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Neo-Shintoism

March 19, 2016 / John D. / 8 Comments

A Pagan Shrine for Ostara with easter eggs and stone figures of Mary & Joseph from a Saxon-inspired nativity set – a syncretic touch in a postmodern age

With the spread of Shinto overseas, there are some exciting transformations taking place as innovators adapt Japanese practice to their needs. This is particularly evident in the marriage of Shinto to contemporary paganism, with pioneers creating something that might be called Neo-Shintoism. (See an earlier piece on Minzoku NEO-shinto.)

One of the most articulate advocates of the neo-Shinto movement is Megan Manson, an eclectic pagan practising in the UK and piecing together a remarkably coherent set of practices. She runs her own blog, has lived in Japan and is involved with Japan-UK relations. In a recent article for the interfaith Patheos site, she wrote of “How I found the Shinto-Pagan Path“, and in the extract below she describes what initially drew her to Shinto.

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There are many possible reasons for the harmonious relationship between the scientific rationality and spiritual outlook held by a large proportion of the Japanese population, but I think one of the most important is that in Shinto, actions take precedence over belief. In my experience, many Japanese aren’t too sure what they believe at all – additionally, they do not consider having well-defined spiritual beliefs as particularly important. They’ll carry on making pilgrimages to shrines, going to festivals and taking part in seasonal Shinto rituals without worrying too much about whether or not the kami really exist. They do it partly because they enjoy doing it; it feels “right” to them.

When I realised this, I understood that this was the missing piece of the puzzle for me. I had approached Paganism from a Western, Christian perspective, probably due to my Catholic background. I thought that faith was a fundamental starting point for spirituality, and that one had to essentially choose between whether to trust in science or believe in religion. Shinto taught me that this was not the case at all. It taught me that it was OK to be a Pagan for no other reason than it feeling “right,” and that one could still follow a religion and hold scientific fact to be just as valid. As I grew to learn more about Neopaganism and the Pagan community, I realised that many other Pagans in fact feel exactly the same way.

A simple Inari altar

I continued to use Shinto as a framework for my Pagan beliefs, and as I did so, I realised that I was becoming increasingly drawn to venerating the Shinto kami themselves along with Western Pagan deities, and one kami in particular: Inari Okami. Carrying across the Neopagan concept of a “patron” deity, I set up an altar to Inari in the courtyard outside our house, where we would often be visited by foxes. Inari has been my patron ever since.

Seeing the fox cross my path [one] summer afternoon gave me a moment of intense clarity. I understood that my interests in Paganism, science, and Japan were all connected. Whether or not this was truly a message from Inari, I suppose I’ll never know, but it was enough to confirm that I’d found the spiritual path for me – one that blended all of these ideas together.

So now I consider myself a Shinto-Pagan, practising both religions side by side. I celebrate the eight festivals of the Neopagan Wheel of the Year in addition to Japanese festivals. I participate in a local moot where our rituals are very much Wicca-influenced, invoking the Great God and Goddess and involving circle casting and calling the four elements; I also make regular offerings and Shinto norito prayers at my Inari altar.

To me, it seems natural to combine western Paganism with Shinto. Not only do the two religions have much in common in terms of their focus on ritual, nature worship and sense of duty to the ancestors, but as mentioned previously, Shinto is rarely practised in isolation from other religions in Japan. For me, Shinto is like a reactive chemical element – it likes to “bond” to other religious paths to create a new path that is best-suited to the practitioner. I find that my Shinto and Neopagan paths really complement and enhance one another. Even my blog’s title (Pagan Tama) reflects the Shinto-Pagan blend; the word “tama” is of special significance in Shinto and can be translated as “soul.”

Where my path will lead from now, I’m not sure. I feel that there is so much out there to learn and that I’ve only just begun. But as the Japanese say, senri no michi mo ippo yori hajimaru – “Even a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

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For a podcast with Megan, click here. Megan talks about her path to Shinto, some of the history of Shinto and how it relates to the other religions practiced in Japan. What is the difference between Japan and the West in regards to religious identity? What does it mean to be multi-faith, and how do we explain it to others?

Megan’s Shinto shrine is dedicated to Inari Okami. The picture behind is a painting done by an art teacher at the school in Nagasaki where she used to work – a view from the school window that now acts as a “window to Japan”.

