Shinto

"The chief ideas underlying Japanese myth are, firstly, the conception—piecemeal it is true, and inadequate—of the so-called inanimate universe as being really instinct with sentient life, and exercising a loving providential care over mankind; and secondly, the doctrine that honour and obedience are due to the sovereign whose beneficent rule secures to the people blessings comparable to that of the sun's light and warmth. For such, I take it, is the real meaning of the story by which the Mikados are feigned to be descendants of the Sun-Goddess. It is the Japanese version of the doctrine of the divine right of kings. Without these and similar vital elements Japanese myth would be nothing more than what some writers have supposed it, a farrago of absurdities, and its examination would belong not to the physiology, but to the pathology of the human mind."

"Shintō, as a theanthropic religion, has culminated in Mikadoism or the Worship of the Mikado or Japanese Emperor, as a divinity, during his lifetime as well as after his death, even in the ethical stage of its religious development... Herein lies even at the present day, in my opinion, the essence or life of Shintō, inseparably connected with the national ideals of the Japanese people. Japanese patriotism or loyalty, as you might call it, really is not simple patriotism or mere loyalty, as understood in the ordinary sense of the word, i.e., in the mere ethical sense of the term, it is more—it is the lofty self-denying enthusiastic sentiment of the Japanese people towards their august Ruler, believed to be something divine, rendering them capable of offering up anything and everything, all dearest to them, willingly, i.e., of their own free will; of sacrificing not only their wealth or property, but their own life itself, for the sake of their divinely gracious Sovereign... all this is nothing but the actual manifestation of the religious consciousness of the Japanese people. This sentiment is truly characteristic of Shintō as a religion."

"Thus, we see that the essence or life of Shintō is even today expressed in the peculiar religious patriotism of the Japanese people glorifying their Emperor as the centre of faith. So we venture to define Shintō, whose vital essence has never been languished, but is, on the contrary, strongly and ceaselessly active in the heart and mind of the Japanese people, as follows:— The vital essence of Shintō manifests itself as an expression of the unique spirit of the national service of the Japanese people, which is not only mere morality but is their religion, culminating in Mikadoism or their own peculiar form of loyalty or patriotism towards the Emperor, who at once political head and religious leader in a government constitutional yet theocraticopatriarchal."

"We [i.e., the members of the Japanese race] who have been brought into existence through the creative spirits of the sacred ancestral kami are, each and every one, in spontaneous possession of the Way of the Gods. This means that we are equipped by nature with the virtues of reverence for the gods, for rulers and parents, with kindness toward wife and children, with the moral qualities which in Confucianism are called the five great ethical relationships (gorin) [i.e., those of ruler and subjects, parent and child, husband and wife, older and younger brothers, and friend with friend] and also with the five virtues (gojō) [i.e., benevolence, justice, propriety, wisdom, and faith], and to follow this nature just as it is, without bending or turning aside, is to conform to the teaching of the kami."

"There are ten or a dozen good definitions of Shintō in existence, all varying more or less according to the individual viewpoints of those attempting the elucidation. For example: Shintō is the indigenous religion of the Japanese people; it is the Way of the Gods; it is "kami-cult," a form of definition in which kami signifies the deities of Japan as distinct from those brought into the country through foreign contacts; it is pan-psychism or hylozoism; it is the racial spirit of the Japanese people (Yamato Damashii); it is the sacred ceremonies conducted before the kami; it is the essence of the principles of imperial rule; it is a system of correct social and political etiquette; it is the ideal national morality; it is a system of patriotism and loyalty centering in emperor worship (“Mikadoism”); it is, in its pure and original form, a nature worship; or, over against this, Shintō, correctly understood, is ancestor worship; or, again, it is an intermixture of the worship of nature and of ancestors; and, lastly, it is, in its earliest stages, a lower nature religion in which are merged elements of animism, naturism, and anthropolatry, evolving later into an advanced form of nature religion, and, finally, under the influence of Buddhism and Confucianism, achieving speculative and ethical components of a high order."

