The Power of Gratitude and Joy―What I Received from My Parents―

By the Rev. Junji Fujii
Konko Church of Kojima Akasaki

Entering a Konko Church with My Parents
My father was born in Konko Town and he was raised at Konko Church of Nuttari in Ni’igata Prefecture, where his parents did goyo (selfless service for Kami/Divine Parent) as the church’s successors. Father finished school in Ni’igata, and he then entered Konkokyo Gakuin Seminary in Konko Town, Okayama Prefcture. After graduating from the Seminary and being ordained as a Konko minister, my father did goyo at the Konkokyo Headquarters for thirty-eight years. His goyo in Konko town lasted until 1995. Shortly after he was done as a staff member of the Headquarters, my father went into Konko Church of Kojima Akasaki on a permanent basis as the church’s successor, since the church had been without Konko ministers for eleven years. Father was excited about his new environment, because it was his long-time dream to do goyo at a local church. He was also pleased with it that the size of the building of the church, its garden and inner room looked like the Replica of the Founder’s Mediation Hall.
Back in those days, I lived in Konko Town since I was doing goyo at the Headquarters, and I went to the Kojima Akasaki church on holidays and on the church’s service days. When I was with my father at the church, I had opportunity to experience so-called “life in a church.” It was a brand-new experience for me. The ministers of our parent church and many other ministers near our church were very kind to us when we were trying to get used to living in a Konko church. My father and I did prayer services, cleaned up the places, fixed the leaky roofs, put a wall material on the mud wall, painted on the galvanized plates and did pruning of the garden trees. We worked and sweated together during the daytime and enjoyed drinking at night. Because of “living” in a Konko church with my father, he and I were so-called “comrades”. Whenever I look back on those days with my father, having worked and done goyo with my parents is truly an indispensable treasure for me.

With My Father’s Passing Nearing
It was almost five years since my father entered Konko Church of Kojima Akasaki as the church’s successor when he was hospitalized for the third time. In the previous year, my father took a surgery because of stomach cancer. At that time, I was already married and had a one-year-old daughter. My mother lived with my eighty-eight-year-old grandmother in her birth home in Konko Town. Because of this, mother often went back and forth between her home and the hospital. I prayed to Kami not only for my father’s smooth recovery but also for my mother who must have been exhausted through “commuting” to the hospital on a frequent basis.
One day, we were preparing for a monthly service in our church. My elder brother works in Chiba Prefecture and my elder sister is married to a gentleman living in Okayama City. They came all the way to the hospital to see our father. Because they were kind enough to attend on him, my mother was able to worship our church’s monthly service after a long absence. While he was hospitalized, my father was constantly worrying if monthly services were appropriately being done. Receiving Kami’s blessing, we were able to hold the monthly service without accidents. After putting away ceremonial tools and finishing dinner, I received a phone call from my brother in the hospital. He said, “The blood pressure of father is going down.” Since the lowering of my father’s blood pressure had occurred before, I simply replied “I see”. Can you please call us when something happens again?” and hung up the phone. At that time, my mother was asleep and her sleep was so deep that she didn’t even hear the telephone call. About one hour later, my brother gave us a call again. He said, “Father’s condition has not seen a drastic change, but it is changing for sure. You’d better come here.” At the time, mother was still in her sleep due to her chronic fatigue, and I prayed to Kami at the church altar all by myself.
Although I had long prayed for my father’s full recovery, I often used to remember the Founder’s teachings such as “Because you are upset, and you keep saying that you don’t want to die, you will end up dead” (GII: Kondo Fujimori 42) and “If you want to receive divine virtue fully, you must have a heart that accepts everything” (GIII: Konko Kyoso Gorikai 22-2). And I often used to tell myself to thank Kami before praying for blessings. Because of these things, I was somewhat aware that I wasn’t praying totally honestly. When I received two consecutive phone calls from my elder brother and sat before the church altar, I found my heart telling me, “I don’t want to have regrets later on.” I then expressed my purely honest wish as I prayed.
I touched the tatami mat of the church altar area with my forehead, praying to Kami with my utmost effort, “Please save my father.” I just kept praying frantically and fervently. My heart had not felt at ease at all until I began to do so, and I found it become tranquil all of a sudden. And I had this wondrous feeling in which I felt as if I was being embraced by something warm and tender from behind. The situations were not changing at all, but my heart was surprisingly calm. At that time, I knew I was allowed to pray totally honestly for the first time.
While I was praying with a peaceful heart in the altar, several notions popped up in my mind despite myself: “My eighty-eight-year-old grandma is in Konko and she is looking after the house all by herself because mom is right here at our church. My wife is doing her best in helping me with church-related goyos as well as taking care of our children. Thanks to her kind cooperation and assistance, I was able to conduct the monthly service without problems today. Blessed by Kami, mom is resting her fatigued body through sleep. Dad is also being blessed and he is on a hospital bed, resting himself.” I was then reminded of how many people had prayed for and given us warm supports. I was also made to realize how much Kami had protected my father, mother and me. “We are all here now, receiving Kami’s blessings every passing second,” I thought. This notion moved me so much. My heart was filled with gratitude and I pressed my forehead against the tatami mat of the church altar, expressing my thankfulness to Kami and shedding tears.

