In Japan, There Are Who People Pray To Many Gods, Yet Follow No Religion

I was listening in on a very interesting conversation on SteemSpeak the other day about religion. Unfortunately, I had some things to get done so couldn't actively participate, but it got me thinking a bit about religion in Japan, especially the concept of mushukyo (無宗教), which literally translates as "no religion."

In the western tradition, belief is everything. You have to believe in something. You have to stick to your beliefs. You have to stand up for what you believe in. You have to believe in yourself. You have to have something to believe in.

Arguments between and amongst differing beliefs aside, it seems that the greatest offense you can commit in western societies like the US is to not have any beliefs at all. If you can't articulate what it is that you believe in, you run the risk of being seen as unintelligent, wishy-washy, weak, or even untrustworthy. You HAVE to believe in something, even if it's something absolutely nobody else agrees with. Actually, if there's nobody else who shares your beliefs, you might even be regarded as a kind of hero, fighting for your beliefs in the face of opposition, willing to endure ridicule in the name of the idea you hold to be true.

So when it comes to religion, it's no surprise that westerners often have very strong convictions. Even the religion known as Atheism can't seem to get around having beliefs.

Oh, what's that? Atheism isn't a religion you say? OK. Maybe it's not.

Sure, some atheists are moderate, more like agnostics, and make no claims about the existence or nonexistence of a god. But many atheists make the claim that there is no god. That sounds like a truth claim to me. Speaking as someone who doesn't know if there is a god or not, I say the burden of proof is on the one making the claim. And since you can't prove a negative...

So, let's get to the point - mushukyo.

In Japan, there is a large percentage of the population that when asked about their religion, will say they have no religion. They say, "I'm mushukyo." They might even tell you this right after praying for good luck to one of the gods at one of the thousands of Shinto shrines or Buddhist temples found throughout Japan. Ironic? Right? I know. But it gets even better.

In my English classes, I've asked a lot of students what religion they are. Some will say Buddhist or Shinto, and the rest usually say mushukyo. When they say mushukyo, I'll usually ask them if they pray at shrines. That answer is always yes. When I then ask them why they pray if they don't believe in any religion, they invariably answer something along the lines of I don't know and have never thought about it.

How could this be? How could there be so many people who claim no belief, yet are obviously following a religion, at least loosely? I mean, if you asked even the most moderate Christian in the US, they would never say they were atheist or had no religion. They would say they were Christian, and maybe qualify it by saying they don't really go to church or that they're not "that kind of Christian."

I don't claim to know why this contradiction exists in Japanese people. Actually, I don't really want to claim that it's a contradiction at all. Perhaps my western cultural lens simply creates a contradiction where none actually exists.

In the western world, our mindset is heavily influenced by the ideas of logic and reason, and the belief that all questions have some sort of answer that can be arrived at through their application.

Japanese culture has very different roots, and is heavily influenced by concepts that western culture isn't. One of these is the concept of Wa(和) or harmony. So, in Japan, when it comes to human relations and discussions, it's much more important to maintain harmony and avoid conflict than it is to assert your opinion or take offense. So maybe for a lot of Japanese people, the basic "religious" principle is Wa.

There's an old story from Japanese history that illustrates the application of Wa in politics, and the beginning of the concept's influence on the culture. Let"s see if I can remember... It goes something like this: The rulers of Japan and China used to correspond with each other through letters sent by ship. In one of these letters, the Chinese emperor referred to the Japanese as "The People of Wa." The Chinese character he used for "Wa," though, meant short. Same pronunciation, different character. He was basically calling them "The Short People."

In the Japanese emperor's response, he signed it, "From the People of Wa.' But instead of using the Chinese character for short, he used the one meaning harmony or harmonious (和). I don't know what happened after that, but I imagine the Chinese emperor realized he was dealing with people who could be as passive-aggressive as he was!

Anyway, from at least that point on, Wa has influenced almost everything in Japan. You see it in everything from art and architecture to policing and child rearing. And of course you see it in religion as well.

I remember years ago, asking my ex-wife, who is Japanese, a lot of questions about Japanese culture and religion. She was rarely able to answer, so she usually answered with the question, "Why do foreigners always ask why?" And I didn't have an answer for that. I still don't. Is it our DNA? Our cultural history? Our underlying belief that everything must have a cause?

For a while I kind of thought she was stupid. And then one day, out of the blue, the thought popped into my head to ask her the famous Zen koan,

"What is the sound of one hand clapping?"

I did this knowing full well that she knew nothing about Zen other than that it is a form of Buddhism, if she even knew that. She was after all mushukyo, having no interest in religion, only praying at shrines and temples because other people did, never considering the possibility of deeper meaning.

From my western perspective, I expected her to think, to be stumped, and then to start asking questions and applying logic to try to come up with a verbal answer.

But she didn't do any of that.

Immediately after hearing the question, and without any thought or hesitation whatsoever, she put up one hand and began clapping her fingers together!

I was flabbergasted. Why had I never thought of that? Why is it that in all my reading about this famous question, I had never come across such an answer?

How was it that someone who had never considered the question could answer it instantly, while thousands of wannabe enlightened monks, philosophers, and scholars had probably collectively spent millennia pondering it and failing?

Simply simplicity. They were all looking for the answer in the wrong place. They were all trying to apply verbal logic to a question that can't be answered verbally. All they had to do was realize that questions don't necessarily have to be answered with words.

I think I gained more insight into what enlightenment might be in that moment than I had in my previous years reading countless books and articles on the subject. And actually hearing the sound of one hand clapping has been on influence on my belief that I need to harmonize as many different ways of thinking and being as I can.

Words can be useful. Logic and reason can be useful. But they can also get in the way. I guess it's like that line in the Tao Te Ching:

"More words mean less. Hold fast to the center."