All We Should Do Is to Practice
By the Rev. Mitsuzo Kimbara
Konko Church of Mizushima
(Reprinted from the June 2016 issue of Konkokyo-ho Ametsuchi)
We Are Expected to Follow Konko Daijin’s Teachings
Eighty years ago, from April 21st to September 10th, 1936, the Headquarters of the Konko Faith held an event called “Workshop for Following the Spiritual Leader’s Exemplary Service for our Parental Deity.” The workshop was a long series, consisting of 16 occasions. The Headquarters planned and implemented this event, hoping to remind the participants that our primary selfless service for Kami as Konko ministers is following our Spiritual Leader and the way he serves our Divine Parent as the Principal Mediator of the Konko Faith. At the time, the Third Konko-Sama bestowed many teachings upon the seminar participants. One of the teachings during the workshop was “If you want our Divine Parent to bestow divine virtue upon you, you are expected to put the Founder’s teachings into practice. There is no secret other than this.” To practice the Founder’s teachings…it is so simple and basic that everybody in the Konko community knows its importance very well already. Yet, the Third Konko-Sama was kind enough to teach the participants about this.
It is important for us to memorize, talk about, and write down the teachings of our dear Founder, but when doing these things, we sometimes misunderstand that we are already fine believers of the Konko Faith. When we are in trouble, we then tend to solve the problems totally on our own, blindly believing that our wisdom and past experiences help us get over those humps. Eighty years ago, the Third Konko-Sama imparted that we are being incorrect with this belief. “Instead,” he taught, “we cannot but practice what our Founder teaches us, because doing so gives us chance to receive divine virtue from our Divine Parent.”
The Third Konko-Sama became 56 years old on August 5th, 1936. And on the very next day, he gave the following address: “Humans cannot control the workings of the Universe. Being patient with things is the most important in practicing faith. The Founder accepted the request from the Divine Parent of the Universe and started to devote himself to performing Sacred Mediation for worshippers, totally letting go of his own desires. Shijin-Sama succeeded the Founder and performed Sacred Mediation for worshippers for ten years, sitting at the Mediation Seat day and night, free from his desires. Shijin-Sama was so strict on himself that he often cut down on his sleeping time for the sake of goyo and passed away young. Then I, who knew nothing at first, sat at the Mediation Seat as the Principal Mediator, being told that nothing would be difficult if I only sat there. In the beginning, I often cried because it was so hard and difficult. As sad as I could be, I still kept sitting patiently at the Mediation Seat day in and day out, following my father’s advice. And despite myself, I was eventually set free from what I wanted and what I thought of. I soon learned that my heart was being filled with gratitude and because of this, I thank our Divine Parent over and over again. No matter how many times I may thank our Parent Deity, however, it simply is not enough. Because of this, I now apologize to our dear Deity for my lack of appreciation over and over again. Our Parental Deity still loves and embraces me in spite of my appreciation and apology being far from enough. I am enormously grateful for that.”
I admire this teaching in particular and it can be interpreted in various ways, I suppose. In my religious sermon today, I would like to pay special attention to the passage, “As sad as I could be, I still kept sitting patiently at the Mediation Seat day in and day out, following my father’s advice.” My interpretation of the passage is that the Third Konko-Sama, for example, did not say “By following my father’s instruction, I started to do my duty a lot easier” or “I learned to get things done very swiftly.” Putting teachings into practice is such a difficult thing. It is never a smooth process. Just as the Third Konko-Sama looked back at his own past, people may not be very appreciative at first. As they continue to observe the instructions “with painful, tear-jerking patience,” they can eventually reach a state of “their hearts being filled with gratitude.” This is the very thing the Third Konko-Sama is kindly teaching us, I believe.
Practice That Will Lead to the Universe
There is a story about the Fourth Konko-Sama who succeeded his father, the Third Konko-Sama. The late Rev. Yu’uichi Akiyama, the youngest brother wrote the story. This is a long story, and I will introduce it to you, trying to trim it here and there.
On April 13, 1963, the Third Konko-Sama returned to our Parent Deity/Kami after seventy years of selfless service as the Principal Mediator. His eldest son, the late Rev. Kagamitaro Konko, then became the Fourth Konko-Sama. At the beginning of his daily goyo, he always talked to a pair of his wooden clogs in a small voice, “Thank you for your service for me” when he put them on at the entrance hall of his residence every morning. The Fourth Konko-Sama also spoke to his glasses in a small voice, “Thank you very much” when he took them off and wiped the glasses with a sheet of cloth. Both seemed to be odd deeds for me, so I asked him one day, “What are you saying?” Then my eldest brother replied, ”I am poor at expressing my thankfulness enough, so I practice doing this. People usually fail to express their gratitude enough, although they are being taken care of by a lot of people and things around them, and we gradually begin to suffer because of the lack of appreciation.
