Japanese Ghosts EA 116

Week 2a Outline

I. Historical Buddhism

    A.  Three Premises of Hinduism that remain true in Buddhism
       
      1. Perception of this world as SAMSARA

      2. Belief in reincarnation

      3. Belief in karma

      [image]

      4. How karma and reincarnation worked in early Hinduism and Buddhism

      a. no interval

      b. automatic, mechanical operation

      c. no:

      d. analogy for movement from one life to the next: candle flame lighting another candle

      5. Shared goal of Buddhism and Hinduism:

      a. Escape from cycle of reincarnation

      a. Why isn't reincarnation seen as a good thing? 

    B. The Buddhist Solution: The Life of the Historical Buddha (The Awakened One)

      1. Siddhartha Gautama (born in 6th c. B.C.E. Northern India to ruler of Shakya clan)  

      2. Also known as Shakyamuni (Sage of Shakyas)

      (Japanese: Shakamuni)

      3. Meditates under Bodhi tree and achieves enlightenment (awakening) of "middle way" between hedonism (life of pleasure) and asceticism (life of severe self-discipline)


[images of Buddha] 

    C. His enlightenment: The Four Noble Truths
       
      1. Life is constantly changing and so permeated with suffering.

      2. The cause of suffering is human desire.

      a. In this context what is "sin"?

      3. The cessation of suffering is possible.

         
        a. The cessation of reincarnation is called NIRVANA in Buddhism.


      4. You can attain this Nirvana via an eight-fold discipline or path. This path includes:

      a. Wisdom (understanding the truth of Buddha's insights)

      b. Morality (practicing the truth of Buddha's insights by choosing to be selfless and compassionate towards all living things)

      c. Mental Discipline (learning mental concentration and meditation techniques to detach oneself from the desires that keep us bound to the cycle of reincarnation)

         

D. Buddha's pragmatic attitude towards gods, the afterlife, ghosts, demons:

       
      1. "I teach only suffering and the way out of suffering."

      2. On his deathbed: "You must be lamps unto yourselves."

II. Buddhism After the Buddha's death

       A. Emperor Asoka (3rd c. BCE)

       1. Supported construction of monasteries and missions to other countries

       2. Buddhism eventually died out in India but continued elsewhere

       [map of spread of Buddhism]

    B. Theravada Buddhism (The Teaching of the Elders)
     

      1. goal was achieving the 8th step of eight-fold path: mental discipline in the form of concentration and meditation

      2. focus on monastery life

      3. problem:


    C. Mahayana (Great Vehicle), developed in 1st c. BCE

          1. Attempted to make Buddhism more popular

      2. Analogy: Buddhist teaching (dharma) is like a great ship/vehicle

      3. Referred to Theravada as "Hinayana" (The Lesser Vehicle)

III. How Mahayana attempts to incorporate Theravada/Hinayana


A. Three Vehicles Theory (Three Models of How to Achieve Buddhahood)
 
    1. Hinayana:

      a. First vehicle, s'râvaka (listeners): attempt to achieve enlightenment by listening to and studying the Buddha's sermons

      b. Second vehicle, pratyekabuddha: attempt to achieve enlightenment through their own efforts to understand the impermanence of nature and life.

    2. Mahayana:

    a. Third (Great) vehicle, bodhisattva: someone who made a vow many existences ago to become a Buddha, and has over the course of many lifetimes acquired huge stores of good karma. He/she could have easily passed into non-existence, but compassionately chose to wait until all living beings are able to achieve enlightenment with them. In the meantime bodhisattvas use their vast stores of karmic merit to help those who have faith and pray to them.

B. Historical Buddha as model for bodhisattva:

1. What we can do (we are all potential bodhisattvas)

      a. make a vow

      b. rely on the compassion of a deity

C. Result: return of the supernatural in the form of multiple Buddhas and Bodhisattvas

D. The Lotus of the Good Law Sutra or The Lotus Sutra
 

1. A sutra (Buddhist scripture) developed specifically to

           
          a.

          b.


