A New Year

Its 2008 and the calendar has rolled over.

I've been watching an anime series called Mushshi 蟲師. The story features primordial creatures called Mushi that interact with the physical world but with supra-natural powers or influence. They are described as creatures so basic as to be in touch with the essence of life. Most human beings are unable to see the Mushi and dont' know they exist. But there are a few who possess the ability to see and interact with theme. One person is Ginko (ギンコ?), the main character of the series. He employs himself as a Mushi master (蟲師 mushi-shi), travelling from place to place to study them and help people with problems because of them. Ginko is distinct because he has only one eye working and it is green and his hair is absoutely white because of his encounters with the Mushi. (more info here)

I am interested by this series because there is a dimension of life that extends beyond what we can see. There is also very much a message of living in the moment and responding with wisdom in a situation. There are ethical situations and dilemmas exposed. Like Kino's Journey, it is very episodic and is very much a thinking person's anime. It is very embedded in the travel motif and the art work is very mysterious or mystical. The Mushi always affect intially one person and impinge on their reality BUT this spreads ultimately through the community.

At the moment I've been doing a lot of thinking about the source of life, given that I've found the need for solitude recently and I've been reading about evangelism from the introvert's perspective, I'm coming round to wonder how important or core the social aspect of life is to spiritual growth. It seems everything resolved down to the intrinsic I-Eternal Thou relationship that Martin Buber proposes. Or as CS Lewis put is " I believe that the Sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."

Is this merely an issue of introverts vs extroverts? Or is it fundamentally that the personal-divine relationship should define all other relationships? I am beginning to believe that while being an extrovert or introvert can make a difference, fundamentally we start with the interior life and our individual relationship with God. As I've already posted about this Music is an art and spirituality is also an art rather than an science. There are some technical skills to be learnt but it is more about commitment to the relationship.

Kino's Journey - closing thoughts and questions

Released in April 2003, this haunting animated series is based on a light novel by Keiichi Shigusawa. (It is rated PG because of some of its challenging content and some of the violence though not gratuitous. None of those scenes will be shown this weekend!)

At the conference we are using the dubbed English soundtrack however I feel the Japanese voice track with it’s own English translation in the subtitles is much stronger and sets a better tone, especially the voices chosen seem to fit better.

Kino’s Journey’s strength is its ability to present multiple points of view (POV). One of the psychological measures of spiritual growth is being able to see from alternative perspectives. Kino’s Journey offers good training.

• The person who has lived / is living the situation (alternatively, it may provide more than one person's take on the situation). This POV presents an insider's view to the story. It usually illustrates the thoughts and emotions that the person experiences and what leads to a certain decision / final understanding.
• Kino's POV presents the outsider's POV. Kino's views are those without attachment (a traveler just passing through). Kino usually provides a POV that’s different if not contrary to the person who has lived through / experienced the situation.
• Hermes POV usually represents the questions or doubts that come to the mind of the viewer during a discussion / debate between Kino and the "natives of the land". Hermes presents a pessimistic if not fatalistic POV, usually jumping directly to the worst case scenario.( here credit for this observation goes to http://eltonpinto.blogspot.com/search/label/Anime)

A few questions arising specifically for a congregation or church

Episode 1 The Land of Visible Pain
What does koinonia/fellowship or Christian community look like? Is it possible to bear one another’s burdens and share each other’s pains?

Episode 10 A Tale of Mechanical Dolls
How do the roles and ministries in a church fit with calling for members in the communal life and ministry of a church? Does a need or a perceived lack constitute a calling to ministry? What are the differences between spiritual and natural talents?
How do we know if we should be doing this?

Episode 13 A Kind Land
In the context of 3 John, Demetrius and Diotrephes present contrasts almost as stark as Sakura who stays and Kino who leaves. What are the strengths and weaknesses to have a corporate traveler mentality for a congregation?
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Kino's Journey episode 13

Some more reflection questions, now episode 13 –

What is reputation all about? How different is it to gossip?
Time and history are important factors in this land. Why?

Endurance and perseverance and hope belong together, because they are all about time and being in time. But what are the really important things in life for you?

