En no Gyoja: idealized mountain ascetic
En no Gyoja as the idealized mountain ascetic was the prototype for the Yamabushi. His image and lore were key influences in the unification of many unorganized wandering ascetics into the new movement of Shugendo. The term Yamabushi directly translates into 'one who sleeps in mountains', and was used to describe those ascetics who, like En, chose the mountains exclusively as their ascetic training grounds. These men would withdraw from ordinary society in exchange for the benefits of rigorous mountain life. They would often maintain a special diet, such as pine needles mandated by Religious Taoism, to gain magical powers. They would also subject themselves to physical trials such as standing under cold water falls for extended periods. These Ascetics sought out sacred mountains as a training ground (doba) and a shelter from society where they could freely put to use many different religious techniques. In Japan as with many east Asian cultures mountains themselves are considered sacred regions where deities reside. These unpopulated and unregulated areas of the country were seen a places where man could interact directly with nature and the spirits contained within. Gary Snyder points out in his essay ,"Blue Mountains Constantly Walking" that there were a few highly formalized sacred areas which were modeled after a symbolic mandala. It was thought that to walk within these areas was to enact specific move within a spiritual plane. Hence we can see that these hills were not only sought out as a place of religious and spiritual freedom, but also the strong spirituality that was seen to be within the hills themselves.
Aside from the physical rigors the Yamabushi subjected themselves to, these men often memorized Buddhist Sutras, continually repeating certain phrases from these Sutras or Taoist magical formulas. There are three canonized Sutras which became integral parts of the Shugendo. The Lotus Sutra was adopted by Shugendo and has continued to maintain a special space within much of Japanese Buddhism. The Avilokitsvara (a recognized bodhisattva) Sutra was also adopted. I was unable to obtain any significant information about this Sutra at this time. The Yamabushi recited the Heart Sutra daily as a part of morning prayers. Along with this canonized sutra the Yamabushi would also recite The Sutra on the Unlimited Life of the Three fold Body, an apocryphal text attributed to En no Gyoja. The contents and messages of these sutras provide insight as to the core beliefs and values of the Yamabushi. The most evident belief present in all of these texts is the ability for each man to obtain and experience enlightenment first hand. It was not until much later that folklore attempted to legitimize the transmission of these teachings by linking En no Gyoja to recognized teachers of Buddhism such as Nagarjuna. It seems as though the original Yamabushi were less concerned with matters of this nature, and more concerned with their own personal religious experience. It is not until the 9th century that scholars begin to take interest in the pedigree of their texts.
It is important to note that not until the 9th century time that formal religious adepts take interest in Shugendo as an organized religion. The original Yamabushi practitioners of the 7th and 8th centuries were of a more eclectic nature seeking out first hand religious experience. In the process obtaining this experience the they would appropriate fragments of the many different religious influences of the time and apply them to situations as needed. It is in this fashion that they adopted their own form of dress, with many attributes being drawn from Buddhist influences. The outfits of the Yamabushi often consisted of a Buddhist hood (tokin) and surplice (kesa), and a white robe (signifying purity). They also carried with them a Buddhist staff (shakujo) and a (oi), which is a portable alter in the form of a backpack filled with scriptures and other religious needs. Two other distinctly mountainous tools adopted and worn were an ax (ono) and a conch shell (hora). It is said that often times these Yamabushi would even borrow the rosary of the lay Buddhist monks. Unlike the lay monks the many of the Yamabushi did not practice celibacy nor did they wear the ritual shaved head. Our eclectic mountain men often took wives, and wore their hair long or untrimmed.
