It consists of the postulate that there was but one God, _Kami_, from him
all things came, and to him all things shall return. As has been stated
previously, the chief injunction of Shintoism is: "Keep your body and your
mind clean, and trust _Kami_."
Shintoism literally translated, means "the way to God," and includes the
belief that all persons ultimately reach the place where God dwells, and
become "one with Him."
In present day interpretations and descriptions of Shintoism, we read of
the "heathen" belief that _Kami_ himself dwells in person, in the "inner
temple" or sacred place of Shinto temples.
This idea doubtless exists as a reality among the very ignorant
superstitious devotees, much as among the ignorant Catholics we find the
unquestioned belief that the actual body and blood of Jesus the Christ is
contained in the Eucharist.
The Shinto temple always contains an "inner or sacred shrine," which is
equivalent to the "holy of holies," of the Mystic Brotherhoods, and
typifies the fact that _within_ and not _without_, will be found the God in
man, by finding which, man reaches liberation, or cessation from the cycle
of births and deaths.
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