What My Father showed me
My mother and I went to the hospital afterwards. Almost all members of our family were there after a long absence and we spent some time together. Four hours later, my father took his last breath quietly. I was in amazing tranquility when he returned to Kami. A lot of people prayed for him. There were doctors and nurses that took care of him. We, as his family, were also there for him. Many people prayed for, took care of and were there for my father. At that time, father appeared just as bright as the sun to me. Father looked so venerable that I said totally despite myself “I want to have such a death as his.”
While I was waiting for my father to “get ready to go home” in the hospital’s waiting room, I had a wondrous time. All the things in my sight appeared sparkling, and their beauty was something I had never seen before. Even an empty can of soft drink that someone had left in the room looked luminous. At that time, my heart was solely filled with the feeling of “I am so much grateful.” At that time, I had a deep emotion, “Every single thing is gleaming. It’s too beautiful to be real,” and I still remember this feeling vividly to this day. I felt as if father taught me once again, “Everything happens in Kami’s blessings and everything is in Kami’s blessings.”
My father directly showed me a world beyond gratitude right before leaving this world. Such a venerable world is never far from where we usually are. I often feel this way recently. We are always in blessings. We, however, will not realize this truth unless we are equipped with a thankful heart. This simultaneously means that anybody can see this wonderful world anytime as long as they have a grateful heart. And we are all in such a world.
One of the Founder’s disciples, the late Reverend Shino Toshimori, received a teaching from the Founder, “The light that the Sun shines upon us is a divine blessing. So too for the rain that falls. Kami lets all humans live amid divine blessings. People are born into divine blessings, live amid divine blessings, and die amid divine blessings.” (GII: Toshimori Shino 1) The ubiquity of divine blessings around us is there because it represents Kami’s heart as our eternal parent. Our Parent Kami’s heart contains only one wish for us: “Please be saved.” This is Kami’s dearest wish for humans, and it is manifest in “divine blessings” around us.
There is another teaching of our Founder: “Kami thinks only of saving people, nothing else. Therefore, Kami will never let you have an experience which has no meaning. You should continue to practice your faith. Your experiences will result in divine blessings.” (GIII: Jinkyukyogoroku 12) In this way, Kami constantly embraces us with nothing but one dearest wish of “Please be saved.” Kami never looks down at us from above. Kami never says to us, “I will save you.” Because Kami is our Divine Parent, Kami almost begs, “Please be saved.” Kami has an ardent wish for Kami’s children, each one of us, all the time. We are actually in such a wish of Kami. Kami was in a serious dilemma for tens of thousands of years because Kami could not save humans even though Kami wanted to do so. Because of this, Kami asked the Foudner to “help (these) people by performing toritsugi.” (The Divine Call on November 15, 1859) Kami also told the Founder, “Konko Daijin, tell worshippers about the relationship between Tenchi Kane No Kami and people.” (GI: Yamamoto Sadajiro 48)
Just like the weather, life has both “sunny days” and “rainy days.” Various things can happen to us while we are alive. But no matter what kind of events may happen, those events are happening in Kami’s wish, “Please be saved.” Understanding such a dearest wish of Kami well, we need to receive “grateful” heart on a daily basis through going to church and asking for Sacred Toritsugi Mediation. I believe it is very important for all of us.