At this point we can observe the interesting scope of the formation and progression of Shugendo. Initially we have the practices of a single individual, En no Gyoja who became the embodiment of an idea that's time had come. These actions were enough to interest many wandering ascetics who were in search of a new personally attainable truth in the rigorous training and eclectic practices. Also unregulated personal and religious freedom of the mountains is a large draw. Soon these practices begin to evolve, slowly developing a distinct quality unique among the new mountain men. This unique assembly of thought and practice begins to attract the attention of the court and nobility, presumably the only ones aside from the wanderers, with sufficient leisure time to consider such matters. The interest of these educated nobility spawns the organized canons of the Shingon and Tendai sects which eventually make the Shugendo religion and the mountain retreats accessible to the general populace. This shift to a canonized and analytically smoothed-over doctrine eventually outmodes the original frontiersman of the Shugendo faith causing them to be seen as primitives or even dim caricatures of themselves. This learned and ritualized form of Shugendo flourishes for many years until much later (the 19th century), when a government sponsored religious reform makes Shinto Japan's official religion. In this shift Shugendo along with many other religions are forced to die out or remain in small secretive pockets. This outlines an archetypal progression from direct, unconscious or semiconscious experience of wonderment, to thought and analization, to death or reabsorbtion, leaving Shugendo essentially dead to experience and alive only as a shell or a fossil.
Shugendo was at one time a religion of true life and vitality. Beat poet Gary Snyder is a modern figure who fancied that he could still feel that vitality of the Yamabushi in their writings and in their ways. In his book of collected works entitled The Practice of the Wild he includes an entire piece on the Yamabushi which he hinges around Dogen Kigen's essay Sansuikyo, "Mountains and Waters Sutra" written in the year1240. Snyder discusses Dogen 's interest in the mountains saying" Dogen is not concerned with "sacred mountains" or pilgrimages, or spirit allies, or wilderness as some special quality. His mountains and streams are the process of the earth, all of existence... They are what they are, we are what they are. For those who would see directly into essential nature, the idea of the sacred is a delusion and an obstruction: it diverts us from seeing what is before our eyes: plain thusness. Snyder provides us with some excerpts from Sansuikyo beginning with the opening paragraph. If we can strive to understand Dogen's sentiments the Shugendo vision may not be dead. In fact this very understanding can serve us as building block in all of our spiritual constructs, present, and future.
"The mountains and rivers of this moment are the actualization of the way of the ancient Buddhas. Each, abiding in its own phenomenal expression, realizes completeness. Because mountains and waters have been active since before the eon of emptiness, they are alive at this moment. Because they have been the self since before form arose, they are liberated and realized." Mountains and Rivers Sutra
En the ascetic represented a spiritual ideal for the common folk unfettered by the corruption of power and money that is at the heart of institutionalized religion.
From the esoteric collection of Reverend Dr. JC Husfelt:
(En-No-Gyoja with the Siddham letter Ham,
seed-syllable of Fudo Myo-o.)
The following gives a brief over-view of Shugendo:
A blend of pre-Buddhist folk traditions of Sangaku shinko and Shinto, Tantric Buddhism, and Chinese Yin-yang magic and Taoism, Shugendo may be roughly defined as the 'way of mastering magico-ascetic powers by retreat to and practice within the sacred mountains'. Shugendo practitioners were called Yamabushi, a term which meant 'one who lies down or sleeps in the mountains' and the sect included various types of ascetics such as unofficial monks, wandering holy men, pilgrimage guides, blind musicians, exorcists, hermits and healers. A leading scholar of Shugendo, H. Byron Earhart, explains that "In the early stages of the development of Shugendo the yamabushi usually were unmarried mendicants who spent most of their time in religious practice within the mountains; in later periods most yamabushi married and either had their temple homes at the foot of sacred mountains or made periodic trips of religious pilgrimage and ascetic retreat to the mountains... When the yamabushi descended the mountains they visited their 'parishioners' to administer blessings from the mountain or perform special services of healing and exorcism. The yamabushi were adept in a variety of purifications, formulas, and charms. The religious goal of Shugendo was as diverse as its organization, technique, and procedure. In general it amounted to the utilization of religious power for every imaginable human need". Because of its loose organization, its lack of textual doctrine, and its appeal to the simple, illiterate folk people of the countryside, Shugendo became a popular movement throughout Japan from the twelfth century to the time of the Meiji restoration in 1868. According to one study, more than 90% of the village shrines in mid-northern and northeastern Japan were served by Shugendo priests. (Martin Gray’s Sacred Sites)
Throughout these mountains and this magical landscape of the yamabushi roams the heart and the spirit of their patron guardian, the Brilliant Light King—Fudo Myo--o-. Gary Snyder best describes this great protector of the Shugendo brotherhood:
" Goma, fire ceremony, mudras hid under the sleeves, dark lanterns and earthen floor smells, the Yamabushi costume with the strip of deer or wild goat hide hanging down in back. And in some of the shrines, Fudo. Fierce and funny, sitting on a rock, backed by flames, holding the vajra-sword and a noose.
