november/december 2014 newsletter - new jersey jc

Johrei Center New Jersey

“Together, let us return to heaven existing within us as ones who are

connected to Meishu-sama.”

Number 21 Izunome Asssociation USA Nov-Dec/2014

ENGLISH

Be born anew as a true child of God and strive to become a pioneer of salvation

Izunome Association USA - Johrei Center New Jersey, 124 Jackson St, Newark, NJ 07105 - (973) 465-0044 2

Kyoshu-sama’s Message Beginning of Spring Service Hall of Worship, Atami Sacred Grounds February 4, 2014

Congratulations everyone on the Beginning of Spring Service.

In deep awe of God, I say that the Will of God the Creator is to make all humanity His children.

In this sense, Meishu-sama is our model and an example of one who has become a child of God by being born anew as a Messiah.

Today, on this day of the beginning of spring, I would like to praise God who is one

with Meishu-sama and express my gratitude to God that I, together with every one of you, all humanity and all ancestors, am nurtured by God to be born anew as His child.

I have heard that you members of Izunome Kyodan set your objective for this year as “To wish to be born anew as a child of God and to aim to become a pioneer of salvation.” I understand that, in order to achieve this objective, you are putting your effort into practicing Johrei, Nature Farming, home gardening, Art and into sharing the

altruistic love of Meishu-sama with others. I am truly humbled to know the continuous dedication you are giving each and every day to the divine work of Meishu-sama.

Now, today, I would like to tell you that the true “pioneer of salvation” is, in fact, Meishu-sama.

Meishu-sama came to the earth, took the form of a human being, just like us, and lived among us. He relayed the word of God to us and also showed us the power of God in various ways.

Not only that, though we tend to forget this, Meishu-sama was the first one among us – in other words the pioneer – to truly believe in the heaven within, return to this heaven and demonstrate that this act of returning to the heaven within was the only way to bring and save the people of the world into heaven. Meishu-sama, in a poem, wrote, “I will, before anyone else, be a resident of heaven with a wish to bring others into this heaven.”

What Meishu-sama wants us to realize through this poem is that our true and real home is – our true and real home address is – this heaven existing at the center of each one of our consciousnesses and that the mission of human beings is to serve God at this heaven.

Knowing this mission and being our pioneer, Meishu-sama returned to his heaven within; yet he did not return there by himself.

He returned to heaven together with all humanity and all ancestors and thus

Kyoshu-Sama (Spiritual Leader)



paved and prepared the way for us to be able to return there too and enter into the path of salvation, that is, the path of being born anew as a child of God.

That is why we should recognize Meishu-sama as the true “pioneer of salvation.”

I am convinced that Meishu-sama is now encouraging us to realize what the true mission of a human being is and to follow him to become a true “pioneer of salvation.”

Let us, then, respond to this wish of Meishu-sama with great joy and become the first ones, that is, pioneers, among all humanity to return, today, to our heaven within and bring all humanity and all of our ancestors together to this heaven as ones who were already forgiven, purified and saved. And this, I believe, is how God wishes you to serve as the true pioneers of His work of salvation.

And we must not forget: even though we may have no memories of it, the divine particles each one of us possesses were originally in heaven and were serving God together with Meishusama.

For this, to become a true “pioneer of salvation” on this earth also means that you are recalling how you used to serve God in heaven and had been constantly used in His work of salvation well before you were born into this world.

I would like to suggest one practice that all of you can do as a true “pioneer of salvation.”

When you are going to visit someone or meet someone, whenever you think of someone in your mind or at the times you channel Johrei, speak to them, in your mind, “Together, let us return to heaven existing within us as ones who are connected to Meishu-sama.”



You may think nothing will change with these words you voice out in your mind. And yes, it is true that you may not be able to perceive any difference in this physical world. But you must know: the power of the words above will generate the power of salvation far beyond the amount you imagine and your divine particle, I am certain, will shine ever more brilliantly within you.

Let me also say that this act of returning to heaven as a “pioneer of salvation” is not unrelated to the other objective you have set for this year – wishing to be born anew as a child of God. This is because God is nowhere but in heaven and without being a resident of heaven – the house of God – you can never be His child.

