Buddhism in East Asia (arts of Japan cycle)

Chinese figurine of Buddha,
northern Wei dynasty,
 Shanghai Museum

 

An Shigao was a son of a Shah of the Arascid dynasty. This dynasty ruled Iran in the second century of our era; but An Shigao didn’t want to get involved in politics, became a Buddhist monk and on the Silk Road travelled to China. There he is revered as the first translator of sutras from Sanskrit into Chinese. He only translated a few texts, but he started a stream that in time became a river. At the end of the fourth century Chinese monks already travelled to India with a specific purpose to find more sutras. The most famous of them was Faxian, who in A.D.399 went to the west across the deserts, travelled in Kashmir, the plains of Ganges and Ceylon, finally went back to China via Indonesia; later he wrote a book of his travels. Another one was Zhiyen, who met in India a master named Buddhabhadra and persuaded him to travel to China. Buddhabhadra went there and in the imperial capital met another long-nosed foreigner, a native of Central Asia who had been persuaded by Chinese envoys to come to China translate sutras. The foreigner was Kumarajiva, who after studies in Kashmir and North India returned to his native oasis on the Silk Road and had a reputation of a great sage. He arrived in China two years after Faxian’s departure and living in luxury at the imperial court made one translation after another. He translated the sutras which later had a huge influence on the Far Eastern Buddhism: “The Thread Leading to the Other Side” (Prajña Paramita Sutra), “Lotus of the Good Law” (Saddharma Pundarika Sutra), “Description of the Pure Land” (Sukhavati Vyuha). He also translated the “Treaty of the Middle Way” (Madhyamaka Sastra) written by Nagarjuna. He didn't respect the monastic rule and lived in a palace, but nobody questioned his competence, Buddhabhadra led philosophical discussions with him. Buddhabhadra also translated sutras, for example the very influential “Flower Wreath Thread” (Avatamsaka Sutra), but he never accepted imperial honours. He lived according to the monastic rule and begged every day for food. For a period of time he lived in a distant monastery on Mount Lushan, where at that time the White Lotus Society was being formed.

ELEPHANT

Two centuries later, AD 629, a young monk named Xuanzang fled without imperial permission towards the western deserts. Along the Silk Road and through Kashmir he reached the Ganges plain, where he studied at the great Buddhist University of Nalanda under master Silabhadra. He was a bright participant in discussions, led of course in Sanskrit, he gained respect and support of King Harsha who – when Xuanzang after a number of years decided to return to his own country – wanted to give him four elephants to transport all those sutras. Xuanzang thought it would be against the rule of poverty and accepted only one elephant, which drowned anyway when crossing the Indus River and our pilgrim had to use just a caravan of mules. When the caravan reached China, the Emperor himself received the penniless pilgrim of years ago with honours. The Emperor asked the famous traveller about the political situation in the countries beyond deserts and mountains and for his use Xuanzang wrote his famous “Description of the Western Kingdoms”, but for him it was only a marginal work: the rest of his life Xuanzang spent on translating sutras. He translated an incredible number of them, one fifth of the present Chinese Buddhist Canon are his translations. He is also considered an excellent translator. He had a large team of helpers, whose job was to make sure the translations are faithful and in clear Chinese. The great translator made also compilations for the use for beginners. One of those compilations, based on writings of Vasubandhu, became even a main object of studies of a separate Chinese school, called Faxiang.

PATRIARCH

Loughing Buddha, characteristic Chinese figure. 
Lingyin temple near Hangzhou, Song times

This was a time of formation for the Chinese Buddhist schools, which didn’t fight one another, but used different texts as their main subjects of study. The Sanlun (or Three Treaties) school studied mainly three books, of which the most important was Madhyamaka Sastra of Nagarjuna. The Zushe School studied Abhidharmakosa written by Vasubandhu. In the seventh century a monk named Du Fashun created a Huayen (or Flower Wreath) school, whose studies concentrated on Avatamsaka Sutra. At the same time a monk named Daoxuan, considering that in those schools there was too much stress on intellectual studies, started a school called Lu in Chinese. The main worry of monks of this school was purity of the monastic rule and ritual. There were other non-intellectual schools. In the far south of China, near Canton, lived the Sixth Patriarch of Chan, illiterate peasant named Huineng, who passed his transcendental wisdom by smacking his disciples with a bamboo stick. At the beginning of the eighth century came from India to China a monk named Vajrabodhi bringing with him the secret teachings of Tantrism.

FUNERALS

When Faxian travelled to the west in the search of sutras, people from countries lying farther east came to China for the very same purpose. One of those countries was called Realm of the Fresh Morning, or Korea. Korea was then divided into three kingdoms; two of them – Koguryo and Paekche – accepted Buddhism already in the fourth century. Intellectual life of Korea since antiquity reflected that of its big neighbour. When Buddhism spread in the Middle Kingdom, Korean monks studied sutras in Chinese monasteries, some even travelled to India as well. One of those travellers was Hyech’o, who during the Tang dynasty went to India with a group of Chinese monks and wrote a book of his travels after his return. The Chinese schools of Buddhism had their counterparts in Korea. Of course the Korean kings were Buddhists only in a very wide meaning of the word, they didn’t stop wars, but at least the most savage practices were eliminated. Buddhism had a tempering influence on customs and perhaps for this reason monks tried to influence kings, though they never succeeded in completely converting them to non-violence. Syong-myong, the King of Peakche, sent in the year 545 AD an envoy to Japanese Emperor Kimmei with some gifts, among which there were some sutras and a bronze figure of Buddha as well as an explanation that this is the greatest teaching known to the world. The Japanese were a savage people at that time, they practised human sacrifices at funerals of important people; at the funerals of emperors traditionally the whole government, and court and harem were buried alive. Song-myong mostly wanted Kimmei’s support in his war against the third Korean kingdom, named Silla, but the fact is that the following year Kimmei issued a decree forbidding human sacrifices at funerals.

