Shinto: A Celebration of Life | Free Book
Aidan Rankin
Shinto is an ancient faith of forests and snow-capped mountains. It
sees the divine in rocks and streams, communing with spirit worlds
through bamboo twigs and the evergreen sakaki tree. Yet it is also the
manicured suburban garden and the blades of grass between cracks in
city paving stones. Structured around ritual cleansing, Shinto
contains no concept of sin. It reveres ancestors, but thinks little
about the afterlife, asking us to live in, and improve, the present.
Central to Shinto is Kannagara: intuitive acceptance of the divine
power contained in all living things. Dai Shizen (Great Nature) is the
life force with which we ally ourselves through spiritual practice and
living simply. This is not asceticism, but an affirmation of all
aspects of life. Musubi (organic growth) provides a model for
reconciling ancient intuition with modern science, modern society with
primal human needs. Shinto is an unbroken indigenous path that now
reaches beyond its native Japan. It has special relevance to us a
- Title: Shinto: A Celebration of Life | Free Book
- Author: Steven
- Created at : 2024-10-22 04:26:03
- Updated at : 2024-10-27 04:37:39
- Link: https://novels-ebooks.techidaily.com/670810-9781846947384-shinto-a-celebration-of-life/
- License: This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.