"It was the indigenous religion of the ancient Japanese people and, as such, potent to foster and preserve convictions of racial uniqueness and destiny. It possessed an ancient and independent literature and ritual. It was fed by deep undercurrents of tradition and folklore welling up from the unconscious depths of the national life. At its core was an ancestralism centering in a faith in the divine descent—and concomitantly the inalienable rights of suzerainty—of the Imperial Family. Shintō was manifestly indispensable to the unification of the disorganised country."

"Shintō, or Kamu-nagara, is a Way of Nature. This does not mean that it is a primitive and inferior nature worship. It means that Shintō is a spontaneous and real manifestation of the true nature of things, taking form in human affairs in proportion as this nature is given opportunity for sincere and unperverted expression. Thus, Shintō can be explained from the standpoint of the true, the good and the beautiful."

"The Truth of Shintō is to be seen in the inevitability of its underlying doctrine. This is apparent on consideration of the real significance of the great deities introduced in the oldest Yamato literature. Ame-no-Minaka-Nushi-no-Kami (‘‘The Deity Who is Lord of the Center of Heaven’’), the first god named in the Kojiki is correctly understood as the central existence of the universe, the primary source of all things, both animate and inert. All the phenomena presented to human senses are the manifestations in time of this absolute god. The Absolute functions in time in the form of the two-fold creation kami, Taka-Mimusubi-no-Kami and Kami-Musubi-no-Kami. These two beings represent activities of opposite kinds, from which the phenomenal world has had its rise. This positive-negative, or male-female, potency appears in Japanese history as the great father and mother of the race, Izanagi and Izanami, from whom is born the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu-Ōmikami, who in turn is the progenetrix of the Imperial Family and the Japanese people. Amaterasu-Ōmikami, in her position among the historical personages of Japan, is like the sun in heaven about which the planetary bodies revolve. The aptness of this solar metaphor accounts for the sun imagery of the early mythology. The statements just made point to undeniable facts in Japanese history. This is not a matter of mere chance or coincidence, but is so by inner necessity. This is the Truth of the Way of the Gods."

"Another distinguishing characteristic of Shintō lies in what may be called its corporateness. In many other religions men as individuals are set over against the gods. In Shintō we are merged with our fellowmen about us and with the unseen host of ancestors that have gone before us and, as a great spiritual body, united with the divine. We are made of one line with the kami through our ancestors. We are united, divine and human, past and present, into a totality of warp and woof, interpenetrated and coherent... There are three things that are inseparable: our race which is our ancestral inheritance, our country which is our racial home and our faith wherewith our loyalties are sustained. This is the true Way of the Gods."

"Shintō has been called the Wordless Way. This means that practice is more important than mere words, that the hand is mightier than the mouth, that deeds are weightier than rhetoric, that actualities are the greatest of arguments. This practical tendency reflects an inborn aptitude of the Japanese people. The finest expression of this passion for reality is in the patriotism with which we guard and promote the welfare of our country—a patriotism which, on the one hand, is centralized in devotion to our Imperial Family and which exalts our race and supports our homes and our magnificent national organization, on the other. All this is not a formal achievement, theoretically fostered with words, but is the natural registration of our racial characteristics, manifested in all its purity in the past, handed on unimpaired through our ancestors and maintained without flaw in the present. This is true Shintō."

"Our Japanese race thus passed through a great testing in the time of Jimmu Tennō. Thereby were fostered a spiritual stability that never yields no matter what the hardships, a strong racial capacity for unification, and a reverential and worshipful faith in the Emperor, exalted to a religious character. These have come down through two thousand six hundred years as the very core of the Japanese national spirit."