CANAL

Teaching coming from a distant country, not even China, but farther away, started by a prince who preferred to be a beggar but thanks to this teaching gained knowledge about the whole universe and now even kings bow to the ground before his image – for the Japanese these were the news really widening their horizons. This teaching appeared to be attractive for some members of the Japanese elite. The Soga family, the most influential at the imperial court, supported the new teaching and built monasteries for monks coming from Korea and temples for sculptures brought from there. As it often happens, the “foreign influences” were controversial; the Mononobe and Nakatomi families, rivals of the Soga, talked about “loosing the national identity, dangers to independence and true Japanese religion”. At that time the national discourse was not led on paper, but in deed: monasteries and temples were burned, bodily harm was done to monks and nuns, bronze figures were thrown to canals. These were only small battles lost, not the war, because the Soga run the official policy of the country, they put emperors on the throne and if any emperor tried to oppose them, he was not taken down from the throne, but his head was severed from his body. This support for Buddhism gained momentum when Soga-no Umako became the head of the family. In the year 592 AD the Emperor Sujun lost his head (literally) as a result of his unwise anti-Soga policy and the next ruler was the Empress Suiko, a daughter of Kimmei and a sister of Umako. A prince of the imperial family, named Shotoku Taishi, became the Regent in her name.

PRINCE

Todai-ji in Nara

Shotoku Taishi was an unusual person in the history of Japan. He was unquestionably a skilful politician, acted in harmony with Umako, but if Umako’s job was to cut off heads, Prince Shotoku’s job was to temper the customs. There are stories about him similar to those of St. Martin: it is said that he – an imperial prince – fed and clothed a beggar dying by a roadside. A death by a roadside was not an unusual sight in Japan of that time; according to the Shintô religion a contact with death, and so with the dying, caused a ritual impurity, therefore people didn’t help those who were dying by the roadside. Helping a dying beggar prince Shotoku consciously broke old religious conditioning. He was, however, not only good-hearted, he was also a highly educated Buddhist, his teacher was a Korean monk named Hyecha (Eji in Japanese). The prince spoke Chinese fluently and not only copied sutras in beautiful calligraphy, but also wrote commentaries to them. One such commentary written in prince’s own hand is kept today in imperial collection. There is no doubt that the prince supported the spread of Buddhism in order to temper customs; his “Edict of Seventeen Points” certainly had this purpose. During the prince Shotoku’s rule, in 607 AD, the oldest existing monastery was build. In the year 621, when the prince died, there were already 46 monasteries, over 800 monks and more than 500 nuns in the country.

METROPOLIS

During the next century the controversies over the Buddhist religion calmed down. As a result of a skilful policy of Nakatomi-no Katamari, the arrogant Sogas lost their heads, literally. As a reward for his services Katamari received from the Emperor a new surname – Fujiwara – and became a founder of a new powerful family. He became a Prime Minister and as such he rendered great services for the empire. He continued the reforms of prince Shotoku and supported Buddhism, which after the elimination of the Sogas ceased to be a controversial issue. In 653 AD a monk named Dôshô was sent to China, where he studied under Xuanzang himself. When Dôshô returned to Japan after many years, he brought with him the Faxiang school, which in Japanese was called Hossô. This school owns the oldest monasteries in Japan, like Hôryûji, as well as founded by the Fujiwaras and standing today in Nara Kôfuku-ji. During the Nara period - that is in the eighth century - teachers of other schools came to Japan, too. There was in Nara a branch of Zhushe School, called Kusha in Japanese, which studied the writings of Vasubandhu. There was Three Treaties school, called Sanron in Japanese, which studied the writings if Nagarjuna. In 736 AD came to Japan a monk named Dôsen, who brought with him a school of Flower Wreath, or Kegon in Japanese. On the same ship as Dôsen another two travellers arrived: Bodhisena, a Brahmin from South India, who in Japan taught Sanskrit, and Kibi-no Makibi, who had also learned Sanskrit and probably was the creator of the Japanese alphabet called katakana. Another foreigner living in Nara at the time was Fat-triet, a monk from Cambodia, who taught the Japanese the ritual dances based on Indian mythology; those dances are even today performed occasionally in Hôryûji. And finally in 747 AD the Emperor Shômu decided to build in his capital the biggest bronze Buddha figure in the world.

GODDESS

One of the Buddhas in Todai-ji

To start with it was decided that the oracles of goddess Amaterasu have to be asked for advice where the best place would be. The times when Buddhism was considered a threat to the native religion were gone. Buddhism, as always, did not preach doctrines and did not fight doctrines. Gyôgi Bosatsu, a monk of the Hossô School, was known as the one who preached most often that there was no opposition between Buddhism and Shintô. According to some sources he was a Korean who came to Japan in 685 AD as a layman, according to others he was a Japanese form the western Izumi province; whatever was the case he was ordained in Yakushiji monastery in Nara, studied in the Hossô School and later travelled widely around Japan spreading the new religion. In 742 he was sent to the sanctuary of the Sun goddess in Ise to ask her oracles what the goddess thinks about the plans of erecting the temple of Buddha Greatsun in Nara. The answer was not very clear, but it was interpreted as positive. It meant, of course, that the goddess is also the protector of the Buddhist order, as the Thunder god Indra was in India.

MERITS

In 747 the work began. The Emperor Shômu decided that it is to be the undertaking of the whole nation, each one of his subjects was to be given a chance to earn merit for his afterlife. The Emperor didn’t want to take all the credit for himself. Someone then and there realised that the Path Towards Awakening is not an individual effort to look after one’s own bottom, but an effort of the whole society in the same direction. From the perspective we can see that then and there an important event was taking place, an event in which all nation participated. The person charged with gathering funds all over the country was the monk Gyôgi, who rightly was called Bosatsu, which means Bodhisattva or the Awakening Warrior.

EYES

The person to oversee the works on the spot was Rôben, a monk of the Kegon School. The Tôdaiji monastery, where the figure was being built, belonged to that school and the figure was to be an image of Buddha Greatsun, the central character from the Flower Wreath Sutra. It was a huge undertaking: a slope of a hill was levelled and the casting of the parts of the figure took two years. When in 749 AD the whole was put together, in one of the provinces gold was discovered (the participants in the undertaking would claim that it was no coincidence). The same year the emperor issued a thanksgiving edict, in which he – considered to be a god by his subjects – calls himself a “Servant of Three Jewels”. Three years later the great building covering the figure was finished and the ceremony of the Opening of the Eyes was performed.