What I Received from My Mother
My mother had a traffic accident in 1991. Coincidentally, this tragedy happened on the night of the private funeral of the late Rev. Kagamitaro Konko, the Fourth Konko-Sama. In that accident, a large trailer ran over both legs of my mother. She was wounded so terribly in the legs that she had to have her left leg cut off below the knee in addition to suffering from complex fractures starting around the right ankle and below it. A human body has approximately 5,000 CC (5 liters) of blood in it, and my mother lost as much as 3,000 CC of her blood because of the accident. It was obviously a terrible accident. To make the matter worse, the blood type of my mother is AB with RH Minus which is a quite unusual type. Only one in two thousand people has this blood type.
In those days, my father was doing goyo at Konkokyo’s Publishing Department (Konko Kyotosha), and so his colleagues were kind enough to contact Konko churches, individuals and Konko Shimbun Newspaper subscribers that they knew in order to secure sufficient amount of blood suitable for my mother. Thanks to a Konko radio broadcast about an immediate need of blood transfusion, a few long-distance truck drivers kindly paid a visit to a critical care center quite late at night. They entered the center in order to offer their blood for my mother. In this way, my mother was allowed to survive the life-threatening situation thanks to many people’s earnest prayers and kind cooperation.
My mother was blessed and she survived, but the doctor said, “Maybe your mother will remain unconscious. She may have some brain damage. Blood transfusion may give her complications. She may even die because of fungus on her wounded legs. Your mother will probably spend the most dangerous period for the upcoming two to three days from now.” And my mother recovered her consciousness.

Gratitude and Delight Expand
My mother could not stand up on her feet right after meeting the traffic accident. And she knew that her left leg was gone before going unconscious. When she recovered her consciousness, the first thing my mother did was to rejoice over her remaining right ankle.
The doctor did his best to keep as much portion of my mother’s (right) leg as possible. Originally, she may have lost her right ankle in addition to losing her left leg at her knee. My mother had suffered complex fracture in her right ankle, and the doctor did surgery, connecting torn delicate neurons for her. As for the left leg, the doctor believed that my mother would find it easier to walk if she still had a joint, and so he kept the left knee even though she may originally have lost her left leg almost entirely. Because of the remaining knee, my mother was able to wear a prosthetic leg on her left leg as naturally as she could.
If my mother had grieved over her lost left leg, and if she had cursed the fact that she survived, all the hard work and earnest prayers that a lot of people gave her would have simply gone down the drain. And we, her family, who just couldn’t do anything for her, would have felt too sad to be with her, and we would have totally fallen apart. But my mother was happy that her right ankle was still there for her. By her doing so, many people’s kindness and prayers were rewarded.
When my mother was happy that she was kept alive, we, her family, were happy. And the doctor who gave her surgery and nurses who took care of her every day became happy. Moreover, those who visited my mother at her hospital room and those who prayed to our Parent Kami for her became happy as well. My mother had joy, and her joy spread to a lot of people around her. Some of my mother’s visitors had not known what to say to her, assuming that she was gravely depressed, but they said “it was us who were in fact encouraged” after seeing my mother. My mother’s lifestyle filled with gratitude and joy gave a peaceful and comfortable atmosphere, and people who were with her wanted to be with her as long as possible.
People working in emergency services and people on rescue teams save people’s lives, risking their own lives. What they do in their profession is truly worth respecting. Feelings of gratitude and joy, on the other hand, contain something warm like spring breeze and they have power to save people at one time. One of my mother’s visitors was her classmate, and she began to go to a nearby Konko church. Gratitude and joy have power to propagate faith.
When my mother met the traffic accident, I was a junior at high school. Despite being heavily wounded, my mother stayed positive and thankful. Being a teenager, I was totally impressed with my mother and her religious faith, but at the same time, I had big questions: “Why can mom live her life so positively?” “Why can she consider things so positively?” Through these questions, I gradually grew desires such as “I want to live like mom. I want to know more about the Konko Faith (Konkokyo).” And these desires became my decisive motivation to enter the Konko Seminary. Life with gratitude and joy has power to invite someone to succeed faith from his or her parents and/or grandparents. Because my mother lived the way she actually did, we were able to nurture a desire, “We want to be with her and want to do anything she asks us to do.” And we, as a family, were allowed to become united as one.

Through the faith movement, “Let Us Live a Mutually Fulfilled Life with Kami”
Today, the Konko Faith Organization is encouraging the people inside the (religious) community to engage in the faith movement, “Let Us Live a Mutually Fulfilled Life with Kami.” In the texts describing the current faith movement, there is a line, “living a life of gratitude and joy.” Whenever I see this passage, I feel our Parent Kami’s wish: “By living a life of gratitude and joy, please be saved.”
I hope that we will try to seek as many sources of joy in our respective lives as possible. In order to achieve this goal, we need to ask for and receive Sacred Mediation on a daily basis. We cannot be perfect in one day, and we therefore train ourselves at Konko church, where we are supposed to get spiritual training. Through this spiritual training, we are expected to awaken to ourselves, who are protected and allowed to live amidst Kami’s blessings and prayers. It is important for us to do so with a refreshed heart on each day. I sincerely hope and pray that we will let our families and people around us know this sort of spiritual joy and walk on the “Way of Kami and People” or the way of happiness together with them all.

(THE END)