Shingon Buddhist Art of Late Heian Gold Clouds Deity

The Heian menstruation (794-1185) was the gold age of imperial courtroom lodge. In its immortal works of literature, nosotros see a world of consummately refined men and women who saw themselves as eschewing the grosser forms of violence, but whose lives centered around the dear or art and the arts of love. We envision women seated sedately behind screens, perhaps waiting for the sweet intrusion of a lover; and nosotros call back delightful parties centered on "poetry-capping" or moon-viewing, and fashionable excursions to romantic mountain temples. ... The literary works reverberate the globe of the bijin (the "beautiful people") who saw themselves habitation kumonoue ("in a higher place the clouds"), devoted to miyabi (courtly elegance and sense of taste). Needless to say, they were merely a tiny percent of Nippon'due south overall population, and the lives of those whose toil supported this elegance were far less advantaged. ... The literature reflects a looming, almost intoxicating sense that such beauty and dearest is fleeting, and will be gone once i tries to grasp it. Heian people had a deep sense of mono no aware, "sensitivity to things." This sweetness/sad feeling came out of attention to the transitoriness of homo life and of all else [in] this "dewdrop world," while at the same time appreciating beauty all the more in realizing information technology was passing away. (IJR, 102-5)

Outstanding among the Buddhist leaders of the Heian period was Kukai (774-835), a man whose genius has well been described: "His retentiveness lives all over the state, his proper name is a household word in the remotest places, non only as a saint, but as a preacher, a scholar, a poet, a sculptor, a painter, an inventor, an explorer, and — sure passport to fame — a great calligrapher." Indeed, his reputation was so bully that Shingon Buddhism, the sect of Buddhism that he founded, is centered as much on the worship of Kukai the saint as it is on the teachings of Esoteric Buddhism, the larger tradition to which Shingon belongs. From the ninth century to this twenty-four hours, true-blue Shingon believers take revered Kukai as a living savior who notwithstanding sits in eternal meditation on Mount Koya ready to reply to those who call on him for assist. The divinization of Kukai is the production of an imagination inspired by religion, and it is also based on the memory of a real person of boggling accomplishments. (SJT, 153)

Kukai entered a country university at the age of eighteen and studied the Confucian classics. At the university, he met a Buddhist monk who showed him a scripture with esoteric passages. This inspired Kukai to leave the university. He took up the life of a wandering ascetic, and during his travels read Buddhist texts. I text was the Mahavairocana Sutra from the mature Tantric tradition. Kukai was attracted to its hope of sudden Awakening to the inner essence of Buddhahood, but was not able to sympathise the esoteric use of mudras, mantras, and mandalas that the text advocated for this attainment. And so, he decided to travel to China to observe a teacher who could teach him this esoteric path. In 803, he became ordained as a Buddhist monk and left for Red china the next yr.

In China, Kukai received his preparation from the slap-up Tantric master Hui-kuo (746-805). Hui-kuo had received manual from two Tantric lineages: one based on the Mahavairocana Sutra, the other based on the Vajrasekhara Sutra. Under Hui-kuo, Kukai received initiation into the meditative techniques associated with both Tantric lineages, and then received ordination as a Tantric master. ...

"I called on the abbot [Huiguo] in the company of five or 6 monks from the Ximing Temple. As shortly as he saw me, he smiled with pleasure and joyfully said, 'I knew y'all would come up! I have waited for such a long time. What pleasure it gives me to wait upon y'all today at terminal! My life is drawing to an stop, and until y'all came, at that place was no ane to whom I could transmit the teachings. Go without delay to the altar of abhiseka with incense and a flower.' I returned to the temple where I had been staying and got the things which were necessary for the ceremony. It was early in the sixth month and so that I entered the altar of abhiseka for primary initiation. I stood before the Matrix Mandala and cast my flower in the prescribed manner. By chance information technology fell on the Body of Mahavairocana Tathagata in the center. The chief exclaimed in please, 'How amazing! How perfectly amazing!' He repeated this three or four times in joy and wonder. ... Early in the seventh month I stood earlier the Diamond Mandala ... [and when] I cast my flower it again fell on Mahavairocana, and the abbot marveled as he had before." (SJT, 163)

