Ofudesaki 01:074
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Part 1 |
Contents
Content
| I bring you together according to the causality of your previous lives and protect you. | zensho no innen yosete shugo suru | せんしよの いんねんよせて しうごふする |
| This settles the matter for all time. | kore wa matsudai shika to osamaru | これハまつだい しかとをさまる |
Alternate English translations
Third Edition
Uniting the causality of your previous lives, I protect you. This is settled firmly forever.
Inoue/Eynon
Drawing together the causalities of your previous lives, I shall protect you. This will settle matters for all eternity.
Commentary
Ofudesaki chushaku
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This section contains translated material that has not yet been subjected to peer-review to check for accuracy and clarity. While the translator(s) have given their best effort to render Japanese text into English, we would like readers to keep in mind that the present translation may require further revising and refining. Any input to improve the present translation is greatly welcomed. Translator(s): Roy Forbes |
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1:74 I shall draw those with a deep causality from their previous lives to the Residence and protect them as husband and wife. The causality of their souls from their previous lives shall be settled at Jiba for all eternity. |
『おふでさき註釈』、p. 17 七四、前生から深いいんねんある者を、この屋敷に引き寄せて夫婦として守護する。この前生いんねんの魂は永久にぢばに治まるのである。
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Commentary by Yoshitaro Ueda (2008)
From Michi no dai: Foundation of the Path 32:46–7
1:74 Although humans express ideas and views that are based only on their immediate concerns, God is working to establish the husband and wife by bringing to the Residence of Origin the persons who have the appropriate causality from their previous lives. This done, things will be settled for all generations to come. The settling of the family will also bring a settling to the entire world, as well.
In the Mikagura-uta song that begins with “Just a word”—which follows our repeated prayers of salvation, expressed as “please save us”—God tells us, in effect, that the unity of the husband and wife is a vital key to salvation and lays the foundation for the path to the Joyous Life. Likewise, in Part 1 of the Ofudesaki, a crucial core element of the cleaning of the Residence—that which will complete this cleaning—is the union of the above-mentioned two persons, who are casually related to the beginnings of origin. This union, we are told, lays a basis for the settling of matters in the Residence and in the world at large.
Verse 74 is often quoted in speeches at wedding receptions for Tenrikyo couples. Strictly speaking however, I think that this verse refers specifically to Shuji and Matsue and may not necessarily be applicable to people in general. At one time when I gave lectures on the Ofudesaki at the Church Head Minister Qualification Course, someone asked me whether it was predetermined by previous lives whom one would marry and, if indeed it was, whether it would be impossible to change one’s predetermined marriage partner no matter how hard one might try in the present life. I feel that, in the case of ordinary people, it should be said that who will be one’s marriage partner will depend on both the causality from previous lives and the way people live their present lives.
The marriage of Shuji and Matsue is slightly different from the marriage of people in general since God is bringing to the Residence of Origin those who are casually related to the instruments for the creation of humankind in order to reconstruct the world as the world of the Joyous Life.
At any rate, the Ofudesaki is saying that cleaning the Residence in this way is the starting point for making arrangements for the Service.
From the perspective of completing the Service, we may say that Part 1, which starts by explaining the reason for founding the Teaching, tells us that salvation is to be accomplished by teaching the origin and making people spirited and that the foremost expression of spiritedness is the Service. Part 1 says that, if the Service is performed in a way that will allow God to be spirited, more and more blessings can be received. We also learn from Part 1 that an essential prerequisite to making arrangements for the Service is the cleaning of the Residence and that by removing wrongdoing, which is not in accord with God’s intention, God will bring together two persons who accord with God’s intention—persons who are casually related to the beginnings of origin—and settle them as husband and wife. This, we are told, lays a foundation for bringing a settling for all generations to come.
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