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shugendō
shugendō (Jap.). A style of esoteric ascetic practice (see Esoteric Buddhism) in Japanese Buddhism that can be found within both the Tendai and Shingon schools. The term literally means ‘the way of cultivating experience’, and is traced back to the Heian period when privately ordained monks went to the mountains, partly out of the native Japanese reverence for nature and mountains in particular, and partly to escape the government's increasingly intrusive regulation of monastic life. Such people, called yamabushi (those who lie down in the mountains) practised austerities such as long and arduous hikes through the mountains, seen as pilgrimages through sacred landscapes; fasting; long periods of scripture chanting without food and drink, and so on. While originally independent, they later became subsects within the Tendai and Shingon traditions, the two with the greatest emphasis on esoteric practice. The goal of practice is both personal transformation and liberation, and the acquisition of supernatural power.
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DAMIEN KEOWN. "shugendō." A Dictionary of Buddhism. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 27 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. DAMIEN KEOWN. "shugendō." A Dictionary of Buddhism. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (May 27, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O108-shugend.html DAMIEN KEOWN. "shugendō." A Dictionary of Buddhism. 2004. Retrieved May 27, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O108-shugend.html |
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Shugendō
Shugendō. Japanese Buddhist mountain devotion. The sect was founded by En-no-Ozunu (born c.635 CE), hence it is also known as En-no-gyōja. From the age of 32, he devoted himself for thirty years to esoteric Buddhism on Mount Katsuragi until he attained miraculous powers. He developed ascetic mountain Buddhism by teaching ways of entering into the strength of mountains. He was exiled in 699, pardoned two years later, and died shortly after. Mountain Buddhists develop esoteric powers, and are known as yamabushi or shugenja.
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JOHN BOWKER. "Shugendō." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. 27 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. JOHN BOWKER. "Shugendō." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. (May 27, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O101-Shugend.html JOHN BOWKER. "Shugendō." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Retrieved May 27, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O101-Shugend.html |
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