Destination is a state of mind.

Dorothy L Sayers write “It is precisely because of the eternity outside time that everything in time becomes valuable and important and meaningful. Therefore, Christianity … makes it of urgent importance that everything we do here should be rightly related to what we eternally are. “Eternal life” is the sole sanction for the values of this life.”

When you read Matt 25:31-46, in the light of what Sayer’s says, what actually is the difference between the sheep and goats? Examine what they say? And compare how Jesus reacts.

What are the implications for how you live both personally, as a family , as a church?

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Kino's Journey episode 10

Some more reflection questions -

How does the old lady/nanny fit in this country, what is her role?
What is her role in this world? How do we determine roles?

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel proposed two primeval self-consciousnesses the master and the slave, which in relationship initially demand recognition from the other, and later dependency on them, for their identity.

How do we determine who is master and who is slave/servant in this episode? How do we determine this in our world?

Being able to see the country at the bottom of lake requires a willingness to travel and to be shown and the requirement of the right light source.

Often our Bible translations translate doulos which means literally slave, with servant as if to cushion the blow about what it means to follow Christ. However you cannot do this in Mark 10: 35-45 where Jesus makes a radical statement about the difference. How comfortable are you with this.

Where is your meaning? In what you do or could do? Where is your identity founded? How do you describe yourself to others?

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Kino's Journey episode 1

Some reflection questions after watching the episode-

In the desert, the temptation is to go back. Why?
What is the tension between decisiveness and what I shall call providence (though Kino calls it luck)? How do you live this out?

What is your purpose or calling in life? How would you go about finding this out?
Who determines it?

In the city and the outskirts

Where are we and what is the problem?
Why does the man want Kino to stay?

Jean Paul Sartre said “Hell is another person” Can other people really be hell?
Is this land hospitable, as Hermes and Kino wonder? Does hospitality require people?

Trust and Truth belong together. In contrast to the Land of Pain read Psalm 85 and examine what responses rise in you.

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opening notes on Kino's Journey

These post follow from a recent summer conference where I taught 3 John and I wrote notes and study materials. We have to say thanks to ADV films who gave permission to show part of the anime series.

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Kino’s Journey キノの旅 – The Anime and the “Why”

Destination is a state of mind.

Travelers not only find themselves in a variety of countries and landscapes, but we can see both their own and the new country’s values and traditions. Kino is such a traveler. The world of Kino and Hermes, a talking motorrad or motorcycle, is full of strange locales, each with its own traditions, values and cultures.

Kino's particular rule is to never stay more than three days in a country before moving on. That amount of time is just enough to get a real feel for a country, plus if you stay longer that's time not spent in another place. Each country has its own set of rules and laws, but there are some basic ones that apply to Travelers.

Kino’s Journey is a thinking person’s anime, and follows in the great tradition of tackling worldly philosophies that many great thinkers have been trying to sort out. Similarities can be found with Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift and The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and, Che Guevara’s autobiography The Motorcycle Diaries is considered an influence.

The traveler is actually an old motif for the Christian life and a counter against the world in which we live. Our worlds are full of values and traditions, which distract and remove us from the reality of a God-given world and a life lived in partnership, in co-existence with God. The traveler motif is a pilgrim motif and was written into God’s warning to the Israelites and is embedded in Scripture. Deuteronomy is peppered with a call to remember Egypt and the desert time. Deut 8 “For the Lord is bringing you into a good land … when you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God … otherwise when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down … your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God.” Paul said “Since you have been raised with Christ set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set minds on things above, not on earthly things.” (Col 3 1-2) Jesus instructed “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth … but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven … for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matt 6:19-21)

Where are your treasures? Where is your heart? How can you find out?

We are mired in our own worldview, literally stuck and it takes at minimum cross-cultural missions trips, getting out of our comfort zones, and an authentic desire to discover our blindness as God removes the scales from our eyes. Only in traveling either literally, metaphorically or simply with our minds, hearts, and souls can we discover whether we are worshiping the gods of the new land (see Deut 6:14) or God Almighty.

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