Shingon Buddhism

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For the Burmese spirit, see Shingon (nat).
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The center image of the Mandala of the Womb Realm, featuring the central figure of
Mahavairocana, the five Dhyani Buddhas, and attendant bodhisattvas.
Shingon Buddhism (??? Shingon-shu) is one of the major schools of Buddhism in Japan
and one of the few surviving Vajrayana lineages in East Asia, originally spread
from India to China through traveling monks such as Vajrabodhi and Amoghavajra.
Known in Chinese as the Tangmi, these esoteric teachings would later flourish in
Japan under the auspices of a Buddhist monk named Kukai (??), who traveled to Tang
China to acquire and request transmission of the esoteric teachings. For that
reason, it is often called Japanese Esoteric Buddhism, or Orthodox Esoteric
Buddhism.

The word Shingon is the Japanese reading of Chinese ?? Zhenyn True Words,[1] which
in turn is the Chinese translation of the Sanskrit word mantra.[2]

Contents [hide]
1 History
2 Lineage
3 Schism
4 Doctrines
5 Relationship to Vajrayana
6 Mahavairocana Tathagata
7 Practices and features
7.1 Discipline
7.2 Esoteric Buddhism outside Japan
8 Goma Fire Ritual
9 Secrecy
10 The Shingon Pantheon
11 Branches of Shingon
12 See also
13 Notes
14 Literature
15 External links
History[edit]

Painting of Kukai
Shingon Buddhist doctrine and teachings arose during the Heian period (794-1185)
after a Buddhist monk named Kukai traveled to China in 804 to study Esoteric
Buddhist practices in the city of Xi'an (??), then called Chang-an, at Azure Dragon
Temple (???) under Huiguo, a favorite student of the legendary Amoghavajra. Kukai
returned to Japan as Huiguo's lineage- and Dharma-successor. Shingon followers
usually refer to Kukai as Kobo-Daishi (???? Great Master of the Propagation of
Dharma) or Odaishi-sama (???? The Great Master), the posthumous name given to him
years after his death by Emperor Daigo.

Before he went to China, Kukai had been an independent monk in Japan for over a
decade. He was extremely well versed in classical Chinese prose, calligraphy and
Buddhist texts. Esoteric Buddhism was not considered to be a different sect or
school yet at that time. Huiguo was the first person to gather the still scattered
elements of Indian and Chinese Esoteric Buddhism into a cohesive system. A Japanese
monk named Gonso (??) had brought back to Japan from China an esoteric mantra of
the bodhisattva Akasagarbha, the Kokuzo-gumonjiho (??????? Akasagarbha Memory-
Retention Practice) that had been translated from Sanskrit into Chinese by
Subhakarasi?ha (????? Zenmui-Sanzo). When Kukai was 22, he learned this mantra from
Gonso and regularly would go into the forests of Shikoku to practice it for long
periods of time. He persevered in this mantra practice for seven years and mastered
it. According to tradition, this practice brought him siddhis of superhuman memory
retention and learning ability. Kukai would later praise the power and efficacy of
Kokuzo-Gumonjiho practice, crediting it with enabling him to remember all of
Huiguo's teachings in only three months. Kukai's respect for Akasagarbha was so
great that he regarded him as his honzon (??) for the rest of his life.

It was also during this period of intense mantra practice that Kukai dreamt of a
man telling him to seek out the Mahavairocana Tantra for the doctrine that he
sought. The Mahavairocana Tantra had only recently been made available in Japan. He
was able to obtain a copy in Chinese but large portions were in Sanskrit in the
Siddha? script, which he did not know, and even the Chinese portions were too
arcane for him to understand. He believed that this teaching was a door to the
truth he sought, but he was unable to fully comprehend it and no one in Japan could
help him. Thus, Kukai resolved to travel to China to spend the time necessary to
fully understand the Mahavairocana Tantra.

The main building of Shinsenen, a Shingon temple in Kyoto founded by Kukai in 824
When Kukai reached China and first met Huiguo on the fifth month of 805, Huiguo was
age sixty and on the verge of death from a long spate of illness. Huiguo exclaimed
to Kukai in Chinese (in paraphrase), At last, you have come! I have been waiting
for you! Quickly, prepare yourself for initiation into the mandalas! Huiguo had
foreseen that Esoteric Buddhism would not survive in India and China in the near
future and that it was Kukai's destiny to see it continue in Japan. In the short
space of three months, Huiguo initiated and taught Kukai everything he knew on the
doctrines and practices of the Mandala of the Two Realms as well as mastery of
Sanskrit and (presumably to be able to communicate with Master Huiguo) Chinese.
Huiguo declared Kukai to be his final disciple and proclaimed him a Dharma
successor, giving the lineage name Henjo-Kongo (traditional Chinese ????; ; pinyin
Binzho Jingang) All-Illuminating Vajra.

