A person who is a manager of a big company said the next topic. He said,“In my home we eat meals after we put some rice on a household Shinto altar. It is not the reason of religion, but my parents had done the same thing when I was a child. My mind becomes calm, and I think that it is good for cultivation of aesthetic sentiments to my children. ”
We join our palms together for meals after an offering. This habit was usual in the old days, but I don't know whether many Japanese people have this habit recently or not. Maybe recently this habit is thought as unscientific thing, and so it tends to die out.
But if it is unscientific, this habit is the best way that children cultivate their religious mind. It seems that religious mind is a profound thing, but in reality religious mind is a life-style of gratitude. In our society there is the power that we can't watch, and we can live by this power. What is the power? The power has given lives to us in the Universe.