Question:

When I first started performing ancestral memorial services, I felt positive and thought things were going well. However, recently I’ve been sensing something approaching. While I feel like I’m connecting with my ancestors, I also feel uncomfortable. I sense a presence, and my stomach area becomes uncomfortable, my body feels heavy, and my head becomes slightly dizzy.

Could this phenomenon be because I initially performed ancestral services with the intention of seeking blessings rather than a genuine sense of gratitude?

Response:

Let me explain using my own example. From around middle school, I experienced various spiritual interferences, feeling physically drained, hearing spiritual sounds, and experiencing dizziness. Despite medical tests, nothing abnormal was found. Given my innate sensitivity to the spiritual realm, I realized that ancestral spirits were seeking help.

Initially, I desperately chanted sutras and tried Buddhist memorial practices to alleviate the discomfort, but to no avail. Through various experiences, I eventually practiced “Ancestral Memorial Services with Gratitude,” which improved my health and changed my worry-prone personality.

In my case, pre-existing spiritual troubles were resolved through Ancestral Memorial Services with Gratitude. In your case, you seem to be experiencing spiritual disturbances due to the practice of ancestral services.

At present, the unsettling spiritual presence you’re feeling is likely connected to your ancestral spirits. It seems like two long-suffering ancestors are affecting you. Since these spirits were already attached to you, similar phenomena might have occurred even without ancestral services, and you might have previously attributed them to physical discomfort.

Currently, humanity is undergoing a spiritual shift under the influence of spiritual light from the sun. This could also be seen as a time when attached spirits are surfacing. Even your thoughts and preferences might materialize on your face.

Although you can ignore approaching spirits, the era ahead might manifest appropriate reactions to them. You’re in a phase where previously hidden spirits are becoming evident.

During memorial services, the paper strips act as focal points for the spirits. Light incense, chant calmly, “Dear ancestors, please partake. Thank you for giving me life,” and then leave the area promptly.

When I perform memorial services, my intent is solely to relieve my ancestors. I don’t expect personal gains. Considering the feelings of ancestors awaiting my memorial services, I’m not concerned about enduring hardships if it benefits them.

Thanks to my ancestors’ blessings, I find myself in an environment where I can write articles like this every day. Writing daily articles is possible only when everything, from family cooperation to work, is harmonious.

Ancestral memorial services are something humans should perform throughout their lives. There’s no rush; you can pause when your body feels strained.

Thank you for giving me life.

Some people are curious about their Ubusuna-kami, a local deity of the brith place.

In most cases, these are inherent deities.

Ubusuna-kami is also derived from the nameless primordial god and is connected to it.

With the breath of the primordial god, the Earth was born.

The soul of the Earth (Earth Spirit) is “Kunitokotachi-okami,” the god of the land.

When the surface of the Earth was covered in magma and flowing, “Kuniokotachi-okami” appeared as a great dragon god. This dragon-like form ripples and dances on the Earth’s surface like a corona.

Running across the Earth’s surface and completing certain spiritual mechanisms, it stopped at a certain place and fell asleep. The solidified body of this dragon became the Japanese archipelago.

Similarly, the sun, born from the primordial god, nurtured life on Earth.

The soul of the sun (Sun Spirit) is “Amaterasu Omikami,” the goddess of the sun.

All humans born in Japan, including foreigners, are born upon the body of “Kunitokotachi-okami” and nurtured by “Amaterasu Omikami.”

All ancestral gods connect to the primordial god through “Amaterasu Omikami.”

Even if you don’t know your ancestral god, it’s enough to worship “Amaterasu Omikami.”

At each prefecture’s “Ichinomiya” shrine, you can find “Jingu Taima-Fuda,” the holy amulet from Ise Grand Shrine.

In May, I visited Ise Grand Shrine, worshiped at the Outer Shrine, Inner Shrine, and Izawa Shrine, and purchased a “Kenbarai Fuda” amulet for 500 yen each at those locations.

When I returned home and looked at the amulets as I placed them on the household Shinto altar, I noticed that the paper used for the amulet, which serves as a vessel for the divine spirit, was properly wrapped around the wooden part of the amulet according to ancient traditions. I was truly delighted. This allows the divine energy to come close.

I am grateful to have been born in this country.

Thank you for keeping me alive.

Among those who speak of the spiritual world, there are people who say “group soul = past life’s self.”

I have no objections to this.

However, there are those who say, “group soul = guardian spirit.” This is a major misunderstanding.