STATUS

One of the guardians of Todai-ji

Clearly the emperor Shômu wanted to give all his subject a chance to enter the Path Towards Awakening. As a young man he was vain, he even wanted to build himself a new capital that would be more magnificent than Nara, but he underwent a change similar to the Indian Emperor Asoka after he witnessed an epidemic killing almost half the population of his country. Then even the emperor started to think about the next life; not only his own, but that of his subjects as well. Even before the building of the Great Buddha in Nara began, the Emperor ordered the building in each province at least one monastery where the Flower Wreath Sutra would be kept and a temple where a five metres high figure of Buddha Greatsun was to be housed. The eighteen metres high figure in the capital was not only the highest in the country, but also (although the Emperor probably didn’t know that) the biggest bronze figure in the world. In 749 AD, when the figure was ready, the Emperor Shômu apparently thought that his role is finished and decided to give up the status of god and accept the status of a monk: he abdicated and himself entered the Path Towards Awakening.

BLIND

There was a great enthusiasm for the new teaching, there were various schools, but there was no certainty whether the Japanese order was started according to right rites. Just to have this certainty it was decided that a master of a Lu school, or Ritsu in Japanese, has to be invited to Japan. This school specialised in preserving the purity of ritual and monastic discipline. The invited master was named Jianzhen, or – according to the Japanese pronunciation – Kanjin. He accepted the invitation and several times tried to depart from China, but each time he encountered unforeseen obstacles: the Chinese bureaucracy, shipwreck, pirates. In one of his unfinished journeys he even lost his sight. He was, however, persistent and in 753 AD he reached Nara as a sixty years old blind man. According to his directions a kaidan – or a proper platform for the initiation rites – was built and one beautiful day a few hundred people had their heads properly shaved.

FUTURE

This was the beginning of the true Buddhist order in the insular empire of the Eastern Ocean. The future looked bright. As bright as the rising Buddha Greatsun.

The Great Budhha of Nara

If you want to know more on the subject, there is a book: 

Buddhism in India (arts of Japan cycle)

Under this kind of tree Buddha reached his enlightement. 
It is pipal, holy tree in India.

 

On the wet from monsoon rains and covered in lush vegetation plain of North India, outside a little village near a city of Gaia, a man sat under the boughs of a big tree. He didn’t look impressive: lean, in a patched robe, with a begging bowl lying nearby, apparently a wandering mendicant. He has just eaten a simple meal and putting his bowl aside sat in the lotus position attentively listening to the silence. He sat thus and motionlessly listened to the silence for the next forty-nine days. On the fiftieth day he suddenly woke up, as if from a deep dream. This Awakening of a poor beggar sitting under a tree was one of the most important events in the history of the world. This seemingly minor event changed the course of history of many a nation.

NIGHTMARES

This beggar saw (it is claimed) The Unseen Reality. He saw that beyond the reality surrounding us and perfectly visible, there is another reality, much more important and much more real. It appears to be invisible and impossible to describe, but all one needs is to wake up to actually see it. But why it is invisible? Because it is veiled by illusions. It is veiled by arrogance and greed, lie and indoctrination, indulgence in pleasures of food and sex. After the memorable event under the great tree the beggar travelled around North India and taught. He didn’t teach any doctrine or philosophy; all he taught was how to achieve similar Awakening. He taught that one must liberate himself from arrogance and greed, from lie and indoctrination, from indulgence in pleasures of food and sex. He himself noticed this Unseen Reality when he sat without any motion and listening to silence, therefore he taught that this could also be helpful.

RAGS

Soon he had many disciples who created a community and voluntarily accepted a monastic rule. The rule was to help to free oneself from illusions. To free themselves from indulgence in pleasures of sex they accepted celibacy. To free themselves from indulgence in pleasures of food they accepted the rule of taking one meal a day. To free themselves from greed they accepted the rule of poverty, of owning no more than a habit made from old rags and a begging bowl. To free themselves from indoctrination they accepted the rule of accepting no fixed views or doctrines and fighting no views or doctrines. To free themselves from arrogance, from considering themselves as better than other people, they accepted the rule of mendicancy, so they would always remember that even an effort to see the Unseen Reality is only possible with help of other people. As a sign of leaving the path of illusions and entering the path leading to the Unseen Reality they shaved their heads.

JOY

Gangetic plain

The Awakened (Buddha in Sanskrit) beggar came from the Sakya people, therefore he was called The Wise Man of the Sakyas (Sakyamuni in Sanskrit). They said he was a prince who fled the palace of his father in the city of Kapilavastu and chose a life of a mendicant. He travelled many years in the plains of North India until the evening when he stayed in the village of Kushinagara, where he went to the eternal sleep and entered entirely into the Unseen Reality. His disciples decided then that his teaching has to be kept for the future generations. A crowd of beggars with shaved heads gathered in the city of Rajagriha, the capital of the Magadha, the biggest kingdom of the North India plains. It was the fifth century BC. Writing was not in common use then, so they decided that it has to be memorised as much as possible. The closest disciple, who was all the time with the teacher during his later years, was brother Joy (Ananda in Sanskrit), he could recite from memory most of the teachings. The problem was, though, that brother Joy was not yet Awakened, during the life of his teacher he didn’t see the Unseen Reality. There were, however, four hundred and ninety nine Awakened beggars with shaved heads present in Rajagriha at the time. The memory alone is not to be trusted. The four hundred and ninety nine Awakened monks were necessary to make sure that the sermon memorised by brother Joy leads to the Awakening, that it is like a thread (sutra) leading to the escape from the labyrinth of illusions. The sermons had to be edited to make them easy to memorise, the best way was to put them in verses. It was agreed that as the Brahmins recite the Vedas every day, so will the monks of the new “Awakening” community recite the sermons of their teacher to pass them on to the next generations and to “soak up” their teaching. The sermons, passed on from generation to generation, became something like a thread (sutra in Sanskrit) binding the community.

JEWELS

The community (sangha in Sanskrit) quickly gained followers. The beggars with shaved heads did not fight any doctrines, so they accepted the belief in reincarnation, widespread in North India at the time. They added only that even if one doesn’t Awaken to see the Unseen Reality in this life, he could achieve that goal in the next or later life. They didn’t fight the Hindu belief in gods, they added only that the gods support the community of the Awakened. Supposedly one of the first converted to Buddhism was Indra, the Indian thunder-god. The only exception was the Deceiver (named Mara in Sanskrit), the source of all the illusions. The community of monks was there to lead all the people towards Awakening. The first step towards that goal is always selfless giving, therefore – to make sure that everyone has a chance to give - the order of beggars was created. For the lay people it was always important to support the Three Jewels (Tri Ratna in Sanskrit): the Awakened (Buddha in Sanskrit), the Teaching (Dharma in Sanskrit) and the Community (Sangha in Sanskrit).