That is why I would like you to know that your two objectives of serving Meishu-sama as a “pioneer of salvation” and of wishing to “be born anew as a child of God” are not two separate things; they are one.

I must say that our true parent of life is God.

And it was Meishu-sama who taught us this truth through sharing his own experience with us.

60 years ago, in 1954, less than a year before he passed away, on the 19th of April, Meishusama suddenly collapsed with the symptoms of cerebral hemorrhage. As he struggled to recover from the stroke, Meishu-sama, on the 5th of June that year, summoned his most devoted disciples to Hekiunso, his residence in Atami at the time, and told them how surprised and happy he was that he was newly born as a Messiah, as a holy child of God.

Ten days later, on the 15th of June 1954, the “Provisional Ceremony to Celebrate the Birth of Messiah” was held in Atami, and Meishu-sama let all his followers know of this surprising fact.

When we think of all these events, there is one thing we can never ignore: Meishu-sama did not say that he was newly born as a Messiah after he regained his strength and recovered from the stroke; he declared it amidst struggling with his illness and not having any apparent sign of recovery.

Remember, Meishu-sama’s illness, in fact, worsened after he announced that he was newly born as a child of God and eventually, without overcoming the illness, left the earth on the 10th of February next year.

I must reemphasize: Meishu-sama was in the middle of illness when he realized that he became a son of God and felt enormous joy in it.

Why so?

I strongly believe that facing an illness which was not recovering as he wished and

envisaging, to be frank, a physical death, Meishu-sama, with the help of God, came to the realization that there is another life each one of us human beings possesses besides that which we inherit from our physical parents. In other words, I believe Meishu-sama felt, truly and quite concretely, the limitation of his physical life and the eternity of the life of God within him.

Perhaps, Meishu-sama had known this fact in theory, but I feel that God questioned Meishusama sternly, through the stroke, which life he truly believed: the life coming



from his physical parents or the eternal life endowed by God to him.

Surprised at this question posed by God to him, Meishu-sama, I imagine, answered to God by saying, “Please forgive my gravest sin for not believing that the life I have is in fact Yours.

I commend my soul to You, God, who is my true parent. If it is Your wish, please accept this soul, Your most precious creation of all,” and surrendered his life, his soul, to God.

Being the true parent of Meishu-sama, God, I believe, accepted the soul of Meishu-sama with great joy and then decided to endow, once more and newly, him with His eternal life, acknowledging Meishu-sama as His true son.

I am certain that Meishu-sama was allowed to perceive this great delight of God within him, and that is why he told us that he was newly born as a child of God and shared his joy with us through the ceremony on the 15th of June 1954.

We have long been walking in the darkness without recognizing the true parent of our life.

Out of his great mercy and being born anew as a son of God, Meishu-sama has made us realize who our true parent is.

We, of course, have received this physical life from our physical parents. But we must never forget the other and true life we have been granted from God.

When I think of the extraordinary fact that our true parent, God, and Meishu-sama, who has been newly born as a child of God, are both shining brilliantly within me, I have to say I am lost for words and feel a deep sense of awe toward God for this wonderful blessing of His.

We often say we should honor our father and mother. Now, through Meishu-sama, we have come to know and meet our true parent. And it is this true parent of ours, God, who so wishes all of us to truly become His children. Believing that we came to this

earth in order to

become a child of God, let us speak, in the name of Meishu-sama, to our parent by saying, “I have been ignorant until today, but it is You, God, who are my true parent.” And

this is how we can truthfully honor our parent and will be a huge step, albeit invisible, to being newly born as a child of God.

To close, on this day of the beginning of spring, I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to God that I was able to be connected to Meishu-sama and to be awaken, finally, from the long sleep of believing in the concept of death. And now, as ones who have been blessed to know the parent of our eternal life, let us receive the new, fresh breath of God and pray that this

breath of life will be imparted, through us, to all humanity, all ancestors and all nature.

Thank you very much.



Kyoshu-sama’s Visit to Chubu Region

Chubu Regional Headquarters Nagoya May 16 & 18, 2014 Gifu Training Center, Gifu May 17, 2014

Congratulations everyone on today’s membership meeting of the Chubu region.

It is my great pleasure to have this opportunity to meet you, the members of the Chubu region, at this place of Nagoya/Gifu.

