Friday, January 22, 2010

Your Own Way is the Best Way


Putting your hands together toward the rising sun sending gratitude that you are led to live. This idea was part of the nature worship in the ancient times, a common practice seen all over the world.

In ancient Europe, people were conscious of the sun’s orbit. And the giant rocks were worshipped placed on the so-called Ley lines. In South America, the ancient sacred buildings were designed using of the shadows accordingly to the sun’s orbit.

All religious beliefs originate in sun worship. Especially in Japan, we continued the ancient belief in Shintoism. In truth, all the detailed doctrines are actually unnecessary other than worshipping the sun.

The detailed doctrines were made by humans as a method to make money out of religion. In order to position themselves in a special place, they would impress the commoners by telling them or showing them some unusual content.

For example, during the early-modern times, there was the Yoshida Family in Kyoto famous amongst the Shintoists. They had the authority to give out licenses to become a Shinto priest. In Japan, few families like them have been controlling the Shintoism since the time of Heian.

They had created some special Norito chants and other esoteric rituals to sell and make money from the believers. For this reason, today we have so many unnecessary and ineffective chants and incantations.

In my opinion, I sense that the Norito, Ooharae-no-kotoba(大祓詞), is the only chant that is actually made with the right sounds that would resonate with the World of the Gods. The others are all man made and artificial.

Especailly, Amaterasu-ohomikami, the name of the Sun God(-dess) in Japanese, is the true name of a god with the right sound that expresses the energy of the spirit of the sun. The sound, the pronunciation has been the same since the time of the mysterious giant floating island that existed in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

So many different ways of pronouncing Amaterasu-Ohomikami has been introduced by authorities. Many competed each other to claim his pronunciation was actually the correct one, which I found completely immature and nonsense.

I sense that the sounding of Amaterasu-Ohomikami has an effect to balance your breathe (life force).

In the past article, I have mentioned about ;
1) paying attention to the sounds of a・la(ra)・su・ho. (The ‘ra’ in Japanese is pronounced closer to ‘la’)

Out of the four sounds, ‘su’ is most important, that is in the middle of the name of the Sun God.

2) When you breathe out with the ‘su’ sound, it seems to have the effect of Harai, “purifying.”

3) When you breathe in with the ‘su’ sound, you suck in the energy of the environment surrounding you. So when you are breathing in the fresh morning air as you pray to the sun, you are breathing in the good ki(chi). You don't have to necessarily make a ‘su’ sound aloud, it could just be in your mind.

When you are at a place that you feel uncomfortable, you can use the ‘su’ sound and breath out. Breathing out the ‘su’ sound can also be used around sunset to cleanse any negative energy you might have accumulated during the day.

You can take the above suggestions into consideration, but most importantly, always pronounce in the way you feel right for yourself.

When you can feel it’s right for your body, right for your heart, that is the best breath, the best chanting method.

The method taught by all the sensei are only good for him.

Don't follow others. The best way for you, you already know within.

Ikashite-itadaite arigato-gozaimasu

Thank you for letting us live

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