The Spider Clan

March 18, 2016 / John D. / 0 Comments

courtesy Keio University

Spiders in myth

Anyone familiar with Noh and Kabuki will know of the Tsuchigumo, or ground spider. These plays are sometimes put on at shrines for the entertainment of the kami. The creature plays a part too in Shinto myth through appearance in the Kojiki and Nihongi. What is its significance? From the Japanese Mythology and Folklore website comes a revealing piece that links the spider with shamanic clans in East Asia.

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The spider was synonymous in the ancient Kojiki and Nihongi chronicles with local indigenous renegade clans. The symbol later evolved into the yokai supernatural folkloric proportions that we know today. These clans were found from Yamato Katusragi to the easternmost Japan, and associated with mounds and caves or rockcut catacombs. They were thus either indigenous descendants of the Jomon, or another settled tribe of Eurasian or Southeast Asian origin.

Tsuchigumo

The Chu (Zhu) state, Zhou dynasty period people in Southeast Asia had a spider as their totem (and Chinese character name). Altaic shamans, in addition to deer and bird, sometimes had the spider spirit as helper in their travels to the Underworld.

From Lappland to Central Asia, the spider was a divine or lucky emblem, but large hairy or venomous spiders were also best known there and associated with caverns and holes in the ground, among which species were the Ladectrus or the black widow spider, that commanded the respect of the land’s peoples.

Japan has an East Asian species that spins characteristic webs very low from the ground, trapping predators and deterring mammals. A benevolent goddess spider is still known from the folklore surrounding the Joren Falls in the Izu peninsula in eastern Japan. The spider is also associated with the Orion constellation from ancient Eurasia across the Beringia to the Americas (among the folklore of the Chinook, Bigfoot and other tribes).

tsuchigumo01ps

Ponsonby-Fane exhibition

March 16, 2016 / John D. / 1 Comment

Asadake House where the Ponsonby-Fane exhibition will be held in April

Richard Ponsonby-Fane is acknowledged as perhaps the greatest Shinto scholar of the twentieth century – and that includes Japanese scholars. He wrote 11 weighty tomes in all about such subjects as The Imperial Family of Japan, The Vicissitudes of Shinto, Studies in Shinto and Shrines, et al. It’s an extraordinary feat for an aristocratic Englishman who had no need to push himself. He did it as a passion, a pursuit, a principle. It derived from his belief in a divinely appointed king. Intellectually he belonged in the seventeenth century when Charles I was guided by the Divine Right of Kings.

In the prewar years Shinto scholar Richard Ponsonby-Fane was much taken with the area and lived in an old Japanese house

In the prewar years Shinto scholar Richard Ponsonby-Fane was much taken with the Kamigamo area of Kyoto and lived in the former ‘shake machi’ there

In Japan he had found a country where they took their sovereign seriously. He may have had personal reasons for living abroad (homosexuality), but he overcame that by plunging into his work. The result was honours and friendship on high – in later years he insisted on wearing a scarf made for him by Empress Teimei.

According to a report in the Kyoto Shimbun, it is believed that Ponsonby-Fane’s legacy is in danger of being forgotten, which is why there will be an exhibition of his papers in April at Shimogamo Jinja. It will take place in the Former Asadake House, which was part of the ‘shake machi‘ (Shrine town) around shrines in times past. Ponsonby-Fane lived in the shake machi of Kamigamo Jinja in north Kyoto, and the area retains something of its former character.

Altogether there were 340 houses in the Shimogamo shake machi in the past, all connected in some way with the shrine – priests, attendants, miko, craftsmen, groundsmen, cooks, ritualists, history experts, etc etc. In Meiji times the system was abolished; now only two of the houses remain, one of which is the Asadake House.

The House was empty for ten years – once it belonged to the mayor. The previous owner offered it to the shrine, who had it renovated and remodelled into an exhibition room. The very first exhibition was held last autumn and featured Ponsonby-Fane’s material and his contribution to shrine history.

Now the Asadake House is a study centre for children who cannot learn of history at school because of the postwar constitution. For example, in the past kami and buddhas were one, says the newspaper, but children have no place to learn about such things. One can’t help wondering what Ponsonby-Fane would have thought of that! Remarkably, some eighty years after his death the eccentric Englishman continues to play a vital part in disseminating information about Shinto.

