Review: Reality Words Author(s): Charles D.

Orzech Reviewed work(s): Shingon: Japanese Esoteric Buddhism by Taik Yamasaki ; Richard Peterson ; Cynthia Peterson ; Yasuyoshi Morimoto ; David Kidd Source: History of Religions, Vol. 30, No. 2 (Nov., 1990), pp. 213-215 Published by: The University of Chicago Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1062902 Accessed: 20/04/2009 16:45
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BOOK REVIEWS

REALITY WORDS Translated and Shingon: Japanese Esoteric Buddhism. By TAIK6YAMASAKI. RICHARD PETERSON CYNTHIA and edited PETERSON, by YASUadapted by YOSHI MORIMOTO and DAVIDKIDD. Boston and London: Shambala Publications, 1988. Pp. xviii+244, 16 plates. Taiko Yamasaki's book affords historians of religions who do not read Japanese a view of Shingon ("reality-word," mantra) practice beyond already available discussions of the two principle mandalas. It breaks new ground in describing rituals that form the heart of Shingon Buddhism as practiced in Japan. If Shingon fails us, it is because we still get only a glimpse of the most influential ritual and symbolic system in East Asia, and it is an orthodox glimpse at that. Shingon is a blend of two of the author's Japanese works, Mikky6 meisoho (1974) and Mikkyo meiso to shinso shinri (1981). Rendered into clear English under the guidance of four other individuals, it reminds one of the happier products of traditional Buddhist translation committees. The book is supplied with notes and a list of Sanskrit, Japanese, and Chinese words. A minor annoyance is its nonstandard method of Tripitaka citation. The first two chapters of Shingon provide a history of the esoteric tradition from its roots in India, to its transmission and dissemination in China, and its further development in Japan. The hermeneutic scaffolding of this account is Shingon's distinction between "miscellaneous," apotropaically oriented esotericism (z6mitsu) and "pure,"soteriologically oriented esotericism (junmitsu). According to Shingon theology Sakyamuni, the nirmanakaya or historical Buddha, preached the familiar nonesoteric scriptures and those with apotropaic aims. Mahavairocana, the dharmakaya or transhistorical Buddha, is the
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Book Reviews

preacher of the "pure"esoteric texts: the Mahavairocana Sutra and the SarvaDavid L. Snellgrove and others have amply demontathdgaatatattvasamgraha. strated that such distinctions are after-the-fact theological rationalizations. But Shingon is an "insiders account," and the theology that induces Yamasaki and other Shingon theologians to separate their aims is of interest itself. Nonetheless, Shingon is the most carefully crafted account of Japanese esoteric Buddhism in English, and it avoids much of the usual sectarian deprecation of Indo-Tibetan and Chinese esotericism. Yamasaki's chapter on the historical background of Shingon presents material on popular and later Shingon hitherto unavailable in Western languages: early followers of Kukai, as well as later luminaries such as Kakuban, are mentioned, as is Shingon's relationship with Shugendo and the "left-handed" Tachikawa-ryu. Unfortunately, the chapter too often becomes a list of names, dates, and texts, and the role of Tendai esotericism (Taimitsu) remains a distant secondary topic (see Stanley Weinstein, "The Beginnings of Esoteric Buddhism in Japan," Journal of Asian Studies 34, no. 1 [1974]: 177-91). The strength of this study is in its bird's-eye treatment of the mature, living, Japanese Shingon tradition. Indeed, Shingon is ultimately an outline of the training of student practitioners. We are introduced to the precepts and then to the Four Major Characteristics of the Esoteric Teaching: that it is the direct teaching of the dharma body, that enlightenment can be communicated and manifested in this world, that Buddhahood is attainable in this life, and that the esoteric teachings are suitable to all aims and to beings of all levels of ability. A key element of this very immanentalist practice is the affirmation of the self and the passions as tools in the process of enlightenment. Most accounts of Shingon altogether avoid discussion of this stance that reveals Shingon's genealogy as one of the Tantric traditions. "In the Mikky6 view the individual's desires are among the energies of the Buddha, and all can be summed up in the desire for enlightenment, attainment which represents the Great Bliss of true satisfaction" (p. 73). Though the role of the passions has been downplayed in East Asia, traces of it exist and have been convincingly detailed by R. A. Stein (Annuaire du College de France [Paris, 1974]). Also of interest is Yamasaki's treatment of mantra as instrumental: "Mikky6 mantra practice can have a two-fold purpose ... the esoteric practitioner employs mantras to unite with the universe, and so to function as the great self, which, however, is not separate from the phenomenal world. Esoteric ritual, therefore, may also concern itself with the fulfillment of proper worldly needs" (p. 77). Chapter 2, "The Ten Levels of Mind," introduces the reader to Shingon's version of the Yogacara theory of mind and its layers and to Kukai's unique schema of ten levels of mind. Yamasaki's discussions are clear and succinct and render a complex topic comprehensible without unduly sacrificing detail. Shingon practice is embodied in "The Secret Activities of Body, Speech, and Mind," or in mudra, mantra, and samadhi. The third chapter simply summarizes material available elsewhere. Yamasaki thus passes up an opportunity to probe more deeply into esoteric Buddhism's relationship to art and iconography, a rich topic for the historian of religions. The esoteric practitioner bases meditation, mantra, and postures on long-standing iconographical convention,