In 806, Kukai returned to Nippon with mandalas, scriptures, and Tantric ritual materials. In 809, the emperor ordered Kukai to serve at Takasan-ji, the temple that was the center of the Heian Buddhist world. In that location, Kukai systematized Tantric doctrines, organized Tantric materials and sutras, and vigorously propagated Tantric Buddhism. In 816, the emperor gave Kukai permission to build a monastery on Mt. Koya, some distance from the capital. Until his decease in 835, Kukai was likewise in charge of To-ji, a temple in the majuscule that was to be a center for Tantric art and practise. (Buddhism: Introducing the Buddhist Experience, 284-5; cf SJT, 154-7)

Esoteric vs. Exoteric Buddhism

The teachings of Shingon are intended to guide people to [the] tenth stage of virtuous Buddha-consciousness. They practice so by stressing that the highest Buddha is the Dharmakaya, the essential enlightenment nature of Buddhahood. This Dharma-body is a luminous reality of wisdom and pity that penetrates and embraces all being such that the Dharmakaya is really one's own innate Buddha-nature. Kukai identified this ultimate suchness of the universe with Vairocana Buddha, symbolized by the sun, which radiates its calorie-free to all beings in the universe. For Shingon, Vairocana, every bit the Dharma-torso of the universe, preaches and acts continuously throughout the cosmos. ...

Kukai himself wrote: "At that place are three bodies of the Buddha and 2 forms of Buddhist doctrine. The doctrine revealed by the Nirmanakaya Buddha [the historical Buddha] is chosen Exoteric; it is credible, simplified, and adapted to the needs to the time and the capacity of the listeners. The doctrine expounded by the Dharmakaya Buddha [Dainichi] is chosen Esoteric; it is secret and profound and contains the final truth . (IJR, 107)

Shingon also teaches that the clandestine and constant teaching of the Dharmakaya can really be communicated to a person through the mysterious words, symbols, and ritual movements of Tantric Buddhism. The mantras that 1 recites bring into awareness Vairocana's speech, the mudras that one forms with his or her hands give one a felt sense of Vairocana's torso, and the mandalas on which 1 concentrates bring forth Vairocana'south state of mind. Thereby, one unlocks the Three Mysteries (sanmitsu 三蜜) of Vairocana: his spoken communication, body, and mind in the universe. ... Shingon believes that by realizing these mysteries in one's own experience, the long journeying to Buddhahood, which in the other traditions may take eons to complete, tin be attained in merely one lifetime and in one'due south very mind and body. ( Buddhism: Introducing the Buddhist Experience , 286-7; cf. SJT, 156-vii)

Mandala of the Ii Worlds

"In truth, the Esoteric doctrines are so profound as to defy their enunciation in writing. With the help of painting, however, their obscurities tin be understood. The diverse attitudes and mudras of the holy images all accept their source in Buddha's love, and one may attain Buddhahood at sight of them. Thus the secrets of the sutras and commentaries can be depicted in art, and the essential truths of the Esoteric instruction are all set forth therein. Neither teachers nor students tin manipulate with it. Art is what reveals to the states the state of perfection. (Kukai, quoted in SJT, 155)

Broadly speaking, the Diamond World mandala represents reality in the buddha realm, the world of the unconditioned, the existent, the universal, and the absolute. The Womb Globe mandala represents reality equally it is revealed in the world of the conditioned, the private, the particular, and the relative. Each mandala is fully meaningful, even so, only when paired with the other. ( Japanese Mandalas , 37)

The figures of the [Diamond World] are hard and clear like diamonds, inward-looking, meditating on the profoundest levels of truth. The Womb (or Lotus) mandala expresses truth looking outward in compassion, expressing itself in service that represents the interrelatedness of all beings. (IJR, 108)

In Shingon, two mandalas have a special place in bringing the virtuous and enlightened qualities of the Three Mysteries into one's experience. Offset is the Womb or Matrix (taizo) Mandala, based on the Mahavairocana Sutra. This mandala represents an aware view of the universe from the viewpoint of compassion, and implies that the free energy of compassion enfolds, protects, and nurtures one's Buddha-nature like a womb holding a kid. The many deities of this mandala represent the activities of compassion; in Tantric experience, they foster this same compassion in the practitioner. This first mandala, symbolized by the lotus, represents the compassionate gentleness of the universe evolving from unity to diversity.

