強い祈り
(Strong Prayers)

平成20年4月号掲載(Published in the April 2008 issue)

　神道古来の「大祓詞（おおはらえのことば）」はもとより、日頃いわゆる“お祓いを上げる”とき、私たちはその言葉の意味を離れて、下腹からの声でひたすらつとめます。しかし、時々お祓い本を取り出してじっくり読むとき、随所に深い意味を発見して驚きます。

Ōharae no Kotoba 大祓詞 (Great Purification Prayer) is an ancient Shintō prayer. In daily practice, when we “recite Oharai お祓い (recite Ōharae no Kotoba),” we devote ourselves to chanting it with deep voice from the lower abdomen, apart from its meaning. Yet when we occasionally take up the text and read it carefully, we are surprised to discover profound meanings throughout.

　そのひとつが、「禊祓詞（みそぎはらえのことば）」の中にある次の一節です。
　「……祓戸（はらえど）の大神等（おおかみたち）　諸（もろもろ）の枉事（まがごと）罪（つみ）穢（けがれ）を祓え給え清め給えと申す事の由を　天（あま）つ神国つ神　八百萬神（やおよろずのかみ）等共に天斑馬（あめのふちこま）の耳振り立てて聞（きこ）し食（め）せと恐（かしこ）み恐み白（まお）す」

One such passage appears in the Misogi Harae no Kotoba 禊祓詞 (the Ablution Purification Prayer, a shorter prayer of purification):
“…We humbly beseech the Great Gods of Purification Gate that all offenses, sins, and impurities be removed and cleansed. May the heavenly gods, earthly gods, and the eight million gods together listen attentively, pricking up the ears of Ame no Fuchi-koma 天斑馬 (the heavenly mottled horse), and accept these words with awe and reverence.”

　祓戸の大神をはじめ神々に「恐み恐み白す」と極めて丁重ではありますが、天斑馬という耳さとい馬が耳を振り立てて聞くようにお聞き下さいと、まるで叱（しか）りつけるような勢いで祈りつけています。絶えず唱える“みそぎ祓い”だけに、慣れてはならないと自戒しつつも、この強さでもって祓うことの大事を改めて思います。やはり祓いは

　鬼もじゃもみなきりはらいいきものを養う人にいたずきはなし（御歌88号）

の心でつとめねばならないのです。

Although the prayer addresses the Great Gods of Purification Gate and other gods with utmost respect—“with awe and reverence we declare”—it also implores them with force, as if urging them sternly, likening it to the keen-eared heavenly horse called Ame no Fuchi-koma pricking up its ears to listen. Precisely because this Misogi Harae is recited constantly, we must guard against becoming accustomed to it. We are reminded of the importance of purification with such strength.
Indeed, purification must be performed in the spirit of the Divine Founder’s verse:
“Those who cut away all demons and evils, and nurture the living divine essence (Iknimono), are free from any harm.” (Outa No. 88)

　教祖神のお説教には八百萬の神々がお集いになると、高弟方は心底有り難く拝聴し感嘆されていましたが、また教祖神が各地の神社へお参りになると、その神社の御斎神に更なる御徳をお授けになっていたと、高弟方は語り今に伝えられています。そういう中でも顕著なのは、“小串（こぐし）沖ご難船”の御逸話（ごいつわ）（御逸話集15）です。

The high disciples listened to the Divine Founder with gratitude and admiration, saying that when the Divine Founder preached, the eight million gods gathered. They also testified that when the Divine Founder visited various shrines, he bestowed further virtue upon their gods. Among such accounts, one especially notable is the story of the “Kogushi Offshore Near-Shipwreck” (Anecdotes of the Founder).

　今も岡山市を東西に二分して流れる旭川から児島湾を経（へ）て、瀬戸内海、そして四国へと、昔からひとつの航路がありました。教祖神がある日、この道筋で瀬戸内海の小豆島方面に渡ろうとされていたとき、児島半島の小串という所にある海から屹立（きつりつ）した垂直の山に東風が当たって起こったいわゆる“三角波”で、船は木の葉のように翻弄（ほんろう）され、今にも沈没しそうになりました。

There was a sea route that ran from the Asahigawa River, which divides Okayama east and west, through Kojima Bay, into the Seto Inland Sea, and onward to Shikoku. One day, the Divine Founder was crossing this way toward the Shōdoshima area of the Inland Sea. At Kogushi on the Kojima Peninsula, a sheer cliff rising from the sea caught the east wind, producing the so‑called “triangle waves.” The boat was tossed like a leaf and seemed about to sink at any moment.

　その時、教祖神は揺れ動く船の中で“矢立て”から筆を取り出して1枚の紙に次のような歌を書いて、祈りを込めて海に投げ入れられました。

　波風をいかで鎮（しず）めん海津神（わだつかみ）天つ日を知る人の乗りしに

　常日頃は、一教の教祖とも思えぬ謙虚なお姿の教祖神が、烈々たる気迫でもって海神を叱りつけ、祈りつけられた御逸話です。
　有り難くも、程なく風は止（や）み波も静まり、無事、船は目的地へ向かうことができました。実は、この船に同乗していた鳥取県の人が故郷に帰ってその感激を話したことが、今日の倉吉大教会所創立の元となったのでした。

At that moment, within the violently rocking boat, the Divine Founder took a brush from his yatate (portable writing case), wrote the following poem on a sheet of paper, and cast it into the sea with prayer:
Calm now the waves, and still the winds, O God of the Sea!
For one who knows Amaterasu Ōmikami rides upon this vessel today.
Though in daily life the Divine Founder appeared humble, not at all like the head of a faith, in this episode he rebuked and implored the sea god with fierce spirit.
Gratefully, before long the wind ceased, the waves quieted, and the boat safely continued to its destination. In fact, a man from Tottori Prefecture who had been aboard returned home and told of his deep impression. This testimony became the origin of the founding of Kurayoshi Grand Branch Church in Tottori Prefecture.

