Ten Aspects of God’s Providence

What is a providence? If we just think about the word, providence is simply something that provides, gives, supplies. So God’s providence means that God the Parent is the one doing the providing.

Through the teaching of “a thing lent, a thing borrowed,” we recognize that God the Parent is the one providing for our bodies all the time. Also, because “this universe is the body of God” (Ofudesaki III:40), God the Parent provides for the Earth, the moon, the sun, and for everything else in the universe. In other words, all the workings of nature (which includes a lot of stuff like gravity, nuclear fusion, chemical reactions, cell division,  reproduction) are the workings of God the Parent. If it helps, providence can also be understood as a generalized “function,” “working,” or “process” in the universe of God.

God the Parent taught that there are “ten aspects of God’s complete providence” (十全の守護 juzen no shugo). In the Tenrikyo doctrine, each aspect is given a name, a providence in the human body, and a providence in the world.

  • Kunitokotachi-no-Mikoto – providence of eyes and fluids; providence of water.
  • Omotari-no-Mikoto – providence of warmth; providence of fire.
  • Kunisazuchi-no-Mikoto – providence of female organ, skin and joining; providence of joining at large.
  • Tsukiyomi-no-Mikoto – providence of male organ, bones and support; providence of support at large.
  • Kumoyomi-no-Mikoto – providence of eating, drinking, elimination; providence of the rise and fall of moisture.
  • Kashikone-no-Mikoto – providence of breathing and speaking; providence of wind.
  • Taishokuten-no-Mikoto – providence of cutting off the ties of the child from its mother at birth, cutting off the breath of life when passing away for rebirth; providence of cutting at large.
  • Otonobe-no-Mikoto – providence of pulling out the child from its mother during birth, providence of pulling forth at large.
  • Izanagi-no-Mikoto – model of man, the seed.
  • Izanami-no-Mikoto – model of woman, the seedplot.

The specific relationships between the ten aspects are explained in the “Truth of Origin” and are reenacted in the Service (the Kagura Service).

 

Further reading: