One of the attractions of Shinto for Westerners – perhaps ‘the’ attraction, indeed – is the sense of a divine creation. We do not need to yearn for Eden: we’re already living in it! Shinto is not much interested in any future world; its interest is in this world where manifestations of the life-force are revered as kami. Cooperating with the kami is the way of harmony; pollution is an evil.
With the deepening environmental crisis worldwide, more and more people are calling on a change in attitude from the complacent materialism of the past. People are searching for new ways of seeing the world, though sometimes the old ways are what we were seeking all along. Now in a posting of the Huffington Post there come signs too that the Christian community is trying to put its house in ecological order. Immanence, not transcendence, is increasingly the name of the game.
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We need to find our way back home
If you imagine God outside and separate from creation, and you have the idea that you are created in God’s image, you will logically and naturally see yourself as outside and against the things around you. And as you claim all mind to yourself, you will see the world around you as mindless and therefore not entitled to moral or ethical consideration.
The environment will seem to be yours to exploit. Your survival unit will be you and your people against the environment of other social units, other races, and the brutes and vegetables.
If this is your estimate of your relation to nature and you have an advanced technology, your likelihood of survival will be that of a snowball in hell. You will die either of the toxic by-products of your own hate or simply of overpopulation and overgrazing. ~Gregory Bateson
The world we live in is an honorable world. To refuse this deepest instinct of our being, to deny honor where honor is due, to withdraw reverence from divine manifestation, is to place ourselves on a head-on collision course with the ultimate forces of the Universe.
This question of honor must be dealt with before any other question. We miss both the intrinsic nature and the magnitude of the issue if we place our response to the present crises of our planet on any other basis. It is not ultimately a political or economic or scientific or psychological issue. It is ultimately a question of honor. Only the sense of the violated honor of Earth and the need to restore this honor can evoke the understanding as well as the energy needed to carry out the renewal of the planet in any effective manner. ~Thomas Berry
AMO DIO IN RELAZIONE ALLE SUE RELIGIONI, MA AL DI’ FUORI DELLE LORO “PRIGIONI”.
COLUI CHE RISPETTA TUTTE LE RELIGIONI E’ FUORI DALLE LORO “PRIGIONI” E, NON PARLA PER SEPARARE: SEI CON ME O CONTRO ME!
IL SAGGIO PARLA PER UNIRE E DICE: FRATELLO, ABBATTIAMO LE INSORMONTABILI FRONTIERE E I “PREGIUDIZI” CHE DIVIDONO, FACCIAMO ASSIEME LA “DANZA DELLA VITA” INNEGGIANDO “INTONATI” LODE AL SIGNORE; OGNUNO NEL PROPRIO LINGUAGGIO E, NEL PROPRIO VILLAGGIO, COME LO VUOLE IL NOSTRO “CREATO/CREATORE UN TUTT’UNO”
PITTORE ORLANDO SERPIETRI
Brilliant post. Again.
Loved the view that we don’t need to yearn for Eden. We are already living in it !!