Shinzen - Living Before the Kami
The awareness of living always in the presence of the divine.
Shinzen means living before the kami - the awareness that we are always in divine presence. This consciousness transforms all actions into opportunities for reverence, all places into potential sacred space, and all moments into encounters with the divine.
To live shinzen is to know that every step, every breath, occurs in the presence of the kami.
Shinzen represents the culmination of Shinto spiritual awareness.
Shinto spirituality
Written about in
- What Shinto says about reverence
Shinzen is the awareness of being always in the presence of the kami. It takes the shrine's manners and extends them to how you walk about the rest of the time.