90. Deeper in the Second Generation than in the First
When Tamezo Yamazawa began to serve Oyasama in 1881, Oyasama instructed him in the following manner:
“God says, ‘Showing innen to parents, God waits for children to appear.’ Do you understand? Therefore, virtue is more deeply planted in the second generation than in the first one, and deeper still in the third than in the second. By becoming ever deeper, it will become virtue which lasts forever. It depends on the mind of a man whether it lasts for one generation only, or for two or three generations, or forever. By the continuation of this virtue even a bad innen becomes a good one.”
Anecdotes of Oyasama, p. 76.