We call God the Parent, Tenri-O-no-Mikoto. God the Parent created human beings and everything else from where there was no form. God the Parent provided us with the Cosmos, the Earth, and the natural environment that makes life possible. God the Parent oversees the laws of nature and is also its source. God is also our Parent who relieves human beings of our troubles and guides us to the Joyous Life.

In order for us to better understand God the Parent’s providence, each particular working of God was assigned a sacred name and explained. This is the “ten aspects of God’s complete providence.”

We learn this exposition of the providence in order to build genuine faith to the teaching of God the Parent, appreciate the providence by chanting the sacred names, and learn the intention of God the Parent shown through illness and calamities.

Kashikone-no-Mikoto: in the human body, the providence of breathing and speaking; in the world, the providence of wind.

This aspect of the complete providence is male and represented in the heavens as the stars in the southwest; its direction is southwest. At human creation, its symbolic form in the muddy ocean was a flatfish. Its counterparts in the Buddhist tradition are Dainichi Nyorai (Vairocana Buddha), Saint Enko (Honen), Saint Shan-tao, and the Pure Land sect.

In the human body, this aspect of the complete providence oversees all the respiratory organs as well as the bodily functions responsible for emitting, collecting, and processing sound and language. In the world, it provides the workings that oversee the flow of air, the changes in weather, and communication among human beings.

We human beings can breathe and talk because our throats are separated into areas assigned for the passage of food and air. That we can hear with our ears and smell with our nose is also the workings of Kashikone-no-Mikoto. The workings of the wind changes the temperature of the air that causes convective movement, which keeps the Earth’s genial climate. It also is responsible for the blessings of rain by bringing rain clouds from the ocean over land. That birds and planes can fly in the sky is also the protection of Kashikone-no-Mikoto.

The quality of the mind that is associated with workings of this aspect of God’s providence is to distinguish right from wrong and develops good habits without indulging in the bad. It refers to a humble mind that defers to others and never discriminates.

To conform to the workings of this aspect of the complete providence, we should blow sweet breath to those around us, that is, use our words to make others spirited. It is to have an attitude that does not make errors between situations where we ought to listen or speak up and use our words in a manner that does not make the minds of the people around us fester with ill feelings.

To scold others with an argumentative, stubborn mind, take someone’s words out of context and find fault with them, bear a grudge based on someone’s words of caution, and pass through life joylessly with many complaints all run contrary to the protection of Kashikone-no-Mikoto. Being guilty of the above may bring about afflictions of the mouth, the ears, the nasal cavity, the throat, bronchial tubes, or the lungs. It is important not to express discontent regarding the weather, hot or cold, or use strong words. Instead, we ought to remember our indebtedness to the blessings of breathing that allow us to live and use words that are delicious and easy to digest.

*This exposition was written by Rev. Chuichi Fukaya, the second head minister of Yamatoyoki Branch Church, and translated by Roy Forbes.