Shintoism

[FMX]

In a solid nutshell, what do you think of Shintoism?

 

[Jane_the_Bane]

I know very little about Shintoism, apart from the animistic concept of kami - which, incidentally, comes quite close to what I believe about the nature of reality and the collective unconscious.

 

[FMX]

I know very little about Shintoism, apart from the animistic concept of kami - which, incidentally, comes quite close to what I believe about the nature of reality and the collective unconscious.

What is that then?

 

[Nooj]

In a solid nutshell, what do you think of Shintoism?

I don't know much about it. Unless you're a scholar, I don't think many people outside of Japan know what it is.

 

[razeontherock]

Ok, where's our resident Japanese scholar?

 

[Grumpy Old Man]

Shinto - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I like their creation myths.

• Izanagi-no-Mikoto (male) and Izanami-no-Mikoto (female) were called by all the myriad gods and asked to help each other to create a new land which was to become Japan.
• They were given a spear with which they stirred the water, and when removed water dripped from the end, an island was created in the great nothingness.
• They lived on this island, and created a palace and within was a large pole.
• When they wished to bear offspring, they performed a ritual each rounding a pole, male to the left and female to the right, the female greeting the male first.
• They had 2 children (islands) which turned out badly and they cast them out. They decided that the ritual had been done incorrectly the first time.
• They repeated the ritual but according to the correct laws of nature, the male spoke first.
• They then gave birth to the 8 perfect islands of the Japanese archipelago.
• After the islands, they gave birth to the other Kami, Izanami-no-Mikoto dies and Izanagi-no-Mikoto tries to revive her.
• His attempts to deny the laws of life and death have bad consequences.

The Japanese islands are to be considered a paradise as they were directly created by the gods for the Japanese people, and were ordained by the higher spirits to be created into the Japanese empire. Shinto is the fundamental connection between the power and beauty of nature (the land) and the Japanese people. It is the manifestation of a path to understanding the institution of divine power.

I wonder what happened to the two islands that they didn't like.

 

[FMX]

It isn't a religion, it's like more of a acknowledgement of souls that exist outside of biologically living bodies. How Christians say humans have a soul but animals do not. In Shintoism, you believe every object on the scale of this universe has a soul embodied within. So like, if you perish, you just end up outside of your body.

It could also be that if a fox died in your garden, it's spirit might stay there, in the part where it laid.

 

[razeontherock]

acknowledgement of souls that exist outside of biologically living bodies.

Animism?

 

[Aeneas]

Shintoism is a very interesting religion. It has reverence for living things and nature, and culture certainly. I have quite a bit of respect for it. Frankly, I have to admit I consider Shintoism to be healthier than a lot of Christian sects.

 

[FMX]

Animism?

It's just like that, yes. With unimportant differences.

 

[Nooj]

It isn't a religion, it's like more of a acknowledgement of souls that exist outside of biologically living bodies.

Why isn't Shinto a religion?

 

[Jane_the_Bane]

What is that then?

Oh, that would be an essay-length reply at the very least - especially considering that I haven't even attempted to fully verbalize it before.

Well, for starters, I do believe that there is no fundamental distinction between what we'd call "spirit" and what we'd call "matter". And while consciousness requires a medium (read: a nervous system), what I'd call "spirit" is more of an underlying quality of existence itself, inherent within fundamental reality.
Our individual self-construct needs an essential distinction between Inside/Outside in order to establish its boundaries and make it possible for us to distinguish between "I" and "Other", but ultimately, things are considerably less clear-cut than we believe. Our consciousness has the ability to touch upon a transpersonal sphere, re-connecting to the Greater Whole without losing its distinctive qualities or regressing to a pre-conscious state.
In that transpersonal sphere of being, we find what Jung would have called the Archetypes, and Africans and Afro-Caribbeans probably call loa, but to the Japanese, these are the kami. Most Westerners have a hard time wrapping their mind around the concept that there is no essential distinction between spirits, divinities and genii loci, but that all of these qualify as kami, only differing in degree. There are kami that were once human, similarly to Catholic saints or Buddhist bodhisattvas; kami that are more like the totem spirits of shamanism, kami that are the embodiment of a place or an object.

I can relate to that concept. It pretty much mirrors my own musings on the topic.

 

[FMX]

Why isn't Shinto a religion?

Because there is nothing you are suppose to do or not do. There is no major God. All there is to it that a Christian can relate to is that there are recorded ancient people who followed certain practices and said certain things that followers now of the belief find inspiring and would like to preserve and hold sacred.

It's thought mostly that all you'd have to do as such is be kind and considerate to the souls that do not inhabit a living body. That's all really.

 

[FMX]

Oh, that would be an essay-length reply at the very least - especially considering that I haven't even attempted to fully verbalize it before.

Well, for starters, I do believe that there is no fundamental distinction between what we'd call "spirit" and what we'd call "matter". And while consciousness requires a medium (read: a nervous system), what I'd call "spirit" is more of an underlying quality of existence itself, inherent within fundamental reality.
Our individual self-construct needs an essential distinction between Inside/Outside in order to establish its boundaries and make it possible for us to distinguish between "I" and "Other", but ultimately, things are considerably less clear-cut than we believe. Our consciousness has the ability to touch upon a transpersonal sphere, re-connecting to the Greater Whole without losing its distinctive qualities or regressing to a pre-conscious state.
In that transpersonal sphere of being, we find what Jung would have called the Archetypes, and Africans and Afro-Caribbeans probably call loa, but to the Japanese, these are the kami. Most Westerners have a hard time wrapping their mind around the concept that there is no essential distinction between spirits, divinities and genii loci, but that all of these qualify as kami, only differing in degree. There are kami that were once human, similarly to Catholic saints or Buddhist bodhisattvas; kami that are more like the totem spirits of shamanism, kami that are the embodiment of a place or an object.

I can relate to that concept. It pretty much mirrors my own musings on the topic.

Have you always thought this? Like, when did your thoughts on this subject begin and why?

 

[Jane_the_Bane]

Have you always thought this? Like, when did your thoughts on this subject begin and why?

Always? Not really. My childhood musings on religion were mostly characterized by the kind of naive Christianity you'd expect from kids in primary school: angels with harps sitting on clouds, a fatherly god resembling my deceased grandfather (but with a bishop's tiara), only humans have souls but dogs go to their own heaven, etc.


My views on pretty much everything gradually developed and expanded throughout most of my teenage years and my adult life: I read widely, became acquainted with many different philosophies, spiritualities and religions, and chose my own path through all of that according to what made the most sense to me. It's an open-ended process of (self-)discovery, and it allows me to seize upon the accumulated experience of mankind as a whole, rather than tying me to the autocratic dogma of some specific ideology or religion.

 

[Nooj]

Because there is nothing you are suppose to do or not do. There is no major God. All there is to it that a Christian can relate to is that there are recorded ancient people who followed certain practices and said certain things that followers now of the belief find inspiring and would like to preserve and hold sacred.

It's thought mostly that all you'd have to do as such is be kind and considerate to the souls that do not inhabit a living body. That's all really.

That sounds like a religion to me.

 

[Eudaimonist]

In a solid nutshell, what do you think of Shintoism?

It makes for a good influence on japanime.

All I really know about Shintoism is what little I've read about kami. I can't say that I know enough about Shintoism to form a solid opinion about it, but it does strike me as a religion. Correct me if I am mistaken, but Amaterasu, who strikes me as deity enough, is a powerful kami.

Amaterasu - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


eudaimonia,

Mark