　かつてこの欄で紹介したこともありますが、私が学校を終えて今日の白衣の生活に入って間もない頃、日頃“お松あんばあさん”の愛称で多くの人から慕われていた老婦人が、この日ばかりは眼をつり上げて大教殿に参って来て、その娘さんの手術の御祈念を申し込みました。五代様の後ろについて私も御神前に上がり、御祈念が終わって五代様がこの老婦人に挨拶（あいさつ）されようとしたときでした。この人は、教場から御神前をきっと見据（みす）えて前に進み出て斎場に両手をつき、「宗忠の神様！　この松の娘の幸（ゆき）が生きるか死ぬかでございます！　ご油断めさるな!!」と大喝したのです。私はその迫力に圧倒される思いでしたが、五代様はこの人に向かって拍手を打って拝んでおられました。
　この時、祈りはときには真剣勝負なのだと、肝（きも）に銘じたことでした。

As I once introduced in this column, soon after I had finished school and entered the present life of white robes, an elderly woman—affectionately known by many as “Grandmother O‑Matsu”—came to Daikyōden 大教殿 (the Main Shrine) with her eyes blazing, unlike her usual gentle self, to request prayer for her daughter’s surgery. I followed the Fifth Chief Patriarch to the altar, and when the prayer was finished and he was about to greet her, she stepped forward, fixed her gaze on the altar, placed both hands on the floor of the sanctuary, and cried out:

“Munetada-no-Kamisama! 宗忠の神様！(Divine Munetada!) My daughter Yuki’s life is at stake—whether she lives or dies! Do not let down your guard!!”

I was overwhelmed by the force of her voice, but the Fifth Chief Patriarch clapped his hands and worshipped her.

At that moment, I engraved in my heart the truth that prayer can sometimes be a matter of life‑and‑death seriousness.

　教祖神は
　たとえお祈り申し上げ候（そうろう）ても、ご精弱きときは、祈り候ても神徳薄く……（御文223号）
と弱い心ではおかげを受けにくいことを注意され、さらに
　信心は、心弱くては役に立ち申さざる……（御文89号）
とまで言い切られています。

The Divine Founder cautioned:
“Even if you pray, when your spirit is weak, the prayer will bring little divine virtue…” (Gobun No. 223)
He went so far as to declare:
“Faith, if the heart is weak, will be of no use…” (Gobun No. 89)

　それはご自身のご体験を詠（よ）まれた御神詠にも明らかです。
　おのれに勝ちて神と一体
　かくなれば今よりのちは天（あめ）つちの中はわが身のうちとなるらん（御歌94号）
　このように、つまるところ、敵は自分自身の中にあるのです。疑い、臆病、怠慢……まさに獅子（しし）身中の虫であるいわゆる“我”こそ弱い心の元凶です。教祖神にして「おのれに勝ちて」の“おのれ”はそういう“我”そのものだったのです。
　「我を離れよ」「天に任（まか）せよ」、すなわち「離我任天」の大事を高調されるゆえんです。

The Divine Founder’s own experience is clear in his divine verse:
“By overcoming myself, I become one with the Divine.
Thus from now on, heaven and earth shall be within me.” (Outa No. 94)
In the end, the true enemy lies within oneself: doubt, fear, laziness—what is called the “self,” the worm within the lion, the source of a weak heart. For the Divine Founder, the “self” to be overcome was precisely this ego.
Hence his strong teaching: “Abandon the self, entrust yourself to Heaven”—the great principle of riga ninten 離我任天 (leaving the self, entrusting to Heaven).

　天に任せるほど強い生き方はありません。前記の御文89号には、続いて
　何事も何事も、天に任せ候ほど、強きことはござなし
とあります。また御文221号では
何事も天命に御任せ、とかく（いずれにしても）下腹にお心をしずめ、すなわち雷復（らいふく）のごとくに、陽気自然と発し候ようになされ候（そうら）えば、開運なさらずと申し候ことござなく候
と御教えになっています。

There is no stronger way of living than entrusting oneself to Heaven. In Gobun No. 89 it continues:
“In all things, in all things, nothing is stronger than entrusting them to Heaven.”
And in Gobun No. 221 the Divine Founder taught:
“Entrust everything to Heaven’s decree. In any case, calm your heart in the lower abdomen, and like the thunder returning, let the vital divine energy of the sun (yōki) arise narutally. If you do so, there will be no such thing as failing to open your fortune.”

　私たちが身につけたい御道信仰は、いざというとき、
　教祖の神様！　教祖様！　宗忠様！
と、心の底から呼びかけ、叫び、その御懐（みふところ）に飛び込んでいくような“任せ切る”心です。

The faith we should seek to embody is a heart that, in times of need, calls out from the depths:
“Divine Founder! Founder! Munetada-sama!”
—crying and shouting, and then throwing ourselves into his embrace with a spirit of complete entrustment.