So my mother in law is here with us for the summer from Brazil. A very curious and insightful person spiritually, a life of pondering
Anyways apparently there is is this japanese church called SEICHO-NO-YE, which has somehow spread and become popular in Brazil. She likes it, I had never heard of it before.
My wife finds there is a church in Toronto so we offer to take her there for a Sunday Service. We took the kids too, I like to show them different churches and religions whenever possible.
Anyways it was pretty cool. The guy doing the service was a funny little Japanese man who would smile and laugh nervously. We were THE ONLY ONES THERE, lol he starts the service just for us. But then people started trickling in, there was maybe 10 or 11 people by the end.
It was a MIND PURIFICATION ritual, he talked of how much negative thought and emotion we carry with us in our SUB-conscious, and how important it is to forgive and sometimes even forget. We did an exercise where we wrote down some of these negative thoughts and emotions on a piece of paper, then burned the paper in a ceremonial fire, signifying the release of those energies.
There were quotes from Jesus, but I really don't think it is Christian in nature at all. A lot of sutras about how the real reality is spiritual, and not physical. That this physical reality is temporary etc...
Very interesting.
Oh yeah, for some weird reason like 80% of the people were Brazilian
the rest were japanese. Very odd. Outside, there were huge festivals making noise all around for the end of Ramadan... muslim families in their best clothes getting their grill on
