A Brief History of Japanese Religion Essay examples -- Japan Religious

A Brief tarradiddle of Japanese ReligionThe Buddha is said to have been born in India almost 500 BCE. During his life time, he preached the benefits of the Middle Path, the road between the twain extremes of a decadent life style and severe austerities. Soon by and by the death of the founder, Buddhist missionaries began to travel through out Asia, finding their focus along the Silk Roads to China, first arriving around 100 CE. The climate thither was hospitable to the teaching of the Buddha, and soon Buddhism was counted along with Taoism and Confucianism as one of the study religions of the period. The Chinese interpreted the Buddhist texts in a freshly light, and Chinese Buddhism began to take on its own distinctive character. Around 600 CE, Chinese Buddhist missionaries made their way through Korea to Japan. Thus, around one millennium later on the founding of Buddhism, the Japanese were first exposed to its teachings and philosophies. The Japanese, who were eagerly assim ilating the soaring culture of the Tang dynasty into their own, adopted the Buddhist schools that had grown in twain government agency and prestige in China. However, coexisting with this new foreign religion was the innate Japanese religion of Shinto (The Way of the Kami). Both religions influenced the thoughts and actions of the Japanese people, and both remain vigorous in Japan to this day, coexisting peacefully.SHINTOIn their world myriad spirits shone like fireflies and every tree and bush-league could speak.At first, it is difficult for a Westerner to comprehend the religion know as Shinto. Shinto has no founding father, no all muscular deity, no holy scriptures, no moral code, no single exercising or goal. In its beginnings there was not a unified priesthood or community, but in... ...With the dawn of the Modern Period there came a new regime of rulers. These rulers attacked Buddhism and pushed Shinto as the true religion of the Japanese people. It became extrajudic ial for Buddhists to teach that the kami were manifestation of the buddhas (they were to be seen as far superior to the buddhas), and Buddhism in general was blamed for the problems that faced Japan. Many temples were destroyed. Shinto (often called declare Shinto) was say non-religious, but rather the duty of every loyal Japanese person. This nationalistic movement helped push Japan into WWII, and defeat by the Allies was crushing. State Shinto was outlawed, and the related shrines were made independent. Yet, to this day, both Buddhism and Shinto play an active role in the lives of the Japanese people. The two have come into equilibrium, servicing the Japanese peoples needs together.