The History of Shinto

The Shinto writer Norinaga cites as the "universal principle of the world . . . that heaven and earth . . . were brought into existence by the creative spirits of two deities." The universal principle of the world is therefore also the creative principle, i.e., not a destructive or exploitative principle. Norinaga adds that this principle is beyond human comprehension, which suggests that, from a perspective of the cosmos, human responses to the found environment, including but not limited to industrial and corporate exploitation of natural resources, are best asserted with humility. Indeed, Norinaga specifically states that human intelligence "has is limits and there are many things it cannot fathom."

The Shinto conception of the natural world verges on nature mysticism; Earhart descr

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le from the Zen standpoint to deliberately engage in exploitation of the sensory world in the form of the ecosystem. Now this may seem to contradict the notion of engagement with the world by means of what Dogen calls exertion: "[T]he exertion of a day is the seed of all Buddhas, it is the exertion of all Buddhas. By this exertion Buddhahood is realized, and those who do not make an exertion when exertion is possible are those who hate Buddha." It is this exertion, a positive engagement with the world with the object of tranquillity in mind, that "sustains the sun, the moon, and the stars . . . earth and sky, body and mind, object and subject, the four elements, and five compounds." Thus exertion/engagement is conceived as a projection of tranquillity and active insight as experienced by way of meditation. In that regard, Aitken describes the active pursuit of "ecologically sound" day-to-day business practices as a strategy for trying to live in the contemporary world according to Zen patterns of thought. The core value is to "respond generously to others," where "others" refers not only to fellow human beings but also to "such humble beings as bushes and grasses," which are part of the symbiotic structure of life on Earth. Usin
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1876
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

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