"SHINTO and No YOU"
April 30, 2013
The following was written in response to a question posed in an Eastern Philosophy class at College of the Siskiyous, Weed, CA.
TheEasternPhilosophyTeacher:
Consider the Shinto reverence for kami (spirits) in nature. The world, today, is grappling with finding an environmental ethic that would sufficiently prevent us from destroying our home planet. Should such a future ethic include something similar to the Shinto worship of nature spirits? Why or why not?
Responded:
Shinto is like any set of beliefs, if people "try" to abide by them it will only lead to disaster. All one need do is place the attention on the Stillness that is before anything you can "think." In doing so, you will not know what actions will come from that Space, it may still look like disaster, yet there won't be a "you" to be concerned about it.
The concern arises in "thinking" that there is a "you" doing it. Whether this changes or not, is not even up to you. This is the seeming "trouble" of "beliefs" one does not need beliefs to live. Life happens and then you make up beliefs about it, that is why so many people find themselves saying "I would not have ever imagined I would have done that." It is because you don't know who you are. However, in the discovery of who you Are, you find that you don't and won't ever be able to describe what is found, and yet the concerns disappear. You become a Witness to Life Being Lived and the pure Energy of not knowing how.
Everyone "thinks" they know what they are doing, however they don't ... they only "think" they do. It can be as scarey or as enjoyable depending on how tightly you hold your thoughts/beliefs.
Shinto people are perfectly used, because they are not actually Shinto people, they are just like you and I, being used by “That” which is beyond all words to experience itSelf in all the many billions of ways that IT does (and IT is not an it) and everything you just read is not IT either but that is what brings the laughter and the smiles, the inability to share what we are all IN. :o)
Consider the Shinto reverence for kami (spirits) in nature. The world, today, is grappling with finding an environmental ethic that would sufficiently prevent us from destroying our home planet. Should such a future ethic include something similar to the Shinto worship of nature spirits? Why or why not?
Responded:
Shinto is like any set of beliefs, if people "try" to abide by them it will only lead to disaster. All one need do is place the attention on the Stillness that is before anything you can "think." In doing so, you will not know what actions will come from that Space, it may still look like disaster, yet there won't be a "you" to be concerned about it.
The concern arises in "thinking" that there is a "you" doing it. Whether this changes or not, is not even up to you. This is the seeming "trouble" of "beliefs" one does not need beliefs to live. Life happens and then you make up beliefs about it, that is why so many people find themselves saying "I would not have ever imagined I would have done that." It is because you don't know who you are. However, in the discovery of who you Are, you find that you don't and won't ever be able to describe what is found, and yet the concerns disappear. You become a Witness to Life Being Lived and the pure Energy of not knowing how.
Everyone "thinks" they know what they are doing, however they don't ... they only "think" they do. It can be as scarey or as enjoyable depending on how tightly you hold your thoughts/beliefs.
Shinto people are perfectly used, because they are not actually Shinto people, they are just like you and I, being used by “That” which is beyond all words to experience itSelf in all the many billions of ways that IT does (and IT is not an it) and everything you just read is not IT either but that is what brings the laughter and the smiles, the inability to share what we are all IN. :o)
"There is no "I" in You."
