セコイアセミナハウス（山の家）で無我の舞
大神様がアメリカに巡教に行かれた頃、Jesus as Teacher というキリスト教のグループがあり、スタンフォード大学にその中心メンバーがいて、全米に広がる組織をもっていた。「キリストは、人を神の意志にそうように生きることを教えている」として実生活に教え（人間道）を適用して、皆の集団討議で悟りに至ろうというグループらしい。このリーダーはRathbun夫妻・フィットン夫妻で、紀元１６年のサンマテオ・パルアルト巡教時大神様にあい、帰依している。このグループのセコイアセミナハウス（山の家）で１０時間以上も彼らのメンバー数十名に説法され、皆で無我の舞をし、彼らは大感激した。「天声９１号巡教だより」に経緯が詳しく書かれている。彼らほど神教が分かっている者はこれまで本部に来たことがない。と大神様が言われた。彼らはスタンフォード大学の教授などで、アメリカ社会の知的良心のリーダー達であった。この影響は１５年後の紀元３１年天照皇大神宮教第２回全米大会の会場がスタンフォード大学構内であったことにも現れている。大神様は説かれた。
みな同じ型にはめるんとは違うんで。わしの肝は昔から「おサヨや、うじの世界みたいにのう、よその国を幅をきかして取るんじゃないのいや。われがこうして一生懸命行せよったらのう。八百万の神がその国その国に出てくるのいや」ちゅう。幅をきかしてよその国を取るんじゃない。わしは教えを渡しちょいたらええんじゃからの。型にはめんでもええ。人間何しにこの世に生まれ出てきたかちゅうことから自分の魂磨いて絶対なる神へあがっていく。これを（すでに知ってこれまで）やりよったんじゃけえ、それへ「名妙法連結経」さえ教えちゃったらええ。
（参考）Harry John Rathbun was a Professor of Business Law at Stanford University who had a profound influence on a generation of students, with former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor crediting him with being the key intellectual and spiritual influence in her life.
With his wife, Emilia, he founded the Creative Initiative Foundation (now closed) which morphed during the 1980s into the Beyond War Foundation (also now closed).
Rathbun was born June 14, 1894, in Mitchell, South Dakota, and died September 28, 1987, in Palo Alto, California.
（参考）Jesus as Teacher was written in 1917 by Dr. Henry Burton Sharman, a Canadian. The book was first conceived while Sharman was a graduate student at the University of Chicago’s department of New Testament History and Literature. He had been working on a fairly typical Ph.D thesis -- “How Jesus Fulfilled the Jewish Messianic Expectations” – when he found that his research led him to exactly the opposite conclusion. Rather than being the fulfillment of Jewish messianic expectations, Sharman discovered that Jesus was an original religious genius who dismissed the apocalyptic expectations as ungrounded fantasy, and who focused his ministry on teaching the practical imperative of aligning one’s life with God’s will.
Armed with this new understanding, Dr. Sharman set out to illuminate – as brightly as he could -- the historical Jesus: what Jesus most likely said and did, and what those sayings and actions likely meant within the context of his times. To be as accurate as possible in his research, Dr. Sharman learned Patristic Greek and translated into English for himself the oldest available records of the Synoptic Gospels – Mathew, Mark, and Luke. Setting aside the Book of John– poetic and mystical, it is considered the least historically accurate – he undertook a laborious comparison of the three gospels, subjecting each line to intense scholastic scrutiny.
Introduction
An instructor in the Socratic mold, Dr. Sharman wrote his book as a study guide, meant to be explored through group dialogue. Dr. Sharman’s style was to ask penetrating questions, to which the students were expected to provide astute and insightful answers. Answers were never given by Sharman -- only questions followed by more questions meant to guide the student toward greater clarity in his or her thinking.
Dr. Sharman died in 1953, but his work was continued by two of his favorite students: Harry and Emilia Rathbun. Harry was Professor Emeritus at Stanford University’s School of Law, and Emilia a teacher, lecturer and renowned religious leader. Together they founded the Sequoia Seminar Foundation – and later the Creative Initiative Foundation – dedicated to exploring, understanding and living the teachings of Jesus. Always they stayed true to Sharman’s vision of engaging with the book through group dialogue.
参考：ラスボンの宗教書 ダウンロードできる。