In [the Womb World] mandala, all kinds of Buddhas and deities are lined up together. If nosotros ask if only the very magnificent Buddhas are lined together, the answer is no. Simply the cosmic Buddha Dainichi Nyorai [a.k.a. Mahavairocana] in the middle is one hundred pct perfect. Many of the others surrounding it are deities from Indian folk religion. On the very outer edges, a lot of snakes and demons take been included. Now each one of them is an adjunct of Dainichi Nyorai. Each has some kind of special characteristic, and each can get a Buddha by means of that special characteristic. What we find here is a logic by which even something that is xc-nine pct bad has a hundred pct value past virtue of the ane per centum of the special characteristic it has. … Therefore at that place is no such thing every bit leaving backside something that is ninety-nine percent bad. Because they have a special characteristic in the amount of one percent, they are seen as an offshoot of the one hundred percent that is Dainichi Nyorai. Such a globe is woven into the mandala. It is a way of thinking in which everything is embraced and every unmarried special feature is nourished. ( Japanese Mandalas , 58)

The 2d mandala is the Diamond (kongokai) Mandala, based on the Vajrasekhara Sutra. In this mandala, the universe is united in the light of wisdom that merges all beings into one. This wisdom concentrates all the universe into the single low-cal of Vairocana Buddha, who is the luminous source of all the mandala's deities. Penetrating this mandala in Tantric experience is said to infuse the practitioner with the light of wisdom, and transforms his or her life into Awakening. This mandala balances the gentleness of pity in the Womb Mandala by representing the diamond hardness of wisdom that cuts through illusion and brings diversity into unity.

At the middle of the Diamond-earth mandala ... is a foursquare called the "Attainment Torso associates. ...

In the eye is Vairocana, who manifests 4 boosted Buddhas, each located at the center of each of the squares surrounding Vairocana. ... The four smaller figures around each Buddha are Bodhisattvas, who serve every bit more specific aspects of that particular Buddha's wisdom. The employ of multiple deities to represent a motion from abstract qualities to their specific applications is a mutual symbolic device in Mahayana Buddhism. (east-asian-history.net...)

By using these two mandalas with the esoteric practice of mantras and mudras, the Shingon practitioner seeks to unite his or her human activities (speech, body, and mind) with the Three Mysteries of the universe — the speech, torso, and mind of Vairocana Buddha in all things. The feel of this spousal relationship with the Three Mysteries brings virtually a "common empowerment in that both the practitioner and the Buddha are affected. While the practitioner attains Awakening and Buddhahood, Vairocana Buddha actualizes Buddha-nature more fully in the phenomenal world, since every act of the enlightened person is an action of the Three Mysteries. In this transformation process, the practitioner is guided by a Tantric master who alone has the ability to transmit these potent teachings and practices. ( Buddhism: Introducing the Buddhist Experience, 287-viii)

Shingon in Practice

How does 1 become a buddha in this life, in this body? Substantially by working with one of the figures in the mandala until one becomes united with that deity, and so shares his or her enlightenment. The deity may be assigned by i's instructor, or sometimes the right figure is indicated by throwing a bloom on a diagram of the mandala, and regarding the one on which the flower lands equally chosen. The student is then initiated into the do of this deity. ... Once initiated, the pupil can be given the secrets — the hand gestures, chants, and meditations that pertain to the deity with which one is uniting, and then facilitate that procedure. If you make the secret movements, say the secret words, and think the secret thoughts of a buddha or bodhisattva, you are well on the way to becoming i; you are finally what yous do, say, and think. A close working relationship betwixt principal and disciple is very important to Shingon; this is a religion which must be proficient, not merely studied, even to exist understood.

... In [i] exercise, the "circulation technique," the pupil envisions a stream of free energy leaving his body with his breath, entering the deity who is facing him, and returning through the opening at the acme of the caput. This stream may be seen as like a caster, drawing the student and the deity closer and closer together until the ii become 1. (IJR, 108-x)

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Source: http://bhoffert.faculty.noctrl.edu/RELG265/11.Heian.Shingon.html

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