Fudo shrines on mountain tops, by waterfalls, and in temples, a patron of mountain ascetics, the popular Buddha-image of many rural provinces in the old central parts of Honshu. The Yamabushi have their own lore and practice of Fudo. For the other Buddhist followers, he is seen as a Dharma-protector, a grim but compassionate tough guy, punk or street-Buddha, no bullshit, the noose is said to be a lasso and save some folks from hell whether they want it or not, or said to be for binding up destructive passions. Actually the noose stands for The Precepts. The sword is the same sword as Manjushri wields, cutting through delusion and foolishness. Such a figure appropriate to this worst of centuries, a Buddha of enlightened determination who will not back off, who is not averse to confronting the mass murder of Ukrainians, of Jews, of Cambodians, and the threat of nuclear holocaust. Who can sit down with generals and dictators and talk even tougher than they. And then laugh about it, and convert and forgive. Or so I like to imagine.
And more technically, in Japanese iconography, he is seen as an emanation of Vairochana, the cosmic eternal Buddha, in a body to enact appropriate compassion and teaching, but also the consort perhaps and other side of the gentle and feminine image of Kannon, motherly, loverly, nourishing or challenging—compassion.
So much I learned in Japan. Later I learned the Sanskrit name Chandamaharoshana, ‘Lord of Heat’ and read his old north Indian Vajrayana sadhana (visualization and practice exercise) and saw that he was a relatively minor, or at least little-known part of that iconography, an ally-figure? Minor perhaps, but enormously important. He is an emanation of the most powerful of emotions, instincts, and feelings, the deeps of the ‘red lump of flesh’—the roar of the Griz, the dying flurry of whole body of a whale, the deep-throated cry of sexual ecstasy, the cry of delight, the cry of pain, all—as illuminated and accepted and transformed by insight—as the strength and calm of active, dynamic, fearless mind-awakened willingness to fully act and be." (Contributions to the Ring of Bone Zendo Dharma Art Exhibit, September, 1987)
Fudo Myo-o-Messenger of Dainchi Nyorai (Great Sun)
This fire imbued messenger of Dainchi Nyorai and I have always had a very close relationship, not only consciously, but also on a deep vibrational soul level. I have been deemed at times "fierce and funny", not physically but with my voice and especially with my eyes. And I have also been told many times that I have, "a laugh that vibrates to the core of one’s soul." Here are two images that I caught on film during the Goma in
1987:
DESCENDING SPIRIT EXORCISM PART 3
Morning mist filtering out the illusions of life,
here hides truth briefly glimpsed.
There a fox, or are you crow, Buddhist priest but no cedar tall.
Rain sparkling green, smell of life,
smell of death, incense clean.
Night is day, mysterious shapes,
but then, only pilgrims honoring the Great One.
Is this my home, have I walked this path before?
Who am I to think so.
Fudo, fiery image, I know you.
But how can that be?
The fierce one, but no, the compassionate one, yes.
A bridge ahead, linking what?
My world and your world,
but are they not the same.
Do I dare to cross?
I must, I have, and there you lie
at the end of the path,
but no—it is the beginning.
A mountain spiritscape of awe and power, Ko-yasan continuously tugged at my heart from the very first moment that I set foot on its mystical sacredness. Towering cedar trees welcomed me back home once again, but this time with Sher, our daughter Jessica, Keiko- san and our group of seekers—some seekers of spirit but a few, sad to say, seekers of ego. However, the ones that are true to their heart do reap the benefits sooner or later. And it was such that one of the true spirits received her gift earlier than later. When she returned to the states for a check-up, she discovered that her cancer had mysteriously disappeared. She feels that she was healed of the cancer on Ko-yasan.