"He [The Emperor] is regarded as a living kami, loved and revered by the nation above all things on earth, and himself loving and protecting the nation, who are deemed sons of Kami Nagara and are entrusted to his care by the kami. This mutual understanding obtains between every individual Japanese and the Emperor. The Sovereign studies our needs and feels our sorrows. What more have we, then, to ask from the kami directly? Thus Shintō (doctrine of the kami) is kundō (doctrine of the Emperor), for Shintōism is Mikadoism; "the kamis will is the Emperor's will" is a maxim inscribed on the heart of every Japanese. Herein one may see the fountain-head of our patriotic spirit, whose marvellous activity has served to raise Japan in these fifty years to the level of the first-rate Powers of the world."

"Shintō, as is well known, is a combination by the Japanese of the worship of nature and of their own ancestors. But the character of the combination is ethnologically instructive. For a lack of psychic development has made of these seemingly diverse elements a homegeneous whole. Both, of course, are aboriginal instincts. Next to the fear of natural phenomena, in point of primitiveness, comes the fear of one's father; as children and savages show. But races, like individuals, tend to outgrow it as they develop. Now the suggestive thing about the Japanese people is that this passing phase of religion has been perpetuated. The Japanese have stayed boys. Filial respect continued, and, by very virtue of not becoming less, became more, till it filled not only the whole sphere of morals but expanded into the sphere of cosmogony. To the Japanese eye the universe itself took on the paternal look. Parental awe which these people under stood lent explanation to natural dread which they did not. Quite simply to their minds the thunder and the wind, the sunshine and the shower were the work not only of anthropomorphic beings but of beings ancestrally related to themselves. In short Shintō, their explanation of things in general, is nothing else than the patriarchal principle projected without perspective into the past, dilating with distance into deity."

"A "Naturefolk" learns by intimate contact with nature that there is a healing power in the flower and the grass, in the mountains and streams, in the rain and the clouds. He comes to see gods working in these phenomena, and if they are of divine origin do they not contain goodly qualities? Why seek afar for the divine? It is even in the objects around you. They are good and just. Why seek elsewhere for justice and goodness? So, to live a natural life is to be just and good. There is no evil in nature. What seems to be evil is the tipping of the balance scale. Evil is immoderation. All natural appetites are good and they become evil only when indulged in to excess. This is Shinto, the Way of the Gods, naïve primitive teaching aboriginal to the soil of Japan."

"Students of this religion have been struck with the simplicity of its doctrine. It enforces no especial moral code, embraces no philosophical ideas, and, moreover, it has no authoritative books to guide believers. Its one peculiar feature is the relation it holds towards the Imperial Family of Japan, whose ancestors are made the chief object of worship. This religion, if indeed it can rightly be called a religion at all, amounts to ancestor-worship—the apotheosis of the Japanese Imperial Family. This fact naturally brings about two results: one is that Shintō can never be propagated beyond the realms of the Japanese Emperor; the other, that it has helped to a very great extent the growth of the spirit of loyalty of Japanese subjects toward their head, and has enshrined the Imperial Family with such a degree of sacredness and reverence that it would be difficult to name another ruling family which is looked up to by its subjects with the same amount of loyal homage and submissive veneration. It is, indeed, a unique circumstance in the history of the nations that, during the two thousand five hundred years of its sway, the position of the Japanese Imperial Family as head of the whole nation has never once been disputed, nor even questioned, by the people. Of course, it is true that the dynasty has experienced many vicissitudes, but, although the actual government has at times been in the hands of powerful nobles and Shoguns, the throne has, nevertheless, been always kept sacred for the descendants of Jimmu, the first Emperor."