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For more about Ponsonby-Fane, see here.

The house where Ponsonby Fane lived, now taken over by a company

The house where Ponsonby Fane once lived, now taken over by a company

Zen and Shinto 10: Shaman Mirrors

March 12, 2016 / John D. / 2 Comments

Shinto altar mirror This post follows up the previous post on mirrors in Zen and Shinto. It consists of an article adapted from the latest issue of Sacred Hoop (no. 91), a magazine about shamanism. The article is useful in placing the context of mirrors in Zen and Shinto within their wider use in East Asia, and thereby illustrates the syncretic roots out of which the two religions developed. The author is not only a modern-day practitioner, but a sacred mirror-maker with years of experience and insight. Since the religious use of mirrors stems from the shaman tradition, it’s instructive to learn what that has to teach us about present-day usage in both Zen and Shinto. The article is particularly good at describing the ‘energy container’ that the mirror represented to early people.

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The author of the following article, Marco Hadjidakis, was born in 1957 in Holland and has studied altered states and healing since 1991, and made mirrors to commission since 2010. He is an artist,
mystic and mirror-smith.

Shamanic mirrors are metallic discs made of bronze or other metals, polished on one side – their ‘face’ – and usually decorated on the other – their ’back’ – in the centre of which is often a knob or boss with a hole in it. This hole is to allow a cord, silk ribbon or scarf to be passed through it, which enables the mirror to be suspended or tied onto a costume etc. Some mirrors have a loop on their top edge for this purpose rather than a boss on the back. Suspending a mirror makes it easier to handle it without touching and dirtying the polished metal face.

The origin of ceremonial mirrors developed in Neolithic times with the art of grinding and polishing stone. Obsidian and jade were often used in ancient mirrors, and these stones are found in different locations around the world, such as Mexico, Anatolia and China. Polished, iron-rich meteorites may also predate cast bronze mirrors, and these have been used for a very long time in Tibet to create mirrors and other sacred objects. Ancient arrowheads, made from iron-rich meteorites, have also
been found on the Eurasian steppes, and clearly show the early use of this powerful material.

Model of a Yayoi-era ritual, with mirror hanging in the tree to the left of the altar

Since the early Bronze Age [Around 3.000-2.000 BCE ] the development of bronze casting spread quickly across the world. The nomadic tribes who lived on the Central Asian steppes spread their bronze technology across a wide band, stretching from Eastern Europe, all the way to the Pacific coast of Northern China. They influenced Chinese Bronze Age culture, and subsequently Chinese influence then spread to neighbouring cultures, such as Japan and Korea to the east, and Iran and Anatolia to the west.

MIRRORS AND THE ANCESTORS
Ancestor cults are China’s root connection with mirrors; the durability of bronze created the possibility for a Chinese person to inherit an ancient mirror, dating back perhaps as far as 30 generations in their ancestral line. Such a mirror is very powerful, it has connections with all those spirits of the family lineage, and such mirrors are highly respected, and consulted with if there are important issues within the family. There is evidence to suggest that the ritual use of mirrors grew out of this ancient Chinese ancestor practice, with ideas about mirrors then spreading to regions outside of China, enabling the use of mirrors to be taken up by the shamanic cultures there. However, there is also evidence to suggest that shamanic cultures greatly influenced ancient China, which makes it seem likely that there was cross pollination of ideas regarding the ritual use of mirrors between China and the shamanic cultures of Central Asia – each influencing the other.

Over a long period of time, shamans have found many ways to use their mirrors. Some shamans use mirrors – often known as toli – to give to spirits as a house for the spirit to live in. Some shamans use them by entering a trance and working with the energies amplified by, or inherently present, in the mirror. Shamans use them for performing healings, for exorcism, for soul retrieval, and for divination. Mirrors also form part of a shaman’s armour, protecting their bodies while spirit-travelling in trance to the other worlds. When a shaman dies, traditionally their body was left in a remote place, far out in nature; often on a platform in a tree. There they were laid – with all their mirrors, their drum and other sacred items. Later generations would then accidentally ‘find’ the deceased shaman’s mirrors and other bronze objects, and after consulting the spirit of the deceased shaman to ask for permission to adopt the mirror, the shaman who found these ancient objects could use them in his own work.