Ko-yasan—how can I ever describe such a magical place that is so deeply intertwined within the core of my being? A temple city, really town, on the top of a mountain, so mundane, but then so true. A spiritual shoppers paradise, and I am the shopper of the family, store after store of ritualistic items; images of Fudo so grand that the value of one would finance a years worth of college education, but then, other statues of my friend, the ‘immovable one", affordable to say the least. And yes, many an hour I spent going from shop to shop lost in a paradise of materialistic spirit.
Our stay was in the Fukuchiin, one of the working temples of Ko-yasan called Shukubo that welcomes guests, but not usually ones from the USA. I had stayed here the previous May, all alone and not speaking Japanese, but still able to communicate with the monks and the shopkeepers, who were probably monks as well. There was a power and peacefulness within these temple walls so different from the sterile spiritually void environment of most Western churches where one experiences the emptiness of spirit and never the fullness of fulfillment. On the contrary, in this magical land you eat and sleep, and if you choose, study with the monks, no entrance requirements just an open heart and mind. The living atmosphere of these temples and this sacred land is permeated with the mystical legacy of Ku-kai, also known as Ko-bo--Daishi, a title posthumously granted meaning ‘Propagator of Dharma'.
Ku-kai, the founder of Shingon Esoteric Buddhism, is probably the most influential person in the history of Japanese religious thought. Dissatisfied with the state of religious and spiritual practice in Japan, Ku-kai in 804 C.E. traveled to China seeking something purer, uncorrupted by the politics and dogma of his time. His seeking outside the established lines of authority was due to his experiences with direct intuitive awakening. It was these experiences that helped shape his approach to the spirit and to Buddhism. And there was one primary event that is credited with his awakening:
In Indications of the Goals of the Three Teachings, Ku-kai tells of his own experience. "Believing what the Buddha says to be true, I recited the mantra incessantly, as if I were rubbing one piece of wood against another to make fire, all the while earnestly hoping to achieve this result. I climbed up Mount Tairyu in Awa Province and meditated at Cape Muroto in Tosa. The valley reverberated to the sound of my voice as I recited, and the planet Venus appeared in the sky." (Hakeda, pg. 102) In a moment of dramatic achievement, Ku-kai experienced a vision of the planet Venus with him as the Bodhisattva Akasagarbha who became his guardian saint. (R.S. Green, University of Wisconsin Buddhist Studies Ph.D. program student, 1999.)
Two years later, 806 C.E., Ku-kai returned from his journeys through China as lineage holder of an esoteric Buddhist tradition. This new religion based on his vision, experiences and studies, he deemed, "True Word" or Shingon. This Mikkyo, "secret teaching", form of Buddhism was dependent, in Ku-kai’s mind, on the power inherent when one transcends language and discovers the word spirit of the divine, what might be termed the nuclear seed-sounds of creation.
In 816 C.E. Ku-kai petitioned the government for permission to locate his new religion on the sacred mountain of Ko-ya. "Two years later, Ku-kai climbed Ko-ya-san himself, at which time he is said to have met the local god of the mountain in the person of a hunter accompanied by two dogs, black and white. Several such legends exist, and native deities associated with Shingon are enshrined at various places on and around the sacred mountain. Ku-kai did in fact invoke the protection of local deities when he performed an esoteric ritual to establish a sacred realm of practice on the mountaintop. This consecrated area was named Kongobu-ji." (Shingon, pg. 30)
OKUNOIN
(City of Dead)
The sacred cemetery on Ko-yasan, Okunoin, contains "several hundred thousand old tombstones and monuments of the passed elders and dignitaries side by side such as emperors, Shoguns, Samurai warriors, Daimyo, landlords, poets, and religious seers and founders. Interestingly enough, another holy place that is also connected with myself as the Morning Star is Teotihuacan. Koya-san has the City of Dead and Teotihuacan has the Avenue of the Dead.
