御日拝、そして「生き通し」
(Nippai (the Sunrise Worship) and “Life Unbroken”)

平成23年1月号掲載(Published in the January 2011 issue)

謹賀新年
　本教黒住教のいのちと申しましても過言でないのが御日拝です。申し上げるまでもなく、毎朝朝日を拝む御日拝は、教祖神が長い間の重病を御自らおかげをいただいて本復なられたのが御日拝であり、立教の時となる「天命直授（てんめいじきじゅ）」の一大感激の時も御日拝であったことから、御日拝なくしては本教はありえなかったと言えましょう。

New Year’s Greetings
It is no exaggeration to say that Nippai 日拝 (the sunrise worship) is the very life of Kurozumikyō. Needless to add, the practice of greeting the rising sun each morning was itself the occasion when the Divine Founder, after a long and severe illness, received divine blessing and was fully restored. Moreover, the great moment of inspiration known as Tenmei Jikijū 天命直授 (the Direct Bestawal of the Heaven’s Mandate)—the very time of the founding—was also through Nippai. Thus, without Nippai, our faith tradition could not have come into being.

　勿論（もちろん）、このお日の出を拝むという祈りは、私たちの専有するものではなく、はるかなる太古からわが国の先人先祖方は、一日の始まりとして毎朝「お天道様（てんとうさま）」に手を合わすという日拝を重ねていました。例えば、春分秋分の日を彼岸（ひがん）の中（ちゅうにち）と言いますが、彼岸というのは、此岸（しがん）彼岸の彼岸もさることながら、その語源は“日拝（ひおが）み→ひがみ→ひがん”であるという説もあるほどです。事実、九州のある古い村では、春秋の彼岸の中日、氏神様の神主さんを中心にまずお日の出を迎え、ひねもす夕日が西に沈むまで日拝（ひおが）みを続け、もって先祖先人の霊（みたま）に感謝と敬仰（けいぎょう）の祈りを棒（ささ）げているそうです。

Of course, the prayer of greeting the sunrise is not something exclusive to us. From far antiquity, our country’s forebears practiced daily worship, joining their hands to O-tentō-sama お天道様 (the sun) each morning as the beginning of the day. For example, the equinoctial days in spring and autumn are called the higan no chūnichi 彼岸の中日 (the middle day of higan). While higan 彼岸 is usually explained as “the other shore” in contrast to shigan 此岸 or “this shore,” there is even a theory that its etymology comes from hi-ogami 日拝み(sun worship) → higami ひがみ→ higan ひがん. In fact, in one old village in Kyushu, on the equinoctial days of spring and autumn, led by the priest of the local tutelary shrine, they first welcome the sunrise, then continue sun worship throughout the day until the evening sun sets in the west, offering prayers of gratitude and reverence to the spirits of their ancestors.

　国名を日本と書き、国旗を日の丸、日章旗とするのもむべなるかなの思いを抱きます。
　神道山では、都市化の波激しい霊地大元から有り難いお日の出を求めて大教殿がご遷座なって今年で３７年、一日として休むことなく、たとえ雨であろうと台風が来ようと御日拝を積み重ねてきています。

One cannot help but feel it fitting that the nation is called Nippon 日本 and its flag the Hinomaru 日の丸, the Sun Circle. At Shintōzan, thirty-seven years have now passed since Daikyōden 大教殿 (the Main Shrine) was relocated from the sacred site of Ōmoto 大元, seeking the blessed sunrise amid the waves of urbanization. Not a single day has been missed: whether in rain or in the face of typhoons, Nippai has been faithfully continued.

