Doctrines
Kototama
God and Divine Nature
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Kototama, word spirit, is Omoto's doctrine that sacred sound underlies and generates creation. The teaching is set out in the Reikai Monogatari, which describes the universe beginning from a single sound and developing through further sounds into the great origin of God, making language itself a channel of divine creative power rather than a mere description of it.
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Origins
Historical OriginSourced to the subject's own accountKototama theory reached well beyond Omoto itself through Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of the martial art aikido, who studied under Onisaburo Deguchi as an Omoto adherent for several years and carried kototama's account of sacred sound shaping creation into his own explanations of aikido's technique and purpose, giving a doctrine developed for a new religious movement a second life in a discipline most of its later students never knew was religious in origin. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
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