Itsukushima Shrine, Hatsukaichi-shi, Japan (Nicki Eliza Schinow, Unsplash)
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Author: Sean Fleming, Senior Writer, Formative Content
Shinto is Japan’s indigenous religion, blending formal, elaborate ceremonial practices from the imperial tradition with local, community-based beliefs.
Followers of Shintoism worship their ancestors and regard them as the guardians of the family. They also pay their respects to the numerous kami – spirits that inhabit the natural world; there is no overarching doctrine or dogma in Shintoism, instead it focuses on the relationship between plants, animals, people, the elements and the yearly cycles of growth, death and rebirth.
Shinto shares many outlooks with Buddhism, and many Japanese people would say they adhere to both faiths. One of the central tenets of Buddhism is the impermanence of everything. The Ise-Jingu Shinto shrine can trace its history back around 2,000 years and occupies a site that is approximately the same size as the centre of Paris. But to mark the importance of the circle of life, every 20 years the Shikinen Sengu divine palace within the shrine precinct is demolished.
It is then rebuilt, to the same dimensions but on an alternate site within the precinct. The process involves around 30 different rituals and ceremonies, the first being felling the trees that will form the new structure. The rebuild takes around eight years and includes recreating the interior fixtures, furnishings and sacred artefacts.
To date, it has been rebuilt 62 times, most recently in 2013.
Ise-Jingu is regarded as the country’s holiest Shinto shrine. It is said that the spirits of the Japanese imperial family’s ancestors are enshrined there. The tradition of regarding the Emperor as a god came to an abrupt end in 1945, when Japan surrendered at the end of the Second World War. At the behest of the USA, Emperor Hirohito issued a statement on 1 January 1946 publicly renouncing the idea of his divinity.
The Japanese,Lankans and East Asians see the Hindoos as a strategic partner against PRC in South China Sea.?
They feel that hey have a common link via Buddha ? They forget that the Hindoos exterminated all the Buddhists ! They also forget that all Buddhist sculptures and scriptures, indicate Mongoloid features of the Buddha – which are not Indian !
But more important – as per Hindoo scriptures – Buddha was a fraud ,charlatan and sent to beguile Hindoos ! Still the Japanese see the HIindoo Nation as a Strategic Military Ally – against the PRC ?
Buddhists believe that they have a special bond with India and Hindoos !
The poor souls – if they knew ! dindooohindoo
i present the proof of what the Hindoo scriptures say,about the Buddha
“In the beginning of Kali-yuga, the Lord will appear as Lord Buddha, the son of Anjana,in the province of Gaya, just for the purpose of deluding those atheists.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam 1:3:24)
यथा हि चोर स्स तथा हि बुद्ध-स्तथागतं नास्तिकमत्र विद्धि।
“As a thief, so is Buddha”. Know that “Tathagatas are atheists”. [Ayodhya Kandam,Sarga 109; shloka 34]
As per Hindooism – Boodhism was a lie introduced by the Hindoo Gods to distract Atheists , idolators and animal sacrifices ! dindooohindoo
But they lost control of the plot ! If the Buddhists knew ……
Sample 1 – Lord Shiva is “explicitly ordered by Lord Vishnu”,to promote the philosophy(i.e. Advaita Vedanta) to “fool and beguile”, the Dindoo Hindoo Bindoo
svāgamaiḥ kalpitais tvaḿ ca
janān mad-vimukhān kuru
māḿ ca gopaya yena syāt
sṛṣṭir eṣottarottarā
[Addressing Lord Siva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead said:] Please make the “general populace averse to Me” by imagining your own interpretation of the Vedas.
Also, cover Me in such a way that people will take more interest in “advancing material civilization”, just to “propagate a population bereft of spiritual knowledge”. ’Padma Purana, Uttara-khanda (62.31).
Sample 2 – Lord Vishnu instructs Siva,in the “Varaha Purana”,by saying:
esa moham srjamy asu yo janan mohayisyati
tvam ca rudra maha-baho moha-sastrani karaya
O mighty-armed Siva, please “write books filled with lies”, and thus bewilder the people.
atathyani vitathyani darsayasva maha-bhuja
prakasam kuru catmanam aprakasam ca mam kuru
O mighty-armed one, please “preach a collection of lies”. Place yourself in the forefront,and conceal Me.
Sample 3 – Shiva tells his “wife Parvati”,as under
mayavadam asac-chastram pracchannah baudham ucyate
mayaiva kalpitam devi kalau brahmana-rupina
O Goddess, in the age of Kali I shall “descend in the form of a brahmana” to spread this “Mayavada philosophy”, which is actually “covered Buddhism”. (Padma Purana)