A concise definition of Free-Religion [自由宗教 jiyū shūkyō] by Imaoka Shin’ichirō [今岡信一良]

 

A view across to Felixstowe Port from the northern shore of the Tendring Peninsular where I grew up

As regular readers of this blog will know, I like to translate the term jiyū shūkyō [自由宗教], not simply as “free-religion”, but rather more discursively as a “dynamic, creative, inquiring free and liberative religion.” This longer definition is my attempt to give the broadest picture possible of what Imaoka Shin’ichirō [今岡信一良] meant by the term jiyū shūkyō [自由宗教]. Generally, I’ll continue to stick to this definition, but I’ve just been carefully reading through sections of the Ittōen website and have come across this page which contains a very concise definition of free-religion written by Imaoka Shin’ichirō [今岡信一良]. Quite correctly, the authors of the page say that this understanding was deeply influenced by Imaoka-sensei’s deep friendship with Tenkō-san.  Anyway, having stumbled across it, I thought there would some readers of this blog who would like to see this definition, so here it is.

Imaoka Shin’ichirō 今岡信一良 defined “free-religion” [自由宗教] as: 

“living freely [自由に] and autonomously [自主的], unbound by the frameworks of established religion [既成宗教のワク]; to believe that one is a member of the Great Life [大生命] of the universe [宇宙], and to live in oneness [一体] with it.”

Original Japanese:

今岡氏は「自由宗教」ということについて、「自由宗教とは既成宗教のワクにとらわれず自由に、自主的に生きることであり、自分が宇宙の大生命の一員であると信じ、一体となって生きることである」と述べていますが、これには、天香さんとの親しい交流が影響しているといわれています。