E. Doctrine of Expedient Means (Sanskrit upaya; J. hoben):

         
        1. "The wisdom of the Buddhas is infinitely profound and immeasurable. The door to this wisdom is difficult to understand and difficult to enter. Not one of the s'râvaka listeners or pratyekabuddhas [practioners] is able to comprehend it." (Lotus Sutra)          


        2. Parable of the Burning House
         

          a. The Buddha tempts his children who are playing in a burning house (this world of suffering) with promises of three carts (the three "vehicles" of Buddhism). When they emerge from the house, however, instead of the promised individual carts he gives them one larger cart (the one Great Bodhisattva Vehicle of Mahâyâna Buddhism).

          image 1, image 2


      3. What does the Doctrine of Expedient Means harmonize?

      4. What does the Doctrine of Expedient Means explain?

 IV. Buddhist Deities
 

A. Incarnate Buddhas (past and future)
 

B. Bodhisattvas

C. Heavenly Buddhas

             
            1. Amida Buddha (Amithaba, presides over the Western Pure Land)

D. Why do you think Mahayana developed deities?

V. Buddhism and Shamanism In Heian Japan
 

A. Review of the Doctrine of Expedient Means

B. How was the doctrine of Expedient Means used to incorporate local/native religions and gods into Buddhism?

      1. How were local gods understood in Buddhism throughout Asia?

      a. What does this mean for Buddhism's tolerance of native religions/local cults?

      b. How does this compare to monotheistic religions?

C. How was Buddhism in turn affected by local religions, especially shamanism?
 

1. What did people demand?

a. Concrete help with real world problems

b. Result: development of shamanic Buddhist rituals of exorcism and paciication

2. How did Buddhist priests justify using shamanic Buddhist rituals?

1) originally may have been expedient means to get people to convert

2) proves superiority of Buddhist rituals over local religions

3) Buddhist priests come to believe in power of shamanic Buddhism themselves

D. Idea of the Age of the Decline of the Dharma

1. Age of the Right Dharma (Jp: shobô)

a. everyone can both understand and practice Buddha's teaching

2. Age of the Semblance Dharma (Jp: zobô)

b. you can understand, but not correctly practice Buddha's teaching

3. Age of the Degenerate Dharma (Jp. mappô)

a. You can neither understand nor practice Buddha's teaching

b. Begins 2000 years after Shakamuni Buddha's death

c. Assuming the date of the Buddha's death to be around 949 BCE (completely wrong dating), Japanese Buddhists calculated that the Age of the Degenerate Dharma (mappô) began about 1052 CE.

d. Will last 10,000 years until the coming of Miroku (Sk. Maitreya), the Future Buddha

VI. Institutional Buddhism in Heian period.

A. Tendai and Shingon (Esoteric Buddhism)

1. Esoteric versus Exoteric religion

exo=

eso=

2. How Esoteric Buddhism uses concept of expedient means

3. If so elitest, why so popular in Heian Japan?

a. Aesthetics

b. Develop notion of Universal Salvation (all living beings have the possibility of becoming Buddha because they contain a spark of ultimate reality or "Buddha nature")

c. Develop concept of "honji-suijaku" (Buddhas as "original source," Kami as "manifestations" or "manifest trace") to incorporate Shinto deities into Buddhist pantheon

  B. How does incorporation of Buddhist world view affect ghosts?

1. Why are Buddhist rituals seen as more powerful than pre-Buddhist shamanic rituals?

a. passionate attachment is better explanatory mechanism for ghosts

b. pacification by teaching ghost the truth of non-attachment seen as more effective to get rid of them permanently.

2. Layering of beliefs

VII. Taoist divination and magic in Japan

    1. Taoism: kanji for Tao (the Way) = Tô in Shintô (the Way of the Gods)

    2. In Japan, Onmyôdô (Way of Yin and Yang) was a system of esoteric cosmology that combined natural science (as understood at the time), divination, and magic (including control, pacification, and exorcisms of supernatural beings), that develops parallel to esoteric Buddhist shamanic rituals of protection and exorcism.

    3. Onmyôdô was practiced by onmyôji (Yin-Yang Masters), who practiced divination and magic. Their jobs at the Bureau of Divination (established 7th century) included creating calendars, practicing geomancy (including directional taboos), divination (especially with regard to omens), and protecting the capital and court against evil spirits and curses. Onmyôji had their own rituals of pacification and exorcism, which, however, seem to have been largely based on esoteric Buddhist models (lots of mumbling and secret hand gestures).

      images of the Yin-Yang Master Abe no Seimei (921?-1005)

      4. Onmyôji like Abe no Seimei were thought to be able to control supernatural assistants (shikigami, which Royall Tyler translates as "genies") to do their bidding. (See last two images above). This idea that occult magicians (Taoist or Esoteric Buddhist) can control supernatural beings to do their bidding becomes important later on in popular legends and plays.

      And here is a link to the movie Onmyôji (2001) about Abe no Semei, with Semei played by the kyogen actor Nomura Mansai.