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so that, as the adept realizes identity with the divinity (nyuga ga'nyu, "entering self and self-entering," p. 106), he becomes a living icon. Shingon ritual is art in action, a living iconography, while art is frozen ritual. Chapter 6, "The Dynamic Mandala," discusses the architectonic structure of Shingon ritual and sketches the iconography of the Garbha and Vajradhdtumandalas, adding little to what is already available in the French works of Tajima Ryuijunand in Minoru Kiyota's Shingon Buddhism. But the real contribution of Shingon lies in chapters 7 and 8, "The Scope and Complexity of Shingon Ritual," and "Concentrated Three Secrets Practices." Presenting basic visualization techniques including two processes of evocation and identity with the divinity, Yamasaki outlines the format of ritual (pp. 16263), the role of ritual implements and various offerings, and the Preparatory Fourfold Enlightenment Practice (shido kegyo), which prepares the student for initiation (pp. 168-81). Blocked out in turn are the eighteenfold practice, the Kongo-kai Mandala practice, the Tai-zo Mandala practice, and the Goma, or fire ritual. Yamasaki finally leads the reader to two practices. One, the Morning Star ritual (gumonji-ho) is given only to advanced adepts. The other, the meditation on the seed (bija) syllable A (A-ji kan), is practiced by the lay as well as the adept. Yamasaki's description of the A meditation is especially valuable for its contextual links with the "Nine-Layered A-Syllable Practice and the Tai-zo" mandala and by his translation of texts by Seizon and Kakuban on this meditation. The importance of these last two chapters cannot be overstated as they provide the historian of religions, working in Indo-Tibetan Tantric traditions, with hitherto unavailable comparative material. Shingon provides us with enough new material that we hope it will be followed by translations of other major works of Japanese scholarship on the esoteric tradition. CHARLES D. ORZECH University of North Carolina at Greensboro

KABBALAH REVISITED

Kabbalah: New Perspectives. By MOSHE IDEL.New Haven, Conn., and London: Yale University Press, 1988. Pp. 419. Moshe Idel's new synthesis on Kabbalah is a unique scholarly achievement, important for more than one reason. In the first place, it is the only generally reliable presentation of Kabbalah, based on published and numerous manuscript sources (listed on pp. 401-2), a statement that does not do any injustice to Gershom Scholem's extraordinary work but simply assesses correctly the extent of the latter's still unequaled merits. In fact, in his several books and essays on Kabbalah, Scholem enlightened only particular aspects thereof, and his Major Trends of Jewish Mysticism is a historical survey of all significant