"2. 天地は生き通しである。天地が生きているから、人間もみな生きていられるのである。"

"24. 鳥や獣がどのようにして生きていくかを考えてみても、神のお恵みがわかる。冬になったといって重ね着をするでもなく、夏になっても一枚も脱ぐことはない。神はそれでちゃんとさしつかえないように育てておられる。"

"39. 天地金乃神はこの世の親神であるから、天地金乃神に信心しているといっても、していないといっても、天地の間に生きているからには、天地金乃神の子に変わりはない。"

"54. 人のことをそしる者がある。神道はどう、仏教がこうなどと、そしったりする。自分の産んだ子供の中で、一人は僧侶になり、一人は神父になり、一人は神主になり、また、役人になり、職人になり、商人になりというようになった時、親は、その子供の中でだれかがそしられて、うれしいと思うだろうか。他人をそしるのは、神の心にかなわない。釈迦もキリストもどの宗祖も、みな神のいとし子である。"

"55. 生きている間も死んだ後も天と地はわが住みかである。生きても死んでも天地のお世話になることを悟れ。"

"56. お天道様のお照らしなさるのもおかげ、"

"60. 死ぬ用意をすな。生きる用意をせよ。死んだら土になるのみ。"

"66. 金光大神が、"

"67. 死ぬということは、もみを臼でひいた時、殻と実とが分かれるようなものである。時が来れば魂と体とが分かれるのである。"

"80. 用心せよ。わが心の鬼がわが身を責める。"

"90. 今、天地の開ける音を聞いて、目を覚ませ。"

"91. 日に日に生きることが信心である。"

"111. 心は広く持っておれ。世界は広く考えておれ。世界はわが心にある。"

"117. 拝めとも何をせよとも言わない。ただ一つ真の信心をせよと言うのに、その一つができないのか。"

"128. 真にありがたいと思う心は、おかげのはじめである。"

"133. おかげはたらいの水である。向こうへやろうとすれば、こちらへ来る。こちらへ取ろうとすれば、向こうへ行く。"

"159. 神が天地の理を説いて、安心の道を授けてやる。"

"163. 信心は話しを聞くだけでは十分でない。わが心からも練り出すがよい。"

"165. 神は昼夜も遠い近いも問わない。頼む心にへだてなく祈れ。"

"166. 神を礼拝するのに、別に決まりはない。実意丁寧、正直、真一心がかなめである。 日々生かされているお礼を申し、次に、お互い凡夫の身で、知らず知らずにご無礼、お粗末、お気障りなどをしている道理であるから、それをお断りおわび申して、それがすんだら、身の上のことを何かと実意をもってお願いさせてもらうがよい。"

"167. 信心といっても別にむずかしいことはない。親にものを言うように、朝起きたら神にお礼を申し、その日のことが都合よくいくように願い、よそへ行く時には、行ってまいりますと言ってお届け申しあげよ。 そして、帰って来たら、無事で帰りましたとお礼を言い、夜寝る時にはまた、その日のお礼を申して寝るようにすれば、それで信心になる。"

"183. 信心する者は、山へ行って木の切り株に腰をおろして休んでも、立つ時には礼を言う心持ちになれ。"

"201. 世間には、水の行、火の行などがあり、いろいろの物断ちをする人もあるが、そのような行はしなくてもよい。巡礼のように白い着物を着てあちらこちらを巡り歩く暇に、毎日の家業を信心の行と心得て勤め、おかげを受けるがよい。"

"202. 水をかぶって行をするというが、体にかぶっても何にもならない。心にかぶれ。寒三十日の水行をするといっても、それは体を苦しめて病気をこしらえるようなものである。家内や子供の病気のために水をかぶって、一週間日参をしても治らなければ、自分の体に傷がつくだけである。水をかぶったから真である、水をかぶらないから真がないとはいえない。食わずの行をするのは、金光大神は大嫌いである。食べて飲んで体を大切にして信心をせよ。"

"203. しかし、何もわざわざそんな不自由な山に行かなくても、心の中に山をこしらえて、その中で修行をしたらそれでよい。自分が山に入った心になっていれば、どんなに不自由なことがあっても、また家内のこしらえたものがまずくても、けっして不足を言うことはないであろう。"

"204. 人間は人間らしくすればよい。何も求めて不思議なことをしなくてもよい。"