Those who speak of such things are simply influenced by occult books that originated in the West.

I wonder if they can truly see the world of spirits.

Outside of this realm of reality, parts of the soul from one’s past lives exist in many dimensions.

For instance, if Mr. A had 5 past lives, he would have experienced 5 different lives.

Different environments, different countries, different races, different family relationships, and so on.

The good deeds and misdeeds in each of these lives are also different.

Based on these deeds, the destination of the soul after death varies.

While the group soul from Mr. A’s second past life might be in the spiritual realm, the group soul from his fourth life, as a result of committing murder, could be in hell.

It’s not the case that the group soul from all past lives are in the same world.

This contradicts the law of action and reaction.

Furthermore, a group soul does not become a guardian spirit.

It merely watches over the course of the present self, which has inherited a part of them in the real world.

They are prohibited from guarding, guiding, or intervening.

When we are born, after our birth country and region are determined by the ties of our past lives, the local deity of that country comes to welcome us. Together with the deity, we search for the family lineage we will be born into.

If we have created negative karma in the past, we will choose a family lineage that matches that karma.

In that lineage, souls of a similar nature gather and are born as siblings or relatives.

Thus, cursing the environment you were born into is futile.

If you run away from the environment that you deliberately chose to resolve your karma, you waste a golden opportunity.

By gratefully accepting various hardships, you can digest the karma and achieve soul growth.

Simply enduring pain means defeat and the karma remains unresolved, so the divine left a helping principle.

That is the guardian spirit.

While alive, you can increase your guardian spirits.

Only you can increase your guardian spirits, not others.

These guardian spirits are allowed to be involved in all aspects of personal desires and benefits.

Deities do not guard individuals. They don’t act for personal gains.

Those who have made efforts to honor their ancestral spirits, who are the seniors of their family lineage, will receive corresponding protection during their lifetime.

The more suffering ancestral spirits there are, the more painful phenomena appear in the real world. But when you can help these spirits attain a peaceful, enlightened state of mind through a memorial service filled with gratitude, your soul achieves significant growth, and as a result, you will possess a large group of guardian spirits.

Then, you will gradually feel the blessings of being alive in this world.

Furthermore, individual souls and lineages attract each other, and good karma manifests in the present world.

However, if you live a life taking this for granted, you create negative karma in the current life, leading to repercussions. So, be cautious.

Thank you for keeping me alive.

Question: What is the cause of the ghost world shrinking?

Answer: The ghost world that surrounds our reality has expanded and contracted over time.

In Japan, the Heian period and the Edo period were times of expansion.

During these eras, spiritual entities greatly interfered with human life, and prayers, as well as various monsters and apparitions, held significant influence.

A positive aspect of the ghost world expanding is the development of culture and the economy.

Personal human desires, if strongly felt, can accumulate energy in the spirit world and are more likely to be realized, even if it may cause trouble for some.

Moreover, it’s an era where figures like Kukai, akin to superhumans, are likely to emerge.

Conversely, a negative aspect of the ghost world expanding is that it allows for more irrationalities to prevail in society.

It’s a world where the strong dominate.

Even those committing misdeeds in the shadows can defend themselves spiritually through prayers and maintain a significant societal presence for an extended period.

It’s also an era where honest and righteous people can face unjust outcomes.

Misdeeds may never come to light, leaving things ambiguous, and wicked individuals may become widespread.

Currently, we are in the final phase overseen by the solar deity realm.

It’s a time when the long, long theatrical stage for the growth of human souls is temporarily coming to an end.

At this juncture, the ghost world, which shakes souls with both good and evil stimuli, is no longer necessary.

The original deity is starting with the elimination of the ghost world.

After countless centuries, the culmination of miracles is now you.

Regardless of what kind of human one is, the solar deity is observing whether they have realized the fact that they are “being kept alive.”

Thank you for keeping me alive.

The world surrounding us can be broadly categorized into several realms: the divine realm, the spirit realm, the ghost realm, the reality realm, and the hell realm.

Currently, within these, dimensional contraction is beginning within the ghost realm.

In comparison to the Showa era, the ghost realm is now less than half its previous size.

Within the ghost realm, there are countless other realms such as the dragon deity realm, tengu (goblin) realm, and spirit realm.

For instance, when people gather to create a Buddha statue and make wishes upon it, a realm of spirits emerges around the statue, and within that realm, spiritual entities take shape based on the content of those wishes.

The energies of people’s wishes accumulate, transforming into forms corresponding to those wishes.