The original mirror in Kyoto National Museum, thought to be that of Himiko

Two sides of a mirror in Kyoto National Museum, thought to have belonged to Himiko

Ancient bronze mirrors did not only become sacred tools in shamanism, they also became adopted into Buddhist practice. Buddhist mirrors are called melong in China and Tibet, and darpan in Sanskrit, and these mirrors are used in Buddhist initiations to represent the nature of the enlightened mind. At one point in these initiations, the Lama shows the student the melong and tells them: “Your mind is like this mirror, in itself empty, but it will reflect everything that is exposed to it without changing because it has no judgment or attachment on what it reflects.” Many Buddhist altars contain metal mirrors, which can be truth- revealing mirrors, or part of an offering to the five senses, the mirror representing the offering of sight.

The syncretic blend of Buddhism and shamanism found in Tibet, which is sometimes called ‘Lamaism’, has followers in Mongolia, China and Nepal. In this tradition, mahasiddhas (great adepts or mystics), oracles and healers all have melongs or ‘heart protecting mirrors.’ I have also been told that a melong is involved in hungry ghost offering ceremonies. Another magical use of mirrors within Buddhism can be seen on a relief on the C9th Borobudur stupa in Java. The relief shows the Buddha surrounded by monks, who are lifting their handled mirrors, so as to charge them with the high energy of his enlightened being. This use of mirrors as a sort of ‘sacred battery’ which holds a spiritual charge also occurs in medieval Europe as Christian relics were sometimes viewed in a mirror, the mirror capturing and holding the reflection of the sacred relic for the pilgrim to take away with them.

Mirrors are multi-functional sacred objects, and shamans use them for: divination, finding lost objects, healing, exorcism, soul retrieval, and protection. They are also used when working with harmful spirits, and both to create, and also fight against, ‘black’ magic too. Depending on their culture of origin, they can also be used in Sun worship, divination, as a door to communicate with the ancestors, as protector of a house or sacred place (for example the use of mirrors in traditional feng shui), as an initiation tool, as a house for spirit helpers to live within, as a healing tool, or to direct energies and intentions. They can also act as a shield to reflect negative energies, as a symbol of authority, as a representation of a divinity or a kami (a Shinto nature spirit), as a tool for introspection, as a signal device (by reflecting light, so another can see the ‘flash’) and simply as an everyday mirror.

Ceremonies held to assist the soul of a person who has died are a major part of many shamanic traditions, and when using mirrors for this, two mirrors are required – one to protect the shaman in trance, during their travels in the underworld, and one to shine light and illuminate the ‘path of the soul,’ to help the soul find the land of the ancestors. Some mirrors are very large – over 30 cm across, while others are small – perhaps only 2 – 5 cm across, and are more like amulets. These have been made since ancient times, and in literature they are sometimes called ‘inch mirrors.’ The smaller ones could easily be mistaken for bronze buttons, they are so small. Some have simple designs on their backs: perhaps a yin-yang, four Chinese characters, or the eight trigrams (I Ching trigrams). Some have flowers, or the animals of the Chinese zodiac. In Mongolia these small toli are often attached to ceremonial headgear and other ritual objects such as phurbas and divination arrows. Shaman’s ritual objects don’t need to be large to be effective in the spirit world, and small objects can be used without attracting too much attention. Small, inch mirrors, are perfect for protection while travelling, or to work with when the shamanic work needs to be unobtrusive.

A WORLD OF MIRRORS

Mirror at a Zen subtemple of Nanzen-ji

The face of a bronze mirror is generally convex, although some are flat. Concave mirrors are rare. In historical and ancient China, household fires were kept alive both day and night, but once a year all the fires had to die. The next day, at noon, new fires were ceremonially lit by a shaman or priest, who used a concave bronze mirror. When using such a mirror, the sun’s rays are reflected back from the mirror into a single point, which generates enough heat to light the kindling. Today we can achieve the same result by the use of a glass lens. Himalayan melong mirrors, with a bronze loop on their top edge, are sometimes polished on both sides. These are convex on the one face, and concave on the other. As a heart protecting mirror, the convex side is worn outward. Once I heard a shaman explain: ‘The convex side is to see into the future, and the concave side to see into the past’.

