forest bathing

I have read in a book about shinrin yoku, which lit. means "bathing in forest", or "forest bahting". The concept implies that a person imbibes the spirit of the forest, i.e. the smell, the sound, the colour, the nature, the peace of the forest. After having read this, I went on to inquire where `forest bathing` could be practiced. But I have been given now a totally spiritualized version of "forest bathing" by a native friend. According to his viewpoint, the concept is to be understood figuratively, i.e. you are to imbibe the spirit of the forest by being in a forest, that is "forest bathing", i.e. it is to be understood figuratively and not in the very sense of taking bath in the forest, and thus imbibing the spirit of the forest. "Forest bathing" would be a shinto practice also. What do you believe? Is forest bathing to be understood as real bathing or just in a merely spiritual sense?

Locals take a walk among the trees in a big park in the city in whatever they are wearing and say they're enjoying "shinrin-yoku." It never occured to me that such an enormous philosophy could be involved in it.

Bathing is often used in English speaking countries, as a figure of speech,not literally,to mean being totally surrounded by something. Either pleasant and beneficial or unpleasant. For example a guy in our gym must be bathing in perfume as we can smell his aftershave minutes before he actually show up.

�� yoku is used similarly to "bathing".