I’ve returned from my Spring pilgrimage to Japan.
Crap am I tired. Coffee is my savior. Moments ago I drank my first US cup of espresso. Life is getting better. Starbucks in the US switched to cassette Espresso machines two years ago due to disability claims for repetitive motion stress syndrome. Japanese espresso now would KILL American espresso in a fight.
I’m sore. My right arm is wrecked, I have healing sores on my right hand from fast sword drawing. I’m well and not sick however, something significant considering I was constantly bathed in a veritable ocean of colds and flues.
There is so much I could write about, but one subject comes to mind.
Kami. The unseen. Spirits, Gods, Demons, they’re everywhere in Japan.
Years ago a group of Soka Gakkai Youth Division published a webpage report based on their visit to the home temple of the Kempon Hokke sect. In consistant Gakkai fashion they nit-picked and tore the temple and the sect to pieces for the purpose of proving Gakkai supremacy. I’d always found that visit and subsequent report somewhat curious.
It was during this latest trip however that it all came home for me.
The Japanese are clearly apathetic and disconnected from religious matters and true religious conviction, at least the modernly inclined populace. The reality remains however that Japan is an ancient civilization. Shinto, Buddhism and even Christianity are all very muddled in Japanese society. My visit to the Shinto Hachiman Shrine, a wonderful and vast temple grounds dedicated to the war God Hachiman, reminded me that paying faithful homage to Shrines and Temples is largely a holiday matter, something that in America would easily be replaced with a trip to Disneyland.
In the Gakkai report on Kempon Hokke a certain huge temple bell seemed to be of importance. The youngsters that visited the temple (Japanese Youth Division) seemed to focus on this “bell worship” as the central piece of evidence illustrating Kempon Hokke’s heretical stand on Nichiren Buddhism. For decades Gakkai leaders at Shakabuku meetings have parroted the line “some Nichiren sects even worship foxes and stuff”. If you’ve been in SGI for any length of time you’ve surely heard this. It’s “pop-Buddhism” at it’s best. Groundless rumors recycled over and over without any real knowledge of fact.
One thing I’ve come to experience in my numerous trips to Japan is that that Japanese worship all sorts of stuff, and it’s all a mix and match combination of all religions. It’s all Kami, the unseen.
In Noda during one of my final walks, I ventured down a side street where I discovered a small neighborhood shrine which a retired and English speaking Japanese man informed me was the first shrine built for the Kikkoman soy sauce factory. Shinto? Buddhist? Confucius? It so doesn’t matter. It’s a shrine. It’s Japanese. It’s Kami. For them, it's all good.
Understanding how religion actually exists in Japanese society would go far to keep Americans and other non-Japanese from looking like arrogant and elitist pigs. We don’t really understand how things work there and we’re quick to pass judgment on things that are deeply ingrained in Japanese culture, the same culture that brought us Nichiren Buddhism.
My sword teacher, it turns out, was a Tendai priest, but apparently some years ago switched to Shingon Buddhism because Tendai just wasn’t working for him. His parents, it also turns out, were Nichiren Shu believers. His mix of Tendai and Shingon Mikkyo Buddhism, centralized on Fudo Myo is an extremely rare mix of Buddhistics, perhaps completely unique in Japan, certainly not something found outside of Japan.
SGI is a great place to be in you want to think you’ve got it all figured out. I admit I chant “only Nam myoho renge kyo“. Playing with different practices in a reckless manner is, in my experience, better left to the pagans and witches.
The thing I will support in the future however is the elimination of the “holier than thou” attitude we have towards the Japanese and their Buddhism. The Japanese have been worshipping Kami, the unseen, before Caucasians had barely left the caves. I’m not suggesting that every sect of Buddhism has the juice to save anyone from suffering, but clearly your average Gakkai member doesn’t know crap about how this stuff actually works in Japan. Is it important? I suppose that is a question that is best answered individually.
It’s great to be back. Again.
Rev. Greg
"The Japanese have been worshipping Kami, the unseen, before Caucasians had barely left the caves."
What the heck does this mean?
Greg, Buddha WAS caucasian. There were no Japanese before the 5th century, basically. Just refugees from Chinese wars and the Ainu.
If you want to see what the Japanese have really been worshipping for centuries, study the other islands of Oceania.
Fire gods and orgies round the bonfire, gigantic penis statues and penis festivals1 Dude, the real old religion of Japan is unknown by the modern world and especially the modern Japanese.
You just need to live here for a few years and come to see how fearful these people are. They are not Buddhists. Buddha isnt a statue or an old building.
they are not Christians, although they try to mimic many Christian traditions...
To them, it's all good because they dont understand ANY of it.
(And the very few who do no longer fit in..)
Too quick to hit the button, one too many drinks!
So he is a panderer, I don't have a problem with it. Money order, or is check o.k.?
Posted by: k at May 14, 2006 10:48 PMShame - my faithful companion. Of course....
Posted by: Child at May 14, 2006 02:36 PM...of caurse, new beads....I am sorry
Posted by: Child at May 14, 2006 11:44 AMRev. Greg, mentioning money....If it is not completely inappropriate, may I send money to someone, anyone, for a box of incense and maybe new beeds?
Posted by: Child at May 14, 2006 06:47 AMThe proof I require is that you send me $250.00 through paypal. E-mail me and I will give you details for transfer.
Rev. Greg
Posted by: Rev. Greg at May 13, 2006 08:05 PMRev. Greg,
So the old country is loosing faith? That could be a good thing and then not but what if a framework arrived that would combine them?
would it not be grand to know what life is?