KALINGA

Ashoka's pillar in Delhi

Alexander the Great entered North India with his armies and eliminated its kingdoms one by one, but after a short time he went back to the west. The kingdom of Magadha emerged from the turmoil as the strongest and under the Maurya dynasty conquered the valleys of both great rivers as well as Deccan. The kingdom that resisted the Mauryas longest was called Kalinga. Emperor Asoka at last conquered it in a bloody war. At the same time more and more monks with shaved heads roamed the land of the empire, they preached that who kills will be reborn in hell, whereas who refrains from killing will have a chance to see the Unseen Reality. Shaken by the bloodshed of the war against Kalinga, Emperor Asoka considered their teachings and changed his actions. He stopped the wars and ceased to hunt for pleasure, instead he made pilgrimages to Buddhist sacred sites. In all his lands he ordered stone pillars to be put up and his message of peace was written on them. In many of them appears the sentence: “All people are my children, what I desire for my children – happiness in this and the next world – I desire for all the people.” Looking after the “next world” he supported the Buddhist order and founded monasteries. Later rulers of Indian kingdoms followed his example, the most famous of those rulers was Kanishka of the Kushan dynasty. The domain of this dynasty spread in the first centuries of our era in the valleys of Indus, Oxus and Tarim. King Kanishka was a great protector of the Three Jewels, in his time the order of monks with shaved heads started spreading in Central Asia. Communities of monks recited the sutras in monasteries cut in rock in deserts, in mountains of the present-day Afghanistan and along the Silk Road. At last the wandering preachers reached the country where the silk came from.

REMAINS

What remained from the earthly body of the Wise Man of the Sakyas after the cremation was (according to tradition) kept in many places in India as precious treasures. Where they were buried huge mausolea were built. These were called stupas; the biggest one, in Ceylon, is not much smaller that the Great Pyramids. As a sign of respect they were circumambulated by the pious, always clockwise. At first neither pictures nor sculptures of the Teacher were made, in fact they were clearly avoided. In the bas relieves showing groups of people His presence was only marked by footprints. Perhaps it was to symbolise that he was already gone to the Unseen World. Later, at first in the lands of the Kushan Empire, the sculpted figures of Buddha appeared, the pious showed their respect to them by bowing to the ground. The Kushan empire dominated the lands earlier occupied by the Hellenistic kingdom of Bactria; the Greeks showed respect to their gods by bowing to effigies, possibly this way the custom entered the Buddhist religion. Certainly the earliest sculptures of Buddha are clearly Hellenistic in style, figures of perfect proportions in robes folded in a Greek manner. Later this art, Hellenistic to start with, evolved farther and spread to the most distant corners of Eurasia. The central practice of the Buddhist order was always sitting in silence, however the Awakened masters never questioned the validity of the preliminary practices, like showing respect or selfless giving. Bowing to the ground is a sign of humility, selfless giving is a contradiction of greed; they are the first steps on the path to see the Unseen Reality. No journey will ever take place without making the first step.

THREADS

At the time of Emperor Asoka new memory aids appeared: sutras written on palm leaves. With the new medium appeared also new kind of texts: psychological commentaries (as the main object of interest of Buddhists are the psychological barriers that stop men to see the Unseen Reality) and rules of monastic life (as the main object of interest was to find ways to remove the psychological barriers). Probably in the first century BC a Canon of texts appeared. It was divided into three “baskets” (pitaka in Sanskrit): The Basket of Threads (Sutra Pitaka), the Basket of Commentaries (Abhidharma Pitaka) and the Basket of Monastic Rules (Vinaya Pitaka). There appeared also a school, called Way of Elders (Sthavira Vada) that guarded the purity of the doctrine and defended it against new influences. Its members felt it was needed, because centuries passed, times changed and some monks claimed that the teaching has to be adapted. One of the things that changed was the spoken language. The Wise Man of the Sakyas avoided the language of the sacred texts of his time, the language that the lower casts didn’t understand. His message was addressed to everyone, therefore he preached in vernacular. In the vernacular, called Pali, the earliest Canon was written down. Since then the Way of Elders (Theravada in Pali) guarded this Canon and would not allow changing it.

SANSKRIT

Sutra in Sanskrit on palm leaves

The centuries passed, however, and times changed. During the late antiquity a script was quite widespread in India and a large proportion of the people could read. The literary language of North India at that time, the language of the educated, was Sanskrit. We know today sutras written in the language of that period. Although written as if the Wise Man of the Sakyas preached them himself, even with the time and place given, they seem to differ in style from the sutras preserved in the Pali Canon. They are often much longer, some of them are so long that the actual preaching would have to take several days. There are many new ideas in them, or the terms that appear in the Pali Canon have a much wider meaning in the Sanskrit Sutras. One term with a wider meaning is the Awakening Warrior (bodhisattva in Sanskrit), in the Pali Canon it only describes someone who fights for his own Awakening and who approaches his goal during many incarnations, whereas in the Sanskrit sutras it is often someone who fights for the Awakening of others, because he himself has reached perfection and appears in new incarnations only to help the humankind. Common people even revered some of those warriors, who were given names. The most popular became The Lord Listening to World’s Cries (Avalokietsvara in Sanskrit). In the Sanskrit sutras there are also personifications of some ideas, for example in the Sutra Avatamsaka appears a personification of the Unseen Reality under the name Buddha Greatsun (Vairocana in Sanskrit). Modern scholars think that those sutras were written later than the Pali Canon and that it is impossible to ascribe their authorship to the Wise Man of the Sakyas. The question of authorship is important for us, who are not interested in the Unseen Reality. For those who are interested in it the authorship is not important, the only important thing is whether the text leads to the goal, in this case towards the Awakening. The question of authorship was important to the Way of Elders, who claimed also that the monastic rule is absolutely necessary to Awakening, whereas among the teachers of the new school were some laymen. Nobody claimed, of course, that one does not need to free himself from greed or indoctrination, but the new teachers pointed out that the desire for one’s own Awakening is a form of greed and the strict following of old rules is a form of indoctrination. There was a characteristic difference between the two schools: wherever the Way of Elders spread – in Ceylon, Burma and Siam – they kept their Canon in the Pali language, whereas the representatives of the new school translated the sutras into languages of the countries they spread to: Iranian languages of Central Asia, Chinese and Tibetan.

