The Ofudesaki is the most important body of scripture in Tenrikyo

Tenrikyo

Tenrikyo is a monotheistic religion originating in revelations to a 19th-century Japanese woman named Nakayama Miki, known as Oyasama by followers...

, also known as "The Reason of Heaven". It is a collection of poems in seventeen books. All seventeen books have been translated into English and many other languages.

The poems provide instructions for returning the human mind to its "original, pristine condition", also known as "returning to the origin", "single-hearted salvation", "the mind of a three-year-old child" or "the mind like clear water". The instructions involve using whatever means necessary to provide "a step-by-step return to the 'original condition', in ways that are appropriate to the time, place and spiritual maturity of all human beings". This strategy finds basis in that methods were originally to be appropriate for 19th-century villagers living in Yamato

Yamato Province

was a province of Japan, located in Kinai, corresponding to present-day Nara Prefecture in Honshū. It was also called . At first, the name was written with one different character , and for about ten years after 737, this was revised to use more desirable characters . The final revision was made in...

; each person being taught according to their need and level of understanding.

The Ofudesaki also provides for the training of Intermediaries, or "Timbers"; those responsible for the interpretation and proliferation of the Ofudesaki's material and content.

The Ofudeseki has only recently been available in the Western World

Western world

The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...

. During the hypernationalist years of the 20th century, the poems were all seized and suppressed by order of the then Japanese government, and Tenrikyo, was, by order of the government, made into a Shinto

Shinto

or Shintoism, also kami-no-michi, is the indigenous spirituality of Japan and the Japanese people. It is a set of practices, to be carried out diligently, to establish a connection between present day Japan and its ancient past. Shinto practices were first recorded and codified in the written...

 Sect. After World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, Tenrikyo was able to openly preach its practices and has since spread globally.