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Oyasama once took an unhulled grain of rice and taught: "You sow a grain of sincerity, and it multiplies to two or three hundred grains in a year, ten thousand in the second year. Ten thousandfold, as we call it. It will be enough for sowing all over the province of Yamato in the third year." We are also instructed as follows:You can find delight in contributing each day. If you sow seeds without contributing, it amounts to dirtying the pages of your account book each day. It will not do for you to erase entries from your account book each day. Each seed of delight sown day after day will multiply ten thousandfold and bring a settling each day. Osashizu, December 19, 1891, night When we contribute our sincerity while expressing our appreciation and feelings of unworthiness of receiving God's blessings and protection on a daily basis, God the Parent will accept our sincerity, resulting in the joy of one seed multiplying ten thousandfold. Contributing our sincerity is more than merely feeling grateful for God's blessings. We need to take action to express our gratitude in some form; only then can we be regarded as contributing sincerity. We cannot do this by merely embarking on an easy path. It can be said that sincerity oozes forth precisely when we repeatedly make bold decisions and efforts in difficult situations. God the Parent teaches us,There is a seed of truth precisely because you endure adversity and obstacles. Osashizu, October 12, 1897 We also have words that can be paraphrased as follows: "It is the remaining one-tenth after nine-tenths are gone that will become the seed that will multiply ten thousandfold" (see Osashizu, June 12, 1890). A significant amount of determination is necessary to contribute nine-tenths of something one has. Certainly anyone who does so must be said to have a mind of sincerity. However, we are taught that it is precisely the sincerity that makes a person contribute the last one-tenth that fundamentally allows him or her to receive the protection of a single seed multiplying ten thousandfold. Further, in other Directions, we are instructed in a manner that can be summed up as follows: "Do buds sprout immediately on the day a single seed is sown? You must apply fertilizer here and there, providing various forms of care. There will be no fruits if you do not provide care, if you do not apply fertilizer, if you do not weed. It is useless for you to try to produce this result or that with your human thinking. Clear, vivid results will follow in due course if you receive My protection on a daily basis." Also: "It will not do for you to sow a hundred loads of seeds now and think only of immediately reaping a ten-thousandfold multiplication of each seed. You can only experience the delight of a single seed multiplying ten thousandfold after weathering the rain and wind over a long period of time" (see Osashizu, November 21, 1901; October 10, 1896). |
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