An Aspect of the Enculturation of Buddhism in Japan

8/9/2019 An Aspect of the Enculturation of Buddhism in Japan

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May the Deceased Get Enlightenment! An Aspect of the Enculturation of Buddhism in JapanAuthor(s): Yasuaki Nara

Source: Buddhist-Christian Studies, Vol. 15 (1995), pp. 19-42Published by: University of Hawai'i PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1390033Accessed: 19/11/2009 01:07

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JAPANESEBUDDHIST DEATHAND DYING

May the Deceased GetEnlightenment! An Aspect of theEnculturationof Buddhism in JapanYasuaki Nara

Komazawa University, Tokyo1. The Problem: The Cases of the Jodoshin and Soto Sects2. The Historical Background3. The Dead and Enlightenment4. Two Religious Levels of Buddhism5. Conclusion

I. THE PROBLEM:THE CASES OF THE JODOSHIN AND SOTO SECTSAlthough the problem of interpreting death has existed throughout thewhole history of Buddhism in Japanese society, resurfacing at various timesand creating a whirl of agitation, the end result has always been the furtherenculturation of Buddhism in Japan.In 1985 and 1985, the journalDend6n-kiyo published two "Special Issuesfor the Problem of Customs and Popular Beliefs" in which several scholarsjointly urged the necessity of exploiting new dimensions of their traditionaltheology (sbkgaku).' Honganji is one of the biggest sects of the Jodo-shin(or simply Shin) school founded by Shinran (1173-1262). Their well-estab-lished doctrines are based on the Hongan (the Original Vow of AmidaBuddha) and the practice of Nembutsu (the chanting of the name of AmidaBuddha) that together form the center of their spiritual faith and universalteaching.The most striking feature of the elite of the Jodoshin tradition is theircontemptuous attitude toward popular beliefs, which are by nature part offolk religion and sometimes superstitious. They think that faith in AmidaBuddha and Nembutsu is sufficient to relieve life's various crises and toinstill happiness. Prayers for worldly benefits, magical rites, exorcism, andthe many other popular religious ideas and rites represent to them nothingmore than the weakness of being human. Man needs no recourse to suchpractices as salvation is to be found in exclusive faith in Amida Buddha.Their insistence on this kind of puritanical faith has gradually led them toBuddhist-Christian Studies 15 (1995). ? by University of Hawai'i Press. All rights reserved.


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see ancestor worship and even funeral rites as acts of thanks and apprecia-tion to the patriarchs and Amida Buddha. Even the lay believers have beenoriented to this orthodox attitude, which has in one sense driven them to ahighly religious and ethical way of life, but it has also fostered a generaltendency to neglect the inherent meaning of these popular rites and cus-toms. This realignment has sometimes caused tension between them andthose belonging to other Buddhist sects and is responsible for the famousJapanese phrase monto-mono-sbirazu, "the Jodo-shin believers are igno-rant [of the socioreligious customs]."

These attitudes have naturally led to a decline of traditional religiouscustoms and festivals in local areas. In fact, in the areas facing the Sea ofJapan, where Jodo-shin Buddhism is very popular, folklorists and anth-ropologists have often lamented the drastic destruction of the varieties ofpopular religious ideas and rites.

The actual situations, however, are not so simple. What priests do mostof the time (and in fact this is their main source of revenue for maintainingtheir temples) is administer funeral rites, conduct memorial services for thedead during the period of mourning (which lasts seven weeks) or on theanniversaries of the death, perform ceremonies on the occasions of o-Bonand o-Higan, and so forth. A thorough study has also revealed that, in thereligious consciousness of the common lay believers, very primitive con-cepts of the Japanese gods (kami), which are closely associated with an-cestor worship, constitute the main pillar of the religious ethos.2 It has beenmade clear that underneath the superficial acceptance of the Shin Buddhistteachings and seemingly puritanicalview of religious life lies a belief in an-cestor worship that is based on animistic ideas and the worship of tradi-tional godly beings. The need for rites that bring such practical benefits ashealing and good luck is never wanting. While the idealized faith is nicelyelucidated and accepted as the standard, the functions that the priests actu-ally perform very much involve popular religious customs and ideas.It is worthwhile to note that these popular ideas are usually not ac-knowledged as part of and are indeed considered as separate from ortho-dox Jodo-shin doctrine. Rather, they are explicitly neglected, considerednot part of the real faith and hence not to be indulged in. There is thena gap, and consequently a tension, between "the precept and the prac-tice," to quote R. F.Gombrich, who studied the socioreligious situations ofSriLanka Buddhists.3Scholars who have studied the problem are of the opinion that a newtheology (ky6gaku) should be established, giving full consideration to whatthey call the "field."The gap between orthodox doctrine, which they callthe "respectable" eaching, and actual practice in the "field"of the commontemples and lay believers must be bridged in the interest of a more com-prehensive theology. These scholars argue that such integration will beachieved not by a mere addition to or revision of the traditional theology,


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in which they distinguish sbu-gaku (theology before the Edo period) fromSbinsbu-gaku (Shin theology up to now), but only by a qualitative changein the paradigm. They like to call it "postmodern kyogaku." According tothem, the old theology (i.e., shu-gaku and Sbinshu-gaku) cannot accom-modate such emerging issues as the karma theory and its relation to socialdiscrimination,4the Yasukuni shrine problem,5 ancestor worship, and ritesfor worldly benefits.

Unfortunately, in addressing these problems, the theorists provide a con-vincing analysis but offer no permanent solutions. This is certainly under-standable, as the problems with which they are grappling are too big to besolved easily and quickly. The direction in which they suggest moving,however, is shown in their references to the flexibility and adaptability ofCatholicism. Unlike the inflexible, puritanicalnature of Protestantism,Cath-olicism worldwide has successfully incorporated a variety of popular beliefswithout losing its spirituality.The Soto sect, founded by Zen master Dogen (1200-1253), is the biggestof all the sects of Japanese Buddhism in terms of numbers of temples,priests, and lay believers. The sect has an institute of its own, ky6ka-kenshujo, where all the evangelical problems are studied. In 1980, severalscholars associated with the institute jointly published the results of theircooperative studies.6 Here again, as in the case of the Honganji sect ofthe Jodo-shin tradition, these scholars were aware of the gap between doc-trine and actual practice in Zen Buddhism. The doctrine can be describedas looking into the reality of all things and men through the practice ofZazen meditation and living a life that is in accord with that of the Buddha.In both theoretical and spiritual terms, however, the doctrine can besharply distinguished from Soto priests' actual practice, which consistsmostly of performing funerals, ancestor worship, and other popular reli-gious rites for the laity. While the majority of these priests are serious inmaking, or at least in trying to make, their lives religious, they supportthemselves financially mostly by performing these popular rites. Owing tothe reasons I discuss below, there was in the past, and is today, a gapbetween the monastic life and life in the temple, a gap of which manypriests are aware.In the study mentioned above, the scholars have tried to give a founda-tion in doctrine for rites for the dead and for ancestors. Their main interestlies in finding the spiritual meaning of these rites. These scholars have triedto interpret such funeral practices in the light of Sbusb6gi, the authorizedtext of the school, a compilation of citations from the Sbob6genzo (themain work of Dogen). The opening article argues that some theory is ur-gently needed to unite these two levels of practice and rites. It is hopedthat this book will serve as a stepping stone for future explorations.It is not insignificant that, in the two biggest Buddhist sects in Japantoday, the gap and the tension between what ought to be and what is have


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become matters of general concern, and leaders feel that it is imperative toalign the latter on the basis of the former.This leads to a pair of problems: the first is the inquiry into how and whysuch a gap arose in the Buddhist tradition; the second is what kind of pro-cess of theorization, sometimes justification, could be undertaken to uniteboth in an integral whole. These problems, however, have been facedbefore.

L. THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUNDIn the history of the Jodo-shin school, the discord between the third patri-arch Kakunyo (1270-1351) and his son Zonkaku (1290-1373) is famous.Carryingon the spirit of Shinran, Kakunyo highly emphasized the mean-inglessness of the funeral when he said, "Mymaster [Shinran]said, 'on mydeath with my eyes closed my body should be given to the fish in the riverof Kamo.' By this he meant to say that the greatest importance should beattached to the Buddhadharma even to the extent of making little of thisphysical body. Judging from this we should not regard the funeral as some-thing important.The funeral is not to be performed."7He emphasized faithat the cost of popular religious ideas and rites. It is furthertrue that Shinranonce said that he had never chanted even once the name of Amida Buddhain order to discharge his duties to his parents. Kakunyo seemed to haveaccepted this literally and strongly admonished priests not to performfuneral rites for lay believers.

Kakunyo's son Zonkaku, however, apparently held the opposite attitude.While deeply appreciating the message of the founder Shinran, he never-theless could not ignore the faithfulness and the ancestor worship so deep-ly rooted among the common people. He said, "Youshould be particularlyfaithful to your parents while they are living and, on their demise, fulfillyour duty of doing good for the departed parents with rites for their happi-ness. The chanting of the name of Amida Buddha [Nenbutu] is the best forthis purpose."8He also said in another place, "For the purpose of praying[for practical benefits] in this world and doing good for the departed ones,there is nothing that surpasses the merit of Nenbutu and the virtue ofAmida Buddha."9

Apparently Zonkaku has given a new meaning to Nembutsu. This reli-gious practice, whose aim is to obtain spiritual relief from Amida Buddha,is expanded functionally to include the rites of praying for worldly benefitsand ancestor worship. This means, first, that the popular beliefs that hadbeen practiced without any connection to Shin Buddhist teaching havenow become part of the Sbinsbfi practice. Popular beliefs are now em-braced by Shin Buddhism. Second, however, there is good reason to criti-cize Zonkaku for having accorded to Nembutsu efficacy in meeting thedemands of the populace in quite an easy way. Nembutsu is an act to be


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performed without any bakarai (ego-centered contrivance). Popular beliefs,on the other hand, are motivated by the naive wishes of the people to sat-isfy their egos in various ways. They stand in opposition to their ultimateconcern. The practice whose object is birth in the Pure Land of Amida Bud-dha must be distinguished from the rites of consoling the souls of the deadand ancestors. One facet of what Zonkaku did for lay believers was to sec-ularize Nembutsu. It is therefore no wonder that Kakunyo, a sincere leaderof the puritanical faith, felt that it was terrible to interpret popular practicesin the light of Nembutsu and repudiated his son twice.This case represents the discord in Japanese Buddhism between whatought to be and what is. While being fully aware of the discord, however,Buddhist leaders made little effort to improve the situation. It is not withoutinterest, on the other hand, that the tradition of the Soto school is differentin that its efforts seem to have been directed toward such practical solu-tions as how to compromise rather than toward continuing to struggle foran alternative choice.

In spite of the apparent difference between jiriki (self-reliance) andtaniki (reliance on the power of the other, i.e., Amida Buddha), there aremany factors in common between Dogen (1200-1253) and Shinran. Forinstance, both of them looked into reality in the sphere of the negation ofthe ego. The real feature of the self becomes manifest only when the egoconsciousness ceases to work. Zazen is the act in which the function of themental creation of the ego is stopped in order, so to speak, to return to theoriginal and absolute state of being, that is, buddhahood. Dogen put astrong emphasis on only doing Zazen (shikan-taza). However, he alsotaught the importance of daily life in the monastery, where every aspect oflife is to be performed in the spirit of Zazen. Here again Zen differs frompopular rites and ideas in terms of the religious level. The funeral andancestor worship have nothing to do with the Zen way of life. In fact,Dogen says nothing about these rites, although the collection of hissermons (Eibei-k6roku) suggests that he might have performed memorialrites for his mother, master, and a few others who were closely related tohim. There is, however, no evidence that he performed these rites for laybelievers. In Shob6genzo5-zuimonki,a collection of his talks for his disci-ples, Dogen says that, while performing memorial services as a job for lay-men, serious study of the Buddha's Dharma is the way that monks payhomage to their parents.In fact, by this time the Buddhist orders had begun to take care offunerals and ancestor worship in Japan in various ways. The first documentthat refers to priests involved in the funeral of a layman (the Empress Jito)goes back to the end of the seventh century. It was sometime about A.D.700 when the custom of cremation became popular. During the first halfof the eighth century, references begin to appear in some documents toservices for the dead soul during the seven-week period of mourning (dur-


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ing the early intermediate period, Ch. zbong-yin, Jp. cbhin) and on thehundredth day after death.10Each school of Buddhism seems to have gradually developed a method

of performing its own funerals. For instance, the Tendai school applied tothe funeral the Hokke-zanmai (the practice of contemplating reality on thebasis of the LotusSutra) and the jogyo-zanmai (the practice of remember-ing and chanting the name of Amida Buddha), the latter of which was tosome extent responsible for the rise of Pure Land Buddhism in the laterKamakura period. The Shingon school founded by Kobo-daishi (Kuikai)gradually developed some rites for putting souls to rest by means of man-tras. Subsequently, such rites were easily and understandably diverted tofunerals and ancestor worship on the grounds of a general belief in theexistence of the soul.

My aim here is not to trace the historical development of the funeral inJapan. But I feel that it is not inappropriate to mention that one of thesecrets as to why Buddhism could take root firmly in the soil of Japaneseculture (enculturation) lies in its association with many groups of rites con-cerning the soul. It was fortunate that Buddhism had very developed ideasof cbhu (Ch. zbong-you, Skt. antarabhava; the intermediate period of thesoul between death and rebirth) and also of the after-deathworld.

The former originated in Indian Buddhism. The concern for the fate ofthe soul among the Indian people was very strong, and even Buddhistshad to accept several popular religious ideas about the soul despite theirfundamental doctrine of an-atman, or an-attan (i.e., nonself). The con-cept of chuu is one of these. It arose certainly as a popular belief, but itwas taken up and discussed at length in philosophical treatises like theAbbidharma-ko?a." It then made the long journey to Japan through Cen-tral Asia and China, providing each respective area with an appropriateway to amalgamate beliefs concerning the soul.The basic idea of the chu-uthat the soul of the dead remains some-where for seven weeks, preparing to be reborn-was easily identified withthe traditionalidea of the soul in Japan. Although there were historicalvari-ations and modifications according to the age, the soul of a newly deadperson (aramitama) was widely believed in Japan to possess some influ-ence in bringing about evil on living people. In order to counteract theinfluence of the dead, the living had to enter mourning for a certain perioduntil the soul became harmless. The Buddhist idea of cbhu helped fix thisperiod at seven weeks, after which the soul has departed. One of theproofs is found, for instance, in a text like Da-pi-po-sha-lun, which clearlystates that the soul can be in cbau for a maximum of seven weeks before itis reborn in a certain after-deathworld.12The well-established theory in Indian Buddhism of the after-deathworldalso gave a framework to the vague ideas of the ancient Japanese. The soultransmigratesendlessly through the six rebirths of heaven, human beings,


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asura, animals, hungry ghosts (Ch. e-gui, Jp. gaki), and hell. For our pur-poses here the latter two are of particular importance, both inspiring,despite their unique historical development, the concern of the Japanesefor the fate of their ancestors and even of themselves. It was not until theMiddle Ages, however, when the method of Buddhist funerals and servicesfor laypeople was established, that priests began to play the central role.Particularly n the Zen tradition, the priests adopted the brilliant Chineseway of adapting the funeral rites accorded monks for use with the laity.The book Lin-zbong fang-jue (Procedures at the deathbed; ca. tenth-twelfth century A.D.) describes in detail the method of the Chinese Zenfuneral service, affirming that such ceremonies are to apply to both clergyand laity.'3In the tradition of Chinese Zen Buddhism, there is a group ofbooks called qing-gui that give rules and regulations for monks living inthe monastery. One of them is the Chan-yuan Qing-gui (The pure regula-tions of the Zen monastery; hereafter Pure Regulations), compiled by ZongZe in 1103. Herein is described the method for the funeral service for theaccomplished high priest as well as for the ordinary monk who has not yetreached the spiritual heights.'4 This is perhaps the earliest documentaryproof that a definite funeral service was established in the Chinese Zentradition.

