Question about Shintoism?

Belief isn't the most important part of Shinto. Shinto is about living your life in harmony with nature and society to achieve the greatest happiness. Because there is no founder, no commandments, and the Shinto texts are not central to the religion it can be highly individualized. There are a few things that Shintoists agree on:

1. Respect for family.

2. Cleanliness of mind and body.

3. Respect for nature.

4. Celebration of the harmony between nature and society through the Kami.

Kami is the personification of the divine spark that exists in almost every natural object whether animate or inanimate. Objects/animals/people that inspire a sense of wonder are considered to have a strong Kami present and a shrine is often set up to honour that Kami. (In the case of animals and people it's usual to do this after they have died).

Shinto holds that everything starts out clean and pure but picks up "spiritual dirt" along the way from negative thoughts and actions or contact with contaminated substances (such as blood). Shinto rituals are designed to remove the contamination and restore the original clean state.

It helps if one is Japanese.

Shinto teaches, among other things, that the Kami or spirit of creations is the essence of all that exist so that it is found in anything and in all places that help one attain to the transcendental nature of reality and Being.

At and in such places wherein a sacred object is found to reside, the Kami is supplicated to request that it inhabit said place or object and to thereby assist those who worship said Kami/deity.

In Japan, most person are married with a Shinto ceremony and buried with a Shin Do Buddhist ceremony and prayers.

namaste

I just googled "shinto" and look what I got: Shinto (神道, Shintō?) or kami-no-michi is the indigenous spirituality of Japan and the Japanese people. It is a set of practices, to be carried out diligently, to establish a connection between present day Japan and its ancient past.[1] Shinto practices were first recorded and codified in the written historical records of the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki in the 7th and 8th century. Still, these earliest Japanese writings do not refer to a unified "Shinto religion", but rather to disorganized folklore, history, and mythology.[2] Shinto today is a term that applies to public shrines suited to various purposes such as war memorials, harvest festivals, romance, and historical monuments, as well as various sectarian organizations. Practitioners express their diverse beliefs through a standard language and practice, adopting a similar style in dress and ritual, dating from around the time of the Nara and Heian Periods.[2]

The word Shinto ("Way of the Gods") was adopted from the written Chinese (神道, shén dào),[3] combining two kanji: "shin" (神?), meaning kami; and "tō" (道?), or "do" meaning a philosophical path or study (originally from the Chinese word tao).[2][3] Kami are defined in English as "spirits", "essences" or "deities", that are associated with many understood formats; in some cases being human-like, in others being animistic, and others being associated with more abstract "natural" forces in the world (mountains, rivers, lightning, wind, waves, trees, rocks). Kami and people are not separate; they exist within the same world and share its interrelated complexity.[2]

There are currently 119 million official practitioners of Shinto in Japan,[4] although a person who practices any manner of Shinto rituals may be so counted. The vast majority of Japanese people who take part in Shinto rituals also practice Buddhist ancestor worship. However, unlike many monotheistic religious practices, Shinto and Buddhism typically do not require professing faith to be a believer or a practitioner, and as such it is difficult to query for exact figures based on self-identification of belief within Japan. Due to the syncretic nature of Shinto and Buddhism, most "life" events are handled by Shinto and "death" or "afterlife" events are handled by Buddhism—for example, it is typical in Japan to register or celebrate a birth at a Shinto shrine, while funeral arrangements are generally dictated by Buddhist tradition—although the division is not exclusive.

Check out your local library system for the book:

"Mankind's Search for God"

http://watchtower.org/e/publications/index.htm > 9th listed

(not sold in book stores)

Chapter 8. is: "Shinto---Japan's Search for God"

It gives the basic history, beliefs & teachings of Shintoism.

i could say an effortless unfastened present presented to you and organic faith, James a million:27 isn't demanding to appreciate in any respect! (The 'relax' are puzzling!) God isn't the author of misunderstanding! (Acts 4:10-12.) real Christianity is a 'stroll' with Him. (The 'relax' are purely attempting to sell you 'some thing'!) <')))><