Firstly, I would like to thank President Kobayashi, and Reverend Kato, director of the Chubu region, for their warm and sincere greetings that they have given us just a moment ago.

Through them, I was able to know how devoted and committed all of you have been until today in order to make this event a great success, and I was deeply moved by your efforts.

Looking at all of you members of the Chubu region from this stage, I feel that you are all gathered as one in the name of Meishu-sama.

I have confidence that Meishu-sama is feeling great joy that this event is being held so successfully; I can almost see his huge smile. I also am confident that many of our pioneers, including the late Reverend Watanabe, are so happy that this day has finally arrived.

I am particularly delighted to hear that, as a preparation for this event, every one of you has been working on an entirely new kind of practice in order to learn the heart of God who is with Meishu-sama.

I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to you for this effort of yours, and, at the same time and together with all of you, I would like to praise God and Meishu-sama who has led you to work on that new practice.

Now, I would like to say to you, God is the Creator of us human beings and also of all things.

At the very beginning of the Creation, God, before anything else, created heaven. In it, He engendered our souls, our divine particles.

At this time, we were blessed with the light of God and

shone brilliantly as divine particles, as, in other words, holy children of God. And there, in that heaven, just as now, we were sustained by the Breath of God, inhaling and exhaling together with God and Meishu-sama.

Even though you have forgotten this, the place you truly belong is – your real home is – this holy heaven existing within you, and your true self or your true “I” exists in this heaven. This is neither a hypothesis nor imagination; it is a fact.



After creating our divine particles, God, choosing the right time and place according to each individual, sent us to the earth, endowing us a sense of self, this sense of “I”, that is unique to each one of us.

We assume that this sense of “I” belongs to us and that we can use it freely.

But you must know: this sense of “I” is in itself a precious creation of God.

I suggest you accept this fact and think, whenever possible, about the true owner of your sense of self, about God.

It is He who wishes so strongly to welcome us human beings into His heaven, the Source of all of God’s creations, make us His own children and grant us His eternal life.

What a glorious blessing of God this is for us who have only known the life on this earth, the life given by our physical parents.

Let us be ones who are worthy of this great love of God by returning ourselves and our sense of self to the original owner, to the Creator. Let us return to the heaven existing at the very central point of our consciousness, receive, humbly, the eternal life of God and serve, joyfully, in the true mission of a human being – to be born anew as a child of God.

We must, following the example of Meishu-sama, acknowledge the one and only God as our Parent of life and voice out to Him:

I have been under the mistaken belief that the owner of my life is I. Please forgive this grave sin of mine. The true owner is You, God, who resides in me as my eternal life. I, as one who is connected to Meishu-sama, commend my life to You. Please, if it is Your wish, let me live in Your eternal life

and, together with all that are bound to me, please lead me to the path of beingborn anew as Your child.

I would like you to know that expressing these words is how you could answer to the love of God who always wants to raise you as His child.

Meishu-sama taught us that “each individual must become a resident of heaven.”

When we think what “a resident of heaven” might be, we might imagine a person whose mind is always at peace and who always feels content with his or her life.

But I say that, as our true home actually is heaven, we are all already “a resident of heaven” no matter how difficult our life may seem.

To repeat, Meishu-sama told us to become “a resident of heaven.” Through this message, Meishu-sama wishes us to realize where we truly belong, to recall the time when we were all serving God in heaven with Meishu-sama and to confidently walk our life as a resident of heaven.

Even at the time when you receive a severe purification, you are in heaven and are serving God as “a resident of heaven.”

In fact, it is the very moment when you think you are receiving a purification that you are serving God as a resident of His heaven. Because it is through your suffering, be it physical or mental, that God is able to purify and save all humanity and all ancestors that are always together as one with each one of you. Be courageous: receiving purification is the very sign that you are being used in God’s work of salvation as “a resident of heaven.”



And remember: Meishu-sama is our model. He is in heaven, serving God diligently as a resident of heaven. And if you also want to serve God together with Meishu-sama in heaven, in God’s work of salvation, first, direct your heart to the heaven within by voicing out the following words to yourself:

As one who is connected to Meishu-sama, I, together with all things, will return to heaven which is the true home of my life, consciousness and soul.

