Saturday, September 11, 2010

Summer Vacation 2 - The sacred sword

- Kusanagi-no-mitsurugi (草薙神剣)

After visiting Ise Jingu, we drove to Atsuta Jingu in Nagoya. The highway run smoothly and we were able to enjoy the drive. As we got close just around one traffic light before reaching the shrine, my wife said she feels a tingling sensation on her right finger. This signifies that this shrine holds a vital divine energy. It happens when the kami residing at the shrine is welcoming the visitor and creating a spiritual connection. When this happens, there is no doubt that we are permitted to enter the shrine. I felt the tingling on my back already when we were getting off the highway. When you are a beginner in feeling these sensations, you will feel them on your fingers. As you develop your oneness with nature, you will start to feel with your whole body. Even if you have worked on your spirituality for many decades, still there are only few who can feel this sensation. Today, someone such as my wife who has only worked on sending gratitude towards ancestral spirits and kami can feel this. It shows the time is changing.

It was around 1pm. We reached the parking lot of the main entrance of the shrine. My family told me that there is a famous unagi (eel) restaurant near by and they wanted to have lunch there. According to a magazine, it was very hard to get a seat for its popularity. We found the restaurant. It was very close to the main gate of Atsuta Jingu. The place looked already full but we found just enough seats at the counter table. And we ordered the famous dish Hitsumabishi.  There is an eel diner in front of Ise Jingu and there was one here too. While I was waiting for the order, I was thinking about the coincidence.

Eels are spiritual entities that praise the sun. The fertilization of the eel is limited to a certain area and still a mystery to how it occurs. The fry of an eel is very much like the shape of a sperm of a man. I felt that the azoospermia and the amount of existing fries of the eels might be interrelated. The point is that I feel the creatures on this planet Earth are interrelated in many ways and everything is connected in some way. While I was in my imaginative world, the hitsumabushi dish was served. We had no idea how to eat it.  We kind of peaked the lady sitting next to us who was eating the same dish.









First time, you put the rice and the cooked eel from the rice tub into your rice bowl. The second time, you do the same and also pour the soup into the rice bowl. It was so hot that day I didnt really have an appetite but once I pour the soup it was easier to consume. 

As I was serving my third bowl of rice with the shamoji spatula I sensed something. It was a revelation about the Kusanagi-no-mitsurugi (the sword from the legendry Three Sacred Treasures.). The shamoji spatula had turned into a sacred sword through my psychic vision.

The tip of the sword is wavy like flower petals. The rod is about 60cm long and the middle is swollen. The old documents tells that this sword looks like a shape of a leaf of a shobu (sweet flag.) But I sense it is the petals and not the leaf.

When I envisioned this shape in my head, it linked to one information. It was a painting of a human-like figure of a kami called Kunitokotachi-no-mikoto drawn by Onizaburo Deguchi from Oomotokyo sect.   

I sense that this was drawn when Onizaburo was staying at Izumo Daijingu in Kyoto. It was a full moon night and he witnessed this figure on the sacred mountain behind the main shrine. In this painting, the figure holds a very unusual sword just like the one I described. So what is the true nature of this Kusanagi-no-mitsurugi sword ? 
 (to be continued)

Ikashite-itadaite arigato-gozaimasu
Thank you for letting us live

I would like to spread the Gratitude Awareness towards ancestral spirits and everything around us so 5% of the world population will start acting on it on a daily basis.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Summer vacation 1



 - 御垣内(Mikakiuchi) -
At Ise Jingu, the main shrine is surrounded by layers of walls called tamagaki (玉垣). A form to pay a reverence inside these walls guided by a priest is called Mikakiuchi sanpai.

This time, I wanted to offer my gratitude for letting me publish the extraordinary photos I was able to take of Ise (title: 太陽と大自然の神々の地、伊勢 The land of Kami of the sun and the great nature.) 

I also applied for the Daidaikagura (大々神楽) to pray for prosperity of the nation and the Mikakiuchi sanpai to pray for peace of the nation and longevity for the Emperor.

Thanks to the readers of my books, I was able to apply for these deluxe formal ways of visit. I would like to return the favor to you by reporting about my trip.
The trip went without unusualness except for one incident. When I was standing right under the Naka-no-e-no-torii gate in front of the Naigū main shrine, I felt a strong ocean wind on my entire body. The main shrine was certainly the ocean and it was as if the ocean sent me the breeze. My family members didnt seem to have recognized it.

Until the Meiji era, Ise Jingu did not officially allow personal donations or prayers. The shrine was a place solely to pray for peace and prosperity of the nation and it was managed by the government and all expenses came from tax.

Meiji Emperor was the one who changed the system that ran for nearly two thousand years. He opened Ise Jingu to the public and let the people donate and pray for their personal wishes. Thanks to his idea, today, Ise Jingu does not need government support but manages the entire operation by donations from the people.

If the prime minister changes, due to economic crisis the budget might be cut down which may influence the management of Ise Jingu. Meiji Emperor had predicted such case over a hundred years ago and turned the finance around to rely on the people instead of the government. If he hadn't done it, Ise Jingu may not have existed for so long.

Today without relying on tax, Ise Jingu has more than enough donations to be ready for the Sengu held once in every twenty years. Instead, the excessive donations might be donated to help the government finance or the government might start to impose tax on donations to religious organizations.

In any case, the impression I had at the Naigū is that this place is rock solid protected by the breath of Kami. It felt so powerful that nothing could change its existence.

Ikashite-itadaite arigato-gozaimasu
Thank you for letting us live

I would like to spread the Gratitude Awareness towards ancestral spirits and everything around us so 5% of the world population will start acting on it on a daily basis.