# Quote — Motohisa Yamakage, The Essence of Shinto

> Shinto is not a faith tradition that can be propagated or imposed. Each human community, every human culture, has its own version of Shinto, which is based on accumulated experience, historical memory, and, perhaps most crucially, the local environment. Shinto recognizes and celebrates human diversity, just as it recognizes and celebrates the diversity of nature. For beneath that diversity there is an underlying unity — the union of humanity, earth, and heaven.

- Author: [Motohisa Yamakage](https://www.leafyquotes.com/motohisa-yamakage.md)
- Book: [The Essence of Shinto](https://www.leafyquotes.com/motohisa-yamakage/the-essence-of-shinto.md)
- Page: 202
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Motohisa_Yamakage#The_Essence_of_Shinto_(2006)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/motohisa-yamakage/the-essence-of-shinto/shinto-is-not

## More from this book

> Through worldly preoccupations, we become separated from that true self, and yet we can be aware that it exists and that it needs to get out. In a sense we can say that this phenomenon represents the separation between purity and impurity. To make this separation occur, a centrifugal separation movement of purity is needed. As a result of this movement, the true self, shrouded by the cloud of illusion and impurity, is able to emerge. The true self is a state of transcendence and so it is able to remain pure, even in the midst of impurity. However, the ego-self living in the relative and conflicted world cannot hear the voice of this true self. In order to hear this voice, we need to conduct silent listening in meditation. In Yamakage Shinto, that is known as chinkon.
>
> When we carry out chinkon, the relationship between true self and ego-self does not have conflict, and they become one body like the front and back of one coin. This is known as the unification of Kami and the human being. This unification means that Kami and the human being spiritually become one.

p. 169 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/motohisa-yamakage/the-essence-of-shinto/through-worldly-preoccupations.md)

> The spirit of Kami does not visit unclean places, and an unclean shrine becomes a mere building devoid of Kami energy, even though it may still have mitamashiro (御魂代) there. Mitamashiro is a material object temporarily representing spirit, such as a mirror, for the spirit of Kami to descend upon.

p. 81 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/motohisa-yamakage/the-essence-of-shinto/the-spirit-of-kami.md)

> Shinto, the very process of creating and giving birth to life and spirit is described as musubi and we place it in very high regard. In other words, the basic religious idea of Shinto is the continuous process of creation. When we apply this principle to an individual spirit-soul, we see that musubi is the process of work through which each person generates, grows, transforms, and develops naohinomitama (the innermost pure spirit), making his or her spirit grow and become strong. This means that the first task involves the creating of the body, which is attained through diligent care of bodily health. The second task is the creating of heart and mind, or psychological growth. Thirdly, there is the creating of the spirit, that is to say the purification of spirit-soul.

p. 126 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/motohisa-yamakage/the-essence-of-shinto/shinto-the-very.md)