“Culture", as well as "spirituality", contains a vast field, and I cannot even describe in a few words what culture or spirituality is. Today let me just point out, what I think, would be helpful to think about our RSCJ spirituality from the cultural dimension.
I would like to share with you an inspiration I had from the talk by a famous Zen Mistress, Shunto Aoyama during the Japanese Spirituality Workshop for rscj in 1999. She said "Truth is one but with different kirikuchi." Kirikuchi is a very meaningful Japanese. Actually, kirikuchi means cut end. It can be translated as the section revealing different aspects. If you look at a glass that is cut horizontally, you have a circle. lf it is cut vertically, you have a rectangle, and if diagonally, you have an oval. But in whatever way you may cut it, it is the same glass. I am sure that no one can see and understand the whole of the world. Each one looks the world from one's own perspective, or I would say Kirikuchi.
There is a story that also points out to the same insight. One day some blind persons wanted to know what an elephant was like. They asked to someone to show them an elephant. When they came close to it, one touched the nose saying "Oh, an elephant is like a long hose." Another one touched the feet, and said, "No, an elephant is like the trunk of a tree." Another blind person touched the ear and said, “It is like a fan." We are like these blind persons, aren’t we? We are so limited by what we can sense and experience. It is impossible for us to know the whole of one reality.
St. Madeleine Sophie had a broad vision, such as developing adorers in the universe through the service of education. If we really want to make ours this vision in this 21 century, I am convinced that we must learn to see the things from many perspectives. We need to experience other cultures different from our own, and to see the world from different perspectives. Then we can learn about their experience with the mystic/supernatural presence and also about their relationships with God or Gods. This, I think, is helpful to enrich our relationships with God and to deepen our spirituality in our own faith. This is my basic premise concerning “Spirituality and Culture."
Spirituality is molded in relation to culture:
Culture is based on the characteristic climate of the local area.
The natural environment molds the spirituality, because one's sensitivity develops in relation to physical factors like temperature, humidity, and topography. An outstanding research on the “climate" by a famous Japanese cultural anthropologist, Tetsuro Watsuji, shows how natural environment molds people's characteristics. He divides the whole world into three categories: Monsoon, Desert, and Pasture, and explains each characteristic in relation to the natural environment. Although we should avoid generalizations, I am sure that this research points out how climate certainly affects people's minds and hearts.
Monsoon: Asia, except Middle and West Asia.
- A combination of heat and humidity is the typical physical condition of this area.
- People recognize nature as nourishing as well as violent. Usually people have a very close relationship with nature, and are attached to the merciful/fruitful nature. When nature attacks human beings, they just wait till it passes away.
- Characteristics of people living in this climate are submission and generosity.
- People experience the immanence of God in nature.
- I spent two summer weeks in the Philippines, and I am now in Taiwan. It is actually amazing how rain and humidity are different in these countries. I am sure this applies to India and to Japan.
Desert: West Asia and North Africa where the desert spreads over vast areas
- Dryness is the characteristic of this area.
- Nature is barren and connotes death. To be obedient to the nature means to die. People here must fight to live/ to get water. People tend to have very strong personality.
- People experience a transcendent and supernatural God in this climate.
Pasture: Europe
Comfortable climate is distinguished in terms of humidity and temperature.
- Nature can be calm and tame.
- Nature itself is obedient to human beings.
- Characteristic of this area is rationality and human-centeredness.
- People tend to have a rational relationship with God.
Of course we have so many different aspects even in the same category. But we should not forget that our spirituality is deeply influenced by the physical conditions in which we live.
Our image of God, Sacred Other, forms one's self and one's relationship with others
Once I found a most insightful study on the self in the book entitled "Culture and Self", and I came to recognize the self as a central concept for an understanding of culture. Also, as an anthropologist says, symbols of self (representations of self of who am I and what am I) are connected with symbols of the supernatural or Sacred other.
For example, in Japanese culture, the Japanese self has been molded into the image of immanent God: the Japanese developed an interdependent construal of the self. God is called "owashimasu-kami" in Japanese, which means God reveals Godself in the space. In Japan God is not the one who works in the history, but in the place/space. God works in the communion of the whole of creation. Generally speaking, the Japanese have no image of dominant God who watches us from above.
In Japanese language, especially the use of "terms for self" and "address terms," clearly indicates characteristics of the Japanese self. When we Japanese have a conversation, we are consciously aware of each other's role in that relationship, and change several kinds of "terms for self" and "address terms" depending on the situation. It means, for the Japanese, the "self" is not an individual substance, but a sort of role or function among the community, interdependent beings. This interdependency of all creature, essential to both Buddhism and Shintoism, is strongly connected with the Japanese spirituality, for better or worse.
Japanese Spirituality based on the cultural climate of Japan
The Spirituality of Unlimited Embrace.
This "unlimited Embrace" is a term made by a famous theologian Kazou Kitamori. By using this term, he explains that the Japanese spirituality is to accept everything, literally everything, even things which contradict each other. To say more precisely, we don't even admit contradiction itself. This "unlimited embrace" can be also called the spirituality of "ambiguity," or "fuzziness." The Japanese are very passive in their religious faith, and are committed to more than one religion. This phenomenon is considered to be a part of the Spirituality of "Unlimited Embrace."
Religion of the Forest
The land of Japan is filled with the forest. It is incredible that 3/4 of the land is still covered with the forest. (Although we cut off many trees in the Philippines) It is said that the Japanese spirituality was molded in the forest; we have learned everything - how to live, what human beings are, or what the world is - from the forests. A forest is a place where all creatures live together, sharing life in a relationship of interdependence. The Japanese is thought to be conscious of the interdependence of the whole of creation. I would call this spirituality of the "Forest."
Spirituality of a go-between/matchmaker (a person who arranges the marriage) We have a tradition of "Shaman," whose role is to mediate between human beings and God. The Japanese keeps this mentality of "Shaman," which is good at forming a connection. By nature, we seem to be good at putting things together.
More than 40 years ago, Japanese Catholics, especially people like a famous novelist Shusaku Endo, who wrote "Silence," suffered a lot as Japanese. Shusaku Endo expressed his suffering as saying,
I get a feeling that I put on a cloth which never fits me at all. "Nowadays, we hardly know what we originally have in our own culture, although Japanese churches are much more open to the dialogue with Japanese traditional religions. It seems to me, that the most important thing for us now is to know more our own religious heritage and learn from it, even if we are Christians. We really need to go down deep in Qur own tradition to "drink from my own well."
My conviction is that God reveals Godself in each culture even though it is a culture of minority, or a culture which seems primitive. All cultures express one aspect of God's revelation in this world, and we can certainly learn from each one in order to deepen our own faith. In this time of globalization, in which the weak can be easily ignored, we need to be more attentive to each culture, which is certainly a treasure of God.
Sachiko Tanase rscj
Province of Japan
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