"Joyous Life"
(Yoki gurashi)

The Joyous Life is the purpose for which humankind was created and has been nurtured and provided for. Says the story of creation contained in The Doctrine of Tenrikyo (p. 20):

In the beginning, the world was a muddy ocean. Tsukihi, God the Parent, finding this chaos unbearably tasteless, thought of creating human beings in order to see the Joyous Life and thus share in that joy.

This being God's intention behind creating humankind, the true significance of human existence is to actually live the Joyous Life, whereby we can truly fulfill human life and find true happiness as human beings.

The realization of the Joyous Life is what constitutes salvation according to Tenrikyo, and it was to accomplish this goal that God became openly revealed in this world, conveyed the teachings, and established the path that would save all humankind. Thus, Tenrikyo's teachings and practices all focus on the attainment of the Joyous Life. The remainder of this article summarizes some of its key aspects.

The Joyous Life means living each day with a joyous mind, a bright and spirited mind. The term indicates that happiness is to be found in the midst of daily living. Or more precisely, it is to be found within oneself, who engages in daily living, not in external things, things that are other than oneself such as material things like money or social status or prestige. In brief, whether or not we can attain the Joyous Life depends entirely on how we live our lives each day.

The Joyous Life is not about merely going through daily life mechanically on automatic pilot, as it were, but about living more consciously each day, conscious of how our way of living shapes our experience of life, moment to moment. Whether, at the end of a day, we feel that it is just another day gone by or whether we have actually savored the joy of being alive depends on how consciously and responsibly we live.

A key term referring to one aspect of such conscious and responsible living is "spiritedness." It indicates a stance of mind that, supported by a profound understanding of the teachings, allows us to overcome whatever obstacles present themselves along the way. No matter what situation may arise, spiritedness will empower us to deal with it positively and rise above it eventually. Because life may not entirely be what one might call a sequence of agreeable events--in fact, it may even seem to contain a disproportionate number of undesirable or difficult times--it is extremely important to keep our minds spirited. If we manage to do so, we can certainly stay on course to reach the Joyous Life, which lies ahead.

The universe is pervaded by God's providence. Human bodies and everything else we use in our lives are on loan from God, whose intention in lending them is to have us live the Joyous Life. A "joyous mind"--which allows us to live the Joyous Life--is characterized by an appreciation of how much we are indebted to God, by a strong sense of elation felt at overflowing blessings that enable us to be what we are here and now, and by the joy of savoring divine providence in full.

Everyone we come across in our lives is also an expression of God's loving care. All things and events, as mentioned above, are provided by God in order to enable us to live the Joyous Life, and accepting, using, and savoring them for what they are will enrich our lives. The joy of life that is uncovered in this process is what we should share with the people we encounter in our lives. We meet them so that, as we spend time with them, we can try to help them--that is, help them live the Joyous Life. Our daily lives are meant to be a process of living consciously in God's providence and of helping others do likewise. The joy savored in that process--which is the true joy of life experienced by both oneself and others--is nothing less than the joy of having God's intention come to fruition.

In order to live the Joyous Life, we must awaken to God's providence and try to perceive God's intention behind our encounters with people as well as things and events that happen. Doing this successfully requires purifying our minds by sweeping the heart clean. This in turn will not be viable if we rely only on human strength but can be accomplished by accepting God's workings. God alerts us to our dust of the mind through a disorder in the body we borrow from God and goes on to help us recover from it in accord with the state of mind in which we ask for God's help. God shows us such wondrous, free and unlimited blessings. We may then awaken to how this universe is pervaded by God's providence and embark on the path to make repayment for the blessings we receive. As we implement the teachings--one of whose central tenets may be stated as, "You are saved by saving others"--and as we witness the blessing of salvation, our minds will lose their self-serving tendencies and gradually become purified. The purification of our minds will increasingly strengthen the sense of joy and elation we feel at the presence of God's providence and allow us to perceive and understand God's intention more and more clearly.

The efforts to perceive and implement God's intention and to make repayment for the blessings we receive will gradually help purify our minds and bring the Joyous Life to realization.

(This article was first published in the December 2007 issue of TENRIKYO.)