Some rare shaman’s mirrors have a face full of small concentric waves – almost looking as if a drop of water had fallen into a pool. Mirrors like this can not produce a recognisable reflection, and I think their function could be to disintegrate spirits during exorcism rituals, so as to disperse their power. Both before and after the shaman works with them, mirrors are generally smudged in the smoke of herbs or incense. Bronze is very sensitive to oxidation, and the acid from our skin can easily affect their polished surface. Therefore, the tassel or silk scarves that are attached to the knob provide for a handle. Bronze mirrors are wrapped in silks, or stored in bags or boxes when not in use. This wrapping up and putting away also helps to protect them from energetic intrusions and accidental reflections – just as a blessed reflection can be held in a mirror, so too can the reflection of something harmful.

Some traditions say that only ‘altar mirrors’ should be displayed openly. In the case of a Buddhist altar, these are placed to symbolise radiant emptiness, or, on a shamanic altar, they are placed as homes for helper spirits and symbols of shamanic power. Ritual mirrors – as living things in their own right, with their own ‘master spirits’ – may have their own preference as to how they are cleaned, stored and ‘dressed.’ One needs to ‘listen’ to them to find the correct way to work with them, including what kind of offerings they require. Some traditional offerings to mirrors are incense, juniper or sage smoke, alcohol – generally vodka – songs and the sounds of drums rattles and bells. In Mongolia, shaman’s mirrors were, and still are, blooded in the blood of a sacrificed sheep. The blood is said to transfer the life force of the animal to the mirror.

Dressing a mirror with silk complements the ‘hot’ male energy of the bronze by the use of the ‘cool’ female quality of the fabric. This cloth becomes part of the sacred nature of the mirror and the combined qualities of heat and cool both play a role in healing or other work done with the it. Silks are one of the traditional offerings which people who had been cured could offer a shaman to express their gratitude. The colours of the silk fabric used to ‘dress’ a mirror represent connections with both the four (or five) elements, and the sacred directions. Some spirits ask for additional offerings to be attached to their mirror, such as beads, stones, shells or small bells too.

FORGING A MIRROR PATH
Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin (Cu and Sn), and the percentage of tin varies from about 10% to 30%. The tin content changes the colour and hardness of the bronze; for example, a high level of tin
makes the mirror brittle, and it will be prone to break easy, whereas a low level of tin gives a warm red shine, but will easily oxidize. Sometimes quantities of gold, silver, lead and sometimes zinc, can be added to the bronze, which all influence the resulting metal. (In the Tibetan language there are five different words for bronze.)

Mikoshi in Shinto festivals have mirrors on their side as a form of protection

To add a personalised element of magic into the mix, I often like to add – and recycle – an old ring or other precious metal object that already belongs to the owner of the new mirror, to create a stronger bond between practitioner and ceremonial tool. Back in July 2001 I met the Japanese doctor, Masaru Emoto who presented his work about human consciousness having an effect on the molecular structure of water. Doctor Emoto’s theory is that, in the liquid stage, the water molecules can absorb information, which in a solid stage as ice, is frozen into the ice crystals. It seemed very obvious to me that this would also apply to metals; and any programming done in the liquid stage would, when the bronze cools, become permanently stored in the crystal structure of the solid mirror or other object. This programmed intention – through prayer and mantra – added to the intent in the original wax design – made me realise that a cast bronze mirror could be a powerful holder of intent and focus.

Because I was making sacred objects it was important to me to do them in a sacred manner. So, while the bronze is melting, I make an offering to the fire and I smudge the work. When the bronze is ready to be poured, I focus on the person that will work with the mirror, and whisper the intentions into the liquid bronze. I then pray and recite mantras while I do the pouring, which has to be done smoothly, without any interruptions, as interruptions will cause flaws in the casting. After breaking the mould, the airways – through which the bronze was poured in, and through which the air inside escaped out – have to be removed. Then the mirror needs to be cleaned and polished. At the end of my process – as a mirror smith – I add a prayer to welcome the mirror into the world, which has the potential to be around for the next few millennia. Now it is up to the practitioner to “dress” it and to initiate it in its first ceremony.