At first glance, these spiritual entities might resemble the statue, but on closer inspection, their appearance is quite different.

It’s often said that “thoughts become reality,” but this phenomenon was prevalent when the ghost realm was active.

Individual ventures and dreams could more easily manifest regardless of their content if people strongly concentrated on them.

Individuals or groups emit thought energy that accumulates within the ghost realm, giving rise to supporting spiritual entities that exert influence on the reality realm.

During the Showa era, individuals who undertook significant ventures often attracted spiritual entities taking the form of dragons.

These dragon entities are not true dragon deities existing since ancient times in the divine realm, but rather false ones formed or summoned by the powerful thoughts of individuals.

Thus, they tend to be associated with personal desires and gains.

True dragon deities as messengers of the divine will never act for personal gain.

As the ghost realm diminishes, individual desires that deviate from divine intentions are becoming harder to fulfill.

Companies that thrived with the support of spiritual entities from the ghost realm will now face exposure and societal accountability if they had hidden wrongdoing.

Those embarking on new ventures should assess matters from the perspective of being “kept alive” and, with diligence, they will reap rewards.

Even personal wishes will come true if they are rooted in a fundamental sense of gratitude for being alive.

It’s intriguing that the height of the bubble economy coincided with the era when the ghost realm was most prominent, that is, during the Showa era.

Thank you for keeping me alive.

I mentioned in the previous article, “Most of life’s troubles will be resolved over time.”

Troubles are gifts from the divine for us to navigate through the challenges of this harsh reality.

As long as you live your best and put in effort, even so painful a problem as you want to commit suicide will eventually turn out to be a memory you’ll look back on nostalgically thinking, “I got over it!”

In realms beyond this reality, the passage of time is exceptionally slow.

While some people in this reality, overwhelmed by suffering, might consider suicide to escape, this is a grave misunderstanding.

The physical agony and mental anguish just before suicide endure for an extended period. This is quite excruciating.

Furthermore, without a physical body, sensations become heightened, magnifying the pain.

Even if you had sworn not to inconvenience your children after your death, the intense suffering might cause you to cling to them.

When a spirit emitting such painful vibrations exists, the descendants experience similar painful mental states.

For humans, the mental state from 50 days before death until the very end is crucial.

Perhaps the experience of a long life is to learn to spend these last 50 days with a peaceful mind.

In any case, never forget the significance of the mental state just before death.

Human destinies can change.

Through effort, things can improve or deteriorate.

Recognizing that you are not merely “living” but “being kept alive,” recall gratitude for your current circumstances, and journey through this mundane world.

Even amidst twists and turns, by the time of your imminent death, accumulated gratitude will trigger the production of brain endorphins to alleviate physical pain, and your heart will be filled with gratitude.

In this state, when you die, you’ll be drawn to a world filled with similar gratitude through the “Law of Similarity.” A peaceful passing is certain.

Now, the passage of time in this reality is starting to accelerate.

Unprecedented events are unfolding.

Every worry will quickly change, so they are not significant.

Thank you for keeping me alive.

After hearing A’s worries, B couldn’t understand why A was troubled. This is because B thinks their own concerns are more serious.

Now, on the contrary, B confided their own worries to A. A thought, “Such things are already experienced in the past and not a big deal.”

There might be differences in levels, but everyone takes their troubles seriously.

Most of life’s worries are resolved with time.

As long as you live the present earnestly, there is nothing to fear.

However, without sufficient effort, anxiety won’t go away. Just do your best in your own way.

By regularly expressing gratitude for your environment and being alive, your worries will diminish, and positive things will continue to come your way.

When people forget to be grateful for their current situation, their environment becomes something they take for granted.

With things taken for granted, they struggle with various desires and suffer.

However, things taken for granted can easily vanish at any time.

Realizing it after losing it is often too late.

There are likely things you have taken for granted as well.

If you reconsider and express gratitude for them, you will discover new perspectives.

Thank you for keeping me alive today.

The reality in which we are currently living is a remarkably fascinating world.

It encompasses all emotions: joy, dreams, hope, excitement, sadness, anxiety, despair, anger, resentment, and more. This diversity is a wonderful thing.

I faintly remember the world I existed in before birth. There, I spent time happily with people similar to myself. Each of us had slight differences in personality, but we could understand each other through conversation. However, spending an extended period in this environment becomes dull. Just as in movies, without thrills and suspense, the visuals become monotonous.

Indeed, the desire to “challenge oneself” or “improve” oneself, or perhaps being entrusted with a specific mission, leads us to be born into this world.

