Motohisa Yamakage

"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."