Shinto Religious Community

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Nowadays, we live in the globalized world, and almost every day we meet people representing various nations and confessions. Living in a society means communicating with each other. To increase the effectiveness of cross-cultural communication, we need to understand each other better. The visit to the other culture religious communities helps us to be aware of people mentality and the appropriate model of behavior.

Religious beliefs inspire people to adjust their behavior by the dogmas and ethical norms of the religion influencing people’s way of thinking and decision-making (Wakimoto, 1990). “A person’s religious view is one of the elements that strongly influences his or her guiding principle in daily communication” (Hara, 2003, p.81).

Last week my close friends and I visited the Shinto religious community. It was an amazing experience which is worth to share with.

Shinto is the Japanese religious belief originated in ancient times. The tradition of Shinto supports the belief in kami, which explains the background of the people’s way of life, the attitude to nature and philosophical principles (Hirai, 2001). “The overall aims of Shinto ethics are to promote harmony and purity in all spheres of life. Purity is not just spiritual purity but moral purity: having a pure and sincere heart” (Ethics in Shinto, 2009, p.4).

We can state without any doubt that these conceptions influence how people interact in the Shinto temples. When entering the temple, we went the path on which the symbolic ritual of harai takes place. It is the ritual of spiritual sublimation. The believers go to the symbolic wood box throwing the coin into it. We noticed that people prayed quietly, sometimes even silently, in order not to bother thoughts of others and maintain the overall harmony in the temple.

The peace in mind and harmony in life reflect the main philosophical principles of Shinto (Miyazaki, 1990). These principles find their application in the way of verbal and non-verbal communication between people. In their attitude towards you, they keep completely calm and friendly as showing aggression goes beyond the frameworks of the principle of harmony in life.

One of my friends is used to express his emotions openly, and we love him for his expressive mimics and gestures. However, while being in the Shinto community, we were told that such behavior was not appropriate here. We were even asked not to look straight to the eye of the interlocutor as it could be regarded as the expression of aggression here. The handshakes are not in the tradition of Japanese people; instead, they make a bow, greeting people in such a way.

During our visit, we were generously treated to Japanese food: rice and the traditional soup. The former should be eaten with Hashi, and the later is traditionally drunk.

We spent all day in the Shinto community and gained invaluable experience in cross-cultural communication. It is argued that several important aspects recur in the modern forms of religious communication including “open and intimate expression” of religious beliefs and experience as well as some kind of “healing and integrating” response by other community members (Research trends, 1986).

What we observed in the communication of Shinto believers gave us a clearer understanding of the way of thinking of those people and their attitude to life.

In conclusion, the experience gained during the visit to the Shinto religious community helped us to know more about the culture and traditions of communication of Japanese people. It should be emphasized that we live in a highly globalized world, and it becomes more and more important to know the philosophy of life of other ethnic groups. The traditions of communication are an integral part of our way of life.

References

Ethics in Shinto. (2009).

Hara, K. (2003). Aspects of Shinto in Japanese Communication. Intercultural Communication Studies, 12(4), 81-103.

Hirai, N. (2001). Shinto. In T. Oshima, M. Sonoda, F. Tamamuro, T. Yamamoto (Eds.), Nihon no shinbutsu jiten (Dictionary of Kami and Buddha in Japan). Tokyo, Japan: Taishukan Shoten.

Miyazaki, Y. (1999). Shinshoku ni motomerareru kankyo mondai e no teigen (Suggestions on environmental problems to Shinto priests). In Jinja Honcho Kenshujo (The Training Institute of the Association of Shinto Shrines) (Ed.), Shinto no shizenkan ga kyoiku ni hatasu yakuwari (The contribution of Shinto’s nature view toward education) (pp. 61-74). Tokyo, Japan: Jinja-honcho.

Research trends in religious communication. (1986).

Wakimoto, T. (1990). Sekaikan to shukyo (Worldview and religions). In H. Uzawa, H. Kawai, N. Fujisawa, & S. Watanabe (Eds.), Tenkanki ni okeru ningen 9: Shukyo to ha (Human being in a turning point: What is religion?). Tokyo, Japan: Iwanami-shoten.

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Shinto Religious Community

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