Our dear Founder teaches, ‘Those who practice faith should feel gratitude even after sitting and resting on a tree stump in the mountains.’ (GII: Unknown, 23) When we practice faith in our Parental Deity, we should live our spiritual lives with a proper mindset to give words of thankfulness to those which have just taken care of us or have just been useful to us, even if they are mute objects. Many of us, however, skip this important process and get away with it most of the time. When we ask people to do something for us and when they respond to our request properly, we bow our heads and say to them, “Thank you very much,” rewarding them with money. Too many of us, on the other hand, say nothing appreciative towards things that take care of us simply because they are “mute.” Most people do not care about such an attitude they are taking, but I do not really think that such demeanors are sincere enough as believers of the Konko Faith. As human beings, we take care of others, while they also take care of us. Sometimes, we come across a person who says, ‘I take care of you, but I do not intend to be taken care of by you.’ This type of person cannot become ready to express gratitude and such a person will get stuck in a long dark tunnel and end up suffering a great deal in the end. In this sense, it is important for us, as believers of the Konko Faith, to realize that we are kept alive and allowed to live each day, being taken care of by various people and things and above all by the Divine Parent of the Universe. Living with this awareness, I believe, will lead to a lifestyle of following the Founder’s teaching.”
Our Founder teaches us, “Just listening to teachings is not enough. You should develop faith from within yourself.” (GIII: Konko Kyoso Gorikai, 41) When the late Rev. Kagamitaro Konko succeeded his father, he said, “I cannot conduct Sacred Mediation like my father did,” and he shed tears. The late Rev. Kagamitaro Konko, my eldest brother, regarded himself as a trainee of the Konkokyo Headquarters’ worship hall and he told me that he was practicing saying the words of gratitude to everything that took care of him. The Fourth Konko-Sama sincerely engaged in this self-training, and he orally expressed his thankfulness towards everything that took care of him. His voice may have been so small that it was almost inaudible, but he said he was training himself spiritually on a daily basis by doing this.
This was a story from the late Rev. Yuichi Akiyama, the Fourth Konko-Sama’s youngest brother. The late Rev. Kagamitaro Konko was in a very difficult period of his life; he needed to succeed his father and he had to become the Fourth Konko-Sama. He was in a very challenging period of transition because his predecessor was so great as the Principal Mediator that his shoes seemed too large to fill. The Fourth Konko-Sama shed tears and said, “I cannot conduct Sacred Mediation like my father did.” What the late Rev. Kagamitaro Konko was facing at that time was enormous pressure and perhaps also fear of needing to succeed his kami-like father. Yet he was brave enough to succeed him and he became the Fourth Konko-Sama. In the beginning of his sacred career as the Principal Mediator of the Konko Faith, the Fourth Konko-Sama was orally expressing his gratitude to his wooden clogs and glasses as self-imposed training of spirituality.
To be honest, I thought that expressing one’s gratitude to things around him/her was a trivial thing at first. I felt it better to have and practice magnificent faith such as praying to the vast Universe. But I found out later that I was wrong: the Fourth Konko-Sama was putting the Founder’s teachings into practice by saying words of appreciation to his wooden clogs and glasses. Faith that looks either trivial or magnificent does not matter. The bottom line is whether or not we actually follow our Founder’s teachings with concrete actions. The teachings of the Founder of the Konko Faith are closely and deeply connected with the Universe. To practice the Founder’s teachings, even if it may appear “small” and “trivial,” is to get connected with the Universe and that is something tremendously “big.”
The Fourth Konko-Sama made a poem, “Life that has been given by our Divine Parent is here, and this is why I was allowed to wake up this morning. I am very much grateful that I was allowed to wake up.” To many people, waking up in a morning is perhaps no big deal as most of us have this experience on a daily basis. If you are browsing this website now, you will never say, “Wait. I didn’t experience waking up this morning.” For religious people, like you and myself, we may know that waking up every morning is something we should be grateful about, but as soon as we actually wake up, we start to think about what we need to do “today,” easily forgetting to express our gratitude to our Divine Parent. It is frequently said that in spiritual life, “people do not fully understand something important unless they experience it.” I agree with this statement, too. I used to consider that such experiences were related to big, serious events such as life-threatening diseases. Those events are certainly significant, but I believe the poem of the Fourth Konko-Sama that I quoted above teaches us that putting our Founder’s teachings into practice in our daily, common events is important.
To a World Filled with Gratitude
One of the greatest contributors in establishing the Konkokyo Organization was the late Reverend Norio Sato. On January 21, 1942, shortly before he passed away, he made a poem: “If you know the presence of our Divine Parent and the teachings of our dear Founder but fail to put those teachings into practice, you will be probably regarded as someone that does not know these important things. If you are a person like this, you will be nothing but a pathetic walking dictionary.” I was greatly shocked when I first read this poem. “To practice” is such an important thing, I believe. The phrase “to practice” consists of just two words. They look so simple. However, the late Reverend Norio Sato used so many words in his poem to describe the importance of “practicing” what we know. His sincerity and passion to teach it to us is represented in this very poem and I am truly grateful for it.
The Third Konko-Sama felt so sad that he cried, yet he bravely followed his father’s instruction that, “As long as you sit at the Mediation Seat of the Konkokyo’s Headquarters’ worship hall, everything will be fine.” The Fourth Konko-Sama shed tears and said, “I cannot conduct Sacred Mediation like my father did.” He cried, but he also expressed his thankfulness to his wooden clogs. It is not easy for anyone to put teachings into practice, but the Third Konko-Sama kindly imparted, “You will be already admired if you concretely follow only one teaching of our dear Founder.” Even if it is just one teaching, if you pile up your experiences of “following only one teaching with concrete actions,” you will be successful in eventually leading yourself to a “world filled with gratitude.” We are very fortunate as Konko believers, because we are already taught this important lesson.