"Tidying Up" as a Spiritual Practice
Marie Kondo brings a little Shintoism to the world
"Human beings can only truly cherish a limited number of things at one time. As I am both lazy and forgetful, I can't take proper care of too many things. That is why I want to cherish properly the things I love, and that is why I have insisted on tidying for so much of my life." (Marie Kondo)
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Waking Up Material Objects
Shinto does include the belief that kami — or the sacred — exists in everything, according to the BBC. That doesn’t mean everything in life is sacred and should be worshipped, says the BBC, but everything contains an essence, whether good or bad. Spirits, whether sacred or not, exist in all concepts important to life, such as wind, rain, mountains, trees, rivers, and fertility, according to The Japan Guide. Even humans become kami after they die, says The Japan Guide, becoming ancestral kami who protect their families. (Mika Doyle, Bustle online Magazine)
But the part of Kondo’s process that seems to confuse Americans the most is the way Kondo “wakes” items by tapping them. “Just like the gentle shake we use to wake someone up, we can stimulate our belongings by physically moving them, exposing them to fresh air and making them ‘conscious,’” Kondo said in her book. Anakana Schofield wrote in The Guardian that Kondo’s method of waking up books was “woo-woo nonsense territory.” But what might seem like “woo woo nonsense” is actually a belief rooted in Shintoism. (Mika Doyle, Bustle online Magazine) |
In Episode 7 of Tidying Up With Marie Kondo, Kondo explains the reason behind one of the KonMari method's more unusual steps: thanking the items you're going to discard. Even though it feels a little weird to talk to a dusty old candle you never lit, switching your focus to gratitude helps steer your mind away from the urge to hold on. In my case, it steered me toward Ariana Grande, as I found myself silently singing "thank u, next" to all the pieces I let go. In doing so, I felt myself gaining back some of the power and control over my own life that I felt I'd lost. While it didn't completely dissolve the negative feelings I had surrounding my old relationship, it did make me confident that I could let go of them when I was ready. That knowledge is a big comfort in and of itself. (Mika Doyle, Bustle online Magazine) |
Cherishing a Limited Number of Things
My mother taught me many spiritual practices. One of them was making my bed each morning.
She thought it was a sin not to make your bed in the morning: not so much a sin against God but a sin against yourself. She just didn't feel right about herself or about the world unless her bed was made.
She also loved to tidy her apartment. In the later years of her life all her possessions were in one room. Her room had a chest of drawers, a sofa, a small desk, a closet, a refrigerator, and some chairs. Her favorite chair was what she called her prayer chair. She would sit in her chair and pray for people. Or she would get up and take walks on her stroller and try to be a blessing to others, primariy by listening to them. She loved the simplicity.
Cherishing a Limited Number of Things
I think my mother would have understood this sentence from Maria Kondo: "Human beings can only truly cherish a limited number of things at one time. As I am both lazy and forgetful, I can't take proper care of too many things." She was not lazy, but she was forgetful, and having a limited number of things to cherish was all she wanted and needed.
Making her bed and tidying her room was, for my mother, a ritual. She could step forward and become who she wanted to be on that day: a blessing to other because she listened to them and cared for them. People joked that she was the Dalai Lama of the senior citizen's center where she lived, because she was such a kind and caring listener. Her ministry of listening began with a freshly made bed.
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I don't want to make a god of tidiness. I know people for whom creative clutter is, or seems, joyful. They like messy rooms and the feeling of disarray, of things not being “in their place.” After all, says one biblically oriented artist to me: "If God created out of chaos, I can, too. The chaos itself sparks the imagination.”
However, I am also a little doubtful that this works all the time. I have a friend whose life was way out of control through drugs. Part of her path to salvation lay in cleaning house and throwing things away using the KonMarie method described below. “I don’t want or need a lot of stuff,” she says, “I need to simplify my life so I can become myself. She found that cleaning house was transformative, and that having fewer “things” helped her become kinder and more creative.
My friend would like the article by Frederic and Marie Ann Brussat at the bottom of the page: "Tidying Up" with Marie Kondo. It originally appeared in their website Spirituality and Practice. There's something very Quaker and very Zen about the Marie Kondo approach, and also very Shinto. On this page I want to accent the Shinto side, in order to honor some of the cultura roots that influence her. Sometimes in interfaith contexts, people forget Shinto as one of that many forms of "faith' that inform our world. The more you know about Shinto, the more you realize that faith, if the right word, is not faith in God but faith in the power of the things of this world, faith in cleanliness,and faith in simple rituals to help clean a soul.
She thought it was a sin not to make your bed in the morning: not so much a sin against God but a sin against yourself. She just didn't feel right about herself or about the world unless her bed was made.