NOTHINGNESS

The new school was called the Great Vehicle (Mahayana in Sanskrit). It was by no means a primitive heresy and a simplification, the best minds of the Subcontinent belonged to this school. Nagarjuna, a sage living in the second century of our era and the author of a philosophical treaty called “Madhyamaka Sastra”, is often considered one of the greatest thinkers in the history of India. This treaty says that all that exists is underlined by nothingness (sunyata in Sanskrit). For a reader not interested in the Unseen Reality the book is unreadable and absurd. The problem is that all texts of the Great Vehicle are written to help the reader in noticing the Unseen Reality, not to describe this Reality; they are written for a reader who started already certain practices. The Great Vehicle talks about six practices “leading to the other side” (paramita in Sanskrit): giving (dana), morality (sila), forgiving (kshanti), courage (virya), silent concentration (dhyana) and understanding or wisdom (prajna). These are important things, all those highbrow book are only accessories, like the figures of Buddha. Absurd texts are quite common in the literature of the Great Vehicle, they attack the natural tendency of the mind to self-indoctrination. Dharani, the string of syllables entirely devoid of meaning, seem to be even more absurd. Dharani are often quite long texts, a recitation of a single one may last about an hour. They are supposed to drive away “demons”, in other words undesirable states of mind; they are – like music – to create a state of mind that helps in achieving the really important goal: the Awakening. For the adherents of the Way of Elders they were – as they are for us – superstitious spells, but the followers of the Great Vehicle had a different opinion about them. The first who without a polemic mentioned dharani in his writings was Asanga, who lived in the fifth century and wrote a treaty entitled “Yogacara Bhumi Sastra”. This treaty was quite popular among the followers of the Great Vehicle, it was translated into several languages. Even greater influence had Asanga’s brother named Vasubandhu, author of several books, of which the best known was “Abhidharmakosa”. Vasubhandhu had a huge respect already during his life. Born in Peshawar, he taught at the monastic universities in Kashmir and at the court of emperors of the Gupta dynasty, who ruled the whole of North India. All those book are today considered philosophical and superficially they sometimes contradict each other, but one has to remember that this is not a philosophy in the Western sense. They do not describe the world, their purpose is not to indoctrinate, but to direct the mind towards a certain goal. They were written in a certain time and place as a response to a specific situation, the contradictions are only superficial. In later centuries and in different places they were used alternately, depending on needs. In the times of Nagarjuna and Vasubhandhu, too, the order of monks with shaved heads did not accept fixed views nor did it fight any doctrines. They clang to nothing, views and doctrines they changed as one changes gloves.

Buddha in hellenistic style

If you want to know more on the subject, there is a book: 

Ryôbu Shinto (arts of Japan cycle)

Thirty Banshin in British Museum

 In the year 742 AD emperor Shomu sent Gyôgi Bosatsu to the Sun sanctuary in Ise to ask a goddess for advice about the figure of Buddha Greatsun. A bit earlier the Fujiwara family founded Kôfukuji monastery in the newly built capital of Nara and asked their own divine ancestor to protect it. The Fujiwaras worship four deities and built a shrine for them next to Kôfukuji, the shrine is called Kasuga Tasha. Some years later a monk named Ennin, an abbot of the mount Hiei monastery, very patiently copied Lotus Sutra using a method called ichiji sansai: after writing each sign he got up and three times he fell on his face (to the Buddha, his teaching, his community). It took him three years to finish, after which the sutra was placed in a special pavilion and Ennin called thirty most important deities in Japan to protect it, each in a different day of the month. The deities protecting Lotus Sutra are called Banshin in Japanese. Calling gods worshipped in Japan was of course specific to that country, but it was not unusual for Buddhists. Buddhism never propagated any doctrines or ideologies, never questioned existence of any gods, never questioned local beliefs. It only assumed that if those deities really want good for the people who worship them, they have to support teaching of the Awakened One. In India Vedic gods, especially Indra and Brahma, were assumed to be protectors of Buddhism. It was completely natural that the Japanese sought similar protection from gods they worshipped.

EMANATIONS

Ennin, and a bit earlier Kûkai and Saichô, studied in China and brought from there the Buddhist teaching of Tantrism. Tantrism is a set of practices that are supposed to lead to realisation of Unseen Reality. To help those practices, schematic images of the Unseen world, called mandalas, were painted. They illustrated a system of emanations: some people can be emanations of bodhisattvas, bodhisattvas were emanations of Buddhas and all the Buddhas are emanations of the highest Buddha Greatsun. Getting local deities into that system of emanations was quite logical. Especially logical was connecting the sun goddess Amaterasu with Buddha Greatsun. Connections of other deities weren't so obvious, nevertheless monks connected them somehow, so now we know who is whose emanation. For example Amenokoyane, the ancestress of the Fujiwara family, who used a mirrir to woo Sun out of the cave, is an emanation of a bodhisattva leading the dead through the land of shadows. The deer-riding protector of archery is an emanation of a historical Buddha, the Sage of the Sakyas. Blizzard, or Amaterasu's brother Susanowo, is an emanation of Buddha Boundlesslight. His (and Amaterasu's) mother, Izanami, is an emanation of Kannon of Thousand Hands. In other words she is an emanation of an emanation of Boundlesslight, who is identified with her own son, and Boundlesslight himself is an emanation of Buddha Greatsun, who is identified... well, it all gets tangled a bit, but nobody demands normal logic in the myths. The myths are not strictly consistent either: sometimes Vairochana the Greatsun is identified not with Amaterasu, but with Amenominakanushi, the Lord of the Centre of Heaven, who created himself out of nothing before everybody else and hid himself straight away, so only his name is known.

SADDLED DEER

In Buddhist ritual there is no room for votive offerings, but they are perfectly normal in Shintô sanctuaries, so people started bringing images of Buddhist equivalent of a given deity to a Shintô sanctuary. Sometimes an image was in bas-relief, sometimes etched and sometimes it was no image at all, but a letter of a Sanskrit alphabet. These images were called kakebotoke, which literally means 'hanging Buddha'. They were hanged on walls of sanctuaries either inside or outside, or on a front eave. Or on a deer, as in Kasuga sanctuary. One of the four deities worshipped in Kasuga rides a deer, so a votive offering there consisted of a deer saddled with a twig of sacred tree, on which a kakebotoke was hanged. In sanctuaries connected to Tantric monasteries there were paintings of mandalas of Shintô deities. This kind of mandalas were painted in Hie Taisha, a big sanctuary situated at the foot of mount Hiei. The deities worshipped in Hie Taisha were protectors of (how else) Tendai order.