The most powerful shamans we know of are the smiths. They are called white smiths. They made the sacred things, like drums and jaw-harps and bells and such. Their relationship must be with all four of the elemental Master Spirits – Earth (which includes the ore of metals), Air, Fire and Water, or their work cannot be completed. So, long ago, when the first white smith journeyed about making these sacred things, he was given knowledge of a special metal, a hard yellow metal, not the
gold we know of today, but another alloy we call bronze today. He culled and cultivated the metal and sat wondering what its form was to be, and it was then that the Mater Spirit of the metal spoke to him: “I must be light enough to carry on a shaman’s person. “I must be fitted with a knob so as to have silk attached, so I may be fashioned to begin new life with the green silk; preserve life with red silk; teach with yellow silk; heal with the blue silk; and for the maker of the toli and all things Spirit I must be fitted with white silk. “One side shall be polished so that I can mirror this world and take from it and give to it, and the other side may be for anyone to touch and see.”

The smith shaman thought and thought, and pondered the problem, and started making metal things: boxes, trays, crowns, cuffs, all manner of things, but the Master Spirit of the metal was never satisfied. So after much effort and time, the smith shaman finally came up with a disk, which had a place on one side to attach silk khadags, and which was smooth on the other side. He took the disc to the other shamans and told them about this story. At first they did not believe it, but then one of the lesser shamans, a healer, attached his own blue khadag and said: “So, mirror of life, will you work with me?” The disc said: “Yes, there is a burn on the white smith’s hand, go and place my shiny side against it.” The healer went and did as he was told, but nothing happened. “Did I do it wrong?” asked the Healer worriedly, for failing was dangerous. “Take me outside and let me commune with the Great Mother” said the Master Spirit, and as the healer did so and placed the disc on the Earth he could hear excited voices from the inside of the ger. The burn had disappeared!
So the toli‘s creation was completed, and the white smiths told the shamans – who would each be receiving one of these mirrors – that there could not be a relationship between the toli and the shaman, unless the spirits of the shamans were properly linked with the Master Spirits of the toli they were to receive.

shrine mirror

Zen and Shinto 9: Mirrors

March 9, 2016 / John D. / 0 Comments

Mirror

Both Shinto and Buddhism in Japan use mirrors as spiritual symbols, and Green Shinto has covered their use in several previous posts (here and here or here or here for instance).

The essential idea, common to both religions, is that mirrors have no ego – they reflect without bias whatever is before them. This is tied in both Zen and Shinto with the idea of original purity. In Shinto you try to recover the purity with which you were born (the purity of another world, one might say). In Zen this takes the form of trying to recover one’s ‘Buddha nature’. “What is the face of your original nature?”runs a well-known koan.

In both religions, then, inner purity is treasured. This can be seen in the words of Morihei Ueshiba, founder of aikido, who drew on different aspects of Japanese spirituality in putting together his thinking about the martial art. The quotations below are taken from The Art of Peace (tr John Stevens).

Watching you, watching me.... Altar mirrors often reflect the spirit of the kami within the person of the onlooker

The Shinto mirror reflects without ego whatever is before it

All things, material and spiritual, originate from one source and are related as if they were one family. The past, present, and future are all contained in the life force… Return to that source and leave behind all self-centred thoughts and petty desires.

You are here for no other reason than to realize your own inner divinity and manifest your inner enlightenment.

To purify yourself you must wash away all external defilement, remove all obstacles from our path, separate yourself from disorder, and abstain from negative thoughts. This will create a radiant state of being. Such purification allows you to return to the very beginning, where all is fresh, bright, and pristine, and you will see once again the world’s scintillating beauty.

Words such as these show why sincerity and purity are so treasured in Japanese culture. In a recent talk in Kyoto on Zen terrorism in the 1930s, author Brian Victoria illustrated how political assassins had been defended by a Zen master because of the ‘purity’ of their heart in wanting the best for the nation. And in the Japanese entertainment world of late there was a big scandal involving a woman called Becky. Why? Because she had a boyfriend and was therefore not as ‘pure’ as everyone thought. Mirror, mirror on the wall – who’s the purest of them all? runs the Japanese version of the old folk tale.

Buddhist altar with mirror

The use of mirrors in Buddhist temples, where they often feature on altars as in Shinto, derives apparently from a fifth-century Indian called Vasubandhu, who came up with the idea of eight levels of consciousness. The top level shines with the light of a wisdom like a great mirror… hence the expression in Buddhism of The Great Wisdom Mirror, or Great Perfect Mirror Wisdom, which reflects the universe as it really is, free of distortion from ego or ignorance.

