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> Heck, even "electricity" includes the word "気" (spirit/energy). People say this as if it means something profound, but it really doesn't. It's just energy. T

> Heck, even "electricity" includes the word "気" (spirit/energy). People say this as if it means something profound, but it really doesn't. It's just energy. There's no Japanese belief that electricity is powered by little spirits or anything like you try to imply.

franciscop 9y ago
I just know the basics of Japanese, so I'll trust you on that, I assumed that as many words have lost their original meaning nowadays. But that's the thing, from what I know it's not split so hard in spirits vs energy and those two are closer concepts in Japanese philosophy. In western philosophies we have a body and spirit, where the body provides the energy to move it and the spirit the will. I think (correct me if I'm wrong) in Japanese philosophy that energy and will to move is closer together, it is the spirit the one that provides the strength to move the body (talking about philosophy, not biology). If I recall correctly even some body sickness are attributed at a weak spirit.
- takeda 9y ago
  I guess this explains a bit the Spirit Bomb Goku sometimes used in the Dragon Ball Z. Seems like in Japanese culture spirit and energy is the same thing?
  - hosh 9y ago
    That is generally true of any traditional, shamanic practices. DragonBallZ owes more to Chinese Taoist alchemy than it does with Shintoism, but there are going to be some shared similarities. Traditional Chinese Medicine, for example, is a healing modality that was modernized. It retained some of that animist leaning, but lost a lot too in the modernization. I'd say, if you talk with most shamans, there will be some understanding of spirit being energy, though often in the sense that energy is not dead, without intelligence or consciousness. A lot of this has to do with this being a lived experience that is oddly shared across cultures. You might find this, say, talking with an Australian Aboriginal shaman with one of the surviving shamans in say, Poland. Different words, different perspectives of the same underlying experiences.
- walljm 9y ago
  Even in some western cultures, specifically christianity, the idea that the soul/spirit provides the body with the energy to move exists. There is not a strict connection to physicality, the line between what we feel as "energy" in the body and what is provided by the our mental/spiritual state and the pure physical resources our body provides in the way of sugar etc. is blurry. --- In christianity, the word for spirit means breath. I find the origins of words and why/how the literal meaning of the original term evolved to describe something much more philosophic fascinating. I would expect that the Japanese used the word "electric" or "energy" to describe the spirit because they saw a connection between the two, in that both are vital. I would not expect the use of that term to be taken in its strictest sense though... anyway... some thoughts.

franciscop 9y ago

I just know the basics of Japanese, so I'll trust you on that, I assumed that as many words have lost their original meaning nowadays. But that's the thing, from what I know it's not split so hard in spirits vs energy and those two are closer concepts in Japanese philosophy. In western philosophies we have a body and spirit, where the body provides the energy to move it and the spirit the will. I think (correct me if I'm wrong) in Japanese philosophy that energy and will to move is closer together, it is the spirit the one that provides the strength to move the body (talking about philosophy, not biology). If I recall correctly even some body sickness are attributed at a weak spirit.

takeda 9y ago
I guess this explains a bit the Spirit Bomb Goku sometimes used in the Dragon Ball Z. Seems like in Japanese culture spirit and energy is the same thing?
- hosh 9y ago
  That is generally true of any traditional, shamanic practices. DragonBallZ owes more to Chinese Taoist alchemy than it does with Shintoism, but there are going to be some shared similarities. Traditional Chinese Medicine, for example, is a healing modality that was modernized. It retained some of that animist leaning, but lost a lot too in the modernization. I'd say, if you talk with most shamans, there will be some understanding of spirit being energy, though often in the sense that energy is not dead, without intelligence or consciousness. A lot of this has to do with this being a lived experience that is oddly shared across cultures. You might find this, say, talking with an Australian Aboriginal shaman with one of the surviving shamans in say, Poland. Different words, different perspectives of the same underlying experiences.
walljm 9y ago
Even in some western cultures, specifically christianity, the idea that the soul/spirit provides the body with the energy to move exists. There is not a strict connection to physicality, the line between what we feel as "energy" in the body and what is provided by the our mental/spiritual state and the pure physical resources our body provides in the way of sugar etc. is blurry. --- In christianity, the word for spirit means breath. I find the origins of words and why/how the literal meaning of the original term evolved to describe something much more philosophic fascinating. I would expect that the Japanese used the word "electric" or "energy" to describe the spirit because they saw a connection between the two, in that both are vital. I would not expect the use of that term to be taken in its strictest sense though... anyway... some thoughts.