On 6/1/11 6:31 AM, Lemurio@aol.com wrote:
Jessica,
On Mt. Kurama there is a shrine in which one can see hrih which is the Sanskrit seed syllable for love. This is believed to be the origin of the mental/emotional symbol in Reiki. Can you tell me what kind of a shrine this is - which religion? Is this a Tendai Buddhist shrine?
Sincerely,
William Lee Rand
Reiki Membership Association
Center for Reiki Research
International Center for Reiki Training Reiki News Magazine
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William, Thankyou for your question. It's not quite that quick a question to answer.
The Sanskrit Symbols on Kurama Mountains Altar.
THE ALTAR
The altar you are referring to is in the main information building/cable car station just a short way up from the Kurama Village entrance to the temple. (Page 32-39 of my book, Reiki's Birthplace).
It is an altar for Kurama Kokyu, the small sect of Buddhism that runs Kurama mountain. Kurama Kokyu has roots in Tendai Buddhism, as this mountain was Tendai for most of its 1200 year history, but it has significant differences as well.
THREE DISKS
The altar has a central statue, and on the wall behind him are three disks, each with a Sanskrit symbol. Sanskrit in Japan is used in a religious context a bit like the Christian world uses Greek letters like Alpha and Omega to represent God, or concepts of God. In Japan, there are many Buddhist deities, and many altars do not have statues, so instead they use a Sanskrit seed sound letter to symbolize each deity. This has been the practice since the early 800s.
From the Onmark A-Z Photo Dictionary (http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/before-buddhism-hindu.html)
In Japan, the generic term for "Sanskrit" is Bonji (梵字) or Bongo (梵語). The Japanese word for Seed Syllable is Shuji 種字 (Sanskrit = Bijaksara). In Japan, Sanskrit seed syllables are written in a script called Shittan 悉曇 (Sanskrit = Siddham). In Japanese Buddhist statuary, Buddhist deities are typically assigned a special seed syllable, one that is often inscribed somewhere on the statue or halo.
The three disks each have a symbol, they symbolize the three deities of Kurama mountain, Maoson, Bishamonten, and Kannon (Kwan Yin).
MAOSON
The major reason you cannot characterize this altar as Tendai, is the presence of Maoson (the left hand disk). Maoson is a Buddhist deity unique to Kurama, who represents the power of Earth, whose legend is the same as that of ascended master Sanat Kumara. It is likely the Sanat Kumara story was grafted onto the original story of the Kurama Tengu because of the influence of the Theosophical Society. The head of the society, Col. Olcott came to Japan and had a large influence on the spiritual development community, it is not unlikely that Mikao Usui attended a lecture, or certainly would have known about them. "In 1889 the Japanese invited Olcott to Japan where he stayed for three and a half months and gave seventy-six public lectures to audiences totaling about 187,500 people."http://www.ts-adyar.org/content/henry-steel-olcott-1832-1907
BISHAMONTEN
The middle disk (and the statue) represents Bishamonten, the deity Kurama temple was originally founded to honor. In the year 770, a priest founded the temple because he had a vision of being saved from a demon by Bishamonten. This happened on the year of the tiger, on the day of the tiger, and the hour of the tiger, that is why Kurama temple uses tigers as its temple guardians. Bishamonten is a deity mentioned in the Lotus Sutra, who guards the northern side of the Buddha. He is not unique to any particular school of Japanese Buddhism.
KANNON
The third disk is the one that you have asked about. The Sanskrit seed symbol Hrih in Japanese Buddhism is used to represent either Kwan Yin (In Japan, known as Kannon) or the Amida Buddha. (The symbols used are identical, you just have to know by context which is meant) Both are connected as having the special quality of compassion. ((For more on the seed sound of compassion, here is an article http://jayarava.blogspot.com/2007/07/seed-syllable-of-great-compassion.html .))
Here Hrih represents Kannon. Kannon is also not unique to any particular school of Buddhism. She is referred to in the prayer inscribed on the sides as the "Love of the Moon". (The same prayer refers to Bishamonten is the light of the sun, Maoson is the power of earth.)
Kannon was the second Buddhist deity of to become associated with Kurama. The chief architect of Toji temple, not long after the founding of Kyoto, came to the mountain and had a vision of her. This puzzled him as he knew the mountain had been dedicated to Bishamonten, but he had a vision of a tree with two trunks, symbolizing the Kannon and Bishamonten were linked.
So Bishamonten and Kannon have been part of the history of the mountain for its whole history. Maoson was part of the Kurama Tengu folklore of the area (dating back at least a thousand years) possibly modified by the story of Sanat Kumara.
Kurama was Tendai Buddhist for most of its 1200 year history, but each temple would still have its unique emphasis. I don't believe that the Maoson was elevated to one of the 3 major deities of the mountain until the Kurama Kokyou sect took over. It may have originally been Bishamonten/Kannon/Fudo (who still has a temple on the mountain), with the king of the Tengu a local legend. The tree Osugi Gongen, that the meditation area near the summit was named after, that Usui most likely meditated at, is considered to be an incarnation of Maoson. Yet an 1895 guidebook to Kyoto instead described it as being an incarnation of the King of the Kurama Tengu. The tree blew over in a typhoon in 1950, the top of which was used to carve the statues of Kurama's three deities, installed below the main temple.
