Beautiful Shinto Habit. (ritual, beliefs, follower, experience, religion)

[Master Vigil]

I once met a shinto follower at a martial arts tournament in cincinnati. We went for a walk during the demonstrations, and we went past a wooded area. He stopped in front of the woods and kneeled on one knee. Than he said something in japanese that I didn't understand. I asked him what he did and he just said it was a ritual to show respect for the wood kami, and the tree kami. He said it was just a habit. I always thought that was a wonderfully beautiful habit.

[robtex]

I have seen stuff like that too on japanese footage. The religion feels everything organic has a spirt or essence and all of it is sacred. In aikido when you see them clapping their hands before class in front of the kamiza they are preforming a shinto ritual to scare the evil spirts away before class. I don't know much about shintoism but seems their are a lot of spirts in its belief system.

[Master Vigil]

Yeah, its almost shamanistic except there really isn't a "shaman." I just loved how it happened out of habit, and I found that it was a wonderful habit to have.

Have you seen "Spirited Away?" That is a great movie, and somewhat talks about shinto beliefs. I would definitely suggest it. Its an anime.

[Feathers in Hair]

"Spirited Away" was incredible. I'm a great fan of that director, and love his work. (It still makes me cry when the boy remembers that he was a river and shatters from a dragon in a flurry of white scales.)

The tree kami are major features of another film of his, "Princess Mononoke." The movie focuses more on environmentalism and nature's interaction with humans. They are referred to in the movie as kodama,



and are cute to the point of making me smile each time I see them .

[Master Vigil]

Princess Mononoke is also a wonderful anime. Actually, that is the movie I was watching while I passed out. Don't know if thats a good thing or not , but I did. I loved the wolf spirits in that movie as well.

[Feathers in Hair]

You passed out?! *is worried* I didn't hear about this, or maybe I was told and don't remember. I really hope you're okay!

And the wolf spirits were wonderful, too. (In the English dubbing, they had Gillian Anderson do the voice of the mom, which I thought she did suprisingly well.)

[Master Vigil]

It was back in high school. I as watching the movie, and my mom called me to come up and eat dinner. So I stood up, stretched, and all I remember is looking at the floor and it being yellow. I remember thinking "woah, this is cool." And the next thing I know, I'm laying all funky on my floor with sharp pains in my knees, and a huge brush burn on my forehead. I went upstairs and was just like, "Mom, I think I just passed out." She had this look of fear on her face because I had mitral valve prolapse at the time. So she made me go to a cardiologist to get it checked out. Needless to say I passed with flying colors, and my mitral valve actually went away within a year. (Which I think is somehwat normal for people that age.) It was definitely a wierd experience. But then again, my whole life is a wierd experience.

[michel]

I have 'a thing' for trees - not some sort of fetish, I must hasten to add - but truly, I have a deep respect for them; I must unashamedly admit to tree hugging too. It is a wonderully 'grounding' excercise; I see it as a 'kick start' to the flow of chi/ki . To make an analogy, it is an equivalent to concentrating an electric energy field by allowing a 'heavy magnetic field' to surround something that is able to absorb it.
Think back to your early studies in physics, when you put iron filings on a sheet of paper, and then placed a magnet under the paper-the filings would mimic the shape of the magnetic field of the magnet. The tree thing is the same, with the added beauty of 'communing' and becoming at one with nature.