Shinto

How to do Shinto

Some suggestions as to how one might take part in Shinto
1) Read books on Shinto. Not terribly useful but it is a start. A reading list should have been sent to you. The most practical book for this purpose is perhaps Stuart Picken’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1880656663/">Shinto Meditations</a> (it has details about misogi for instance). A book that stresses the universal nature of Shinto is Mason's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1553691393/qid=1135244291/">The Meaning of Shinto</a>.

2) Try and find a shrine where you are or visit Japan.  There are shrines in Hawaii, Seattle, Canada (British Colombia), Brazil, Amsterdam.

3) If in the US, get in touch with Tsubaki Grand Shrine near Seattle (see http://www.tsubakishrine.com/test/home.asp).

4) Set up a <a href="http://www.nihonbunka.com/shinto/shime.htm">household shrine</a> and worship there.   Buy one or make your own http://www.youkaimura.org/kamidatsuku.htm  Rev. Barrish of Tsubaki America has suggested that you can also make food offerings and prayer before an Ofuda without a kamidana. Failing that, you can greet the rising sun each morning (it is the source of life in Shinto thinking). Bow twice, clap twice, and bow again facing the sun...then put your
 hands together and offer gratitude and prayer.

5) Read the articles on this site, particularly those listed in the side bar.

6) Create your own shrine at a place of natural beauty, perhaps, in your area and worship there. We are seeking examples of people who have created their own shrines, and links to related sites would be gratefully received.

7) Perhaps, set up an ancestral shrine using photographs perhaps of your deceased relatives, expressing your gratitude to them as if they were there.

8) Take up a Japanese martial art (with Shinto influence) particularly perhaps Aikido.
http://www.aikido-international.org/

9) Read Japanese mythology, particularly the first chapter of Kojiki.  See for example http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/ANCJAPAN/CREAT.HTM

10) Think humble, try to say thank you for everything, to any and every one, and be nice to people that need your help.

11) Keep clean, both physically and mentally. Makoto is an ideal state of natural sincerity, achieved by dusting the mirror in your heart.  Misogi is a ritual form of purification in cold water  (http://www.tsubakishrine.com/test/Misogi.asp).  You can make your own tamagushi for self-purification:
see http://www.nihonbunka.com/shinto/shime.htm

12) Participate in the <a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/shintoML/">ShintoML mailing list</a>.

Tim and John