"209. 木のもとへ肥料をやれば、枝振りまで栄える。 先祖や親を大切にすれば繁盛させてくださる。"

"219. 手厚く信心をする者は夢でもうかつに見るな。神は、夢にでも良し悪しを教えてくださる。"

"223. 思う念力岩をもとおすというが、信心する者が一心を出して願えば、どんなことでもかなえてくださる。"

"226. 「一心になることは、はなはだむずかしいものと思います。拝みながら、いろいろのことが思われたりして、心の内が定まりませんが、どういうものでありましょうか」と申しあげると、 「一心になる心は、子供をこしらえる時のようなぐあいに思い知れよ」と仰せられた。"

"230. 金の杖をつけば曲がる。竹や木の杖をつけば折れる。神を杖につけばよい。 神は、曲がりも折れも死にもなさらない。"

"254. 若い時の信心は、老いての楽しみである。"

"279. 「苗代にひきがえるが入って卵を産んで困ります」と願う者に対して、金光様は、「よそでは封じると言うが、うちでは封じない。かえるに、あぜで遊んでもらうようにすればよい。うちの田に入らないようにすれば、よその田に入るから」と教えられた。"

"289. 人から出る日給はわかっても、神から出る日給はわかるまい。"

"291. 何を飲むにも食べるにも、ありがたくいただく心を忘れるな。"

"293. 食物は、わが心で毒にも薬にもなるものである。"

"343. 縁談には、相性を調べ見合わせるより、真の心を見合わせよ。"

"354. 金光大神の話は、学者の話や講義と違って、ここが続き、ここが切れ目ということがない。天地のある間は、天地の話が尽きることはない。金光大神は天地の道理を説くのである。"

"375. たとえ人にたたかれても、けっして人をたたいてはいけない。人に難儀をさせるな。よい心にならせてもらえばありがたいと思い、すれ違った人でも拝んであげよ。できるだけ人を助けるようにせよ。"

"396. 欲を捨てることについておたずねした時、 「いやいや、私にも欲がある。世界の人を助けたい欲がある。欲を捨ててはいけない」と仰せになった。"

"400. 金光とは、金光るということである。金は金乃神の金、光は天つ日の光である。天つ日の光があれば明るい。世界中に天地金乃神の光を光らせて、おかげを受けさせるということである。"

"With the completion of this sacred staff, I will end your farming career. Please understand. ... There are many people like yourself, who have sincere faith in kamis, but still have many problems. Help these people by performing toritsugi. This will help Kami and save people. Man exists because of Kami, and Kami exists because of man. Thus, Kami supports man as Kami's child, and man supports Kami as his parent. There will be eternal prosperity through aiyo kakeyo, mutual interdependency."

"今般、天地乃神より生神金光大神差し向け、願う氏子におかげを授け、理解申して聞かせ、末々まで繁盛いたすこと、氏子ありての神、神ありての氏子、上下立つようにいたし候。"

"Konkō Kyō not only declares itself as monotheism but, at the same time, repudiates all ordinary superstitious beliefs and practices so widely prevalent among the nation at large, such as the selling and the wearing of charms and the use of exorcisms, divinations, and formal, repetitious prayers. Its founder, like Jesus of Nazareth, began life as a simple peasant and, like Jesus, Kawate Bunjirō eventually came to the conviction that the great Father of All Life had come to self-knowledge in himself. Chronologically Konkō Kyō is almost exactly coextensive with the history of Christianity in modern Japan. Its study affords material that is remarkably suggestive in making comparison with the progress of the Christian movement."

"It was not until after he had founded his church that he began to call himself by the extraordinary title, "The Living God, The Great God Konkō." He declared that his "roots" were the same as those of God. Yet this remarkable manifestation of an expanded ego was united with the utmost humility. To the end of his life he preserved the character of a simple, self-abnegating farmer. There is no evidence that during his lifetime he ever invited or permitted worship on the part of his followers. Almost on his death-bed he declared with tears of gratitude and humility in his eyes that he could not cease to thank God that He had opened His truth to an ignorant man like himself. The followers of Konkō Daijin have described this dual consciousness as the union of complete man and complete God. It suggests the twofold nature ascribed to Jesus."