Even in the daytime the path is still dark and dim under the thick branches of pines, cedars, and umbrella pines (Ko-yamaki). Occasionally mountain fog and mist thick penetrate into those grave sites and enclosure visitors through the seasons." (A Guide to KO-YASAN)
Thick mist often swirls around the one-and-a-quarter mile long cobblestone path that leads to the end of the cemetery and the Lantern Hall, where 11,000 lanterns are kept lit. At night, the path itself is lit with lanterns. And enshrined behind the Lantern Hall is the mausoleum of Ku-kai. At the age of sixty-two, as the legend goes, Ku-kai went into eternal meditation at Okunoin while awaiting the arrival of the future (new) Buddha. Today, more than ten million followers believe the Daishi, as he is generally known, is still alive. On a daily basis, food is prepared and taken to him in his mausoleum. It was here in this mystical place and in front of Ko-bo--Daishi’s mausoleum that the Descending Spirit Exorcism occurred.
THE EXORCISM
A transcendental experience, such as the exorcism, is difficult to depict in words, but I will attempt my best after 14 years. From the very beginning Keiko-san, our Japanese guide, was amazed at the spiritual twists and turns of our journey, such as always being in the right place at the right time. And it proved itself once again, on Ko-yasan, when she approached me and said: (I am paraphrasing) "This trip is getting even stranger. There just happens to be an exorcist from Osaka that knew that he needed to come here to meet you, even though he has no formal connection with this temple. He wants to know if you would be interested in going to Ko-bo- Daishi’s mausoleum tonight at midnight for a special ceremony. And you may bring alone anyone that you choose."
Well, the word spread throughout our group, courtesy of one of the participants who over heard our conversation. Thus, approximately one hour before midnight, just about everyone on the journey was milling about the front courtyard ready to go. The one I wanted with me, Sher, however, wasn’t able to go due to the fact that she needed to stay with our daughter Jess (12) who was not feeling well. (The next day we discovered why when she finally showed us her infected figure—swollen and not looking too good but that’s another whole story.)
Over the years I’ve been associated with many indigenous teachers in many out of the way places, and know that it is the students responsibility to follow and keep up with them, no matter where they are headed. And if you fall behind and get lost…well, that’s your fault, not theirs. And it was the same with this exorcist. With hardly a word, he turned and started the approximate 3-mile journey to the Lantern Hall and the Daishi’s mausoleum. Even in his traditional Japanese wooden sandals, he was setting a pace that I knew few could maintain for three miles or even the mile and a half to the entrance of the cemetery. And I was right, many dropped by the wayside.
The click, click, click of his wooden sandals echoing silently over the stone pathway transported me in meditative awareness to a time long ago in these very mountains. The piercing tiny clanging of the magical rings of his shakujo staff only strengthened my feelings of timelessness. Time stood still but no, it speeded up. And then…he stopped abruptly, and waited for Keikosan to reach him, as she had been helping any stragglers that wanted to be helped. As soon as she arrived he spoke rapidly and in a whisper to her. She then turned to the few left and said in a low voice, "There is a well across the path from here that has been used for hundreds of years to prophesize, a person’s death. If one looks in and sees their reflection, they can be assured of many more years of life. If, however, a reflection is not seen, then death is imminent. And he asks if anyone would like to gaze in and see their future?"
If, for a moment, you can put yourself there, imagine a cedar path that is dark during the day and at night lit with stone lanterns spaced yards apart. And they are not up high, like street lamps, but situated low on the ground. Any light reflected is only on the immediate area of the path. Thus there is very little light reflected when you step off of the path. And, of course, the well was off the path deeper still in the cedar studded woods.
In spite of my fears, I went over. In lands where the spirit hasn’t been sucked out of it by human greed and materialism, there resigns older magic’s, stranger and more powerful than you can ever imagine. Legends and myths in a place such as this are not to be taken lightly. Many times they are more truth than fiction. So it was with much hesitation that I finally looked into the well…and as you probably have guessed, I did see my reflection. Signing a breath of release, I walked back to the group freeing my attachment to the experience so that I could be in the present moment. As soon as I set foot on the trail, the exorcist turned, and silently moved down the path, never looking back to see who was following.
Many spiritual teachings use the symbolic mythology of water. One of these teachings states that water separates the realms of spirit and matter, human and divine. And is often portrayed in the imagery of the boatman "ferrying" souls over the river Styx. It is also revealed in the Celtic mythic practice of river and streams and the Egyptians reverence for the river Nile and it’s two shores. The crossing from one world to the Otherworld usually involves a boat or a bridge. Such as the half completed bridge (only an illusion) over the Grail Castles moat, which is visually portrayed, though through the latitude of Hollywood’s imagination, in the movie "Indian Jones and the Last Crusade."