The service specified for the ordinary monk is important for our pur-poses because it is essentially the funeral service that is popular today inJapanese Zen schools. I discuss below how the service is performed andwhat Buddhist ideologies and religious sentiments underlie it. It remains tomention here only that, when this funeral method is administered to lay-people, recipients must be initiated to the monkhood by receiving the pre-cepts and making the vow to keep them. Since the recipients are dead,however, the initiation ceremony must be symbolic.Dogen definitely knew the Pure Regulations and the customary practicefor lay believers, but he was too keen about the religious practice of Zazento follow this kind of service for the laity. The situation had changed dras-tically, however, by the time of Zen master Keizan (1268-1325), the fourthpatriarchof Eiheiji temple. Besides having deep insight into reality, Keizanwas also blessed with administrative ability and a flexible mind. It is ofcourse true that the times demanded that religious orders of all sorts pro-vide more services than had been their wont, and Buddhist orders toowere more conscious than ever before of the necessity of making availableto the laity such rites as funeral services and ancestor worship. Accord-ingly, it was Keizan who, for the first time in the history of the Soto school,openly encouraged the clergy to perform funeral services for the laity. Thisattitude resulted in the gradual expansion of the order throughout Japanand the building of many temples.The relation between the spread of funeral services and the develop-ment of the order was well illustrated by the late Professor Taijo Tamamuro


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TABLE1. CHANGING EMPHASISFROM ZAZEN TO FUNERALS

PagesZen Masters Analects Total Zazen Funeral

Eihei Dogen (1200-1253) Eibei-kWroku 116 115 1Tugen Jakurei (1322-1391) Tugen-zenji goroku 33 17 15Kisi Iban (1404-1468) Iban-zenjigoroku geshui 61 0 36Senso Esai (?-1475) Sens6-zenjigoroku 81 1 62Shodd Kosei (1431-1505) Entui-shod6-zenji goroku 138 4 49Kikuin Zuitan (1447-1524) Kikuin-osh6-agyo 50 0 29Note: All editions are those published in TheComplete Collection of Zen Writings of S6t6-shu(Tokyo: Komeisha, 1928-1936).

in his book on funeral Buddhism. Having gone through the analects ofSoto and Rinzai Zen masters, Tamamuro found that, in both traditions, thelater the text, the more pages are given to describing and explainingfuneral and other rites instead of Zazen. His discussion of the Soto schoolis outlined in table 1.15It is clear that, in the earlier analects, fewer pages are given over tofunerals than to Zazen, but the treatment of funerals gradually increases inthe fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to the point where more than half thework is concerned with funerals. Exactly the same phenomenon is ob-served in the case of Rinzai Zen masters. Just what does this mean? If theseZen masters were aware of the gap between enlightenment and popularbeliefs, and if they indeed took seriously the admonition of Dogen, whatdid these popular rites mean to them, and how did they react to theirincreasing prominence in Zen theology and practice?3. THE DEAD AND ENLIGHTENMENTI turn now to the prayer that constitutes the main part of the ceremony per-formed on the eve of a funeral. The text of the prayer, shown in Appendix1 in translation, is taken from the Keizan shingi (The pure regulations of[Zen master] Keizan), in which Keizan established the official funeralmethod in Japan, following the Chinese Zen Pure Regulations of Zong Ze.

This prayer was originally meant for the dead monk but was in fact alsoused for the laity. On the eve of the funeral, the celebrant priest (or one ofhis assistants) recites this prayer and leads his fellow priests in chanting infront of the coffin containing the body of the dead person. The prayerbegins with a reflection on the impermanent nature of life. According tothe truth of impermanence, the concurrence of various causes and condi-tions that results in life has ceased, and the monk is dead. He is now in"the ocean" of "eternal tranquillity,"which is blissful. During the service,


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Photo by Philippe GrossI used to believe in reincarnation, but that was in a past life.-Paul Krassnerts

the names of the various buddhas and bodhisattvas are chanted to help thedead monk proceed on the way of enlightenment.However, giving full consideration to the fact that this is a prayer of con-solation, sincerely hoping for a good journey for the one who has justdeparted from life, some questions still remain from the viewpoint of Bud-dhist theories. First, why is the dead person lying merely as a corpse in"teternal ranquillity,"which is said to be "blissful"?Second, what does itmean that someone already dead is, it is hoped, proceeding on "theway toenlightenment"? Third, this prayer raises the problem of the transfer ofmerit effected by chanting the names of the buddhas and the bodhisattvas.Answering these questions using orthodox theories at the transcendentallevel of the Buddhist tradition may be difficult. Herein, however, lie thesecrets of the successful establishment of Buddhism in Japan.To address first the problem of the blissful eternal tranquillity of thedead, according to Buddhist theory, any existence has its being, in anyplace (here) and in any time (now), as the result of the concurrence of thecauses and conditions (i.e., the law of causation). Since new causes andvarious conditions that help causes to become actualized arise constantly,things are always in the process of change, that is, impermanent. The prob-lem remains, however, of how to "see" or "recognize" things that areimpermanent. One of the characteristics of Buddhist realization is to seethings, not from the human viewpoint, but from the point of view of things


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themselves. This emphasizes that the natural change of things according tothe law of causation has nothing to do with human contrivance. Who canchange the order of spring and summer? "Willow leaves are green andflowers are red"without being influenced by our intention. Our heart beatsand our blood runs not because we order them to work. Even the function-ing of our will is not a result of our will. From the Buddhist viewpoint, athing exists "as it is," having no connection with our contrivance, which isby nature ego centered.

But we human beings cannot help creating numerous concepts about allthings and according some "meaning" to them. Even the "I" s a conceptwith a particularmeaning accorded to it. In fact, the "I" s a mere fictionwith nothing real about it. We overshadow, so to speak, our contrivance ofall things, the result of which is the formation of our world of "meaning."In Buddhism, this is called the created or the conditioned, in contrast to theuncreated or the unconditioned, the way of being of all things that areconstantly coming and going without having any connection with ourhuman evaluation. The created and the uncreated are not two independententities. The former is the world as we see it, and the latter concerns allbeings that are approached at the level of enlightenment without beinginfluenced by our contrivance.

Applying the same attitude to the context of the self, Buddhism, espe-cially Zen Buddhism, explains human existence, customarily and conve-niently, by means of distinguishing the ordinaryself from the real Self. Theformer is the ego self constructed by our contrivance, whereas the latter isthe uncreated. This ego self, which is the "I" n the ordinary sense, is at thesame time the real Self if it is considered in the religious sense with noinfluence of human contrivance. In this connection, we may say that theego self is able to "function" on the basis of the real Self. The ego self,then, is merely a fiction created by means of contrivance, which is one ofthe numerous functions innate to human existence. Thus it seems to methat Buddhism takes the opposite point of view from Descartes. Instead ofsaying, "I think, therefore I am," the Buddhist would say, "I am (as theresult of a concurrence of various causes and conditions), therefore I canthink (as one of the human functions)."Similarly,any given thing is, essentially, uncreated. The name, value, andvarious meanings attached to it are nothing but what we human beingshave given to it on the basis of our ego-centered contrivance. Everythingalways keeps on being "as it is." Therefore, Dogen once wrote that thesame water is seen differently by men, fish, heavenly beings, and hungryghosts because of their respective viewpoints. Not one sees the "water ofthe Buddhadharma,''16 that is, reality. Thus, in the Buddhist tradition, thereality of things is sought for, to quote the famous phrase of DaisetzSuzuki, in its "as-it-is-ness." In short, things are looked at as an integralwhole, not to be analyzed by reason. Since it keeps on its way of being as


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reality from the beginningless past and is manifested in every now, it is"eternal."And, through their experience and practice, Zen masters areaware of all things constantly in "tranquility"because they are devoid ofany evaluation from any particularhuman ego-oriented standpoint.Zen masters who have looked into reality, that is, are enlightened,appreciate the serenity of things as beautiful. The factual being of "thingsas they are," receiving no interpretation from anywhere, seems to them tobe wonderful. Therefore, the phrase "blissful is the eternal tranquillity" sthe utterance not of ordinary logic but, as it were, of the logic of enlighten-ment. It is the conviction of Zen masters at the existential or spiritual level.This way of existence naturallyunderlies all things, including man. Realityis here; we simply do not see it because we cloud it by contrivance.

On the basis of the brief sketch of the Buddhist view of existence givenabove, we may understand the implication of the famous Mahayanaphrase, "All human beings possess Buddha Nature."With the removal of"human being," this came to mean that Buddha Nature is embodied in allexistence. And it is not far from this point to reach the famous theory ofOriginal Enlightenment (bongaku-sbisO). This is a very problematic themein Buddhist doctrinal studies. Putting aside these difficulties, however, suf-fice it to say here that the theory of Original Enlightenment has incurredvarious misunderstandings, one example of which is the statement, "Everything is the Buddha as it is." From the religious viewpoint, this is utterlywrong in that enlightenment is achieved and buddhahood attained onlythrough religious practice. It is a matter of experience and practice in life. Itis true that, to the eyes of one who has reached a certain height of spiritu-ality, all things appear real. This should not, however, be confused withsaying in a quite objective way that everything is the Buddha as it is.

Many cases exist, however, in which this approach was supported andeven positively affirmed by Buddhist leaders of old. They sometimespulled down the logic of, so to speak, enlightenment to the level of merelogique usuelle and elaborately elucidated how all things and humanbeings are the Buddhas being one indiscriminately.The idea seems to havebeen very appealing to the common people. One example of how thisappealed to the emotions of the Japanese is found in some of the populararts like YokyokuandJ6rurd.17

Now, the idea that everything is the Buddha has apparently something todo with the popular practice in Japan of calling the dead person botoke,18namely, the Buddha. Logically, at least, there is no contradiction. If every-thing is the Buddha as it is, why is it wrong to identify the dead corpse asthe Buddha?And there is a good reason why he must be called botoke, aswill be discussed below. This idea is clearly exemplified in the new title"the one who has newly returned to eternal tranquillity,"which is added tothe monk name of the dead person.Another illustration of the same mentality is found in the usage of


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kakurei in the last part of the prayer. The merit acquired by chanting thenames of the buddhas and other sacred beings is "thereby. . . transferredtothe kakurei of you who has returned to eternal tranquillity."Kakurei hereliterallymeans "the enlightened soul" and has in fact been used elsewherewith the same connotation. The monk's soul is here glorified by receivingthe new appellation.

Addressing the newly dead monk as one who has "newly returned toeternal tranquillity"may well be analyzed as an example of the fusion ofBuddhist ideas, naive religious feelings, and psychological motivation. InJapanese Buddhist society, the value of becoming the Buddha is taken forgranted. Enlightenment is the ultimate goal to be achieved not only bymonks but even by lay believers. Therefore, on one hand, in theory at leasteveryone hopes and is expected to become the Buddha. On the otherhand, we have the notion that "everything is the Buddha." It seems quitelikely, then, that the warm feelings of the living, who like to glorify thedead and pray for the happiness of his soul, led them to regard the dead asthe one who has reached the same state of enlightenment as the Buddhaand even explicitly to give the new name Buddha to him.

The idea of the dead as hotoke, again, must have developed along withthe traditionalJapanese popular idea of the soul. It is commonly held thatthe soul of the dead, aramitama, a "new soul" that is to some extent dan-gerous, is expected to become tama, which is a harmless soul to be rankedamong ancestors. There is a set of rites in the Shinto tradition prescribedfor helping aramitama become tama. Some scholars have recently sug-gested that, since the time when Buddhist funerals became prevalent, theterm tama seems to have been replaced by hotoke.19If so, the religiousfeeling of Japanese Buddhists may well be satisfied in a double sense. Onone hand, the Shintoist idea that they have inherited from their ancestors ismaintained by changing the old frame "aramitama becomes tama" to thenew one "aramitama becomes hotoke." On the other hand, as Buddhiststhey can make the deaths of their relatives glorious and meaningful byaffirmingthat the dead have fulfilled the ideal of becoming the Buddha.

At present I am not in a position to trace definitively to its origins theusage of hotoke in this context; further study is required. But it is almostcertain that calling the dead person hotoke, which is unique to JapaneseBuddhist culture, must have taken shape in the process of developing Bud-dhist funerals. The practice is thus a very fine example of an important stepin the enculturation of Buddhism in Japan.Now we come to the second problematic idea, that the dead soul is pro-ceeding on its way to enlightenment, and analyze it in turn in the contextof Buddhist doctrine and popular religious ideas. From the doctrinal view-point, early Buddhism supposedly taught that one should have no concernfor human fate after death. What is important is learning how to live todayin this world with peace of mind. In a well-known episode, Sakyamuni


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Buddha emphasized living in the present by keeping silent in the faceof questions about human fate after death.20 The later development ofBuddhist practice and theory, including Dogen's, maintains the same atti-tude. However, in every stage of the historical development of Buddhism,some popular ideas about the after-death world were prevalent among laybelievers and even among monks. Some of these ideas have come to theattention of the elite, who have tried to explain or incorporate them in theirdoctrine. Popular ideas are thus "Buddhisized."In this context, beliefs in the existence of life after death are quite un-stable and complicated. Of course, in theory, the Buddhist answer to thequestion of whether one keeps on living after death is definitely no. But, inpractice, that is, in the context of daily life, the answer very often is yes, ananswer supported by many descriptions in Buddhist texts of lives in trans-migration. While the previous lives of SakyamuniBuddha are fully narratedin the Jataka literature, good conduct is advised for brighter future lives inall canonical texts. Even allowing for existential interpretations, the exist-ence of life before or after death is taken for granted among Buddhists insuch a way that a no in theory becomes a yes in practice. The idea isaccepted and has manifold implications.It is quite understandable that bereaved family and friends are anxious toprovide to the dead the benefits available to the living. As we have seen,prayer for the good of the departed person is popular. For example, if thedeceased individual was a monk who died before reaching the ultimategoal, this must be a matter of great regret to him, and we should thereforehelp him achieve his desire as best we can. As a result, we pray to speedhim on the way to enlightenment.This idea is apparently inconsistent with the notion that the dead have"newly returned to eternal tranquillity"or that of the kakurei, "the enlight-ened soul." If the deceased is already in the state of enlightenment, that is,already is the Buddha, why should prayer be necessary to help him or herproceed on the way to enlightenment? However, while this is a contradic-tion at the theoretical level, the actual situation is much more complicated.It is often observed of popular beliefs that several ideas exist side by side,each of which, having a particularfunction of its own, may logically con-tradictthe others. The incorporation of popular beliefs in a religious systemcan result in some inconsistencies existing in the broad system of doctrine.For instance, the idea of chuu discussed above is definitely a result of the"Buddhisization"of an indigenous folk belief that has become closely con-nected with the notion of transmigration.And it flatly contradicts the an-attan theory. Both are Buddhist "doctrines" n the sense that they are thesubjects of elucidation in authentic Buddhist texts. They are, however, tobe distinguished in terms of their historical origin as well as their religiousmeaning and function.This problem is also found in other areas of Buddhist culture in which