　この御日拝は、大祓詞（おおはらえのことば）を唱和するところから始まりますが、この時、自らを東天にぽーんと放り出すような思いで下腹からの声で唱えます。大祓詞は、千年になんなんとする長きにわたって先人方が神前に祈りを捧げるときの祈りの詞（ことば）であるとともに、教祖神御自らが心の祓い修行として大切にし熱心につとめて来られた、尊いまさに“神言（かむごと）”です。特に御日拝のときのいわゆる“お祓いを上げる”ことは、わが国の連綿たるものを実感するときであり同時に教祖神の御心をわが身に熱く体するときでもあります。

This Nippai begins with the chanting of Ōharae no Kotoba 大祓詞(the Great Purification Prayer). At that moment, one chants from the lower abdomen, with the feeling of casting oneself out into the eastern heavens. Ōharae no Kotoba is the prayer text that for nearly a thousand years our forebears have offered before the divine presence. At the same time, it is the very sacred kamu-goto 神言(“divine words”) that the Divine Founder himself treasured and earnestly practiced as a discipline of purification of the heart. Especially in daily worship, the act of reciting Oharai お祓い (Ōharae no Kotoba) is the moment when we tangibly sense the unbroken continuity of our nation, and at the same time deeply embody the spirit of the Divine Founder within ourselves.

　さらに御日拝において大切なときは御陽気修行です。これは天命直授の時に教祖神が、赫々（かっかく）たるお日の出を丸呑（の）みにして大感激の中に神人一体の場にお立ちになった神秘体験から生まれたものです。物理的には空気が体の奥深くに入っていきますが、あくまで大御神様のご神徳、御光（みひかり）を下腹にいただくつとめです。「道の理（ことわり）」の一節、「御陽気をいただきて下腹に納め、天地と共に気を養う」のところです。なかなか下腹にまで御陽気が入り納まらない人がままありますが、ちょっと稽古（けいこ）すれば誰（だれ）でもできることです。心身ともに清新な活力が湧わき出て全身に満ちてくるのを実感します。思わず“ありがたい！　ありがとう！”の言葉が口をついて出てきます。

Another essential moment in Nippai is Goyōki Shugyō 御陽気修行—the training to receive the sun’s divine energy. This practice was born from the Divine Founder’s mystical experience at the time of Tenmei Jikiju, when he, in overwhelming ecstasy, seemed to swallow the blazing rising sun whole and stood in the unity of gods and human. Physically, it is the air entering deep into the body, but in truth it is the discipline of receiving the divine virtue and radiance (mihikari 御光) of Amaterasu Ōmikami into the lower abdomen.
This corresponds to the passage in the Principles of the Way 道の理: “Receiving Goyōki 御陽気 (the sun’s divine energy) into the lower abdomen, one nurtures vital energy together with Heaven and Earth.” Some find it difficult at first to let Goyōki settle into the lower abdomen, but with a little practice anyone can do it. One then tangibly feels fresh vitality welling up, filling the whole body. Words of gratitude—“How blessed! Thank you!”—spring spontaneously to the lips.

　この“ありがたい”という感動と感謝の心こそ、教祖神が会得された人間として最も清らかな尊い心です。天命直授の時は、あまりの“ありがたさ”に手の舞い足の踏む所を知らずといった感激と感謝の極致に至られました。私たちもその境地を目指して“ありがとうなる”修行につとめることですが、日々の御日拝の中での御陽気修行は、その最たるときと言えます。

This feeling of “How blessed!”—the heart of gratitude—is precisely the purest and most noble heart that the Divine Founder attained as a human being. At the time of Tenmei Jikiju, he was so overwhelmed by this blessedness that he reached the very height of emotion and gratitude, dancing with his hands and not knowing where to place his feet. We too strive toward that state by practicing the discipline of becoming “a person of gratitude.” Among all such practices, the Goyōki Shugyō within daily worship is the supreme moment.

　特に、その積み重ねの中で「天地と共に気を養う」を、心底実感できるときがあります。天地に溶け込んでいるような霊妙なひとときです。

Especially through its repeated accumulation, there are times when one can deeply realize the phrase “nurturing vital energy together with Heaven and Earth.” It is a wondrous moment, as if one were melting into Heaven and Earth themselves.

　教祖神は御講釈（説教のこと）に際しても、「天言」と称して、大御神様の御心を御身を通じて語ることを大切にされました。ときには「きょうはお浮かびがありませんので、これにて」と言って高座を降りられることもありました。しかしその御姿に参拝者は、春の気に包まれたような暖かくも清々（すがすが）しいものをいただいていました。

Even in his sermons (kōshaku 講釈), the Divine Founder emphasized speaking as “Tengen 天言 (Heavenly Words),” conveying the heart of Amaterasu Ōmikami through himself. At times he would even say, “Today there is no inspiration, so I will end here,” and step down from the lectern. Yet in that very appearance, worshippers received something warm and refreshing, as if enveloped in the breath of spring.