However, this reality is an exceedingly challenging one. If you think you came here just to overcome boredom, depending on how you live, you might never be able to return to the world where your original self resided.

Furthermore, this reality is an incredibly rare world where souls from various realms, ranging from hellish to divine, coexist in the same place. Naturally, various problems arise from this.

Once born into this world, there’s no turning back.

We have intentionally erased memories of past lives, orchestrated extreme conditions and been born willingly.

Given the suffering in the real world, is it truly right to pray to invisible and supposedly benevolent deities to escape from that suffering?

This might deviate from the original plan that our true selves have orchestrated.

It’s important to have the sentiment of “respecting and valuing deities, but never fully relying on them.”

Human life is short, and it ends in the blink of an eye.

Regardless of the circumstances, these are the events that transpire while we are alive.

Can you really remain without feeling gratitude for this?

Around 11:00 AM, I arrived at Ise Jingu’s another shrine, Izawa-no-miya.

It was incredibly serene, with only us as visitors.

I feel that this is the true Ise Jingu.

From there, the Pacific Ocean stretches out directly ahead.

From the Middle East and Europe’s perspective, this might be the edge of the eastern continent, the place where the sun rises.

The antiquity of Izawa-no-miya’s history feels even older than Ise Jingu’s Naiku.

Though the approach is about 20 meters long, walking it makes you feel the passage of timeless ages, making it seem much longer.

Approaching the main hall, bowing twice, clapping twice, and joining hands, I had a spiritual vision of a vermilion sun disc.

Its size was about two times larger than the one I saw at Naiku.

This is the manifestation of the highest divine aspect of Amaterasu Omikami.

Just as I thought, “Ah, I could see it again,” vertical and horizontal lines appeared within the sun disc, forming a cross-like pattern similar to the Shimazu family’s cross emblem.

This was the first time I experienced this.

The significance of this was that in the higher realms of the divine world, I felt that “everything is completed.”

This reflection will sequentially transpose into multiple dimensions and eventually manifest in our reality.

At Izawa-no-miya, the maternal goddess of motherhood still exists in the world today.

I believe Japan, which has maintained this state for thousands of years, is a truly special country.

The anthropomorphic form of this maternal goddess is that of a mermaid.

I am grateful to have been born in this country.

On early Saturday morning, I departed from my home by car and headed towards Osaka.

During the journey, when I saw Mt. Ibuki and Lake Biwa in the distance, I had a spiritual vision of an ancient scene.

It was during the time of the Earth’s geological formation and mountain-building activities.

The breath of the primordial deity descended upon Mt. Shirayama from the cosmos.

Three seeds of life descended to the Earth, intertwined with each other, and life seemed to have been born.

These three seeds of life turned into stone pillars, petrified and remaining as monuments.

As I mentioned in a previous article, one of these three pillars was buried at the outer shrine of Ise Grand Shrine as a central pillar.

The second one was buried at Izawanomiya Shrine as the spiritual essence of the primordial deity’s harmonious soul (Nikitama), and the third one was buried at the White Head Mountain in a foreign land as the primordial deity’s fierce soul (Aratama).

The spiritual essence of the harmonious soul resided in figures like Himiko and Yamato-hime, while in foreign lands, it manifested as the Virgin Mary. It appeared as a woman embodying maternal love.

One of the individuals carrying the spiritual essence of the fierce soul was Genghis Khan. Known as the “Blue Wolf,” he was feared by people, and his aura was blue.

Deities with blue auras include Shiva from India and Susanoo from Japan. These are also beings derived from the spiritual essence of the fierce soul.

The “breath of the primordial deity” that descended from the cosmos was in the form of spoken words.

Trying to discern and feel this sound is difficult here at the hotel in Osaka’s Nakanoshima. It seems that unless it’s my familiar home, it cannot be read. A…O…U…?

By the way, today, the memorial service for my benefactor’s 49th day has concluded safely.

The service followed the format of the Jodo Shinshu East Honganji denomination.

What I felt as I listened to the sutra was the power of the spoken word “E” and the sound of the bell that rings at the sutra’s pauses.

That metallic sound seemed to resonate well with my benefactor’s spiritual essence and felt like it acted to sever his attachment to the living world.

During the post-ritual discussion, the priest mentioned that “mourning for the deceased” means visiting the deceased, in other words, remembering them. I thought it was a good point. I felt that if people remember the deceased and offer their gratitude, it would be even better.

Thank you for keeping me alive.