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SHINTO...."Being saved is a foreign idea in Japan...When you look into the mirror you know who you are deeper." (Yamamoto Negi of the Tsubaki Grand Shrine at RMSC in 1992)
In the Meiji Restoration of 1868....Shinto and Buddhism were separated by decree ....Buddhist effigies were ordered to be removed from Shinto shrines and all traces of Buddhism were purged from the imperial household.
Shinto is a polytheistic religion, venerating a vast pantheon of kami (gods or spirits) which range from the local deities of mountains or streams to the sun goddess Amaterasu. Natural phenomena and particular places are personified as kami, dead statesmen or other notables could be deified as kami, families or craft traditions revered their forefathers as kami, the reigning emperor was long regarded as a living kami.
"After the Meiji Imperial Restoration of 1868, the new government purged Shinto of Buddhist elements, or ordered to clearly segregate Buddhism from Shinto."
1868......The radicals who overthrew the Tokugawa shogunate in the Meiji Restoration of 1868 took Fukko Shinto as their ideology, and this became the new government's state creed. Shinto and Buddhism were separated by decree in 1868: Buddhist effigies were ordered to be removed from Shinto shrines and all traces of Buddhism were purged from the imperial household. Priests were made state employees, and the Ministry of Religion laid down detailed instructions on doctrine and ritual in a new system termed State Shinto.This concentrated on the more important shrines; folk Shinto practices were mostly left unmolested and various fringe Shinto movements dating from the Edo period were allowed to continue under the rubric Sect Shinto.
Shinto is a polytheistic religion, venerating a vast pantheon of kami (gods or spirits) which range from the local deities of mountains or streams to the sun goddess Amaterasu. Natural phenomena and particular places are personified as kami, dead statesmen or other notables could be deified as kami, families or craft traditions revered their forefathers as kami, the reigning emperor was long regarded as a living kami. A kami could loosely be termed the "spirit" of virtually any aspect of existence possessing its own discrete identity and vital force (tama). Japan is traditionally known as "the land of 8 million kami". The practice of Shinto consists chiefly of worshipping, propitiating, and otherwise dealing with the kami.
Shinto first arose in a preliterate culture as a religion of practice rather than creed, and practice remains fundamental to it. Two types of practice predominate: honouring the kami through prayer and offerings, and averting their wrath by cleansing oneself of impurity.
Trungpa Rinpoche incorporated other elements into the Shambhala Path that he thought would be beneficial to practitioners. From the Bön religion, the lhasang ceremony is performed; other elements of shamanism play a role. From Confucianism comes a framework of heaven, earth, and man for understanding the proper relationship between different elements of compositions of all kinds. From Taoism comes the use of feng shui and other incorporations. From the Shinto tradition comes the use of kami shrines to honor natural forces in specific locales.
"Tsubaki priests conducted a ceremony enshrining Amaterasu Ohmikami at the Rocky Mountain Dharma Center in Red Feather Lakes, Colorado. At the least, 550 attended the ritual, conducted July 18 by three priests of Tsubaki Grand Shrine of Japan -- Yukiyasu Jun Yamamoto, who will be the 97th chief priest of the shrine, Hitoshi Iwasaki, iormer head of Tsubaki U.S. shrine, and Tetsuji Ochiai, currently the priest of the U.S. shrine in Stockton, California. .....In the actual enshrinement, Rev. Yukiyasu Jun Yamamoto carried into the shrine four white-wrapped boxes symbolizing the spirit of four Kami -- Amaterasu Omikami, the sun goddess, Toyoukeno Ohkami, the god of food, Sarutahiko Ohkami, the god of guidance, Amenouzume no Mikoto, the god of harmony. After the ceremony guests saw the traditional Japanese arts of tea ceremony, Ikebana (flower arrangement), calligraphy, and bugaku (traditional Japanese court dance.)....The ceremony was requested by Rocky Mountain Dharma Center. This center, founded in 1971 by the late Chogyam Trangpa Rinpoche, is a contemplative center located in the Northern Colorado Rockies. Situated on 450 secluded acres of highland meadows and pine and aspen forest, it provides an ideal setting for yearround programs devoted to the study and practice of meditation......Chogyam Trangpa is best known to Western readers as the author of several popular books on Buddhism teachings, including Cutting through Spiritual Materialism, The Myth of Freedom of Meditation in Action. His volume, Shambhala, is a major departure from these earlier works. Shambhala is the path of warriorship, or the path of bravery, that is open to any human being who seeks a genuine and fearless existence. Chogyam Trangpa visited Ise Grand Shrine in Japan, and told his followers about Shinto, the indigenous religion of Japan. He said Shinto thought is similar to Shambhala and he decided to incorporate a Shinto shrine in the center......The shrine stands on a gentle pine-forested slope. A path of light-colored crushed limestone winds up the hillside from the meadow under two Torii gates before dividing into a loop that circles in front of the shrine compound. The shrine itself is inside a fenced area terraced with coarse white crushed rock.....The Tsubaki priests trained some center staff members -four men and one women, to make the daily offerings. Each of them makes the offerings a week at a time. They offer the water and the salt in the morning, after the sun has risen and they remove the water and salt before the sun goes down. Once a month, they add two bowls of sake and a bowl of rice to the daily offerings......Tsubaki appreciates their dedication to proper observance.".....http://www.csuchico.edu/~gwilliams/tsa/nl/enshrinement_in_colorado.html
Email....okarresearch@gmail.com
September 2012
John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico
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