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Spiritual Practice Exercise

Brian Hack

[]Campus

REL 33823: World Religions

Professor []

May 17, 2021

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The idea of spiritual practice is something which I hear so much about, yet never have

found interest in doing them besides to try them out. If there is an experience to be had, then that

experience seems to be more of patiently waiting, doing maths exercises, or reading a book.

Maybe there is nothing really there, perhaps I am doing the practice wrong, or my visual

impairment causes deeper differences between me and others than one would have expected.

Regardless, I chose to read a few prayers from Evans’ (2001) “Shinto Norito” since I like the

non-missionary element of the Shinto religion. Simply reading a few prayers from Shinto

appears to force me to be at ease, give hope for the future that I have a place to recite

instead of merely read the prayers, and help take the edge off of my continuous anxiety of

dealing with others. Given the nature of almost all other religions trying to justify their divinity,

Shinto has a special appeal to me in that it does not justify itself and just is.

As per the Foreword in Evans (2001), Rev. Dr. Yukitaka Yamamoto states that “Shinto is

the way of living with Great Nature and therefore is positive and simple” as well as that “Shinto

centers on […] practice” instead of “focusing on theology and doctrine” (p. ix). In direct

contradiction to what I did, Evans (2001) states that “[t]he ritual of Shinto should be

experienced, not analyzed” (p. xxi). Well, sorry, as a trained analyst there is much to be gained

by letting my mind do what it must; a typical Japanese person who would recite these prayers

would be able to understand the meaning of the chants whereas I am at a disadvantage due to not

being anywhere near a Shinto shrine with another person to recite the prayers with. Plus, given

the cramped nature of these Arizonan suburbs and my tendency to be culturally Japanese, there is

no where I can go to perform these chants without unnecessarily imposing my voice onto others.

Thus, reading the English is what I did and, with a few caveats, I believe I gained a sense of what

the practice is supposed to do.

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Reading from p. 31 to 47 in Evans (2001) makes me a little snobbish given the adjectives

of high significance given to noun phrases tied to the Ise Shrine in Japan, though, with the talk of

purification and a myriad of different objects, I feel at ease. Someone, a very long time ago, gave

these prayers their specific meaning and had a sense of awe in what they were communicating to

themselves in remembrance of something which may no longer be recognized. As such, the

pondering of what this may be does not necessarily make me wish to go on a pilgrimage though

it does give me a sense of awe as to what the future may hold should I end up back in Japan. I

had visited the Ise Shrine back in 2015, as I had toured much of Japan before leaving in early

2016, and so I have an idea of the places discussed in the prayers. All of these significances, in

addition to the adjectives which are normally attributed to divine entities, form a chaos in my

mind which dissipates, likely explaining why I feel forced to be at ease.

Given that I do have a connection to the prayers in what they describe, this is likely the

driver of hope that one day I would have a place to recite these prayers myself one day. The Ise

Shrine is a place with green trees surrounding it so this imagery helps me desire to find a place in

nature that could dissipate my chants as I do them such that my voice does not travel far.

Compared to the typical section of desert in Phoenix, AZ, one’s voice can travel farther than

expected if in the White Tank Mountains near rocks or on a cold day or night in the suburbs with

many neighbors possibly sleeping or wondering what the ruckus is outside. Also, people in

Phoenix would get an impression of a looney whereas a Japanese would understand that I am

simply chanting and silently wish me well. Though I feel the desire to leave this place, these

prayers magnify that desire through the connections I formed while living in Japan.

As for taking the edge off of any anxiety which I have in dealing with others, reading

through these prayers helps me stop and throw everything away for a few minutes. I still will run
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into the intolerant types that will harass me if they realize I do not support their violence of the

last summer in 2020 and their ridiculous slogans that make no sense when compared to their

stated desires of the future. I still must deal with those that saw four years of decent policies

being enacted as well as have legitimate questions about what happened over the last winter in

2020, yet still do nothing useful towards resolving their complaints. Then there are those that

take offense that someone challenges their expertise, authority, or status; this I have never

understood, likely due to finding the military hierarchy system quite intuitive. There are also the

manipulative types that are in the above-mentioned categories, they are ever-present in America

and more so now than ever with the chaos being forced by bad policies from deaf politicians.

All-in-all, the idea of purification without doing anything other than reading about it helps make

the anxieties dull their edge given that I added something on-top of them that is from ancient

times and withstood the test of time.

In a way, it appears I have learned the concept of “iitoki-dori”, or “adopting elements of

foreign culture”, as explained by Davies (2002) in “The Japanese Mind” (p. 127). This is the

same concept that was employed by the Japanese when Buddhism first came into Japan and

threatened Shinto, alongside Confucianism (Davies, 2002, p. 127-128). As per Davies (2002),

the Japanese resolved this issue by thinking of a religious tree with “’Shinto [as] the trunk,

Buddhism [as] the branches, and Confucianism [as] the leaves’ [attributed to Sakaiya, 2002, on

page 140, within this source]” (Davies, 2002, p. 128). Most people I have met seem to be fine

with being Christian, Jewish, or Muslim and yet, for me, there is no spark in these religions

except for when I imagine myself as Japanese, before even looking seriously into Shinto. Likely

just another effect of the difference imposed on me by my visual impairment!

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There are other practices of Shinto which I would be interested in adapting into my life.

Molloy (2021) speaks of how homes will typically have “a small Shinto shrine called the

kamidana” (p. 258). A kamidana would help orient my room by having a place in it that I would

focus on besides this crowded desk with a maze of objects stacked everywhere, including a

closet with bags and boxes packed six years ago and have not been addressed since leaving

Japan. As per Sire (2015), “worldviews have both a private and a public dimension” with

“specific commitments held by individuals” and “sets of assumptions that characterize a specific

community, historical era[,] or entire culture (p. 127). Hopefully you, the reader, will have a

much better observation point of myself and the Japanese having made it this far through my

analysis of attempting a Shinto spiritual practice.

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References

Davies, R. (2002). The Japanese mind: understanding contemporary Japanese culture. Tuttle.

Evans, A. L. (2001). Shinto norito: a book of prayers. Trafford.

Molloy, M. (2021). Experiencing the world's religions: tradition, challenge, and change.

McGraw-Hill Education.

Sire, J. W. (2015). Naming the Elephant: Worldview as a Concept (2nd ed.). InterVarsity Press.