The statement "We have always been loved and forgiven by ourselves" is also one that is impossible to understand as long as one leads his/her life based on the belief that the physical world is the real world.
Because we do not know that we are loved and forgiven by ourselves, the larger the efforts we make in the physical world become, the stronger we believe that we achieved everything we have by our own physical efforts.
Some people may say, "We are loved and forgiven by ourselves and alive thanks to ourselves, so we should thank ourselves." However, the vibrations being sent from such people are invariably religious. I believe such people do not understand what they are saying themselves. They probably do not even imagine there exists a true self inside oneself, who actually is loving and forgiving oneself and keeping oneself alive.
Such people may say, "We should thank ourselves," but they are no different from others who say they achieved everything they did in their lives by making physical efforts on their own. The general public seems to use the two phrases of "self-made effort" and "other-made effort" to differentiate the two concepts, but the two phrases share the same root.
Being ignorant of and indifferent about the fact that there is a true self inside you, who loves, forgives, and keeps you alive is what the energy that causes us to make the mistake of asking others for salvation is. Such energy is the root shared by the two phrases of "self-made effort" and "other-made effort."
Since we all believe that our physical selves is our true selves, we will naturally put effort into satisfying our physical selves.
Therefore, we believe that joy and happiness comprise what our physical selves feel as being joyful, enjoyable, and fun. In fact, that is the only type of joy and happiness that we are aware of. The joy, happiness, and fun that we know is limited to those that our physical selves have actually felt.
Then, if I were to be asked whether there is another type of joy and happiness, I would say, "Yes, there is."
In fact, the other type of joy and happiness that I am talking about is much more better than those that our physical selves have ever felt.
The joy and happiness that I am talking about are those that we can feel when we come to know with our heart that there does exist a true self inside ourselves.
In addition, whereas the joy and happiness that our physical selves can feel do not last very long, those that we feel when we come to know the existence of our true selves last for eternity.
However, as long as one believes that his/her physical self is his/her true self, one will never come to know the existence of his/her true self.
Let me explain this point more precisely as follows: "We all do already know the existence of our true selves; we just choose not to believe in its existence." We are preventing ourselves from coming to feel the true joy and happiness knowable by truly believing in the existence of our true selves inside ourselves. Our choice of only believing in the world visible to the eye is what is preventing us from coming to know the existence of our true selves.
Having learned that there is a true self inside yourself, some readers may be thinking something along the lines as follows: "If there is a true self existing inside me and I have not yet come to truly believe in its existence, doesn't that mean that I only know my false self? Then, does that mean that the joy and happiness that I've felt up until this point had all been false? If that proves to be the case, I need to experience what the joy and happiness knowable when one comes to truly believe in one's true self feels like."
In order to come to know and truly believe in our true selves, we first need to realize that we ourselves are preventing ourselves from doing so, and to do that, we need to reflect on our hearts. However, reflecting on our hearts is an extremely difficult thing to do. I know the difficulty that accompanies the process of changing the basis of one's life from being physical-world based to being non-physical world based. However, we need to continue trying to change our basis of life. Through the process of putting effort into changing one's basis of life, one will come to realize how meaningless it is to reflect on one's heart without changing one's basis of life, which realization will then lead to the conclusion that one must keep on trying to change one's basis of life no matter how difficult doing so may be. One will come to the realization that there is no other way to understand oneself. One will come to realize with his/her heart that he/she cannot learn about the truth and the true world without understanding oneself first.
However, regardless of how difficult it is to change one's basis of life and how much time doing so may require, one will come to be convinced with one's heart that the process of changing one's basis of life is accompanied with true joy and happiness, because this is the only way to learn about the truth and the true world. Once one reaches this state, he/she will experience himself/herself telling himself/herself, while suffering, that this study teaches the truth, which experience will then encourage oneself to continue on with the study. In other words, one will feel himself/herself encouraging him/her to take the next step towards the next stage. As long as one reflects on his/her heart and meditates properly as taught in this study taught by Mr. Tomekichi Taike, the life that he/she leads will undoubtedly be one full of joy and happiness, which serves as proof that one is loved and forgiven by his/her true self inside himself/herself.