On June 25, the Oyasato Institute for the Study of Religion hosted the third of its 2005 public lecture series on the teachings, entitled “World of Faith–Learning from the Anecdotes of Oyasama.” Held in Doyusha Hall, the lecture was attended by 193 people.<\/p>\n
The series of lectures is intended to provide pointers on how followers should live in contemporary society. The recent lecture, delivered by Associate Professor Masahiko Okada on the topic “Spiritual Awakening [Satori<\/em>],” focused on Anecdote 154, “God Brings Them to the Residence.” At the beginning of the lecture, he read out loud the anecdote, which contains the following words of Oyasama:<\/p>\n When police officers come, it is God bringing them home to the Residence. When I go to the police, it is God taking Me there.<\/p>\n They constantly come boisterously to interfere. This is like coming to dig for a precious jewel buried in the ground.<\/p>\n It is not that police officers come here to interfere. It is God bringing them to the Residence.<\/p>\n Dr. Okada said, “It is not clear when or to whom these words were spoken, but it is reasonable to assume that Oyasama made those remarks in the middle of what the followers called ‘Her hardships’ of arrest and imprisonment.” Referring to The Life of Oyasama<\/em>‘s chapter 9, “The Hardships of Oyasama,” and Anecdote 31, “The Measure of Heaven,” he said: “Rather than trying to understand the intention of God within the framework of our everyday way of looking at things–or trying to gauge the divine intention by human measurement–we must spiritually awaken to it by allowing ourselves to be guided by the message contained in God the Parent’s teachings taught through Oyasama.” Dr. Okada went on to say, “What then is spiritual awakening?” Pointing out that the Divine Directions contain over 120 references to “spiritual awakening,” he said that although there might be a variety of ways to look at spiritual awakening, the most important thing is to learn from the Scriptures. Then he introduced several Divine Directions. He said: “The experience of life differs from person to person. As a matter of course, the way each person perceives each experience is unique. However, the intention of God the Parent delivered through Oyasama is one and the same for everyone.” In closing, he said: “The most significant power of faith is that it enables us to live a life of joy even if our life does not turn out as desired. This is not exactly the same as merely looking on the bright side when encountering difficulties; that is not good enough. Rather, we need to perceive what God the Parent is trying to convey to us through the experiences we go through. When we can do that, the power to live in the true sense of the word will have been given to us. This is the power of faith and, in fact, is ‘spiritual awakening.'”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On June 25, the Oyasato Institute for the Study of Religion hosted the third of its 2005 public lecture series on the teachings, entitled “World of Faith–Learning from the Anecdotes of Oyasama.” Held in Doyusha Hall, the lecture was attended by 193 people. The series of lectures is intended to\u2026<\/p>\n