Good Morning, everyone! As always, I thank you for attending today's monthly service for December 2018. This is the last monthly service for the year. I hope each of you are enjoying good health & excellent spirits, as we look forward to welcoming the New Year of 2019.
In our November monthly service, I talked about the most important concept of our founder's faith that I had learned during my trip to Japan. Our founder's faith practice to respect everything that happens honorably as Kami's doing was born when he accepted Konjin's request through his brother, Shige'emon's mouth in 1857. It was very hard to do so for other people because it was a request from a demented person. However our founder had eagerly sought Kami's heart at that time, so he accepted it with respect as the sacred working of Kami.
Today I would like to talk about another important lesson that Kami taught me during the trip to Japan.
I arrived at KC Airaku in the evening on Oct.11. The next morning just when I offered my prayer at 4:00 am, I received the following revelation from Kami: "My common sense, my wife's common sense."
One of our founder's teachings says, "Practice faith in your own house. Receive blessings from Kami and save others." I had thought it stale and seemed not to make much of it until then, because I had still thought faith trainings would be something hard. However after I received this revelation ‘my common sense, my wife's common sense,' I strongly realized the importance of this teaching of our founder's.
The very place where we practice faith to develop peace & joy in our heart is at our house. We often put our heart into disorder at our home. Our home usually consists of husband, wife & their children. They all have their own personalities. They are different from each other. My common sense is different from my wife's. Even though both practice the same faith, their way of thinking about faith is not the same. My common sense sometimes clashes with my wife's over even a small matter. That is when each heart is disturbed.
However we often overlook it or pass through it without notice even though our heart is actually disturbed. We don't have to neglect it if we really pursue the unbreakable peace & joy in our heart.
I now clearly understand the reason why my wife & I often clash our hearts with each other. Kami taught me it was because we have different ideas and values. So many men, so many minds. Each person has their own common sense. In order to gratefully avoid these clashes, the best way is to accept everything as Kami's sacred doing.
Our founder did his best to seek Kami's heart. Then he realized everything that happens is Kami's sacred doing. He respected each & every happening in his life as Kami's sacred work to deepen his heart toward his unbreakable peace & joy. Then he gave his following farewell poem to his older son, Hagio Konko in 1883, the final year of our founder:
"The true way of Konko
Makes the world bright,
Shines through Heaven,
And will last forever."
I believe you now clearly understand the essence of our founder's faith. When we come across such clashes that happen through the differences of common senses, it will be the best to think of every happening as a sacred working given by Kami. That is, Kami makes someone do so or Kami lets us see it, instead of thinking he/she is doing or we see him/her doing such things.
When we understand that everything that happens is Kami's doing and respect each & every happening in our life honorably as Kami's doing with gratitude, we don't need to clash with each other. Our heart need not be disturbed any more.
I am now devoting myself to respecting each & every happening as Kami's sacred doing to deepen peace & joy in my heart. Through daily happening, Kami has trained me to have an idea of Kami's common sense.
The other day, thieves entered our church in a shrewd trick. A stranger knocked at the door. He said that his family moved at that corner and came to pay his respects to the neighbors. He also said his job was to make repairs on a house and had some suggestions to improve our house. He asked me & my wife to come out in the backyard. I went to our backyard with him from the front door and my wife came out from the back door. He pointed out the parts we should fix and gave some good advice.
I told him that we could not afford to repair anything right now but would ask you to do so when the time came. Then we parted. Then I entered our church from the front door. At first I was surprised to know it was open, because my wife was always cautious about locking the doors. She also was very surprised to see me entering from the front, because she thought she had locked that front door.
Suddenly she shouted he must be a thief. She found her handbag & mine open and her purse & mine thrown away. Another thief entered our church from the front door and tried to steal anything while we were talking with the other person in the backyard. He searched even under our beds. They stole around $100 from my bag and only $4 from my wife's. To our surprise, they could not find any of Daichi's cash even though his $ 400 was placed in an open area casually. Fortunately the thieves stole only cash. They didn't steal our cards, which might have caused terrible trouble to us.
We still don't know how someone entered our church through the front door without breaking the doorknobs. Whenever I go to bed, I lock the front door at two places and I think it is enough. My wife always places a chair & a board behind that door later. She is such a cautious person.
I am the one who unlocks the front door before praying between Heaven & Earth at 4:00 am every morning. I have to remove the chair & the board. Whenever I did so, I thought it was troublesome. My wife's common sense was different from mine. I had always wished my wife would not put them behind the door.
However after I knew the thief easily entered our church from the locked front door, I have removed them and unlocked the door before 4:00 am every morning with gratitude.
I now believe Kami sent the thieves for me to respect anything that my wife does or says as Kami's sacred doing, that is, Kami lets her do or say such things. Kami wishes everyone to have unbreakable peace & joy in their heart, because through those hearts Kami's glory manifests in this world.
Every time I offer my prayers not only in front of the altar but in my heart at any place & at any time, here is my main prayer right now: "That I may accept each & every happening as Kami's sacred doing gracefully, brightly and thankfully like our founder & Rev. Otsubo! Then let me develop unbreakable peace & joy in my heart to open this true way of Konko to the whole world."