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32 YASUAKINARA

doctrinal and popular religious ideas intermingle. Toward the end of thefuneral prayer, the names of several buddhas and bodhisattvas and thename of the Lotus Sutra are chanted, the merit of which is transferred tothe "enlightened soul" so that it may "glorify" he Land of Reward, that is,the Land of the Buddha. Here, again, we can see a typical case of thefusion of Buddhist ideas and popular religious practice, which by itselfhas a long history of development in Buddhism: that is the problem of theeko. Basically speaking, in Chinese and Japanese Buddhist scriptures, eko(Ch., bui-xiang, "the transferof merit")is used for two Indian terms, ade-sand and parinamana. The former is to "direct"(a-dis; adesana is thenoun form) the merit acquired by some religious deeds, like offering to theBuddhist sangha. When a lay person offers something to monks, the latteraccept it and utter a phrase to direct the merit acquired by the offeringeither to the gods from whom the donor expects protection or to thedonor's dead relatives so that they may attain a better place of rebirth.Dif-ferent from ordinary rites, this offering is not directly given to the object ofworship. The sangha-the monks and nuns-is necessary to accept theofferings that help the laity produce merits and also to direct those offer-ings to the appropriate beings. That is why the Buddhist sangha is oftencalled fukuden (Ch. fu-tian, Skt.pu nya-ksetra), meaning the "field [out] of[which] merit [can be produced]."

This idea underlies the basic structure of the funeral and of ancestorworship in ancient India regardless of whether one considers Hindu orBuddhist practice. In fact, Buddhist monks in India did not preside overthe funerals and the ancestor worship of lay Buddhists (see below). Butthere is ample textual as well as epigraphic evidence to show that the cus-tom of the transferof merit to dead relatives and friends was very commonamong Buddhist people.Along with the rise and development of Mahayana Buddhism, the meritacquired by offerings or by righteously following the precepts began grad-ually to be used as a means by which one could pray for enlightenmenteither for oneself or for all the people in the world. This is parincamana,which literally means "to transform"or "tochange into" and is in fact oftenapplied to some desirable religious state. FranklinEdgerton also gives themeaning of "toripen, mature"21 in other words, the merit gradually ripens,becoming enlightenment. The idea is spiritual and in good accord with theMahayana ideal of compassion for all beings.In the course of history, eko in the sense of parinamana seems to havebegun to be used in place of adesana. There are not a few instances of thiskind in the epigraphy of Indian Buddhism of the fifth to the eighth centu-ries, which I have studied elsewhere.22 In China, too, we can observe thesame tendency. Eko in the sense of Mahayanic parinamana is found infunerals. One of the examples is a prayer in the Chan-yuan Quig-gui (seeabove) on which the prayer we are examining now is based. Here, again,we can see the fusion of the Buddhist idea of parinamana directed toward


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enlightenment and the practice of cidesanai, involving the transfer of meritto one's dead relatives. The former constitutes the outer expression and,consequently, the surface meaning of the prayer, although the ripening ofmerit for enlightenment will be, theoretically, of no avail to the dead soul.It is valid only in the sphere of Mahayana ideology. The original sense oftransferringmerit to the dead by praying for the happy life after death is nolonger shown explicitly in the prayer.But it is nevertheless present becausethe prayer itself is meant for the dead. Also, there is a compromise in thatthe notion originally meant to be applied to a living person is now appliedto the dead, with the result that the prayer maintains its original meaning.

It is important that both Buddhist elites and the Buddhist laity are satis-fied by this fusion. Both are convinced of the rightness of the prayer, "Maythe deceased get enlightenment!"which is meant to assure the happinessof a person after death.Throughout the history of the Soto Zen tradition,the basic structureof thefuneral prayer as studied above seems to be maintained. It is not infrequentthat contact with other ideologies brings about changes in the prayer, butthese changes are secondary. (See Appendix 2, which supports the discus-sion presented above and also provides the material for further analysis.)I have discussed so far the phenomena of the dead person being calledhotoke, the prayer for the dead to proceed on the way of enlightenment,

and the application of eko to the deceased, none of which can be consid-ered part of orthodox Buddhist doctrine. Although all three represent theaccommodation by orthodox Buddhism of popular religious ideas, ortho-doxy still seems to be predominant. Such a predominance is natural be-cause Buddhist funeral rites were formulated by Buddhist priests. Weshould not, however, forget that the laity explicitly, and local cultural tradi-tions implicitly, demanded funeral rites. During the process of the encultur-ation of Buddhism in Japan (or, in fact, in any country where Buddhismhas taken root), the people, on the one hand, preferred that their tradi-tional beliefs and customs be dressed in, but not drastically changed by,the garb of Buddhism so that their consciousness as Buddhists may be sat-isfied. The Buddhist elite, on the other hand, were keen to inculcate Bud-dhist doctrine in the laity. In this case, as always, the problem facing thefusion of orthodox doctrine and popular belief is that, whereas the formerfocuses on attaining enlightenment, the latter is expressly concerned withthe here and now, a basic incompatibility that is bound to produce tensionon both sides. And herein lies another important theme for the furtherstudy of the enculturation of Buddhism.4. TWO RELIGIOUS LEVELS OF BUDDHISMWhat I have designated above are two levels of religious belief: that oforthodox doctrine, which is concerned with enlightenment, and that ofpopular ideas and practices. What exactly are the contents of the former


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34 YASUAKINARA

that are so incompatible with the latter?Answering this question leads to areexamination of a pair of popular Buddhist terms-namely, laukika (secu-lar: Ch. shi-jian, Jp. seken) and lokottara (transcendental: Ch. cbu-sbi-jian,Jp. sbusseken)-in the light of cultural study.Soon after Sakyamuni Buddha attained Nibbana (i.e., enlightenment)under the Bodhi tree, he is said, in some of the early texts, to have de-clined to preach the Law because "the truthI realized is against the streamof the world, delicate, profound, difficult to see, and subtle. Therefore thepeople covered with the delusion and darkness [of ignorance] cannot seeit." Then the god Brahmaappeared and requested him to preach by sayingthat there could be some who were able to listen to the Buddha and seethe truth. Sakyamuni was convinced and began to turn the wheel of theLaw.23This episode shows symbolically the transcendental nature of theBuddha's enlightenment in the sense that it can be aimed at only by goingbeyond the influence of delusion. This is in fact the lokottara (Pali, lokutt-ara), which literally means "beyond the (secular) world." The implicationis quite clear in the following examples drawn from some Buddhist texts ofdifferent ages and characters:

[Buddha says] there is no delusion in me that is not discarded. Aslong as my mind is bound by delusion, I can not see things as theyare.... This is the sacred and transcendental [lokuttara]wisdom thatis not shared by the [unenlightened] "common people."24This sutra makes people realize [that they are in] sufferings [causedby delusion] in the Three World, and shows and propounds the wayof the lokottara.25Since it is cut off from the secular world, it is called the transcen-dence. The secular world is comprised of two kinds of delusion.26