Then, continue and say:

If it is Your wish, please, God, accept me and everyone that is connected to me into Your heaven. Accept us as ones who are already forgiven and saved. I will surrender all into Your hand in the name of Meishu-sama. So please use me in Your work. I will serve in it. And may this blessing be shared to all.

I would like you to know that voicing out these words – emitting these thoughts in your mind – is one of the very important practices you can do in your daily life, and in particular when you are having purification,

as a believer of Meishu-sama.

After my talk, I will hand seeds of flowers to you.

Speaking of seeds, we must never forget that we already have a seed within us. It is a seed given by God to each one of us and is called a “divine particle.”

Just like a flower seed that is preprogrammed to blossom and bear its fruit, our seed of divine particle is, also, preprogrammed, by God, to have us newly born and bear its fruit in order to rejoice God, the Creator.

In other words, we, by birth, are destined to be born anew as a child of God, as a messiah.

So when you plant and take care of the seed you are going to receive today, remember that God too is always taking care of you and nurturing you with His great love so as to have us newly born.

Receiving this love of God and of Meishu-sama who is one with God, let us bear our fruit of being born anew as God’s true children. Then, I am certain that God will gladly welcome us into His glorious heaven.

Until today, we only knew the breath of the Age of Night, the breath of our physical body.

Yet, as ones who are connected to Meishu-sama, we now must wake up from our long sleep and receive the Breath of the Age of Day, the eternal Breath of God which we were given in heaven, well before we came down to earth. So let us, from this day on, serve God joyfully being one with all nature, all ancestors and the Breath of God.




Kyoshu-sama’s Message Grand Ancestor Service Hall of Worship, Atami Sacred Grounds July 1, 2014

Congratulations everyone on the Grand Ancestor Service.

With deep reverence for God, I say that He, the Eternal God, is the true Parent for us and for all ancestors.

This Eternal God is alive and breathing ceaselessly within each one of us, all ancestors and all nature.

Meishu-sama was able to firmly believe in this living God within himself, the true Parent within him. That is why I call him a Messiah, a true child of God.

You must know: it is this Meishu-sama who shines gloriously at the very center of your consciousness.

On this day of the Grand Ancestor Service, let us, firstly, acknowledge that our ancestors are alive within us at this very moment. And let us also express our gratitude to God who is nurturing us, always,

so that we will grow into ones who willingly receive the eternal life of God and be newly born as His children.

I understand that you members of Izunome are working hard in order to “be born anew as a child of God and to become a pioneer of salvation.” I am grateful for your effort.

This past May, I visited the Chubu region of Japan and met many of you there. I was so happy to see how devoted you were to the divine work of Meishu-sama.

Not only did you put as much effort as possible into making the whole event a great success, but also you were working on an entirely new practice of Meishu-sama by voicing out in your heart, in whatever you were doing, “Together, let us return to heaven existing within us as ones who are

connected to Meishu-sama.”

I was deeply touched to know these efforts of yours. At the same time, I thought we should never forget to attribute all of our successes and accomplishments to God, as He is the only One who is to be praised and be given credit to.



Now, all of us, without exception, wish to have good health, good relationships with family and friends and a successful career or a content life. We have been thinking that these are the essentials in order to have a happy life and we have been seeking for them. I have been, too. I still am.

Meishu-sama knew that humans, by nature, are the creatures that seek happiness, and he left us with many teachings regarding this.

In particular, he emphasized that one cannot become happy unless he or she makes others happy.

The reason why he preached the importance of altruism like this is because he wanted us to realize that an individual cannot live on his or her own and is always dependent on others. But more importantly, Meishu-sama wanted us to know that in fact,

it is God who really wishes for the happiness of others. Frankly speaking, we human beings want to make others happy only if we

personally like them and it is really difficult for us to express altruism to those we dislike.

But God’s love is unlimited and universal. Every single second, He is wishing for the happiness of all human beings, of us.

We have believed in God and had faith so that our wishes can be fulfilled by the power of God.

And to some extent, we have been trying to do good deeds in order to express our faith and attain happiness.

But we have to stop for a moment and think carefully.

Did God prepare this act of faith so that we attain happiness in this life? Is this the only reason?



I am sure that this is one of the reasons. But I believe there is another, crucial one that we should never forget, and we can find it in the teachings of Meishu-sama.