She also loved to tidy her apartment. In the later years of her life all her possessions were in one room. Her room had a chest of drawers, a sofa, a small desk, a closet, a refrigerator, and some chairs. Her favorite chair was what she called her prayer chair. She would sit in her chair and pray for people. Or she would get up and take walks on her stroller and try to be a blessing to others, primariy by listening to them. She loved the simplicity.
Cherishing a Limited Number of Things
I think my mother would have understood this sentence from Maria Kondo: "Human beings can only truly cherish a limited number of things at one time. As I am both lazy and forgetful, I can't take proper care of too many things." She was not lazy, but she was forgetful, and having a limited number of things to cherish was all she wanted and needed.
Making her bed and tidying her room was, for my mother, a ritual. She could step forward and become who she wanted to be on that day: a blessing to other because she listened to them and cared for them. People joked that she was the Dalai Lama of the senior citizen's center where she lived, because she was such a kind and caring listener. Her ministry of listening began with a freshly made bed.
*
I don't want to make a god of tidiness. I know people for whom creative clutter is, or seems, joyful. They like messy rooms and the feeling of disarray, of things not being “in their place.” After all, says one biblically oriented artist to me: "If God created out of chaos, I can, too. The chaos itself sparks the imagination.”
However, I am also a little doubtful that this works all the time. I have a friend whose life was way out of control through drugs. Part of her path to salvation lay in cleaning house and throwing things away using the KonMarie method described below. “I don’t want or need a lot of stuff,” she says, “I need to simplify my life so I can become myself. She found that cleaning house was transformative, and that having fewer “things” helped her become kinder and more creative.
My friend would like the article by Frederic and Marie Ann Brussat at the bottom of the page: "Tidying Up" with Marie Kondo. It originally appeared in their website Spirituality and Practice. There's something very Quaker and very Zen about the Marie Kondo approach, and also very Shinto. On this page I want to accent the Shinto side, in order to honor some of the cultura roots that influence her. Sometimes in interfaith contexts, people forget Shinto as one of that many forms of "faith' that inform our world. The more you know about Shinto, the more you realize that faith, if the right word, is not faith in God but faith in the power of the things of this world, faith in cleanliness,and faith in simple rituals to help clean a soul.
The KonMarie Method: To Have Roomful of Articles that Spark Joy
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Five categories of articles to Discard
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Sweeping"I am a lifelong U.U. who has never felt fully at home in either the Christian or humanist wings of our denomination. Shinto has raised for me the possibility that I might progress spiritually by worrying less about what I believe and more about how I feel with constant commitment to certain practices. Misogi was the most dramatic ritual I encountered. But it was everyday practices like joining the priests to sweep the ground of leaves and the morning service with its drumming and its prayer chants, or norito, that became a part of the rhythm of my life at Tsubaki and a more frequent source for reflection."
-- Barnaby Feder, Unitarian Universalism Association, September 7, 2010 |
Process and KondoIt has become a cliché to say that, once basic needs are met, the purpose of life is to "be more rather than have more." We advocates of Ecological Civilization, many of us influenced by process theology, often say this. |
Kondo and ShintoKondo's method of organising is known as the KonMari method, and consists of gathering together all of one's belongings, one category at a time, and then keeping only those things that "spark joy" (ときめ ) tokimeku, the word in Japanese, means "flutter, throb, palpitate" ) and choosing a place for everything from then on. |
No Ecological Civilization without Tidying Up
Shinto has no known founder or single sacred scripture. It is wholly devoted to life in this world and emphasizes humanity's essential goodness. It speaks of spirits called kami, but they are not gods. They are energetic and energizing essences that can dwell in material things, giving them personality.
Shinto is coming to the West through Marie Kondo and her movement to help people “tidy up” their lives. Tidying Up is akin to a Shinto purification rite, done in the home. that brings joy to the heart.
The practice is uniquely relevant to society today. It can help free people from the worst aspects of consumer culture: the impulse to hoard and to measure well-being in terms of quantity. In this way the practice can help pave the way for what "open and relational theologians" call ecological civilizations.
Ecological civilizations consist of communities that are creative, compassionate, participatory, ecologically wise, and spiritually satisfying with no one left behind. Marie Kondo does not emphasize this social side, but that doesn’t matter. What matter is that she brings us into the practice of tidying up.
The good news is that her practice is an interfaith practice It can be practiced with help from multiple religious and cultural traditions: Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Daoism, Confucianism, etc. Hans Kung is famous for saying that, in the world of the future, there can be no peace unless there is peace among religions. Shintoism adds “There can be no ecological civilizations without tidying up.”