The Buddhist mirror is thus intended to liberate the mind. Life is an illusion, and one should not be deluded by mere appearances. Look and reflect upon reality! In An Introduction to Zen, p. 48, D.T. Suzuki quotes a Chinese monk as writing:

This body is the Bodhi-tree
The soul is like the mirror bright;
Take heed to keep it always clean,
And let no dust collect upon it.

Later, on p.61, Suzuki comments, ‘Zen often compares the mind to a mirror free of stains. To be simple, therefore, according to Zen, will be to keep this mirror always bright and pure and ready to reflect simply and absolutely whatever comes to it.’

Significantly in both Shinto and Buddhism the mirror is round, and the circle has great symbolic value in its never ending completeness. In ancient China the soul was conceived of as circular, which is why in Japanese mythology Amaterasu chose a round mirror to represent herself.

Zen is also focussed on the circle, and in the Dharma Hall of Zen temples one finds a ceiling painting of a dragon within a circle signifying the universe. And in calligraphy the best-known image is the ensou or circle, interpreted variously as enlightenment, emptiness, strength or the unity of all things. In Buddhism the moon is a symbol of awakening; in Shinto the sun. Both religions find in the roundness of celestial objects a cause for worship, and in the depths of the mirror both find a cause for reflection.

The circular window at Genko-an gives a picture of reality but is suggestive of much more

The circular window at the Zen temple of Genko-an gives a picture of reality but is suggestive of much more

Zen and Shinto 8: Animism and ancestry

March 6, 2016 / John D. / 0 Comments

Rituals at Shinto shrines are for ancestral or animist spirits

Green Shinto has written before of how Shinto stands on the twin pillars of animism and ancestor worship, and how these two different strands are interlocked. (See here for instance.) Zen too cultivates both aspects, though they are not so central to its practice. Perhaps the influence of Shinto brought out the tendencies in the imported religion.

In an essay in Treasury of the True Dharma Eye entitled ‘The sound of the valley stream, the colors of the mountain’, Dogen, the founder of the Soto sect wrote as follows:

The sound of the valley stream, the colors of the valley stream, the sound of the mountain, and the colors of the mountain all reveal truth unstintingly. If you do not prize honor and gain, then the valley stream and the mountain will expound truth to you without stint.

“The sound of the stream, the colour of the mountain…”

Dogen advocated recalling nature internally and searching out ways to live according to the laws of nature. It all sounds very similar to the thinking of Shinto and cold water austerity (misgoi) as a way to immerse oneself in nature and so be true to one’s real self.

Along with the reverence of nature goes reverence for ancestors. In Shinto this begins on a personal level with maintenance of the memory of one’s parents and grandparents, and then extends to the larger anonymous mass of ancestors that goes to make up the whole inherited past of the nation.

Similarly in Zen there is a concern with maintaining the spirit-memory of one’s teachers, both one’s own teacher and the whole line of transmission back to the founder of the sect, and beyond that to the founder of Zen, and beyond that to the historical and other Buddhas. The pamphlet of the subtemple of Ryogen-in at Daitoku-ji states the following about the images of founders Rinzai and the subtemple founder Tokei:

We attend to them as if they are still here, and we hold fast to the first teaching of Zen Buddhism, ‘hoon shatoku’ (display gratitude for the kindness and virtue shown to you).

Attending to ancestral spirits as if they are still here – you could hardly get a better description of kami. Displaying gratitude for what you have received is a key Shinto virtue too. Here then is a strong overlap in the mindsets of Zen and Shinto – unseen spirits in a living universe.

The Zen garden abstracts the quintessence of nature as a means to bring the practitioner closer to enlightenment

Dolls Day (Hina Matsuri)

March 2, 2016 / John D. / 1 Comment

March 1, 2016, and the dolls enjoy a touch of snow in Kyoto (photo Y. Suzuki)

March 3 is Doll’s Day in Japan, and the stores are full of amazake (sweet sake) and sweets called arare, traditional fare which are consumed along with chirashizushi (fish on a bed of rice etc) in front of the display of family dolls. More information courtesy Wikipedia below…Some shrines hold events to celebrate the occasion, as an article recycled below from Japan Today makes clear.

What is the connection of Doll’s Day with pagan rites? Well, Megan Manson has come up with an answer to that in a most informative and illuminating article which I would like to specially recommend, entitled Honouring the Feminine at the Doll Festival.

