Shinto Current Issues Free Essay Example, 1000 words

Obviously, it must be mentioned that Shintoism, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism serve as a guide for life or the very philosophy for a particular way of life according to certain principles. And one of such fundamentals is contained in solicitous attitude and careful treatment of everything around people. This aspect comes alongside with refusal of the whole unnecessary for holy life deprived from material goods. In such a way, humans gain their catharsis. Consequently, their soul becomes a kind of a mirror, in which everything is reflected in its original appearance without deformations resulted from unsound thoughts subordinated and dictated by evil. Followers of the Oriental religions believe in initially good nature of everything in the world. Still, there is a possibility of inciting for harmful ideas and actions on the part of the evil spirits (Williams, 2005). Evil is perceived as a disease of the universe and a man, which can be treated by the means of e xpurgation of evil thoughts and everything excessive for living according to principles of harmony. In such a manner, the very life goal is attainment of a union with the world through reaching of omniscience with its result of eternity living, being equal with gods. We will write a custom essay sample on Shinto Current Issues or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now All together, the common features of the Shinto religion and Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism form a kind of an ideal creature, which is guided by the principle of love for everything in the universe and strives for harmony and appearance in salvation by the means of peaceable things. It is natural that the modern pass of life has set a stamp upon functioning of the Shinto religion in the current world of technological and industrial progress. One of the challenges facing Shintoism finds its condition in the hybrid form of the religion as well as its tolerance to other ones. The case is that openness to other doctrines has affected it in a negative way, as â€Å"From a religious perspective, proliferation of other religions especially the monotheistic Christianity and Islam has dented the position of Shinto in Japanese culture† (Glenn). As a result, the principles of Shintoism are somehow losing their positions among people. Furthermore, peculiarities of the modern life with its primary orientation on solution of human issues of economic origin has almost deprived them from adequate attention to mental development and the life goal of reaching harmony in union with nature. Anyway, many Japanese don’t spend much of their time for practices of the re ligion.