Shinto

           When doing last week’s blog, I snuck a peak at some of the videos that we had to watch before doing this one.  After looking at “The Peach Orchard” I was thoroughly confused as to what the Shinto Religion actually is and what it believes in.  After hearing the lecture, it started to make a little more sense, however I do not feel as confident about this religion as I do the others that we have learned.

            In “The Peach Orchard” a little boy’s family cut down an entire orchard of peach trees and this seemed to upset the Kami.  Kami stands for the powerful or amazing things in nature to which the Shinto people pray, give offerings, etc.  Since there is no monotheistic creator, there are many Kami’s which prove to be important.  The family, according to Kami, committed a sin when the cut down this sacred orchard and they deserved to be blamed and punished.  This coincides with what Shinto’s believe, and that is to live harmoniously with nature and society in general.  There was no need for the family to cut this orchard down so it could have been considered a sin.

            I actually enjoyed this short clip because the little boy was able to explain himself to the Kami and prove to them that he wept because he liked the trees and did not want his family to cut them down.  Once the Kami’s realized that he was telling the truth, they gave him the gift of showing him the bloomed orchard one last time which was very touching.  I feel like this could relate to the Shinto religion in that even if someone or you commit a sin, you can apologize and seek forgiveness and Kami will forgive you.

            Although I still am a little confused as to what this religion exactly does, and to what extent they take their practices; I still enjoyed the short movie clip.  Having never heard of this religion, I feel like it is foreign territory to me but would not mind learning more about it.  The practices they have along with their shrines and such really intrigue me.

The Tao of Pooh

My reaction to the book.  Even though it may not sound like I enjoyed the book, I truely did! :)

            Growing up I have always believed that Winnie the Pooh was simply a children’s book that was strictly for entertainment purposes; however, after reading The Tao of Pooh, I was shocked to discover the underlying meaning of the characters involved and the entire story plot in general. 

The strong since of Taoism that is present in children’s book shocks me to be completely honest.  I believe that this book shows how Pooh and the other characters live life according to the beliefs of Taoists which is not a bad thing in any sense of the word; however as a child’s book that is read aloud to kids of all ages in elementary school, I can understand how some parents could get upset.  Being a Catholic, we fight for the right to be able to say a prayer, or even mention God’s name in the pledge of allegiance, however this award winning book is freely read and embraced everywhere.  I am not saying that I do not disagree with the context of the book itself or the correlation with Winnie the Pooh; it just shocked me when I realized that they were so strongly correlated. 

            This actually caught my attention so I decided to do some research and came across a statement that said that the author, A.A. Milne, did not intend to have Winnie the Pooh be a children’s book in the first place. (http://www.just-pooh.com/tao.html)  Other than this small issue, which I wouldn’t even call it an issue, I enjoyed reading the book and realized that the characters to in fact relate to the teachings of Taoism which is very interesting and probably took the author quite a while to come up with.

            When I read about the solution to Americans and our culture all I could think of was that this is absolutely bogus.  If one thinks that Americans have a ‘problem’ then that is a personal opinion not felt by all.  We have fought for hundreds of years to have a right to freedom of religion.  Democracy is something that America has strived for and achieved since it was first founded.  Part of democracy is the separation of church and state.  If all Americans practiced the belief of Taoism, we would be taking a step backwards toward capitalism.  Freedom of everything is key in American society and taking that away would only cause bigger problems.

One argument that I do agree with is that American’s are busy backsons.  This is a great example that was used in the book: There was a man who disliked seeing his footprints and his shadow.  He decided to escape from them, and began to run.  But as he ran along more footprints appeared, while his shadow easily kept up with him.  Thinking that he was going too slowly, he ran faster and faster without stopping, until he finally collapsed from exhaustion and died. (page 92)  In today’s society, everyone is trying to achieve something bigger than what they already have.  Therefore we live our life saying well what if, and when I get this; this causes us to not appreciate what we have now and live in the moment.  We waste our lives by looking to the future and then it is too late.  This is something that everyone should work on and we should appreciate everything that life has given us.