A Pragmatics of Ritual: The Yoshida Goma at the Interface of Shintō and Shingon

Drawing on practices and teachings from Daoism, neo-Confucianism, and tantric Buddhism, Yoshida Kanetomo (1435–1511) created the system of Yuiitsu Shintō, also known eponymously as Yoshida Shintō, all the while making claims for Shintō as the world’s original religion. Important for the establishment of Yoshida Shintō was the creation of a program of rituals. This essay examines one of the three rituals created for the Yoshida ritual program, the Yoshida Shintō goma ritual, which hybridizes tantric Buddhist ritual organization and Daoist symbolism. A pragmatics of ritual is developed as a means of identifying the factors that Yoshida felt were salient in presenting the goma as a Yoshida Shintō ritual.

Globalizing Tantric Buddhism

The historical spread of Buddhism can best be described as the extension of the nodes and strands of a network. “Globalization” is used here to identify the fact that over the last two centuries those networks have extended across the globe, bringing diverse communities in different countries into closer and more frequent contact than was previously possible. The two main sources of a globalizing tantric Buddhism are the Japanese tradition of Shingon and the lineages of Tibet in exile. From the 19th century Shingon spread to Hawai‘i and the west coast of the United States, and more recently to South America, particularly Brazil. These reflect similar patterns of growth and decline as well as revitalization frequently seen in immigrant churches with histories of over a century. The period from the end of the 19th into the 20th century saw the rise of a tantric movement in China that sought to reclaim the “lost” Tang era tradition. The “Tantric Rebirth Movement” looked either to Japan, as having a lineage continuous with Tang era tantra, or to Tibet, which was seen as having a superior form that could revitalize tantra in China. These two strains continue to mold tantric Buddhism in the present, including in Taiwan and other centers of Chinese expatriate populations. Tibetan Buddhism has also expanded globally, introducing tantric lineages, teachings, and practices to many different countries. The globalization of tantric Buddhism has not gone uncontested, however. Interactions with European and American adherents have created strains within the Tibetan community; the movement of modernizing Theravādin traditions in Nepal has created stresses on the traditional tantric communities there; and evangelical Christians have attempted to stave off what they see as the demonic influences of Tibetan tantric practice from the territories they claim as their own.

Tantric Buddhism in Nepal

Tantrism is the science of practical spiritualism. Tantrism is the practical way out of enlightenment. It is the perfect mix of theoretical and empirical knowledge of liberation. Although there are different arguments for and against tantric Buddhism. To find out the basic overview of Tantric Buddhism the study has been conducted. It is a literature review of Tantric Buddhism in Nepal. In conclusion, the study found that there is a great contradiction between Buddhist philosophy with the law of cause and effect. It is difficult to make ritual action conform to such a law, as he demonstrated.

Avalokiteśvara in Tibetan Buddhist Art of the Later Spread (Tib. phyi dar) of the Dharma. Image Classification Proposal, Part 2

According to traditional Buddhist narratives and popular beliefs, Tibetans are a people chosen by Avalokiteśvara. Therefore, his worship and multitude, as well as diversity of his images, are quite common both in temples and public areas. Unlike the widespread analyses where the Bodhisattva has been treated as a peaceful tutelary deity, and classifications of its images have been based on morphological features, or artistic styles and techniques, this paper proposes another approach by grounding images in Tantric Buddhism models used locally, e.g. outer, inner and secret forms of the Three Jewels or the Three Refuges, popular in Tantric Buddhism. The second part of this paper focuses on images of Avalokiteśvara as a meditational deity and a Dharma protector, which corresponds to the last two out of the three inner aspects of the Three Jewels. Using the method developed by Erwin Panofsky and the analysis of primary Tibetan text are partly used as convenient tools for the description and exegesis of images.

Comparisons

This chapter explains the literary theory that bridge the divides between national traditions in a balanced assessment of similarities and differences called “perspectivism.” It addresses the question of comparability that grew sharper during the 1980s as comparatists began to give more attention to non-Western literatures and struggled to locate their studies along an expanded spectrum. It also analyzes Claudio Guillén's Entre louno y lo diverso, which asserts the necessity of keeping in mind the constant to and fro between the unity sought by human consciousness and the countless historical–spatial differentiations in the field of literature. The chapter looks into an essay by Robert Magliola that asserts a close comparability of sexualized religious iconography in the European Renaissance and in tantric Buddhism. It also talks about Pauline Yu's “Alienation Effects” as a skeptical discussion of the limits of East/West comparability.