FOUR SOULS

Buddhas can have several emanations, but to complicate things even more, every deity can be an emanation of several Buddhas. To be more precise: each deity have four aspects of their souls, each aspect can be an emanation of a different Buddha. In Shintô one talks of four aspects of a soul, or maybe of four souls – it is not very clear, as Shintô does not have theologians, who would elaborate on the subject. Soul is in Japanese called tama, or – with a honorific – mitama. The thing is that every person and every deity has four of those mitamas: aramitama is wild and raw, nigimitama is quiet and subtle, sakamitama is joyful and flowering, kushimitama is hidden and mysterious. Sometimes separate sanctuares are built for each mitama of one deity. For example god Oyamugi, King of Hiei mountain, has a separate sanctuary for his nigimitama in the valley and a separate one for his aramitama on the top of the mountain.

SLEEPING IN THE MOUNTAINS

In the 7^th century, still in Asuka period, one En-no Gyôja went to the mountains to practice mitama shizume, or calming the soul. He was doing that meditating under waterfalls, walking scantily dressed on snowy peaks, eating roots. In the end he was unified with Amenominakazushi, The Lord of the Centre of Heaven. He is considered the founder of the order of yamabushi, Shintô ascetics calming their soul high in the mountains. The name means 'sleeping in the mountains'; it is an unorthodox sect supposedly under influences of Tantric Buddhism. As in Tantric Buddhism, much of it is secret. Meditating under waterfalls is a way of finding a connection with the Lord of the Centre of Heaven. Yamabushi mostly congregate in Kumano in the south of Kii peninsula, and in Dewa Sanzan in the north. Some of the more radical Dewa Sanzan were known to auto-mumify: for a long time they reduced food they took, in the end the walled themselves up in a cave high in the mountains, where they dried up and died. Sometimes mitama shizume is practised by priests of some important sanctuaries, their meditation techniques are passed in secret only to the successor.

BEATIFUL CALLIGRAPHY

Amida from Kumano in Zenrin-ji temple in Kyoto

In Kumano there are three great sanctuaries, called Kumano Sanzan. In the main one, called Hongu, Susanowo the Blizzard is worshipped. In the Hayatama Taisha, not far from there, his father Izanagi is worshipped. Another one, also not far, called Nachi Taisha, is dedicated to his mother Izanami. God Susanowo is considered to be an emanation of Amida the Boundlesslight, hence paintings of Amida emerging from behind Nachi mountain were produced. Kumano was known in history as a pilgrim place, on the main road pilgrims appeared like ants (as someone wrote). Emperors were among them. There was a custom of writing poems and leaving them, written in beautiful calligraphy, in sanctuaries along the main road. There are poems written by many a famous poet. Poems written by emperors (living gods after all) are now worshipped.

DANCING IN THE STREETS

The most famous pilgrim to Kumano was no emperor, however. It was a monk of Hiei mountain named Ippen. He came to Kumano and had a vision, in which the deity worshipped there appeared to him as Amida and told him to travel up and down the country to propagate his name. From that time until his death in 1289 this is exactly what Ippen did. He travelled from town to town, sang nembutsu dancing in the streets (this practice is called odori nembutsu, or 'calling the name while dancing') and distributed leaflets with a name of Amida on them, whether recipients wanted it or not. In addition he preached that Amida may be worshipped both in Buddhist temples and in Shintô shrines. Amida appearing as a deity above the holy mountain of Kumano became a subject of painting ever since.

TIME OF JAPAN

At similar time another monk from Hei mountain also travelled around the country and equally stubbornly preached that reciting a mantra Namu Amida Butsu is a mistake and the only mantra to be recited is Namu Myôhô Renge Kyô. The name of this monk was Nichiren. He was much more original: mantra Namu Amida Butsu came from India via China, whereas the author of the mantra Namu Myôhô Renge Kyô was Nichiren himself. It is created from the Sanskrit word Nam and the title of the Lotus sutra in Chinese, but in Japanese pronunciation. Nichiren preached that Pure Land sutras are heretical and wrote letters to the shôgun that he should persecute worshippers of Amida. Actually, heretical are not only those sutras, but any sutras except the Lotus Sutra. In the Lotus Sutra there is a prophecy that he – Nichiren – will appear on earth, as he considered himself to be an incarnation of boddhisattva Visitacharita, who was to proclaim true Buddhism at the time of false teaching. Now is the time of Japan, now mantras are created in Japan, true teaching is taught in Japan and from Japan it will be spread throughout the word. Even the name Nichiren can be interpreted as 'Lotus Flower in Japan'. All this because in Japan the uncorrupted Lotus Sutra has been preserved, all because of Ennin, who called 30 Shintô gods to protect it. Even today in the order started by Nichiren pictures of 'thirty Banshin' are used in some ceremonies.

BURN THE SCRIPTURES

A figure of a deer in Nara with a blank
 disk where kakebotoke would be.

The True Teaching must have been having problems indeed. Intolerance of Nichiren, his attachment to doctrine and his nationalism seem to be almost exact opposites of Buddhism. Nichiren preached using at least Buddhist language, after him came other people who made the next step: they rejected Buddhism altogether. If Japan is the best country in the world, if the divine descendants of Sun rule in it, why should teaching coming from some barbarian country be accepted there? In early Edo period there appeared thinkers combining Shintô and Confucianism, but rejecting Buddhism. In the 18^th century some thinkers rejected Confucianism as well as a foreign influence. Among the last group of thinkers (or should I say “thinkers”) Motoori Norinaga and Hirata Atsutane had the biggest influence. They had no doubt that descendants of Sun rule Japan and therefore this is the most important country in the world. This is after all written in Kojiki, the book describing the creation of the world. Buddhism came from India, which is a country of barbarians with no culture. Hirata wrote about India as if he actually had been there. Of course he could not, as in Edo times foreign travel was a capital offence, but what did it matter? Buddhism is foreign and by definition harmful, therefore it should be banned. Even worse is mixing Buddhism and Shintô, this is sacrilege pure and simple. Anything that is suspect of Buddhist origin should be removed from Shintô shrines. All sculptures representing Shintô deities in human form should be burned, as Shintô gods have no bodies and these sulptures were created because of Buddhist influence. The yamabushi practices should also be banned, as Tantric Buddhism influence.