"Spiritual Learning is [a method of learning in which one] personally witnesses and verifies the genuine existence of deities by training oneself single-mindedly in the principles of spirit possession, while taking the divine classics and national histories as one’s basis. By personally apprehending their [i.e., the deities’] loftiness and might, one understands why the world of our country’s divine classics is unparalleled. Hereby one understands for the first time the original principles of the establishment of the universe, the configuration of the planet earth, the boundary between the manifest and arcane realms, and the reason why the grandson of Heaven [i.e., Ninigi-no-mikoto, Amaterasu’s grandson] descended to earth. Thus one becomes awed by the mighty virtue of the Heavenly Deity who is the Imperial Ancestor, and can understand why our Imperial Household is honorable and mighty, and why shrines exist. However, this Spiritual Learning is mutually complementary with the study of the divine classics. Only by both studying the divine classics and personally experiencing the existence of deities can one understand their mighty virtue. One cannot truly comprehend the mysterious wonders of the divine classics merely by the philological analysis carried on by scholars from ancient times. Only by experiencing the genuine existence of the deities through the method of spirit possession can one understand the arcane, distant, subtle and marvelous original principle of our realm of the deities."

"問 神、何衣、何食、何宅 曰 衣道、食道、宅道 如人、衣於道、食於道、宅於道，則亦猶神"

"That is why the importance of chinkon in Shinto has been emphasized repeatedly since ancient times. Chinkon is different from simple mental concentration or the quieting of the mind. Through the practice of chinkon one can actually break through the wall of other dimensions existing in their mind. When this happens, the other world will appear, and they will become aware of the worlds of spirit and Kami. Without this, people cannot approach Kami filled with reverence and awe, nor can they experience true faith with gratitude in their hearts and minds. However, the faith I am talking about here is not something that can simply be taught at college."

"Shinto sees everything in existence as generated by and transformed from the ultimate origin of life; this is expressed in the idea that all forms of life are a child-spirit of the original Kami."

"Each Kami has its own characteristics, but they are not fixed. Furthermore, the Kami can spread out simultaneously into various places and various existences. This concept can actually be applied to human beings also. In the section on “one spirit, four souls” (Chapter 6), we shall see that the human being is the assembled body of many souls. This assembled body of souls can sometimes be divided. That is why a well-trained spiritual person can send off his own separated soul to a distant location or a different time period to perform long distance healing, precognition, or clairvoyance."

"Shinto values nature and life. This is because Shinto originally arose from a sense of gratitude and awe toward great nature. Our ancestors loved nature, from animals and plants to mountains and rivers. This love of nature is intrinsic to the Japanese character, influencing our art forms as well as our spiritual practices, even in a modern, urbanized nation where millions of people have little apparent contact with nature. In this age when human beings are destroying mother earth in the pursuit of material progress, we should reclaim our love for nature and let it inform our daily lives and spiritual practices."

"Shinto is, ultimately, such a simple belief that anybody can accept and practice it. It neither requires special intellectual ability nor does it demand a life-denying asceticism. As long as people understand the attitudes associated with cleanness and brightness (happiness) and rightness and straightness (honesty), they can start from those points and advance further along the path to explore more profound themes. One of the strengths of Shinto is that it can allow people to find their own level of practice and experience, without being physically or intellectually overwhelmed, but gaining as much spiritual awareness as practitioners of more stringent or austere paths."

"For a jinja, one must choose a suitable place and then create an appropriate setting for a sacred space. Then it is necessary to ask Kami to descend upon it and make its presence felt. In other words, jinja need not be a place where Kami have dwelled eternally, or will always live."