As was touched on before, unlike science, Buddhism sees things fromthe viewpoint of their religious "meaning."Since the world is viewed as"mentallycreated,"and since the mental function is at once contrivance, theworld thus created is taken existentially, or spiritually,as no more than theworld of suffering ("All is suffering"). This is the "(secular) world" (i.e.,laukika). It is then in contrast with the state of enlightenment, which can besought only in the negation of the ego. That is why all the Buddhist ideasand practices at the level of transcendence, lokottara, necessarily point inthe direction of "looking into the self" by controlling ego and delusion. Notall popular religious ideas and rites function at that level: the funeral ser-vice, memorial services, rites of passage, and various types of magical prac-tices, for example, are meant to "satisfythe ego," which is laukika.27Thus, in both theory and practice, the functions of lokottara and laukikaare contradictory, and it is therefore difficult to reach a compromise be-


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tween them. However, since they do function on different levels, it ispossible for them to coexist. Consider, for example, the case of JapaneseBuddhists. Devout practitioners of Nembutsu or Zazen not infrequentlyparticipate in the annual festival at their local Shinto shrine or take theirchildren to a Shinto shrine to celebrate Shichi-go-san, a gala day for chil-dren of three, five, and seven years of age.It is, however, characteristicof Buddhism that the leaders of the variousBuddhist traditions are reluctant to admit that such coexistence is possible.They are in this sense puritanical. It is true that the Buddha admonished hisdisciples not to be bothered with funerals and other rites for lay believersbecause they have no place on the path to enlightenment. But he neverdenied the socioreligious significance of such rites, without which humansocial life is impossible. Judging from the behavior of later Buddhists, onecan conclude that they seem to have followed the admonition strictly, evenblindly, because a particularlyBuddhist type of funeral and ancestor wor-ship seems never to have developed. Even in the seventh century, accord-ing to the record of Yi-jing, monks in India conducted only a very simplefuneral for their fellows in the monastery, simply reciting the "sutra ofimpermanence" (wu-chang-jing).28 And so far I have found no evidencethat monks in India conducted funerals for the laity-hence the fact that,while the Buddhist laity in India accepted the Buddhist ideal of an ethicallife (lokottara), their funerals were conducted by Hindu priests accordingto Hindu traditions.Indian Buddhists were more flexible about other popular religious ideasand practices. Since the Buddhist elite did not purposefully create any par-ticular Buddhist rite, lay followers had to fall back on the traditional, that is,Hindu, rites. These practices could not, however, be kept completely sepa-rate from the influence of Buddhist doctrine, and eventually various ele-ments of orthodox Buddhist doctrine were incorporated in them, evidentlyover the objections of some of the Buddhist elite.

For instance, the practice of magical rites is explicitly prohibited in theearly texts, and it is believed that the Buddha rejected it thoroughly. Theprohibition, however, applies specifically to monks and only in two con-texts: as part of the pursuit of enlightenment and in return for financialcompensation from the laity.29The laity are left out of consideration. Infact, from the earliest stage of the historical development of Buddhism, var-ious types of magical practices were developed, even among monks, suchas the "words of truth," (saccakiriya, based on the mysterious powerbelieved to be hidden in words, especially words of truth), paritta (prima-rily a spell for protection, and quite commonly used even now in the The-ravada tradition), and after the rise of Mahayana Buddhism, mantra, vidya,and dharani.

But the more popular magical practices became, the greater the effort togive them an appropriate place in the Buddhist doctrinal system as "aprac-


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36 YASUAKINARA

tice for obtaining enlightenment" or "an act of compassion." In fact, a latertext belonging to the time when such practices were very commonly per-formed discussed praying for the practical benefits of lay believers and saidthat "such practices are of the ungenuine type [za-fa] and were not per-formed previously, but now in the vile age of the five corruptions [wu-zhuo-e-shi] we perform them for the benefit of people in the world."30

The idea of merit is quite popular in India in the framework of transmi-gration and karma, which is a typical popular religious idea, at least in itsorigin, in the Hindu world, where practitioners earnestly wished to accu-mulate good karma and be reborn in heaven after death. Buddhism, how-ever, aims at reaching enlightenment at the lokottara level. Heaven isnothing but one of the six worlds in the process of the endless transmi-gration of the soul-never the ultimate goal. Buddhist leaders were quiteaware of the nature of good deeds. They evaluated them as "good at thelevel of laukika," to be distinguished from that of lokottara, which is thepractice and way of living directed toward enlightenment. They finally for-mulated a very smart theory called the "gradual instruction" (anupub-bikatba) or "theoriesof offering (dana), discipline (sila), and being rebornin heaven"31 n which they evaluate the acts of giving and keeping disci-pline that lead to rebirthin heaven as the first step toward the ultimate goalof enlightenment. They insisted that enlightenment will come in a laterbirth-no one knows when!-after experiencing several births duringwhich one is supposed to do good and keep one's mind on enlightenment.Instances of this type can be greatly multiplied. Suffice it here to see thatthese are only a few examples of the accommodation of ideas and prac-tices at the two levels of laukika and lokottara. The Buddhist elite hasalways been well aware of the qualitative differences between the two.Regardless of the times and the traditions, Buddhist leaders have shared atendency to regard the former as the only authoritative norm of conduct,which very often leads them to think of the latter as something forbidden.Such a point of view is historical and a pattern in religious culture. I aminclined to believe that the qualitative difference in the soteriological func-tion of each level is responsible for this tendency. Various sufferings in lifecan be ameliorated at either level, but the way to solve the problem of lifeis the opposite. The laukika level offers prayers to change or improve thesituation of the individual who has undergone suffering. The lokottaralevel, on the contrary, emphasizes elevating one's mind by realizing thepresent situation as it is. The elite too often hold to the existential (spiritual,lokottara) way of solving problems to evaluate appropriately the meaningof religious practice at the laukika level.The ideas and practices of the laukika level of religion are socially in-evitable. Notwithstanding the intention of the elite, the popular religiouselements exist anywhere and anytime underneath the higher level of spiri-tual religious faith. Interaction between the two is necessary, which, ifestablished satisfactorily, helps the faith to take root and flourish.


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5. CONCLUSIONMy purpose here has been primarilyto discuss the sociocultural context ofone aspect of how the Zen tradition in Japan embraced the traditionalprac-tices of funeral rites and ancestor worship. For the purpose of analysis, anexample was selected to illustrate how popular religious rites and senti-ments of the Japanese have been beautifully enveloped by some Buddhistviews and located in Buddhist culture. But these "Buddhist"views are notalways genuinely Buddhist.This, of course, brings us to the matterof defining what Buddhism reallyis. One position would hold that only those particular ideas, such as de-pendent origination, nonself, impermanence, and so forth, that were taughtby Sakyamuni Buddha himself are truly "Buddhist,"excluding all laterdevelopments. Then there is the position that any idea or practice touchedon by the elite in any discussion of doctrine in any text in the recognizedcanon is "Buddhist,"which broadens the notion of what is authenticallyBuddhist to include the ideas of the after-death world, the intermediatestate of the soul (chuu), and many others that were originally popularbeliefs. What is important, however, is whether the True Law is transmitted.

Taking all this into consideration, I have settled here on the two levels oflaukika and lokottara as a measure for the purpose of discussing the prob-lems of enculturation. In the cultural (not doctrinal) tradition of Buddhism,the elite have always been aware of these two levels in the sense that,whereas the former is considered Buddhist and hence to be evaluatedhighly, the latter, the ideas and practices of the popular religion, is notBuddhist and therefore not recommended for practice. This is particularlytrue in the case of Japan and must be taken into consideration in any dis-cussion of the way in which Buddhism has taken root in Japanese society.

