The Power of Stories

Buddhism and Shinto are filled with fabulous stories about magical events that created beliefs: a queen delivers a baby who can walk and speak, a monk dies and continues to live in eternal meditation, a heavenly couple lets drops of water from the tip of a spear fall back into the ocean to create the islands of Japan. Because they are incredible, many stories are not taken as seriously as are doctrinal teachings in explanations of the religions of Japan, but fabulism lies at the heart of religious literature and forms the bedrock of the beliefs of ordinary people.