"The spirit of Kami does not visit unclean places, and an unclean shrine becomes a mere building devoid of Kami energy, even though it may still have mitamashiro (御魂代) there. Mitamashiro is a material object temporarily representing spirit, such as a mirror, for the spirit of Kami to descend upon."

"In some shrine buildings, when kannushi of low spiritual levels are serving, one can sense the presence of shady, lower-level spirits. These correspond to the kannushi’s own level of spiritual development. It often happens that only malevolent spirits, not good spirits, gather at places where large sums of money are demanded from visitors. Often, this happens with newly established religious groups. When people go to such places, they experience headaches or nausea."

"Shinto, the very process of creating and giving birth to life and spirit is described as musubi and we place it in very high regard. In other words, the basic religious idea of Shinto is the continuous process of creation. When we apply this principle to an individual spirit-soul, we see that musubi is the process of work through which each person generates, grows, transforms, and develops naohinomitama (the innermost pure spirit), making his or her spirit grow and become strong. This means that the first task involves the creating of the body, which is attained through diligent care of bodily health. The second task is the creating of heart and mind, or psychological growth. Thirdly, there is the creating of the spirit, that is to say the purification of spirit-soul."

"Therefore in Shinto there is no doctrine of absolute and final salvation. Human beings continue to grow. Human beings keep growing throughout their lives, and after their lives on earth they go to the other world (see Chapter 7) and continue living for renovation and maintenance, or shuri kosei. Eventually, they may keep growing until they eventually become Kami."

"In the period immediately after death, the spirit-soul remains close to this world, observing how the family is doing, going out to visit friends at their home, or going to worship at a shrine or Buddhist temple. Many are not yet clearly aware of their own death status. Some still retain a part of nigimitama, so they have a semi-material body and can even make noises. Those who have psychic powers are able to see them. Usually they spend a certain period of time, the so-called “forty-nine days,” in such circumstances. In Buddhism they call this circumstance chuyu, meaning “existing in the middle.” A while afterwards they become aware of their death and fully move onto the other world, or yukai."

"Since ancient times, Shinto has taught that the goal of human life is to “become like a Kami” through the work of refining the personality and bringing out a clean and bright character. This work is understood to continue even after death. For beyond death, there is a high and pure world as well as a low and unclean one. Therefore, every spirit-soul (reikon) has to continue training for purification and further spiritual advancement even after physical death. This is the hidden knowledge gained by the experience of Shinto practitioners over its long history. In Yamakage Shinto we can find the following “Song of the Spiritual Journey”:"

"These mountains are called spiritual mountains in Japan, and they used to be sacred places to which it was thought the spirits of dead human beings went. These spiritual mountains also became the base for the school of mountain ascetics that has existed since the arrival of Buddhism in Japan. According to Japanese folklore, the spirits of the dead remain for a certain time at the mountain to watch over their descendants and to receive memorial services. After being completely purified, the spirit stays within the mountain, but moves to a higher dimension to become one of the ancestral spirits of that village."

"Therefore, it has been widely believed in Japan that ancestral spirits exist in the invisible world, overlapping with physical reality and having intimate connection with people living in this world. In this unseen world, the ancestral spirits continue to work on their own purification."

"Gradually, each human spirit-soul is purified so that it may become a highly advanced spirit, just as flowers bloom, bring forth fruit, and eventually mature. The soul who committed misdeeds undergoes a process of atonement. Having successfully worked through this, it is able to move on to further spiritual growth. Some very advanced psychics are conscious of this process taking place."

"During the period of transition from this world to yukai, the hidden world of subtle energy, the spirit-soul is at its most vulnerable. It can be likened to a delicate butterfly, at the moment of emergence from its chrysalis. Therefore, there are spirits entrusted with the task of protecting the spirit-soul from danger at this time. In most cases, the spirits of deceased ancestors or friends of the dead come to meet and greet the dead. These spirits in turn receive instruction from higher ranks of spirit so that they may give useful guidance to their dead relatives or friends."