Meishu-sama wrote, “Sometimes I feel that the ultimate purpose of having faith is so that we can reach our full potential and be a perfect human being.” In short, Meishu-sama taught us that through faith, we should aim to become “a complete human being.”

When we use these words such as “reaching our full potential” or “a complete human being,” what we should never forget is what these words mean for God – what “complete” means for God.

No matter how hard we try to become a better person and improve ourselves, as long as we forget that God is behind everything that happens, we can never become “a complete human being.”

It was God who created each one of our consciousnesses, this sense of “I.” We believe that we feel on our own, think on our own and act on our own, but in fact it is God who is behind all of what we feel, think and act.

That is why whatever we do in our life, God is always taking the responsibility and is ready to forgive all of our deeds.

First and foremost, we have to acknowledge this.

We have to acknowledge that we have been using our consciousnesses in the way that we want and have been ignoring the fact that God is its owner and is in control of it. We have to acknowledge that we have been focusing on passing judgment on ourselves and others and have been trying to

believe that we belong to the correct side and that we are free from sin.

If you can acknowledge these attitudes, you are then ready to receive the greatest blessing God has prepared for you – His forgiveness. Acknowledge that you have been ignoring God, receive His forgiveness with all your heart and surrender your sense of self, the whole of yourself into the hands of God in the name of Meishu-sama. If you can do this, no matter what you have done in your life, I am certain that God will say to you, “I made you do what you did. All responsibilities belong to me. And so, you are already forgiven.”

And what is more, if you can recall that you were a divine being when you were in heaven originally and if you can return to that heaven and become one with that being, you, with God’s permission, will be able to be born anew as a child of God. This, I tell you, is how God deems you as “a complete human being.”

It was Meishu-sama who achieved this and became “a complete human being” in the eyes of God.

After suffering from a stroke in April 1954, Meishu-sama realized that the life he had was not that which he inherited from his physical parents. Rather he was convinced that his life was God’s and eternal.

With this conviction, Meishu-sama humbly received the life of God within him, was born anew as a child of God and became “a complete human being.”

And we should never forget this: Meishu-sama suffered from illness for us. He was born anew for us. Without his suffering,



we would never be able to realize our true mission of becoming God’s true child.

That is why we must recognize Meishu-sama as our model and acknowledge him as a Messiah.

We have mistakenly assumed that our life is limited, that it will end when we die.

Not only that, we have been ignorant and felt like we were the owner of our life, and we never imagined that God Himself is truly alive within us.

We do not have to be stubborn and deny this ignorance of ours. If we are not ignorant and sinful, what is the point of God preparing His forgiveness for us? So repent. Repent and receive His forgiveness.

And let us all say to ourselves, “Meishu-sama was born anew for me, for one who needs to receive God’s

forgiveness,” and let us communicate to God that you have received His forgiveness and accept Meishu-sama with all your heart.

If you do this, I am sure that God will welcome you into His glorious heaven as one who is connected to Messiah Meishu-sama. And He will grant you His eternal life and have you newly born as His true child.

We were in a long sleep of knowing only the life of our physical body, the limited life. But being connected to Meishu-sama, we are now able to know the eternal life, the true salvation, and I offer my most sincere gratitude to God for this blessing.

To close, I pray that the brilliance of eternal life that is one with the holy name of Messiah be shared among all humanity, all ancestors and all things in heaven and earth.


Day Hour

Dec 1 Monday

National Headquarters Appreciation Service 11am

Dec 6 Saturday

Service preparation (Johrei Center cleaning)

10am to 6pm

Dec 7 Sunday

Monthly Appreciation & Ancestors Service 11am

Dec 20 Saturday

Service preparation (Johrei Center cleaning)

10am to 6pm

Dec 21 Sunday

Meishu-Sama’s Birthday Celebration Service

11am

Dec 23 Tuesday

Meishu-Sama’s Birthday Prayer 10am &

8pm

From Dec 24 until Jan2

All Johrei Centers are closed

2014 December schedule

november/december 2014 newsletter - new jersey jc

Documents

true child of god

power of god

word of god

true pioneer of salvation

resident of heaven

altruistic love of meishu

divine work of meishu

deep awe of god