to the bones to rid yourself of it.” Nonetheless, since causality is an accumulation of the mind’s dust, I am convinced that it is possible to cut through any causality so long as we maintain true sincerity—which connects us with God the Parent—in the face of all difficulty.
We read in the Divine Directions:
Whatever you see is causality; whatever you hear is causality. Whoever you are with is also causality.
Osashizu, September 27, 1890
Understand through causality the things you do. Things you try not to do may come to be; things you try to do may not come to be. This is causality.
Osashizu, February 27, 1898
I have taught you before. Wherever I am, what I teach is eight kinds of dust. I have also explained causality’s doings.
Osashizu, December 24, 1893
We should clearly understand and implement the way of following the path that will allow us to work off our causal force.
Eight Kinds of Dust of the Mind
The mind’s dust, which gives rise to causality, is something we accumulate unwittingly through behaving selfishly, caring only about ourselves and thinking that all is well if the present is well for oneself alone. We read in the Divine Directions:
Following a path of selfishness gives rise to causality, I say.
Osashizu, May 10, 1891
Your own selfishness leaves you no option but to follow a frightening path.
Osashizu, May 11, 1893, 2:10 at night
Partiality here, partiality there. Talks based on selfishness, selfishness, are of no use whatsoever. . . . It will not do to be partial. The truth of effectiveness will forever be effective. Those who lack effectiveness—however greatly they may be flourishing—are as if they were being blown about by the wind.
Osashizu, July 14, 1898, at night
Oyasama is said to have told those close to Her one day:
Being motivated by selfish greed to work solely for one’s well-being is like trying to gather up all the water in a pond around oneself. No matter how hard one might try, one would not be able to create a “heap” of water. Rather, the water would flow away from one. It is, in fact, not just the water that would flow away from one. Just as the water would flow away, so would virtue flow away from one. What would then remain after virtue flowed away? Needless to say, the opposite of virtue—namely, causality—would remain.
Koshiro Masui, Mikagura-uta katari gusa, p. 196
It is to help us reflect on such a dusty mind that Oyasama has taught the teaching of “eight kinds of dust” besides cautioning us that God “dislikes falsehood and flattery.”
Tomoji Takano writes that Oyasama reportedly told Izo Iburi one day:
Izo-san, on this path, you would do well to build virtue unnoticed by others. No matter how hard you work or study while being watched by others, your effort will not be accepted by God if you cut corners or speak ill of others behind their back. In fact, if whatever you have done results in others thanking you for it, the virtue you would have gained through that act will be regarded as having already been given to you. Miserliness, covetousness, hatred, self-love, grudge-bearing, anger, greed, and arrogance—these eight are the dust of the mind, which causes illness.
Tomoji Takano, Go-zonmei no koro, kaishuban jo- kan, p. 174
“Every night,” continues Takano in the same work, “Izo would repair broken bridges and roads on his way back home from Shoyashiki Village, where he served Oyasama. This was one way in which he tried to implement Oyasama’s instructions.”
We read in the Divine Directions:
Every day I teach the eight kinds of dust, the eight kinds of dust. But just teaching it is like a picture painted on a screen; you look at it often and say it is beautiful. But that is hardly sufficient. Each of you, listen . You must settle the truth in your minds.
Osashizu, July 23, 1899
In the human mind, there is no telling how much dust bas accumulated over these years you have lived relying on the world’s reasoning while being unaware of God’s free and unlimited workings or forgetting about them. So you ought to sweep the dust away. Understand well. Sweep it away here and there. Once you remove your dust, you will be able to bring about a settling based solely on the Divine Direc tions from then on.
Osashizu, June 2, 1898
God dislikes dust. You must, you must sweep it completely away. lf a human mind notices a little cloudiness in you, it is almost as if you were completely pervaded by cloudiness.
Osashizu, June 12, 1898