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Origins (from Wikipedia)

The custom of displaying dolls began during the Heian period. Formerly, people believed the dolls possessed the power to contain bad spirits. Hinamatsuri traces its origins to an ancient Japanese custom called hina-nagashi lit. “doll floating”), in which straw hina dolls are set afloat on a boat and sent down a river to the sea, supposedly taking troubles or bad spirits with them.

Dolls

The Shimogamo Shrine (part of the Kamo Shrine complex in Kyoto) celebrates the Nagashibina by floating these dolls between the Takano and Kamo Rivers to pray for the safety of children. People have stopped doing this now because of fishermen catching the dolls in their nets. They now send them out to sea, and when the spectators are gone they take the boats out of the water and bring them back to the temple and burn them.

The customary drink for the festival is shirozake, a sake made from fermented rice. A colored hina-arare, bite-sized crackers flavored with sugar or soy sauce depending on the region, and hishimochi, a diamond-shaped colored rice cake, are served. Chirashizushi (sushi rice flavored with sugar, vinegar, topped with raw fish and a variety of ingredients) is often eaten.

A salt-based soup called ushiojiru containing clams still in the shell is also served. Clam shells in food are deemed the symbol of a united and peaceful couple, because a pair of clam shells fits perfectly, and no pair but the original pair can do so.

Families generally start to display the dolls in February and take them down immediately after the festival. Superstition says that leaving the dolls past March 4 will result in a late marriage for the daughter.

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Playing with dolls: Explore the traditional trappings of Hina dolls
By Vicki L Beyer Japan Today March 1, 2013

Traditionally in Japan the third day of the third month was celebrated as girls’ day and the fifth day of the fifth month was celebrated as boys’ day. When the decision was made to create a Children’s Day national holiday after World War II, the date of boys’ day was selected. But that doesn’t stop people from observing the girls’ day holiday with its traditional trappings, most notably the Hina dolls. In fact, an alternative name for the girls’ day holiday is Hina Matsuri, or doll festival.

There are a number of theories as to the festival’s origins and the display of dolls representing an emperor and empress and their courtiers is believed to have begun early in the Edo Period (1603-1867). Over the years, the doll sets have become increasingly elaborate, with the grandest collections consisting of an emperor and empress, ladies-in-waiting, other courtiers, musicians with their instruments, dancers and various furnishings, including lamps, chests, food boxes and sometimes even a palanquin. The dolls, usually in Heian Period (794-1195) dress, are arranged on a red felt covered stair-step dais, with the imperial couple at the top and then the courtiers by descending rank.

Picture by Y. Suzuki

Part of the tradition is that when a baby girl is born into a family, she is given a set of Hina dolls that are put on display in the family home each year during the festival, usually beginning in the middle of February. In modern Japan, where storage space is limited, some stores that sell Hina dolls offer a special storage package with the sale.

The culmination of the festival is its last day, March 3, when diamond-shaped rice cakes (“hishi-mochi”), a rice malt and sake drink (“shirozake”), and sugar-coated puffed rice (“hina arare”) are consumed.

As one would expect of a festival for girls that is centuries old, the point of the festivities is to instill femininity in young girls. Even the colors of the festival, white, pink, and pastel green, symbolize various feminine virtues.

It is believed that if the dolls are not put away promptly after the festival’s end, it will delay the girl’s marriage. (I never put mine away and got married when I was 30, so it would seem it doesn’t cause too much of a delay.)

In keeping with the marriage theme, one of the popular games of the festival is a form of Concentration that involves matching the paintings inside pairs of clam shells. Since only an original pair of clam shells will fit together properly, such a pair symbolizes the perfect match of marriage.

Display of dolls with accompanying items such as drawers, furniture and carriage (Wikicommons)
While the festival was originally a family celebration, it became a popular grade school activity in the latter half of the 20th century. Recently, the symbols and decorations of the festival have joined the ranks of seasonal decorations in train stations, hotel lobbies, department stores, and other commercial establishments. They’ve even become popular displays at this time of year in Japanese parks and gardens around the world.

In addition to these seemingly ubiquitous Hina doll images, in this season there are a number of formal (and sometimes extensive) collections of Hina dolls featured in special exhibitions.

Two dolls