DESTROY IMAGES

Motoori and Hirata did not live long enough to see it, but what they wrote about started to be introduced after the fall of Tokugawas in 1868. Tokugawas supported Buddhism, so anger against them became partly anger against Buddhist monasteries. In the beginning of 1870s a movement haibutsu kishaku (destroy Buddhas, abandon scriptures) appeared and started burning monasteries and forcing monks and nuns to return to lay life. This caused a reaction of the people, who did respect monks; in the end the revolutionary Meiji government just separated the two religions. It was proclaimed that Shintô does not know images of deities, therefore all images created through centuries should be destroyed. This is what the government said, therefore by definition was true. Anything that smelled of Buddhas was to be removed from sanctuaries. An orgy of iconoclasm started.

HOLY TRADITION

Not much have been saved from this. Some images were lucky enough to be transferred to Buddhist monasteries. Some found their way to private collections and having ceased to be cult objects did not interest cleaners of the official religion. Some were preserved in those sanctuaries where local priests preferred to keep the local holy tradition and which the official cleaners for some have not reached. So in a small shrine of Nabi Jinja in Gifu prefecture there are a couple of hundreds of kakebotoke, images of Buddhas hanged as votive offerings. In Hayatama Taisha some sculptures – without doubt representing Shintô deities – have been preserved. And in Yoshio Mikumari Jinja in Nara prefecture there are figures carved in Kamakura period and also representing Shintô gods. They are so full of charm that the very thought that they could be chopped sends one shivers. 

A Buddhist temple with shinto signs

If you want to know more on the subject, there is a book: 

Styles of Shinto shrines (arts of Japan cycle)

The heart of every sanctuary is without doubt honden. It is always built in one of the traditional styles, although the word “style” has different meaning than in the case of European architecture. Normally there is no connection between a style and the time when the building was built. Most of the styles were used very long ago, but it is difficult to date any because of the custom of regular rebuilding. In theory the new building should be an exact copy of the previous one, but we know that the sanctuary of Izumo Taisha changed its size, whereas in Ise Jingu we know that brass fittings have been added during Meiji era and removed after the last war. We know this about the most important sanctuaries, the less important ones could have been changed, but we know nothing about it. The difference between styles is more akin to the difference between basilica and hall churches. A honden always has a gabled roof, but the entry can be either from the gable wall, or from the eaves wall.

ROOF TRUSS

Taisha-zukuri seems to be the oldest in the first group. The best example of it is Izumo Taisha in Shimane prefecture in western Japan. Honden in Izumo Taisha is a building on a roughly square plan, on high stilts, with a gabled roof covered with a thatch. A characteristic feature of this style is a pole going through the centre of the gable wall and supporting a ridge pole. The door is not in the centre but on a side of this pole. The floor is quite high above the earth so stairs are needed to get there. These are in front of the door (which means they are not in the centre) and have a separate roof above it. There is a balustraded balcony around the building, the roof is slightly curved and on the very top of the roof there are three short beams across the ridge (they are called katsuogi) and two wooden crosses (called chiigi). Izumo Taisha has been rebuilt several times, last time in 1744. In the town of Matsue in the same prefecture stands a sanctuary built in the same style, called Kamosu Taisha, whose last rebuilding took place in 1346. There is one feature in Kamosu that is significantly different: the poles supporting the ridge pole are not incorporated into the gable wall, but placed outside. Considering the dates, we are entitled to suppose that Kamosu represents the earlier version of that style. The construction is very different not only from the one used in Europe, but also in Japan from the time when Buddhism was introduced. A house in taisha style is built like an old-fashioned tent: first you fix the ridge pole, then the rest is built around it. Beams of the roof truss rest on the ridge pole, not the ridge pole being supported by truss.

YEARLY MONSOON

The taisha style seems to be very archaic. It appears to be a reminiscence of not only pre-Buddhist times, but of the times before the builders arrived in the Japanese archipelago. The main argument to support this theory is a fact that Japan experiences snowy winters, houses have to be heated and houses on high stilts are not very practical here. As scholars looked for analogies, they found on Ryûkyû islands granaries on stilts used until quite recent times. There are also analogies much more distant in space. On Sulawesi island, among the Toraja people, houses are built with a pillar supporting a ridge pole standing outside the gable wall. These houses are also built on stilts, which there is not impractical at all: the yearly monsoon causes regular floods, whereas houses do not need to be heated at any time. In Japan this style of building come out of use long ago, now only houses for gods are built like that. Gods, as is well known, do not need any heating.

SRAIGHT ROOFS

Doors in the gable wall are also in the style called sumiyoshi-zukuri, the example of which is Sumiyoshi Taisha in Ôsaka. In this style the door is in the gable wall, but placed centrally, so there is no pillar supporting the ridge pole. Sumiyoshi Taisha is supposed to have been built by empress Jingû in 3^rd century AD. It shows many archaic features, like straight roofs (both Izumo Taisha and Kamosu Taisha have slightly curved roofs, which is considered Chinese influence introduced in one of the rebuildings). There is also no balcony around the building and no separate roof over the stairs. The stairs are not very big, as the floor is just above the ground. On the top of the roof there are katsuogi logs across the ridge pole and chigi crosses, purely for decoration here. The present buildings are relatively new, as they have been rebuilt regularly, and are painted white and red. In front of each honden (there are 4 of them) there is a haiden, or hall of priestly offerings, built in a much later style.

RED PAINT

Simmei zukuri, one of the shrines in Ise

Kasuga-zukuri is the style in which Kasuga Taisha in Nara has been built. It also has a door in the gable wall. Sanctuaries in this style are smaller so the door covers the whole façade. Roofs are slightly curved. There are a few steps before the door and an extra roof over the steps. Chigi and katsuogi are not always there. In Kasuga Taisha there are four shrines for four deities worshipped by the Fujiwara family. Wherever the same deities are worshipped, there are four sanctuaries standing next to each other, but this is not the integral part of the style; there are also single sanctuaries in kasuga-zukuri. Kasuga Taisha has been built in Nara times, but the last rebuilding was in 1863. A small sanctuary Kasuga-dô next to Enjô-ji near Nara is older, the present building dates from 12^th century. For some reason most of the shrines in this style are painted in red.