In the twelfth month of the same year, Huiguo died and was buried next to his
master, Amoghavajra. More than one thousand of his disciples gathered for his
funeral. The honor of writing his funerary inscription on their behalf was given to
Kukai.

Kukai returned to Japan after Huiguo's death. If he had not, Esoteric Buddhism
might not have survived; 35 years after Huiguo's death in the year 840, Emperor
Wuzong of Tang assumed the throne. An avid Daoist, Wuzong despised Buddhism and
considered the sangha useless tax-evaders. In 845, he ordered the destruction of
4600 vihara and 40,000 temples. Around 250,000 Buddhist monks and nuns had to give
up their monastic lives. Wuzong stated that Buddhism was an alien religion and
promoted Daoism zealously as the ethnic religion of the Han Chinese. Although
Wuzong was soon assassinated by his own inner circle, the damage had been done.
Chinese Buddhism, especially Esoteric practices, never fully recovered from the
persecution, and esoteric elements were infused into other Buddhist sects and
traditions.

After returning to Japan, Kukai collated and systematized all that he had learned
from Huiguo into a cohesive doctrine of pure esoteric Buddhism that would become
the basis for his school. Kukai did not establish his teachings as a separate
school; it was Emperor Junna, who favored Kukai and Esoteric Buddhism, who coined
the term Shingon-Shu (??? Mantra School) in an imperial decree which officially
declared To-ji (??) in Kyoto an Esoteric temple that would perform official rites
for the state. Kukai actively took on disciples and offered transmission until his
death in 835 at the age of 61.

Kukai's first established monastery was in Mount Koya (???), which has since become
the base and a place of spiritual retreat for Shingon practitioners. Shingon
enjoyed immense popularity during the Heian period (????), particularly among the
nobility, and contributed greatly to the art and literature of the time,
influencing other communities such as the Tendai (???) on Mount Hiei (???).[3]

Shingon's emphasis on ritual found support in the Kyoto nobility, particularly the
Fujiwara clan (???). This favor allotted Shingon several politically powerful
temples in the capital, where rituals for the Imperial Family and nation were
regularly performed. Many of these temples To-ji and Daigo-ji (???) in the south
of Kyoto and Jingo-ji (???) and Ninna-ji (???) in the northwest became ritual
centers establishing their own particular ritual lineages.

Lineage[edit]
The Shingon lineage is an ancient transmission of esoteric Buddhist doctrine that
began in India and then spread to China and Japan. Shingon is the name of this
lineage in Japan, but there are also esoteric schools in China, Korea, Taiwan and
Hong Kong that consider themselves part of this lineage (as the originators of the
Esoteric teachings) and universally recognize Kukai as their eighth patriarch. This
is why sometimes the term Orthodox Esoteric Buddhism is used instead.

Shingon or Orthodox Esoteric Buddhism maintains that the expounder of the doctrine
was originally the Universal Buddha Vairocana, but the first human to receive the
doctrine was Nagarjuna in India. The tradition recognizes two groups of eight great
patriarchs one group of lineage holders and one group of great expounders of the
doctrine.

The Eight Great Lineage Patriarchs (Fuho-Hasso ????)

Vairocana (Dainichi-Nyorai ????)

Vajrasattva (Kongo-Satta ????)
Nagarjuna (Ryuju-Bosatsu ????) received the Mahavairocana Tantra from Vajrasattva
inside an Iron Stupa in Southern India
Nagabodhi (Ryuchi-Bosatsu ????)
Vajrabodhi (Kongochi-Sanzo ?????)
Amoghavajra (Fukukongo-Sanzo ??????)
Huiguo (Keika-Ajari ?????)
Kukai (Kobo-Daishi ????)
The Eight Great Doctrine-Expounding Patriarchs (Denji-Hasso ????)

Nagarjuna (Ryuju-Bosatsu ????)

Nagabodhi (Ryuchi-Bosatsu ????)
Vajrabodhi (Kongochi-Sanzo ?????)
Amoghavajra (Fukukongo-Sanzo ??????)
Subhakarasi?ha (Zenmui-Sanzo ?????)
Yi Xing (Ichigyo-Zenji ????)
Huiguo (Keika-Ajari ?????)
Kukai (????)
Schism[edit]
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Like the Tendai School, which branched into the Jodo-shu (???) and Nichiren
Buddhism (Nichiren-kei sho shuha ??????) during the Kamakura period, Shingon
divided into two major schools the old school, Kogi Shingon (????? Ancient
Shingon school), and the new school, Shingi Shingon (????? Reformed Shingon
school).