Shinto and Zen / Japanese essence / Foundations are important
Saturday, November 26, 2016
We have both cultures and we always perform both ceremony,
but Japanese foundation is Shinto.
Emperor and prime minister visit Shinto shrine as official visit.
Zen Buddhism is popular than Shinto all over the world.
I know two reasons.
1,Buddhism have statue(Daibutsu) and books to read.
Statue worship is very easy to understand.
2, Many people feel like Zen is a exotic religion.
(But Yoga,meditation...those are not Zen's essence at all)
Actually,Zen priest's main training is their neat life and effort.
Cooking,cleaning and labor work to live.
Meditation is not their main training.
Japanese foundation is Shinto.
But Shinto and Zen are not separated each other.
Please have a look this illustration.
Shinto's essence is keeping nature.
So,Japanese people pray for eternal nature.
Top Shinto priest is Japan's Emperor.
He is always praying for nature for keep it.(Almost no day-off)
When you are hungry,you will imagine/wish foods you like.
Next,you will cook or buy foods.
And the foods appear on the dish because you wished first.
Everything appears because it wished by someone.
Shinto also has essence of "Ancestors worship".
Amaterasu(Goddess of the Sun) is enshrined at Ise grand shrine.
Amaterasu is the direct ancestor of Emperor of Japan.
My Buddhism friend said
"Shinto never save human heart but Buddha do".
Her opinion is immature.
For example,
if we have no secure home today,
do we worry about other personal troubles or thinking?
I mean she takes her Given-Surrounding for granted.
Given-Surrounding = Nature,land,nation and home
We need cherish our places that we live now.
People are apt to forget about how our secure situation is precious.
Security is not free of charge.
Please don't take it for granted.
We are fully protected in every way on the Earth.
We can make private efforts to live with foundations.
The effort makes you happy and you will have good future.
But it depends on a situation of foundation.
See?
Shinto includes Zen's essence for personal relief.
We have to see whole not only small parts.
When human forget about importance of foundations,
human begin to think about useless things.