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74. KŌMYŌ SHINGON1 Mark Unno Preface the Kōmyō Shingon 光明眞言, Or the Mantra of Light, Is a Key Practice of the Shingo

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74. KŌMYŌ SHINGON1 Mark Unno Preface the Kōmyō Shingon 光明眞言, Or the Mantra of Light, Is a Key Practice of the Shingo 74. KŌMYŌ SHINGON1 Mark Unno Preface The kōmyō shingon 光明眞言, or the mantra of light, is a key practice of the Shingon school. In Japanese, it is On abokya beiroshanō maka- bodara mani handoma jimbara harabaritaya un 唵阿謨伽尾盧左曩 摩訶母捺囉麽抳鉢納麽入嚩攞鉢囉韈哆野吽, which is a translitera- tion of the Sanskrit Oṃ amogha vairocana mahāmudrā maṇi padma jvāla pravarttaya hūṃ . It means, “Praise be to the flawless, all-perva- sive illumination of the great mudrā (the seal of the Buddha). Turn over and set in motion the jewel, lotus, and radiant light.” The mantra originated in India, was transmitted to China by such renowned translator-monks as Amoghavajra (705–774) and Bodhiruci (d. 727), and was then propagated in Korea and Japan. It reached the height of prominence in Japan, and it is one of the most widely dis- seminated ritual practices of not only the Shingon 眞言 school but in Japanese Buddhism generally, having found its way into the menu of practices of the Tendai 天台 and Sōtō Zen 曹洞 schools as well.Within the Shingon school, as Shōun Toganoō writes, “Today the most widely practiced of the ten major Shingon rituals are the ritual of the kōmyō shingon and the ritual of the Rishukyō 理趣經” (1940, 286). The mantra serves many functions, including healing illnesses, puri- fying one’s evil karma, expiating the sins of the dying and deceased, and religious rebirth in the Pure Land of Amida 阿弥陀 (Amitābha). The thread that runs through all of these is the purification of evil or destructive karma. Through this purification rupture—whether physical, 1 The basis for this article can be found in Unno 2004, esp. 22–42, 73–127; and 1998, esp. 173–79. However, this essay incorporates substantial updates and refine- ments, including the following: further incorporation of the scholarship of Shōun Toganoo on the mantra of light, including developments after the Kamakura period; methodological reflections concerning ritualization and textualization; and exami- nation of the mantra within the spectrum of devotional to yogic dimensions of the mantra. In order to incorporate this research, this article has been recomposed from the ground up. 864 mark unno moral, or religious—can be healed and one can be liberated. In addi- tion to the various functions of the mantra, the most distinctive aspect of this practice is the use of sand. The power of the mantra can be transferred to grains of sand through a ritual procedure, and once so effected, the sand can be sprinkled on or near the body or corpses to provide the purifying power of the mantra even without it being intoned. As prominent as the mantra of light has been in the history of East Asian Buddhism, it has until recently received scant attention in Western-language scholarship. Beyond the need to address the obvi- ous neglect, examination of the mantra as a Buddhist ritual practice is revealing on several counts and helps to illustrate the following three points: 1) the dynamic interrelation between sacred text and religious ritual, what Catherine Bell has called the ritualization of text and the textualization of ritual (1998, 366–92), in which both the sacred texts of the mantra and its practice evolve organically over time within the shifting context of social circumstances, human need, religious aspira- tions, and individual predilection; 2) the relation between the mate- rial and spiritual benefits of mantra practice,—of social and material benefits, on the one hand, and of awakening or enlightenment, on the other; and 3) the range of mantra practice from devotional to yogic. Text and Ritual in the Mantra of Light On abokya beiroshanō makabodara mani handoma jimbara harabari- taya un. The Tathāgata Vairocana, seeking to bestow themudrā and the sanmaya, gave primacy to the divine dharma entity (i.e., cosmic truth, realized teachings). Even though there are the various sins of all of the ten evils, five transgressions, and four grave offenses from past [lives], their embers are all extinguished. If sentient beings attain this baptism and mantra anywhere so that it reaches their ears just two, three, or seven times, then all evil hindrances will be eliminated. If sentient beings commit the various sins of the ten evils, five trans- gressions, and four grave offenses—so many as grains of dust needed to fill the world—then their bodies will be broken, their lives will come to an end, and they will fall into the various evil paths [of rebirth]. [In that case], one should empower the sand with the mystic power of the man- tra by repeating it one hundred and eight times, and the sand should be sprinkled on the corpses in the charnel grounds or on the graves of the deceased; one should sprinkle the sand wherever one encounters them. The deceased may be in hell, in the realm of hungry ghosts, of angry gods, or of beasts. However, they will attain the body of light according to the needs of time and circumstance by means of the mystic power of .
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