"Through worldly preoccupations, we become separated from that true self, and yet we can be aware that it exists and that it needs to get out. In a sense we can say that this phenomenon represents the separation between purity and impurity. To make this separation occur, a centrifugal separation movement of purity is needed. As a result of this movement, the true self, shrouded by the cloud of illusion and impurity, is able to emerge. The true self is a state of transcendence and so it is able to remain pure, even in the midst of impurity. However, the ego-self living in the relative and conflicted world cannot hear the voice of this true self. In order to hear this voice, we need to conduct silent listening in meditation. In Yamakage Shinto, that is known as chinkon. When we carry out chinkon, the relationship between true self and ego-self does not have conflict, and they become one body like the front and back of one coin. This is known as the unification of Kami and the human being. This unification means that Kami and the human being spiritually become one."

"When you see this reality in deep introspection through chinkon practice, you will intuitively know the truth of the saying, “this body as it is, is Kami.” There is also the saying: “ancestors and ‘I’ are connected as one.” This means the ancestors and “I” are connected with each other as one body. “I” am one scene of an endless, continuous life history in the eternal universe. My ancestors who bore me are also the children of Kami ... Therefore, “‘I live” means ‘I’ am living in the flow of this eternity.”"

"There is also the saying: “everything is ‘I’.” This means that everything is the result of the transformation and creation of daigenrei (大元霊), the “creator Kami of the universe” and that the source of life is one. This also means everything that is manifest in that universe is interconnected, part of the web of life, from the most apparently complex organisms to the seemingly simplest. Any phenomenon manifested in “me” is meaningful and nurtures “me.” In the end it moves “me” toward Kami. In this sense, every manifestation in the cosmos is a manifestation of “me.” All this should not be understood only at the rational level. It must be experienced intuitively as we access our inner Kami."

"If you truly enter a deep state, then chinkon can also lead you into a realm exactly like the one known as “the realm of mindlessness and thoughtlessness.”"

"There are various ways one can develop mental concentration. When you successfully reach a concentrated mental state the realm “free from all ideas and thoughts” will be opened to you, even though it might be for only one or two seconds. This does not mean that you neither think nor feel in those moments. This realm is purely clean and bright, transparent everywhere, and filled with limitless wisdom. No matter how short the moment is, you can touch the eternally existing clean and bright world and feel that the entire universe exists within that brief period."

"Experiencing “light” is easy, even for beginners, during chinkon. One may experience the inside of the brain filled with dazzling light, or one may feel enveloped by a golden mist. But these are only preliminary states of consciousness. If you keep advancing from there by imagining a small sun or a round moon at the center of your forehead, eventually you will see a sun or moon of such brightness that you will be shocked. This does not appear as part of the realm of fantasy, but as the real experience it is. According to the hidden teaching handed down to the Yamakage family, people will see “mist, smoke, sun, wind, fire, fluorescence, crystal, and a moon.” Sometimes a coal black experience may occur instead of light."

"Thus true chinkon practice takes place in your heart and mind. You should neither become obsessed with external formality, nor boast of your spiritual and psychic power or experience. It is a mistake either to aim at gaining supernatural power or to compare your own abilities with those of others. You must not become trapped in arrogant pride, nor become a slave to the process of spiritual training, nor speak noisily about its benefits. Chinkon should lead us to a state of spiritual calm, where selfish ambitions and desires give way to the realization of the true self, the Kami within each one of us."

"Shinto is not a faith tradition that can be propagated or imposed. Each human community, every human culture, has its own version of Shinto, which is based on accumulated experience, historical memory, and, perhaps most crucially, the local environment. Shinto recognizes and celebrates human diversity, just as it recognizes and celebrates the diversity of nature. For beneath that diversity there is an underlying unity — the union of humanity, earth, and heaven."