Shinto is coming to the West through Marie Kondo and her movement to help people “tidy up” their lives. Tidying Up is akin to a Shinto purification rite, done in the home. that brings joy to the heart.
The practice is uniquely relevant to society today. It can help free people from the worst aspects of consumer culture: the impulse to hoard and to measure well-being in terms of quantity. In this way the practice can help pave the way for what "open and relational theologians" call ecological civilizations.
Ecological civilizations consist of communities that are creative, compassionate, participatory, ecologically wise, and spiritually satisfying with no one left behind. Marie Kondo does not emphasize this social side, but that doesn’t matter. What matter is that she brings us into the practice of tidying up.
The good news is that her practice is an interfaith practice It can be practiced with help from multiple religious and cultural traditions: Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Daoism, Confucianism, etc. Hans Kung is famous for saying that, in the world of the future, there can be no peace unless there is peace among religions. Shintoism adds “There can be no ecological civilizations without tidying up.”
Facts about Shintoism (from BBC)
excepts from <http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/shinto/>
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The essence of Shinto is the Japanese devotion to invisible spiritual beings and powers called kami, to shrines, and to various rituals.
Shinto is not a way of explaining the world. What matters are rituals that enable human beings to communicate with kami. Kami are not God or gods. They are spirits that are concerned with human beings - they appreciate our interest in them and want us to be happy - and if they are treated properly they will intervene in our lives to bring benefits like health, business success, and good exam results. Shinto is a very local religion, in which devotees are likely to be concerned with their local shrine rather than the religion as a whole. Many Japanese will have a tiny shrine-altar in their homes. However, it is also an unofficial national religion with shrines that draw visitors from across the country. Because ritual rather than belief is at the heart of Shinto, Japanese people don't usually think of Shinto specifically as a religion - it's simply an aspect of Japanese life. This has enabled Shinto to coexist happily with Buddhism for centuries. |
Tidying Up with Marie Kondo
by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
reposted with gratitude from Spirituality and Practice:
www.spiritualityandpractice.com/films/reviews/view/28694/tidying-up-with-marie-kondo
"Human beings can only truly cherish a limited number of things at one time. As I am both lazy and forgetful, I can't take proper care of too many things. That is why I want to cherish properly the things I love, and that is why I have insisted on tidying for so much of my life." So writes Marie Kondo, a cleaning consultant whose book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up has become a mega-seller around the world. We put it on our list of the Best Spiritual Books of 2014 because of its emphasis on "restoring balance among people, their possessions, and the house they live in."
Now Kondo has brought her enthusiasm for tidying and her proven "KonMari" method to an eight-part series streaming on Netflix. Invited to help a variety of people clear out some of their possessions, Kondo illustrates her practical suggestions and spiritual approach to dealing with clutter, or as she likes to put it, "mess." In each program, she demonstrates the two-minute ritual she conducts at the beginning of each project: she kneels on the flour of the house and introduces herself, connecting with the place in her mind and asking for its help in creating a more cheerful and efficient space. She ends the ritual by reverently touching the floor and bowing. Kondo's clients on the series include a couple with two young children who have no time for each other or for such chores as putting away the laundry; a retired couple who want to organize and better store their possessions, including an enormous collection of Christmas decorations; a family of four who have recently downsized into an apartment and have let the mother assume all the responsibility for keeping track of things; a woman recently widowed who wants to reboot her life by dealing with her deceased husband's things and her own sentimental items; and others. Kondo says her mission is "to spark joy in the world through cleaning." Her method covers five areas: clothing, books, paper, "komono" (kitchen, bathroom, garage, miscellaneous), and sentimental items. Working with clothes, for example, she asks the family members to pile all their clothes in one room and then go through them one by one, keeping only those that "spark joy" in them; other items and thanked and released. Next comes a ritualistic folding of the clothes, transmitting energy and gratitude to each item as she prepares them to be stacked in drawers or on shelves. We feel right in sync with this bestselling author because of her obvious reverence for things and understanding of what they can mean to people. At the same time, we appreciated the many personal testimonies by her clients about what this process has meant to them, how it has changed relationships, given them new understandings, and set them on different paths. Some critics of the series have wondered why there is no criticism of the sheer amount of stuff these people have or the addictions created by widespread consumerism. The psychological malady of hoarding is not mentioned either. But we are used to this type of carping; we see it in media reviewers who attack a story because it does not cover an aspect of the subject the critic thinks is important. The point of the KonMari method is to change our perspectives on our things. It does this by affirming these spiritual values in our Alphabet of Spiritual Literacy: Beauty, Connections, Devotion, Gratitude, Imagination, Joy, Love, Reverence, Transformation, and Zeal. |