　昨年の３月から４月にかけて岡山県立美術館で大展覧会を開催した美術家高橋秀氏は、エロス（いのちの根源）の画家と自他ともに許していますが、いつも“美の女神の降神を得て初めて作品ができる。自分は宇宙の気を表現したいのだ”と言われています。さらにこの美術館の鍵岡正謹館長は“彼の最近の作品は、エロスを元に崇高さを増してきた”と評しています。上手に画（か）こうとか、人がどう見るかは二の次で、自らを空（むな）しくして祈りにも似た思いで美の神の来臨を待つところに、「天地と共に気を養う」場合が現れてくるのだろうと思います。

From March to April of last year, the artist Prof. Takahashi Shū held a major exhibition at the Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art. He is acknowledged, by himself and others, as a painter of Eros—the source of life—and often says, “Only when the goddess of beauty descends can I create a work. What I want to express is the vital energy of the universe.” Furthermore, the museum’s director, Mr. Kagioka Masanori, has remarked, “His recent works, while rooted in Eros, have grown in sublimity.”
It is not a matter of painting skillfully or of how others will view the work. Rather, by emptying oneself and waiting, in a prayer-like spirit, for the coming of the goddess of beauty, there arises that very state of “nurturing vital energy together with Heaven and Earth.”

　私たちもこのような境地の上に立って、日拝歌の二番、御神詠の
　　日々に朝日に向かい心から限りなき身と思う嬉（うれ）しさ
の「限りなき身」を確信できるようになるところを目指します。ここが御日拝、そして御陽気修行の尊いところです。

Standing upon such a spiritual ground, we too aim to reach the point where, in the second verse of the Nippai Song, the Founder’s poem declares:
“Each day, facing the morning sun, from the heart I feel the joy of being a life everlasting.”
Our goal is to truly affirm this “life everlasting.” This is the precious essence of Nippai and of Goyōki Shugyō.

　「天地と共に気を養う」心は、成長して「我が天地か、天地が我か」と言える、この大天地こそわが本体であるという一大確信を生んでくれます。いや、教祖宗忠神がそういう世界へお導き下さるのです。

Especially through its repeated practice, there come moments when one can deeply realize the phrase “nurturing vital energy together with Heaven and Earth.” At such times, one feels a wondrous state, as though dissolving into Heaven and Earth themselves. This great conviction—that this vast Heaven and Earth is none other than our true being—is what arises. Indeed, it is the Divine Founder, who graciously leads us into such a world.

　「この宗忠を師と慕うて来る者は見殺しにはせぬ」、そして「天照大御神様の御膝元（ひざもと）までご案内いたす。皆々様ついて来なされ」のお呼び掛けは、まさにここのところです。

“Those who come seeking Munetada as their teacher will never be abandoned.” And again: “I will guide you all the way to the very presence of Amaterasu Ōmikami. Everyone, come along.”—this is precisely the point at hand.

　教祖神の“みせぶみ（御瀬踏み）に従う”“みてぶり（御手振り）に習う”という私たちの信仰の極致は、教祖神が日々実践された三大修行－日拝修行、お祓い修行、御陽気修行－の励行の上に、この「限りなき身」すなわち「生き通し」がいただけるところにあります。

The supreme culmination of our faith—“following the Divine Founder’s footsteps” (misebumi 御瀬踏み) and “learning from his hand gestures” (miteburi 御手振り)—rests upon the diligent practice of the three great disciplines that the Divine Founder carried out daily: the discipline of daily sunrise worship (Nippai Shugyō 日拝修行), the discipline of purification (Oharai Shugyō お祓い修行), and the discipline of receiving the sun’s divine energy (Goyōki Shugyō 御陽気修行). Upon this foundation, we are granted the realization of the “limitless being”—that is, “life everlasting (Ikidōshi 生き通し).”