Examples examined here were confined almost exclusively to the Sotoschool of Zen Buddhism. Other schools should be examined separately,which will surely bring to light the different types of structureachieved his-torically on the basis of different doctrines and different ways of incorpo-rating popular ideas and customs. Nevertheless, funerals and ancestorworship are vital points on which the enculturation of Buddhism in Japandepended. The fact that the usage of the word of hotoke to mean the deadis common to all Buddhist sects shows how this idea has not only ap-pealed to the mind of the Japanese but also been useful in the process ofthe enculturation of Buddhism in Japan. Therefore, in spite of its absurdityfrom the doctrinal and lokottara viewpoint, the usage of botoke for thedead may be said to be one of the most important and decisive culturalchanges leading to the acceptance of Buddhism in Japan.ShuiisakuEndo, a Catholic and one of the most influential writers in thefield of Japanese literature, once lamented that, no matter how muchpeople tried to implant the Christian faith in Japanese society, it has nevertaken root, but withered away in the soil of ancestor worship. Buddhism


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38 YASUAKINARA

has become a settled and central feature of Japanese culture. A great manypopular beliefs and customs, of which the funeral is just one, have beensuccessfully incorporated into "Buddhism," and these "newcomers" arewhat now work to maintain it. Buddhism in Japan has been enculturatedsuccessfully, always leaving behind, however, the problem of how tocreate an appropriate relationship between the lokottara doctrine and whatthe "field" s actually doing at the level of laukika.Christians too are now obliged to find some way to incorporate ancestorworship into their religious life, a challenge that they are finally recogniz-ing. For example, in 1985, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Japan pub-lished a small pamphlet called "AManual on Ancestors and the Dead forthe Catholic"32hat introduces changes in traditionalpositions to accommo-date the point of view of Japanese Catholics. Regardless of whether it isBuddhism or Christianitythat is facing the challenge, however, funeralsand ancestor worship present an important and challenging problem tothose attempting to bridge traditionalfaith and popular beliefs.

APPENDIX I: PRAYER ON THE EVE OF THE FUNERAL (TAIYA-NENJU)33It should be reflected that birth and death interchange and that heat andcold alternate. This life of yours, once it comes, is [short]like lightning inthe air, and, when it is gone, it stays like waves in the ocean [of the eternaltranquillity].Today you have newly returned to eternal tranquillity [shin-enjaku]. The conditions that have helped your life be maintained haveceased to function, and the great life of yours fell all of a sudden. [Youshould realize that] "everything is impermanent, and blissful is the eternaltranquillity." now request all the monks present here to chant the namesof the sacred buddhas. The merit acquired hereby is to glorify the way toenlightenment on which you proceed.Let us now chant [the Three Jewels of the Law]:

1. Vairocana-Buddha,the Buddha of the pure body of the Truth.2. Rushana-Buddha,the Buddha of the perfect body of Bliss.3. Shakyamuni-Buddha,the Buddha of [one of the] thousands of bodiesof incarnation.4. Maitreya-Buddha,the Buddha of the future yet to come.5. All the buddhas in the ten directions of the past, the present, and thefuture.6. MahayanaLotus Sutra.7. ManjusriBodhisattva.8. SamantabhadraBodhisattva.9. AvalokitesvaraBodhisattva.10. All the bodhisattvas and mahasattvas.11. The great Perfection of the Wisdom.


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[A sutra is recited here, which is followed by the prayer of transferringthe merit.]We have now chanted [the Three Jewels of the Law] and recited a sutra.The merits acquired thereby should be transferred to the "enlightenedsoul" [kakurei] of you who have returned to eternal tranquillity. May thismerit glorify the Land of Reward [in which you are destined to stay].34

APPENDIX 2: A MANUAL FOR THE (SYMBOLIC) FIRINGOF THE WOOD IN CREMATION35The celebrant priest is [for]Sakyamuni Buddha, and the dead is [comparedto] his disciple, the Venerable Kasyapa.36The fire brands [that the priest isnow holding in the symbolic form of two sticks made of paper to the tipsof which are added several long rectangular read and black slips, respec-tively] are the lotus flower that the Buddha held in front of him. The flowerthat is called the golden utpala [in Sanskrit] s the flower of the mind [xin-bua]. The flower of the mind is the fire of the mind [xin-buo]. When theBuddha held it and showed it to the millions of the audience, he [meant to]draw a circle in the air [which is the gesture symbolizing reality, i.e., theperfection of all beings]. Therefore, when the celebrant [ceremoniously]sets fire by drawing a circle in the air with the flowers [i.e., the sticks], it is[to show] the oneness of the self and the other, of the incarnated body andthe Real [Dharma]body of the Buddha, of the Buddha and all beings: thereis no discrimination between these. My being is a form of incarnation,whereas that of the dead is nonbeing. The celebrant priest is the one whohas attained the enlightenment, whereas the dead is the "OriginallyEnlight-ened." The smile of the Buddha while holding the flower shows the one-ness of the Attaining Enlightenment and the Original Enlightenment. Sincethey are one, it is called the same Enlightenment [to-shogaku].The celebrant priest is [in his spiritual state] beyond the world of delu-sion and hence [compared to] life in the sphere of the sun and [like] theliving fire, that is, red fire brand: this is the fire of the mind that is all pene-trating. As the dead is to go to that state, he is [compared to] life in themoon and [like]the dead fire, that is, black fire brand: this is the real [indi-vidual] fire of mind. Burning the incarnated body of the dead person byjoining the real fire and the fire of the mind, the celebrant [wishes to] makethe dead live in the real formless feature of things. Reality [shb]is the nou-menon, and the manifoldness of things [hen] is the phenomenon. They arethe dead and the celebrant. The mutual identity [e] is to put two thingstogether [to be one] without losing their original individuality. When thesetwo are [considered to be] not-two [from the viewpoint of reality], each ofwhich has no substantial entity, this is the transcendence of birth anddeath. Therefore, two firebrands [of red and black] are to be placed on thetable to imply their mutual identity. That the circle is drawn in the air by


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40 YASUAKINARA

these two brands is their mutual penetration [go]: this strikes to the realnature of the Buddha.There is [additional] secret knowledge of importance. When the cele-

brant draws the circle, he should blink at the dead. Then, holding thebrands in front with his eyes closed, he chants a verse of prayer with fourlines in a low voice. Then he should have his eyes wide open staring at thesky and recite the Dharma words [for the dead]. All having been done, thewhole of his being becomes free from any restraint;then he utters a thun-dering roar at the dead. Even the no-mind, no-form, and no-contrivanceare discarded [to be in real void]. If there is even a little contrivance leftundiscarded, the dead will [not be led to buddhahood but will] go astray.The closing verse is also important. All these should be learnt and mas-tered.-The chief abbot of the Yokoji Temple, Donryo [sealed]NOTES

This paper was first delivered at the Second Seminaire Franco-Japonais,entitled"Bouddhismes et soci6tes asiatiques-clerges, societ6s et pouvoirs," held in Paris,8-10 December 1987, and organized by the Institute of Asian Cultures, Sophia Uni-versity, Tokyo. It was previously published in French as "Puissent les morts attein-dre l'Illumination:points de vue sur l'insertion du bouddhisme au Japon" in AlainForest, Eiichi Kato et L6on Vandermeersch, eds., Boudhismes et societes asiatiques:clerges, societes etpouvoirs, Paris, L'Harmattan,1990. It is published here with kindpermission of L'Harmattan.1. The special issues appeared as nos. 29 and 30 of Dend6in-kiy6, which is pub-lished by Dendoin, the official institute for the study of Pure Land Buddhism run bythe Honganji sect of the Jodo-shin school. Dendoin has since changed its name andis now known as Kyogaku-honbu.2. See Shoten Sasaki, "Shuigaku, Soto Studies, Folkways, and Folk Beliefs"(in Japanese), Journal of Soto Propagation Studies (Kyoka Kenshu-), no. 30(1987): 94.3. R. F.Gombrich, Preceptand Practice: Traditional Buddhism in the Rural High-lands of Ceylon (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971).4. Discrimination based on sex, physical condition, social group, etc. hasnow become a big social problem in Japan, one in which not a few Buddhistorders, including the Honganji sect of the Jodo-shin school, are involved in variousways.5. Yasukuni shrine, the shrine for the war dead, was the symbol of national inte-gration before and during WorldWar II. Although it is now one of the religious cor-porations, the problem of whether it should be maintained by the government hasyet to be solved. Concerning the war-dead problem, see Nara Yasuaki, "Religionand State-a Problem in Japan," YoungEast 9, no. 1 (1983): 9-28.6. See Shbumon6sai no tokushitu wo saguru (A study of the special characterofthe funeral of the [Soto]sect), ed. Shinsuikai of the Soto-shu Propagation ResearchInstitute (Tokyo: Dobosha-shuppan, 1980).7. Kakunyo, Kaijash6o.8. Zonkaku, Hoonki.9. Ibid.


