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Mapping the Garden of Truth: Buddhist and Idiosyncratic Elements in the Religious Space of Shinnyo-En

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Mapping the Garden of Truth: Buddhist and Idiosyncratic Elements in the Religious Space of Shinnyo-En MAPPING THE GARDEN OF TRUTH: BUDDHIST AND IDIOSYNCRATIC ELEMENTS IN THE RELIGIOUS SPACE OF SHINNYO-EN by Casey Ray Collins B.A., The University of British Columbia, 2009 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (Asian Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) April 2015 © Casey Ray Collins, 2015 Abstract New Religious Movements (NRMs) are tyPically understood by observers as deviant, bizarre—even pathological—forms of religion that are born in times of crisis and joined by People in crisis. This understanding, however, overlooks the similarities and often close connections between new movements and more established “parent” traditions. Shinnyo-en is a Buddhist-derived NRM that began in 1930s JaPan. It has strong ties to Shingon Buddhism and is also characterized by idiosyncratic Practices and an emphasis on its charismatic founding family. Like other Buddhist-derived NRMs, Shinnyo-en is simultaneously contiguous with a Parent tradition and distinguished from it. Abandoning the language of Pathology, I suggest that we think of NRMs in the modern Period as occuPying non-locative concePtual “sPaces” similar to those of “established” religions, secular sPaces, and other ideologies. The very meaning of the name Shinnyo-en 真如苑—the “Garden of Truth,” literally a “borderless garden” (en 苑) of “thusness” (shinnyo 真如, Skt. tathatā)—evokes the image of an exPansive, cultivated space. I argue that the space of Shinnyo-en contains two modalities. In its first modality, Practitioners and observers see Shinnyo-en as a modernized form of esoteric Buddhism Promulgated by the charismatic founding family, which draws on ritual and doctrine inherited from the Shingon school and from Mahāyāna Buddhism generally. In its second modality, initiated practitioners experience Shinnyo-en’s idiosyncrasy, which is a function of unique practices and beliefs that cannot exist aPart from the charismatic founding family. The two modalities of the Shinnyo-en tradition are equally important to members, and must be simultaneously kePt in mind to best understand this and other Buddhist-derived NRMs. With this maP of the Garden of Truth, Shinnyo-en’s idiosyncrasies that have hindered scholarly and popular understanding become more intelligible, especially the Profound emphasis on the founding family and the novel practices and hierarchies they introduced. ii Preface This thesis is original, unpublished, independent work by the author, Casey Collins. iii Table of Contents Abstract ....................................................................................................................................... ii Preface ....................................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents .................................................................................................................... iv Note to the Reader .................................................................................................................. vi Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................. vii Dedication .............................................................................................................................. viii 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Religion as Space ....................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 The Study of Japanese New Religious Movements ......................................................... 2 1.3 Scholarly Approaches to Japanese New Religious Movements .................................. 3 1.3.1 Historical Periodization .................................................................................................................... 4 1.3.2 Patterns and Shared Characteristics ........................................................................................... 8 1.3.3 Rethinking the Category ................................................................................................................ 11 1.4 Shinnyo-en’s Two Modalities ............................................................................................... 13 1.5 Sources and Methodology ..................................................................................................... 15 1.6 A Brief History of Shinnyo-en .............................................................................................. 15 1.7 Practices ..................................................................................................................................... 23 1.8 Beliefs .......................................................................................................................................... 26 1.9 Summary .................................................................................................................................... 28 2 SHINNYO-EN’S BUDDHIST MODALITY ........................................................................ 30 2.1 The Three Jewels in Shinnyo-en ......................................................................................... 30 2.2 Public Events ............................................................................................................................. 35 2.2.1 Religious Events ................................................................................................................................ 37 2.2.2 Civic Events .......................................................................................................................................... 38 2.2.3 SPiritual Events .................................................................................................................................. 39 2.2.4 Cultural Events ................................................................................................................................... 40 2.2.5 Local Public Events .......................................................................................................................... 40 2.2.6 Communal Focal Points, Public Relations, and Proselytization .................................... 41 2.3 Media ........................................................................................................................................... 42 2.3.1 Print Media .......................................................................................................................................... 43 2.3.2 Modern TemPles ............................................................................................................................... 44 2.3.3 Film ......................................................................................................................................................... 45 2.3.4 Chiryū Gakuin ..................................................................................................................................... 45 2.4 Linking Shinnyo-en’s Two Modalities through Media ................................................. 46 2.4.1 Public and Private Materials ........................................................................................................ 49 2.4.2 Restricted Materials ......................................................................................................................... 51 2.5 Summary .................................................................................................................................... 52 3 SHINNYO-EN’S IDIOSYNCRATIC MODALITY ............................................................. 53 3.1 Sesshin Training ...................................................................................................................... 54 3.2 Spiritual Elevation Training ................................................................................................ 61 3.3 Ceremonies ................................................................................................................................ 63 3.3.1 Monthly Ceremonies ........................................................................................................................ 63 iv 3.3.2 The Shinnyo-en Calendric Cycle ................................................................................................. 65 3.3.3 Idiosyncratic Ceremonies .............................................................................................................. 66 3.4 The Itōs’ Ever-Presence ......................................................................................................... 66 3.5 Summary .................................................................................................................................... 67 4 SHINNYO-EN’S HIERARCHIES ........................................................................................ 68 4.1 Lineage ........................................................................................................................................ 69 4.2 Priestly Level ............................................................................................................................. 72 4.3 Spiritual Level ..........................................................................................................................
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