Today, could we consider how the mind works and what it creates in our lives?

In early May, people with boys in their family celebrate the traditional Boys' Festival by flying carp-streamers from flagpoles. When I look up and see these carp-streamers fluttering in the wind every year, I feel a sense of joy because I associate them with my children's growth from year to year. When I see the streamers at houses in town or in the countryside, my reaction is, "Ah! They must have a boy in their family, too." Reactions will vary, of course, from person to person. The sight of the streamers may occasion a feeling of envy in those who wish they also had a son, and people who have no interest in the streamers may only register the simple fact that there is a breeze. Others may associate the streamers with an unpleasant memory and some may even make a point of looking the other way.

Here we are learning about the movement of thought. The object that is observed is the same, yet the mind of each person reacts to it differently. Even the same person may react in different ways depending on the time and the circumstances. Thought moves, therefore, in a variety of modes. Let us now consider what effect this variety has on society.

We human beings do not live in isolation from others, and indeed we cannot. We can only live in relationship to one another. The relationship between us is also a communion between one mind and another. Even without direct verbal communication, the workings of our mind exert an immeasurable effect on others. For example, we may desire things that belong to someone else or feel that someone else's problems do not concern us, or we may suddenly get angry when there is really no need for it--any movement of thought in this direction will most certainly produce an unpleasant reaction in others. On the other hand, a mind that is geared toward making oneself even a little useful to others or toward making an honest and energetic effort in one's endeavors will no doubt make others happy, and thereby serve to reduce friction in society and bring about a state of harmony. Our life day after day, then, is a process of acting on one another's mind, and through it we can savor joyousness and happiness, or suffering and sorrow.

So, what is the mind? What is its nature? When I was a boy, an old man told me that the mind was called kokoro because it "tumbles around" [koro-koro]. This interpretation has the feel of a simple play on words, and yet careful thought reveals how very closely it hits the mark. This tumbling movement of the mind signifies, I assume, our freedom of mind. In other words, freedom is the natural state of the mind. In addition, when we get right down to it, you and I as well as everyone else in the world wish to live brightly and happily, which is to say a joyous life--this, too, we can call the nature of the mind or, better yet, the original direction of the mind.

When we combine these two elements we see that the mind moves freely and unrestrictedly in the direction of the Joyous Life. If at this point one forgets about the others with whom one lives in relationship, however, the mind will end up moving in the direction of a joyous life for oneself alone. This is the selfish mind, or what is called self-centeredness.

I think there are, therefore, two basic patterns for advancing toward living joyously. The first is rooted in the selfish mind, or the self-centered mind, and leads to a joyous life only for oneself, a joyous life only for one's own family, or a joyous life only for one's own country. I need hardly say that this is not the true Joyous Life. At best it is a tentative and temporary Joyous Life.

In contrast to this first pattern, however, there is another Joyous Life, one in which you and I share the delight of living joyously, in which your family and my family share the delight of a joyous life together, and in which all countries and all the people in them live joyously and happily. This of course is the true Joyous Life.

Having come this far in our thoughts, I think we can now say that the selfish and self-centered mind is the origin of all the unhappiness in society. We might even say that the selfish and self-centered mind is the rubbish or dust that spoils the marvelous panorama of the Joyous Life.

Let us say, for example, that we have boarded an airplane and are about to take off. It is a rainy day and the skies are heavily overcast. Rain clouds are hanging low over the runway and by all appearances the day is just about as gloomy as it could possibly be. Yet, once the plane soars up and bursts through the layer of clouds, there is the Sun, shining as radiantly as ever, as it had been all along, and in that instant we become aware of a world that is perpetually illuminated at maximum effulgence. In the world below, it may be a gloomy day of rain, but never is it a world apart from, or devoid of, the Sun. The clouds and mist are merely blocking the Sun. The clouds and mist in this analogy correspond to the dust in the mind. So we come to the question: "How can we remove dust from the mind?"

Let us suppose you have an ink smudge on your face. What would you do to remove it? I imagine you would look at your reflection in a mirror and wipe the smudge off. Removing dust from the mind works in exactly the same way. Proverb has it that "One man's fault is another's lesson," but generally speaking we do not learn the lesson. When we find faults in others, we are usually quick to criticize them or take them to task, as if the faults were totally irrelevant to ourselves. In my opinion, however, this is the very situation that provides us with a mirror in which we can see the reflection of our own mind's dust. Our first step, therefore, is to settle the mind by being aware that the dust we see reflected in the mirror is actually the projection of our own dust. Once we attain a firm footing by means of our own self-reflection, we can then freely use our mind of sincerity to help others reconstruct their minds.

These are, of course, my own thoughts on what we can do about dust, but I hope you will also settle them in your heart, because if you would first get a sure footing through your own self-reflection and then set about using the mind of sincerity to act on other people's minds of dust, a path that would save them, and yourself at the same time, would surely open before you.

I think we could say that every human being has a considerable share of the dust of "self-love," or what we might call the "mind of greed."

The Mikagura-uta, The Songs for the Service, teach us:

Though there is no one who is free from greed,
Before God there is no greed.

Mikagura-uta V:4

Whenever we look at others and see the mind of dust, or the mind of greed, we should first reflect on ourselves and then exert the mind of sincerity so they will also reflect on themselves and reconstruct their own minds. The effort to do this, or the action itself, is what we call "saving others."

The more time we allot to saving others in our everyday lives and the more effort and care we put into devoting the mind of sincerity to others, the sooner shall we receive the workings of that something that gives us life, which is to say, God the Parent, and the sooner, therefore, will the mind of greed be spontaneously purified, enabling us to take permanent delight in the "mind like clear skies." This in itself is the state of the Joyous Life.

(This article was excerpted from Zenye Nakyama's Joyousness Day after Day, published in 1992 by Tenrikyo Overseas Department.)