Tenkyou
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Tenkyou (Kokumon: 떤꾜우, Gyoumon: 天教; "teachings of heaven"), sometimes referred to as Senrian folk religion, is a polytheistic and animistic or pantheistic religion originating in Senria. It is typically considered to be the indigenous religion of Senria and the ethnic religion of the Senrian people; it is also sometimes categorized as a nature religion.
The central tenet of Tenkyou is the existence of ki, a vital force inherent to the universe and all things in it. Tenkyou doctrine holds that the goal of the living should be to keep ki in balance through the kannagara, which encompasses practices such as spiritual awareness, the ethic of reciprocity, and the maintenance of extrinsic and intrinsic purity. The maintenance of purity encompasses a variety of practices and rituals, the most significant of which is the performance of rituals and offerings dedicated to kami, supernatural entities regarded as manifestations of ki. Much of the practice of Tenkyou consists of the worship of kami, whether at domestic altars known as kamidana or at public shrines staffed by clergy. Tenkyou lacks a single creator, specific doctrinal text, or central authority, instead existing as a diverse collection of local, regional, and national traditions.
[history]
[demographics and cultural role]
Definition
Etymology
Beliefs
Ki
[basic concept of ki as a natural life force]
[divisions of ki - two ways, into yin and yang; four ways, into kon; eight ways, into trigrams]
[spiritual importance of ki and the balance thereof; kannagara, the following of the path of ki, is central to traditional ethics]
Kami
[supernatural entities which form a particular manifestation of ki; they encompass deities, forces of nature, elements of the landscape, the venerated dead, and intangible elements of all the aforementioned; very polytheistic, animistic, numinous by nature]
[some particularly prominent kami]
Cosmology
[creation myth, afterlife, etc]
Important texts
[various mythological and semihistorical works]
Practices
Shrines
[actual large-scale shrines; structure thereof]
[consecrating shrines, bunrei and kanzou and gosintai]
[shrine visits and pilgrimages]
[cases of sacred places/objects rather than shrine buildings]
[hokora, or wayside shrines]
[mikosi, sacred palanquins]
Clergy
[kannusi and miko; who is in the clergy, how you become clergy]
[the role of clergy in maintaining shrines, performing rituals, etc]
Sato
[often translated as enlightenment; a sense of awareness both into the nature of ki and into oneself, held to be the result of keeping one’s ki well-balanced]
[worth noting the zohists, in syncretistic situations, regard this as a very basic sort of spiritual awareness]
Houyou
[reciprocity or karma, a moral arc to the universe which is brought about through two things - meiyun, or destiny, and enbun, or chance]
Zunsui
[purity, inextricably linked to the balance of ki]
[extrinsic and intrinsic purity maintained through various rituals, harae]
Kamidana
[household shrines to ancestors and kami; often accompanied by household shrines to zohist and badi figures]
Festivals
[various festivals, some national, many regional or local, music and dance and parades,
Life-cycle events
[rites of passage - first visit to shrine, marriages, funerals]
Other practices
[divination, amulets, mediums, and spirit healing]
History
[unclear origins in distant past]
[things take shape]
[antiquity and medieval syncretism]
[state tenkyou]
[since the revolution]
Syncretism
[extensive syncretism with Zohism, Badi on several counts; also with Taoshi though because taoshi arrived with zohism senrians tend to group them together]
[many senrians simultaneously practice tenkyou rituals and secularized sotirian holidays; many senrian new religions still draw from tenkyou]
Demographics
[in senria]
[elsewhere]
