Reader’s Comment:

So, if we trace back from our parents, then their parents, and further back to ancestors, we’re connected to many people who share the same ancestors, right? Ultimately, it’s about gratitude towards the source of all things, isn’t it?

Thinking this way, aside from those without religion, wouldn’t atheism be a form of self-denial?

Thoughts:

This comment hits the truth.

I’ve been advocating ancestral remembrance centered around the feeling of gratitude. If we offer gratitude every day, starting with our close ancestors, our hearts gradually expand. Along with this expansion, the range and depth of ancestral spirits who receive our gratitude also widen.

As this practice deepens further, although one might not notice, a natural resonance with deities begins.

Originally, humans, ancestral spirits, and gods all originated from a single divine source, branching and evolving. Everything is interconnected.

People often rush to worship gods, probably because they perceive gods as powerful and benevolent.

But what if a god could also bring negativity? Would you still worship?

I would worship.

Because such a decision doesn’t stem from a sense of profit or loss.

Neglecting our lost and pitiable ancestors, no matter how much we seek gods, would be in vain. Gods won’t help those who ignore the pitiable and instead chase after them.

Offering the phrase “Thank you for keeping me alive” to ancestral spirits resonates with the divine source.

Ancestral remembrance isn’t just about honoring our own ancestors. Starting with our ancestors, it extends to honoring all of humanity.

When you begin ancestral remembrance with gratitude, you’ll naturally come to understand this through personal experiences.

I’ve refrained from expressing these things so directly because many people tend to suddenly pray for things like “world peace,” which seems disproportionate.

It’s both surprising and heartening that a reader has come to such a profound understanding within a short time and shared their thoughts.

Thank you for keeping me alive today as well.

Kukurihime-no-kami appears only once in the “Nihon Shoki” (Chronicles of Japan).

Due to giving birth to the fire deity, Izanami suffered from uterine cancer and hid in Yomi-no-kuni, the land of the dead.

Her husband, Izanagi, tried to retrieve her and entered Yomi-no-kuni. When they quarreled at the boundary of this world and the other world called Yomotsu Hirasaka, Kukurihime-no-kami intervened to stop the conflict.

Izanagi and Izanami, who give birth to gods themselves, heeded Kukurihime-no-kami’s advice and the quarrel subsided.

In a modern spiritual interpretation, this can be related to a situation involving nuclear weapons (the fire deity), where humanity reaches the brink of life and death. When major powers intervene to resolve the situation, it escalates into a larger conflict.

When a certain nation is about to press the button for nuclear warfare, a country that worships a goddess, which had been observing the situation, steps in to mediate and prevent the final war. This goddess’s country is Japan, which venerates Amaterasu-ōmikami.

In the mythology, after the dispute between Izanami and Izanagi, Amaterasu-ōmikami is born. However, if the parents’ quarrel doesn’t cease, Amaterasu-ōmikami cannot be born. So Amaterasu-ōmikami’s spiritual body as Kukurihime-no-kami gets ahead in time and appears suddenly to mediate.

This is why Kukurihime-no-kami appears only once in the mythology and then disappears.

It’s a phenomenon that exists in the real world as well. A soul with a specific mission chooses its parents to be born. If the chosen parents are constantly quarreling, so the soul supports them from the spiritual realm so that it can be conceived.

The sudden disappearance of Kukurihime-no-kami after her single appearance has been a long-standing mystery in the Shinto world.