Since historical records shed an idea that soon guidance will be made available, what would be your required proof?
Yes!
Posted by: Bishadi at May 13, 2006 07:23 PMA green gi for Ninjutsu? Are you sure you didn't want black Peter? Anyway, when you get all gussied up you should send me a picture.
I saw the Lisa's new site and my first thought was "Peter will be disappointed". I know you were hoping for some all-out attack on SGI. Give it time, she'll get there. The design is very artfull though.
Rev. Greg
Posted by: Rev. Greg at May 12, 2006 05:17 PMBuddhajones is up. Interesting new layout.
I was today at the Nippon store, and bought a ninjutsu-gi but I bought the wrong colour belt (blue instead of green) and some kabi (aren´t they called that) shoes which were too small so they hurt around the toes. Being a ninja is tough. Very tough. Now I need to show incredible patience until the store reopens on saturday.
Watch what you say about the pagans and witches. I might turn you into a newt in a fit of reckless experimentation.
Posted by: Lyssa at May 11, 2006 07:26 PMWatch what you say about the pagans and witches. I might turn you into a newt in a fit of reckless experimentation.
Posted by: Lyssa at May 11, 2006 07:25 PM
I was just reflecting today on Japan and on the Kami. Kind of interesting really, because I was there with Greg and had many of the same experiences (as we were hanging out together a lot of the time), but we never actually discussed this topic... yet we independantly came to a very similar realization about the country after our return.
I am not sure why it was more apparent this trip than on countless others... I think in part because I now have access to people who can better explain the meaning of much of what I see around me there, and perhaps in part because of the afore mentioned sword teacher, who has rather a way of bringing the old world into the present.
In any case, it was particularly apparent to me that magic is alive and well in Japan in a way that it is only now being born here in the states. In the west, magical thought is closely guarded, and revealed only by the few to the few. In Japan it has leaked over the years into every facet of the culture. In anything it seems that the average Japanese citizen of today only fails to recognize what they are looking at because it is indeed so ubiquitous.
I was looking up at a particular shrine, not one I went to, one in a poster for a vacation planning company, and this place was absolutely beautiful. But more than that it was ancient, and really showed it's years in the most profound and majestic way. I realized that the Japanese people of today have inherited so many great spiritual treasures.. mind you I do not mean cool buildings, but art and architecture created with magic for magic.
There are indeed many many Kami there. In the west we call them usually Deamons or Angels, sometimes other names as well for the highly educated in these matters... but here they are quite elusive, there they are present with tremendous energy and strength.
If you reading this really get my meaning, it will not seem like a non sequitur for me to mention that I am not at all suprized that Godzilla was a Japanese invention. Standing in front of the Daibutsu or the other great shrines in Kamakura, it is difficult not to feel the presence of these unseen Godzillas.
Posted by: Adrian at May 11, 2006 11:28 AM"Heavenly Serbia" is term used by Duke Lazar back in 1389. calling all the people in the battle against Turkish invasion that was taken place on Kosovo on June 28. Battle that was known will be lost, because enemy was so much stronger and country was surely faced with slavery. It WAS the battle for the "AFTER". They faught not for the land or country, but for the very IDEA of morality, justice,duty in life, to maintain their mind, soul and heart free. When earth acts so heaven can hear!
Earthly and heavenly, materialism and idealism, spiritual and real...Sometimes earthly defeat means heavenly victory...sometimes it is not the most important thing for us to win. Maybe we 'll lost something more important.
I passed. It was nothing special. You just had to do zenpo kaiten, ushiro kaiten, sanshin no kata (earth, fire, water, air, emptyness), some kamae (ichimonji, shizen, jumonji, etc.) some uke nagashi (jodan, gedan), and so on. My Shidoshi said that I could make it to 15th dan if I put a lot of effort into it.
Posted by: Peter Ulrik Röder at May 11, 2006 12:49 AM
So what requirements do you have for 9th kyu Peter? Tell us about your test...
Rev. Greg
Posted by: Rev. Greg at May 10, 2006 05:07 PMthe tiger will be born on
May 10, 2006
that's the plan
admin@stickypress.com
eeeh,? Is´n´t it may 10th in America? By the way, I am going for 9.kyo tonight in the bujikan. Wish me luck.
Br
Peter
If I somehow, one day, go to pilgrimage to Japan....
Posted by: Child at May 9, 2006 03:17 PM"Kami. The unseen. Spirits, Gods, Demons, they’re everywhere in Japan.."
You mean spiritual is predominant, or at least much more presented than in so called western civilisation. India is at that point similar to Japan. On my opinion, these nations, meaning PEOPLE IN A WHOLE, simply answer to the ENTITY of life in a greater deal than others. But, let us not forget japanese new history that will never be old and forgotten: japanese people was the only people in the world whose the very existence was on the edge of extinction, surelly unexpectably and in just one day! You might say that Japanese people actually have the experience of death. Sure, you can learn from that. But the multitude of common people, if maintain the faith at all, naturaly came closer one to another, feeling that in the circumsances of direct danger, the unity can help to preserve themselves. So, maybe it is true that they mostly believe in JAPANISM (as someone previously said in the entry Religion in Japan). I think, however, that Japanese people know, as they always knew, that everything that leads to, maintain and protect Life is good. And all are here, around us! Thank you Rev Greg for sharing your experiences from journeys and with people you met. I am looking forward next!
Posted by: Child at May 9, 2006 09:33 AM