As time was approaching midnight, so were we also approaching a bridge over a small stream that pointed the way from one world to the next one of prophetic sanctuary. This wooden bridge separated the rest of the cemetery from the realm and mausoleum of the Great One. (A warning to heed; never cross a bridge such as this without prayers and permission asked…this bridge was a gateway separating sacred space, and permission to enter, must be granted.)
After crossing the bridge, you would behold the Lantern Hall in front of you ablaze with hundreds of yellow tinged specks of light. It was in front of this hall that the exorcist stopped and offered incense before he led us around the back to Ku-kai’s "meditative residence." And it was here that the exorcism took place.
I believe that there was approximately seven others, plus Keiko-san, the exorcist and myself. He positioned us, except for Keiko-san, in a straight-line horizontally facing Ko-bo--Daishi’s mausoleum and told us, through Keiko-san’s translation, to sit still and relax. I was last in the line with Keiko-san angled in front and to the side facing me.
He began working on each one, chanting, toning and every so often, a kiai or spirit shout. Out of the corner of my eyes, I could see him working rapidly, with mudra, up and down each person’s spine. The sounds coming out of the exorcist were eerily of another world and another time. Feeling as if I was in a dream, I closed my eyes. And in no time at all, I could feel the exorcist's presence, and was unafraid.
The next part is hard, to say the least, to describe in words. I had a strong sensation of being disconnected, yet connected at the same time. I was I, but not I. I was the 'I' in the 'We' feeling like a top swirling in an every widening circle. And power, not the illusionary power of external humanness, but the power of the Bodhisattvas, the Archangels, to put a name on it; power not of this earth, and I, not wanting to let go or return … But then…
A woman's scream, penetrating through the night and ripping through the very fabric of time…
I was back… Who am I? What am I? Slowly opening my eyes, I saw Keiko-san's face, pale, drained and frightened.
Gathering her spirit together, she informed the others that the ceremony was over and that they must return at once to the temple. And not to tarry in their return. Turning to me she said, "we have to talk to you privately." And in the next breath, "are you all right?"
Was I all right…well, I was not only alive and well; I was bodhisattvaized (my own word, if you can have demonized, why not bodhisattvaized). I could see so clearly, as if it was daylight, and if I had wings, I could fly back to the heavens—back home.
Red Fudo
(From the esoteric collection of Reverend Dr. Husfelt)
Keiko-san then explained to me that the exorcist had been trying to find out if anyone in the group was spiritually sensitive—that is, spiritually evolved and able to tap into other realities. "He believes that you are one of the most sensitive people he has ever worked with, and that is why he came to Ko-yasan; to find you," she explained. "But I had to stop him, because I could see that you were not yourself. Your features were changing… your face was so red and strange looking - like Fudo Myo-o... you were starting to transform!"
"There are many spirits here," Keiko-san solemnly continued, but now radiating an exciting peacefulness. "I was afraid for your safety, so I had to stop the exorcism. The exorcist is going to give you a secret teaching of the triple mystery. Right now you are very ‘open’ and this will help guard you against unheeded intrusions by these spirits."
To this day, the exorcism, 1987, was the first of three powerful, transformational, profound experiences; the other two were my vision in 1993 and the visitation in 1997—ten years later, a complete cycle—Alpha and Omega…AUM, beginning, middle, end.
As we departed the sacred mountain of Ko-yasan, Keiko-san presented to me the following words:
"I always remember your sensitive, strong, sacred spirit. It was a great experience for me, too."
Mount Hei the home of the Tendai monastery. It was at mount Hei at this place called So-o, Lived a Monk. After a time at the Monastery he left to live for three years in a cave as an Ascetic. It was here in the cave after receiving a vision in a dream that he formed the Shugendo sect of Buddhism. Today these monks still exist, and it is within this sect in a small village called Togakure (Togakushi village) in the province of Shimano, that a temple was erected for the worship of Shugendo Buddhism. |
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