First off, I know I forget everything, I'm just like that. This is the reason I always do everything at the last minute. I am, however, trying the list thing, which worked remarkably well LYIB (I have a trick! I tape it to the back of the book I'm reading! That way I never lose it -_-) Okay, so, what did we talk about... right! First he describes the "gods" (/narratives) that we dedicate our lives to and why we need them. I like the way he does this, he describes how humans give their lives meaning--by having a reason. And I guess the opposite of this is being completely nihilistic... Anyway, it makes sense. People generally find a reason for living--their kids, family, dreams, religion, just something they believe they should be doing--and then follow up on it until the end. And it was Barzun who talked a bit about when people kind of get to the end of where that dream can take them--what's left? Some of the gods are convenient, y'know, coz they go on forever. Sometimes I think people who keep following one thing are... what would the word be? Avoiding their responsibility? Or not responsibility, more like they're avoiding thinking for themselves. At least sometimes! I'm sure some people think really hard and decide to follow a certain way, but I think it's important to keep questioning yourself. I think that people who stay a certain way become stagnant, and in order to survive and do your best you have to keep changing and wanting to know more.
And I brought this up in class but maybe it wasn't that interesting, about Shinto and the kami? Ah, I don't know if you remember, but I'll tell you what it's about, all right? Shinto is the ancient faith/way of life of Japan, that's been there since the people had any sort of religious beliefs. It wasn't formalized in any way until the influence of Buddhism on the people. (Which I think is kind of interesting--before that Shinto was just Shinto "The way of the Kami" sort of thing. People didn't need a written history, or a definition of the tenents--of which there aren't really any-- because it was theirs, and it was just the way things were. Does that make sense? That they didn't need a way of identifying their beliefs until others held beliefs that didn't match up. But I know that Buddhism and Shintoism coexist wonderfully in Japan, partly because strict Buddhists see the kami as incarnations of Buddha, and the Shintoists see the many Buddhas as kami... At least it works.) But in Shinto everything is believed to have a spirit, or a kami, and you guys have heard of... let's say "Bushido", right? That's "the way of the sword", and there are a lot of those things in Japan. There's the "way of tea", sadou/chadou, like tea ceremony and such. You can devote your life to any of these things, but you never deny the existence of everything else, which is what seems people do in the book--you're devoted to technology, so spiritual doesn't make sense, you're devoted to the big God (and I know not all people are like this) and evolution goes out the window.
I don't know what you could say my "god" is. I know things that I want to do, though I won't list them here, I don't know who's reading this! And I know things I don't want to do. Maybe I want to be happy without comprimising myself. But I don't want to stay within myself for my whole life! I don't want to be an isolated phenomenon, if you know what I mean. O__O Hopefully...
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Good job, J.J. I'm sorry we didn't have enough time in class to delve more fully into your examples drawn from Japanaese culture. As I said after class, the Japanese seem---as a culture---to have an incredible capacity to adapt and embrace a degree of pluralism in belief at least. Neither Shinotism nor Buddhism (as they practice it, at least) seem to demand exclusive devotion. This appears, as you imply, to help them avoid some of the problems that fundamentalisms of any variety can create. What you (at least as I see it) is a kind of spiritual pragmatism, to perhaps coin a term. What do you think?
Neither of the faiths do ("embrace a degree of pluralism", that is). In fact, I know that Shinto isn't considered a practiced religion by those who actually live in it, it's just the way they live; And it has no tenets set in stone for its followers to follow or be condemned for, it just says what people should do, and let's them decide for themselves what's right and wrong. And I'll say again that both religions coexist quite peacefully in Japan--there are even small Shinto shrines inside of Buddhist temples--with the hard-core Shintoists seeing the Buddhas as individual kami, and the Buddhists seeing the kami as incarnations of Buddha. But for everyday life people just get along. It goes unsaid that every living thing has a purpose and a soul, at least from what I've seen. When humans impose upon a world not their own they apologize, Shinto I know has rituals to bless cars before they're subjected to the frantic pace of the highways, andAbout the use of the word "god"... I think in general people place too much importance on certain words without paying attention to what lies behind them.About the use of the word "god"... I think in general people place too much importance on certain words without paying attention to what lies behind them. to calm the spirit of the earth before new buildings are erected. To live on such a small island, to be a strong presence as a people in such a small island, the Japanese have to work hard to keep up. And they do. And they don't destroy the land in the process, unlike we United States-ians...
But back on topic, ne? I think that embracing concepts on a spiritual level (like having gods of this or that) we take the actions pertaining to that god to another level; I mean to say we become more intense about our "worship". I think that Shinto helps people since it does not promote a single-mindedness that other religions do. It allows people to be more flexible and open to change becuase they don't believe they know the way things ought to be... Am I making sense? We should have a rough draft version of comments...
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