Avalokiteśvara in Tibetan Buddhist art of the Later spread (Tib. phyi dar) of the Dharma. Image classification proposal, part 1.

According to traditional Buddhist narratives and popular beliefs, Tibetans are a people chosen by Avalokiteśvara. Therefore, his worship and multitude, as well as diversity of his images are quite common both in temples and public areas. Unlike the widespread analyses where the Bodhisattva has been treated as a peaceful tutelary deity, and classifications of its images have been based on morphological features (i.e. the number of hands, heads, etc.) or by artistic styles and techniques. This paper proposes another approach by grounding images in Tantric Buddhism models used locally. In the first part of the article, the images of Avalokiteshvara are inscribed in the bodyspeech-mind models as well as the external, secret and the first of the three internal aspects of the Three Refuges, also known as the Three Jewels, which covers a much wider set of iconographic material than usually considered.

Ganeša’s Cult and His Veneration in Japanese Buddhism

This research focuses on the cult of the deity Ganeša in Japanese Buddhism. Ganeša is one of the Hindu gods, also known as Vinayaka, Ganapati and Vighnesa. Like many other Hindu deities, he was included in the pantheon of Vajrayana Buddhism. Due to this fact, various hypostases of Ganeša spread in Tibet, China and Japan, where his worship turned into an esoteric cult. In the Far East were known both single and paired images of Ganeša in the form of two hugging creatures with elephant heads. In Japan, such images were called Sosin Kangiten. In local esoteric Buddhism (mikkyō) they were interpreted as the opposites, male and female, phenomenal and absolute in the form of two sacred mandalas: the “Diamond mandala” and the “Womb Mandala”. For this reason, Ganeša is sometimes considered the epitome of the main deity of mikkyō tradition — Mahavairocana Buddha (Jp.: Dainiti Nerai) and was known as a composite element of another esoteric deity, Matarajin, or Santen, a triad of deities Saraswati, Dakini, and Ganeša. The history of Ganeša’s cult in these countries has not been sufficiently studied yet, however it shows the way in which elements of Hindu religion were preserved in the traditions of tantric Buddhism. While this religious and philosophical doctrine spread in the countries of Central Asia and the Far East, they gradually became part of local religious and cultural traditions. The author stresses that in the future they influenced not only the development of philosophical doctrines in local Buddhist schools, but also the formation of popular religious beliefs.

Tantric Buddhism in Japan: Kūkai and Saichō

Many accounts place the origins of Tantric Buddhism in Japan in the hands of the two men, Saichō 最澄 (767–822) and Kūkai 空海 (774–835). (This article will use “Tantric” and “esoteric Buddhism” synonymously.) These were the founders, respectively, of the Tendai (天台) and Shingon (真言) schools, both of which contributed substantially to the early development of Japanese forms of Tantric theory and practice. Naturally, no tradition emerges from a vacuum; it always grows from existing roots and trunks to create new branches. Because the contributions of Saichō and Kūkai marked a major transition in the history of Japanese Buddhism, focusing on them is an appropriate way to frame important features of early Tantrism in Japan. Several of the deities central to developed esoteric Buddhism in Japan were present during the Nara period (710–794), as were some of the key texts such as the Scripture of the Great Illuminator大日経 (Skt. Mahāvairocana-sūtra, Jpn. Dainichi-kyō), prior to Saichō and Kūkai’s bringing new materials back from China in 805 and 806, respectively. Significant among the new elements were mandalas, initiation or consecration ceremonies (kanjō灌頂) into ritual practice that employed them, and new texts, in particular of the Scripture of the Tip of the Thunderbolt (金剛頂経) (Skt. Vajraśekhara-sūtra, Jpn. Kongōchō-kyō) corpus, most of which had been translated into Chinese by Amoghavajra 不空 (705–774, Ch. Bukong; J. Fukū). While Saichō returned to Japan more than a year before Kūkai—and established the earliest foundation for the new Tantric tradition by performing Japan’s first kanjō and by making one of the two formal tracks for training Tendai monks a Tantric one (shana-gō遮那業)—Kūkai’s subsequent contributions had a much greater immediate impact on how the tradition unfolded.