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10. See R. Minagawa, T. Nakano, S. Shirogane, and S. Danjo, "History of theFuneral with Its Problems in Japan" (in Japanese), Journal of S6t6 PropagationStudies, no. 12 (1969): 77-78.11. The Abbidharmako?abhbsya, written by Vasubandhu in about the fourth cen-tury, contains an elaborate discussion of chbfu in the chapter that treats the loka(i.e., the world).12. Taish6Daiz6-ky6, 27:361b.13. Ibid., 17:746b-747a.14. For an annotated Japanese translation of the Chan-yuan Qing-gui, seeG. Kagamishima, T. Sato, and K. Kosaka, Yaku-chbfzen-nen-shingi (Tokyo: Soto-shiu shuimu-cho [Head Office of the Soto School], 1972), pp. 237ff.

15. See Taijo Tamamuro, S6shiki Bukky6 (Funeral Buddhism) (Tokyo: Daihorin-kaku, 1963), p. 129.16. Dogen, Sh6b6genz6 Sansui-ky6.17. Y6kyoku is the song of Noh plays. J6ruri is a kind of ballad drama to berecited to the accompaniment of a samisen, a three-stringed instrument. Both aretraditional forms of public entertainment, and their origins are said to go back tothe fourteenth century.18. As the word used for the dead person, hotoke is now still common in Japanin some conversational contexts. For example, "He has at last become hotoke [orhotoke-sama]" (sama is an honorific particle), or, "Bequiet in front of hotoke-sama"(scolding children making noise in front of the coffin).19. Kokan Sasaki, "A View to the Problem of the Funeral," in Shuimons6sai notokushitu wo saguru (1980), p. 19. The usage of hotoke for the dead has been vari-ously discussed. See esp. Ariga Kizaemon, Hitotu no nihon bunka-ron (Essays onJapanese culture) (Tokyo: Mirai-sha, 1976), chap. 1.20. See, e.g., Digha Nikaya, 1:187ff. etc.21. Franklin Edgerton, Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Dictionary (New Haven: YaleUniversity Press, 1953), p. 323.22. See Yasuaki Nara, Indian Society and Mahaydna Buddhism (in Japanese),vol. 10 of K6za Daig6Bukky6 (Tokyo: Shunjiu-sha,1985), pp. 35ff.23. See Samyutta Nikdya 6.1; Vinaya 1.1.5.24. Majjbima Nikaya, 1:323. (Kosambiya Sutta, MajjhimaNikaya 48).25. Saddharma-pundarika-sftra, ed. A. Kern, p. 90; chap. 3, TaishoDaiz6-ky6,9:15a (Lotus Sutra, Chap. 2).26. Taish6Daiz6-ky6, 31:50c (Cheng-wei-zhi-lun, fasc. 9).27. Elsewhere, I discuss lokottara and laukika as a means of analysis (see my"Kodai Indo-bukkyo no shuikyo-teki hyoso to kiso," San-p6, Nos. 32-34 (Tokyo:Daizo Shuppan-sha, 1971), and "Bukkyo-shiI-Indotonan-azia" [Historyof Buddhism-India and SoutheastAsia] [Tokyo:YamakawaShuppan-sha, 1979], pp. 265ff.).28. In his Nan-hai ji-gui nei-fa-chuan (Taish6 Daiz6-ky6, 54:204ff), Yi-jing givesa simple description of the funeral for a monk. Fellow monks attend the cremationwhile reciting the "sutra of impermanence," then return to the monastery remem-bering the impermanent nature of life and take a bath either in a pond or in a well.29. I discuss the prohibition by Sakyamuni Buddha of magical practices and var-ious magical customs in a series of papers (in Japanese): see, e.g., "The Structureand Function of the Paritta,"Shiiky6kenkyfu213 (1973); "Saccakiriya-an Aspect ofthe Buddhist Magical Practices,"Nihon-Bukkyb---Gakkai-nenp6 38 (1973); and "TheMeaning of 'Healing' in Ancient Indian Buddhism," in Festschrift or Dr. HajimeNakamura (Tokyo: Shunjilu-sha, 973).30. Consecration scripture, Fascicle 5 (Taish6 Daiz6-ky6, 21:511c). This text wasprobably compiled in China in the fifth centruy. See Michel Strickmann,"The Con-


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secration Siutra:A Buddhist Book of Spells," in Robert E. Buswell Jr., ed., ChineseBuddhist Apocrypha (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1990): 75-117.31. Vinaya, Mahavagga, 1.1.7, etc.32. "Sosen to shisha ni tuiteno Katorikku shinja no tebiki" (A manual on ances-tors and the dead for the Catholic) (Tokyo: Katori-kkuchuiokyogi-kai, 1985).33. The text is taken from the Keizan shingi (The pure regulations of [Zenmaster] Keizan) as found in the Soto-shbf-zensho Tokyo, 1930), 2:449.34. Keizan basically depends on the prayer shown in the oldest book of Zen reg-ulations, ThePure Regulations of the Zen Monastery, compiled by Zong Ze in A.D.1103 in China. This last sentence was changed, however, in the authorized servicebook of the Soto school that is now still commonly used, where it reads as follows:"May your soul attain the pure land of enlightenment and all of your karma beimproved. May the lotus [in the land of the Buddha] open the best blossom [to wel-come you], and may you get the prediction that you are destined for buddhahood."35. This material was found and edited by Professor Rikizan Ishikawa and pub-lished by him in his "AnEssay on the Classification of Kirigami as Used in the SotoSect in Medieval Japan" (in Japanese), Komazawa Daigaku Bukky6-gakubu Ronshbu(Journal of Buddhist studies) 18 (1988): 170f. (The journal is published by theDepartment of Buddhist Studies of Komazawa University.) It is based on a kiri-gami, a kind of manual of teaching passed on from master to disciple in the Zenlineage, preserved in Yokoji in Ishikawa prefecture.36. This refers to the very popular episode of the Buddha and his disciple Maha-kasyapa (Pali Maha-kassapa) that is emphasized especially in the Zen tradition inChina and Japan. One day the Buddha held a lotus flower in front of him andshowed it to his disciples in silence. No one could understood him. Only the Vener-able Mahakasyapaunderstood the religious meaning of the gesture and smiled, atwhich point the Buddha said that his Dharma was now transmitted toMahakasyapa.That is why Mahakasyapais regarded in the Zen traditionas the sec-ond patriarchin the lineage of Dharma succession. The episode, however, does notgo back before the tenth century and was most probably created in China. (SeeYasuaki Nara, "Historyand Tradition (2)-Sakyamuni Buddha and Mahakasyapa"[in Japanese], Monthly Report no. 22, Eibei-Sh6b6genz6-shbsho-taisei, 1971.)

An Aspect of the Enculturation of Buddhism in Japan

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