There is something similar to LHP in Shintoism?

[luciel lilith]

I am a practitioner of LHP and I recently heard about Shintoism on a podcast and it caught my attention. I would like to know if there is anything similar in this tradition.

 

[Nembra]

Kind of depends what do you mean by that question. LHP, just like RHP, is sort of an abstract amalgamation of practices, beliefs and ethics based on some Christian-themed polar dualism. It's not my intention to diminish your practice (though I've found the term itself unsatisfying as a tool of categorisation) but you must understand that there is no clearly definable "like" the LHP would be in context of traditions that don't operate within the western, post-Christian ecosystem.

 

[Firetree]

What Nembra said ^ .

However there is a 'darker' side of Shintoism where cultish types got mixed up with politics and 'self aggrandizement / racial purity ' ideas that led to their military nationalistic imperialist expansion and WWII . One example of this was in the founder of Aikido ; Ueshiba , who was working to those ends (and instructing the military ). Later they survived the dismantling when they were defeated by claiming it was a martial art of 'harmony' based on ' love '

'Traditional Shintoism' is closer to the mark, but sorry , no 'left hand path practitioners' there either You do realise they dont even have a holy book , 'moral scripture' or even an 'absolute sense' of good and evil ?

 

[ihateclowns]

I am a practitioner of LHP and I recently heard about Shintoism on a podcast and it caught my attention. I would like to know if there is anything similar in this tradition.

I doubt but give it sometime, someone will create something and feed it to the world and write books make money.

 

[ahathoor]

All I know is that an old Japanese woman whom a friend was learning Japanese from said that Shinto is a warrior's religion, Buddhism and Christianity are for weaklings... Sounds kinda LHP-y, and gives me some presuppositions about this woman's politics.

Shinto is an animistic - shamanistic religion, quite uninterested in salvation, and entirely focused on imposing solar harmony on the spirit world, manipulation of luck, health and wealth, and averting evil, exorcisms and suppression of dangerous spiritual forces. (Hence in an interesting form of syncretism, Japanese people tend to turn to Shinto for rites of life, and Buddhism for rites of death.)

This animistic - shamanistic system was as mentioned, co-opted and shaped by 19th century nationalist and 20th century fascist ideologies, so it definitely carries their impression.