Happy post-Easter

The book I was thinking of at the end of my last post was Christology in the the Making by James DG Dunn.  It is still on my shelf, but I didn't skim through it again over the weekend, although I should have given the holiday.

Instead, I got distracted by listening to a Tricycle podcast about tantric (or esoteric) Buddhism, which was a little dull actually, but led me to check about Shingon Buddhism in Japan, and the famous monk Kukai (or Kuukai, or Kobo Daishi) who established it there.   

Long story short:   esoteric Buddhism from Tibet and China has some dubious elements of "transgressive" rituals, but it would seem not to be the case for the version that ended up as Shingon Buddhism.  Shingon seems to be about the third largest sect in Japan, and I didn't know much about it (or had forgotten what was said about it in the book on Pure Land Buddhism I read a couple of years ago.)

The home of Shingon in Japan - the temple complex at Mount Koya (or Koyasan) is in a pretty looking mountainous area not that far from Osaka, and it's now on my list of places to visit in Japan.   This video gives a good short introduction to the place, and the sect.

But, back to Kukai:  he's had brief mention at this blog before because of the (almost certainly not true) belief that he was responsible for introducing monk and young acolyte sexual activity as a legitimate or normalised monastic activity on his return from China.   (Now that I understand more about how his type of Buddhism was of the esoteric branch, I guess might help explain why he got the blame for this.)   

But what I didn't realise was how culturally significant he was to Japan in ways other than those involving just religion. The Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy introduces him this way:

 Kūkai (774–835CE) is one of the intellectual giants of Japan, who ought not to be ignored in any account of the history of Japanese thought. Among the traditional Buddhist thinkers of Japan, and perhaps even of the whole of East Asia, he is one of the most systematic and philosophical. He is most famous for being the founder of Shingon esoteric Buddhism in Japan. But he is also remembered not only for his contributions as a teacher and scholar of religion, but for his accomplishments and innovations in social welfare, public education, lexicography, language, literature and poetry, literary theory, calligraphy, art, painting, wood-carving, sculpture, music, civil engineering, architecture, etc. during a period when Japan was undergoing rapid change.

The Wikipedia entry about him goes into more detail on his very busy life, including his participation in the state sponsored visit to China to further investigate parts of Buddhism there.   (I find it intriguing to think that Japanese governments once paid for such expeditions in pursuit of knowledge - not just in search of land or stuff for material profit of the kind European monarchs later became famous.)

This paper, though, argues that some of Kukai's achievements outside of religion might be more legendary than real.   But still, he left behind lots and lots of writings (including poems):  there is no doubt he was a smart and important man in history.

So much so that there is cult-ish belief about him in Shingon:

Kūkai's mausoleum (the "Gobyo") at Mount Kōya is at Okunoin (奥の院) temple and it is the main site for devotion to Kūkai. Offerings and prayers to Kūkai are made around the year at this site. He is believed by the faithful to still be alive, having entered a deep samadhi (meditative absorption) until the arrival of the next Buddha Maitreya.  

On videos, they show monks carrying the twice a day meals towards his mausoleum, but videos and photos are not allowed past a bridge leading up to the building (which you can't see clearly from the bridge.)  This gives all the more incentive to visit the place in person!