BRASS FITTINGS

Kasuga zukuri, one of the shrines of Fushimi Inari Taisha

In the second group of sanctuaries, with the door in the eaves wall, shimmei-zukuri seems to be the oldest. The sanctuaries of Ise Jingu are built in this style. According to the tradition, Naiku shrine, where Sun is worshipped, was built in the 3^rd century AD. It is being rebuilt every 20 years, so the present buildings are quite new. In theory the new version is the exact copy of the old building, but we know that in the Meiji era new brass fittings were added, only to be taken down after the last war. What other small changes could have been introduced earlier, we don't know. Nevertheless the buildings standing now are just as archaic as taisha-zukuri: the floor is raised on relatively tall stilts, a pillar supporting the ridge pole is standing outside the gable wall, and truss beams are longer than the roof and piercing the thatch stick out above it. In this style the name chigi applies to those beams that stick out above the thatch. The katsuogi, the logs that lie across the ridge pole, here appear as weights keeping the thatch in place (which would mean that they have a practical function, not only symbolic). Roofs are straight and the whole is made from unpainted wood. This clearly archaic style, raw wood of the buildings and the whole thing being placed in the wood of ancient cedars – all make an impression that the place is very old. However, the buildings are quite new. The oldest shrine in this style, Nishina Shimmei Jinja in Nagano prefecture, is not very old either, last rebuilding dates from 1636. There are buildings older than this in nagare-zukuri, even though the style itself is considered younger.

SMALL CHAPELS

Nagare zukuri, a shrine in Uji

In nagare-zukuri the door is also in the eaves wall and the roof is curved, which is crucial, because the sides are not equal: the roof over the door is longer, sometimes twice as long. It protects not only the stairs, but also some area in front. Thre are sometimes (though not always) chigi and katsuogi, purely decorative. This is the most common style especially of small chapels, but not only. As a model for this style served two sanctuaries of Kamo Jinja in Kyôto, though they were rebuilt in 1863. There is, however, a sanctuary of Ujigami in Uji, built in the 11^th century and never rebuilt.

IDENTICAL HOUSES

Sanctuaries dedicated to the god of the bushi are usually built in the style called hachiman-zukuri. They look like two identical houses joined at the eaves. The front building is actually a hall of priestly offerings, the back building is the actual sanctuary. The model for this style is the sanctuary of Usa Hachiman-gû on Kyûshû island. It was built there in 708, but the present buildings are much younger, the last rebuilding took place in 1855.

TWO TRANSEPTS

Tokugawa Ieyasu was supposedly an incarnation (gongen in Japanese) of a war deity, so a sanctuary was built to him in Nikkô. It was in the style called gongen-zukuri. It was not the earliest building in this style. A model for the style is Kita-no Temman-gû in Kyôto, which was originally built in 947 for Sugawara Michizane, who (as was decided after his death) was also an incarnation. In this style honden and heiden are joined with a wide corridor, covered with a separate roof. Using Western terms, the corridor looks like a nave and heiden and honden look like two transepts. The roof of the corridor is continued over the façade and forms a little pediment.

SOUND OF CICADAS

Gongen zukuri, a shrine in Matsumoto

Apart from the styles described above there are others, used less often, there are also sanctuaries built in a style of their own, not seen elsewhere. In most sanctuaries, regardless of style, there is a tendency to use nature to add to the aesthetic effect. Even in the middle of a city wooden buildings stand among ancient trees. As a rule there is silence there, broken only by sound of steps on a gravel path and (in summer) noise of cicadas among trees. If this is impossible, there is at least a hedge around a city chapel. In a Shintô sanctuary one does not have to be a believer to feel some inexplicable Presence. This aesthetic power of a sanctuary is the only power of this religion.

AWARENESS OF PRESENCE

Shintô is a religion without any sacred scriptures, ethical system, theology. The oldest chronicle of Japan, called Kojiki, is not a sacred text. At least it is written in old Japanese, the next oldest chronicle, called Nihongi, is written in Chinese. Both are basically historical texts glorifying the ruling dynasty. Both cite old myths, especially those which confirm divine origin of the ruling dynasty, but there are no instruction what to do in life. There is no imperative to read them regularly or spread them among others. Some people do consider them sacred, but they don't have status anywhere near as important as among the believers have the Bible, Koran or Vedas. There are no scriptures that would contain any commandments or prohibitions, there is no ethical system. There is an idea of “purity of heart”, but it is by no means clear what it means. Perhaps every human should know what to do and what not to do. There is no theology ether, no writings on what kami (deities or gods) are, no definitions or proofs. There are, however, certain expectations. These are not saving the soul, nothing about afterlife; the expectations are about here and now. No divinity is omnipotent, but they are expected to somehow influence one's destiny. These expectations can be quite specific: a childless couple will give offerings in a sanctuary of a fertility goddess (or god for that matter; a phallic symbol will be in a shrine of a male god, I guess), a poet with ambitions will ask a patron of poets for help. This is, however, always unspecified protection. The most important thing is the Presence, the Divine Presence among people, especially in the sanctuary especially prepared for this purpose.

LANGUAGE AND ATTIRE

There are no sacred scriptures, no doctrines, no theology; Shintô is passed on from one generation to another by ritual only. Beginning of Shintô ritual reach prehistory. The ancient language and the attire of priests that appears dating from Heian times suggest that it was finally formed in that epoch.

ANTICS OF HOOLIGANS

Interior of the shrine in Matsumoto. 
An exposed brass mirror is visible.

It is by no means a dead ritual, it is being lived today by millions of people. For the Japanese it plays the role similar to the holy book for Christians or Muslims. The excesses of the last war, like sending young pilots to a certain death, were antics of a bunch of hooligans that had as much common with Shintô as – say – pogroms of Jews with Christianity. The spirit of Shintô is an undercurrent of Japanese culture in all its history. Buddhist temples, which in China are often built of stone and not very clean, in Japan are almost always wooden and spotlessly clean, with gravel paths around. Tea ceremony, which in China uses elaborate utensils, in Japan becomes dramatically simple. And maybe a lack of progress in propagating Christianity in modern times has something to do with Japanese understanding of holiness: huge pseudo-gothic churches, where one enters in shoes like to a railway station (a Japanese takes his or her shoes off even entering his or her own house), do not appear as places where divine presence could be found.

The creators of the ritual must have seen the effect it had on their contemporaries. I wonder whether they foresaw how durable it would be. 

A shinto priest in ceremonial robes.

If you want to know more about Japanese arts,

 I wrote a a book on the subject