A Primer on Japanese Hell Imagery and Imagination - Occidental ...

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Monumenta Nipponica 63:1
based on karma into one that is an embodiment of enlightenment. The text explains
that the spontaneous, eternal triune Buddha body (musa no sanjin
), encompassing everything, is identical to the three shitchi, to Abi hell, and
to the highest realizations of buddhahood. Enlightened understanding of this
unfailingly tears hell. Such understanding, the text explains, has both exoteric
and esoteric aspects.
In an “exoteric” comprehension, contemplation of the heart enables the realization
that all of the dharma world is Birushana’s (Sk. Vairocana) environment
and body (eshô ) and that hell is located in the Buddha’s heart. 111
The esoteric approach expresses this understanding through ritual practice (phenomena).
Hell is Dainichi’s (Sk. Mahâvairocana) Pure Land of the Diamond
and Womb worlds, and the mandala is in our hearts. Keiran shû supports the
latter understanding with the medieval logic of analogy, borrowing ideas from
established esoteric conceptions. Our nine shiki (“consciousnesses”), the text
explains, are the eight petals and nine divinities of the Womb mandala—each
petal containing a buddha or bodhisattva, with Dainichi at the center, adding up
to a total of nine. The circular Jôhari mirror in the center of hell is our ninth shiki,
which is the heart’s moon-like (mirror-like) orb, also equated with Dainichi.
Eight other mirrors in Enma’s kingdom are aligned with the other eight shiki and
the other eight divinities of the flower platform. 112 Through contemplation, the
mandala world and hell are thus equated with the heart and shiki of the practitioner.
Furthermore, the landscape of the eight hot hells is conjoined with the
Womb world and principle, and the landscape of the eight cold hells linked to
the Diamond world and wisdom. 113 The passage concludes that if hell is the Pure
Land of the universal Buddha Dainichi’s two worlds, the living beings in hell
are the spontaneous, eternal Buddha-body trinity. When one understands this,
Keiran shû asserts, there is no hell that cannot be torn.
The more complicated doctrines and rituals described above tended to remain
the concern of Buddhist intellectuals and practitioners, but certain principles
were also taught to lay believers through images called Endon kanjin jippôkai
zu
. Consolidating and simplifying doctrines in graphic form,
these portrayed inhabitants of the ten worlds emanating from the character for
heart or mind (shin ), illustrating the Tiantai doctrine that the entire universe
111 This understanding is based on the Tiantai doctrines of ichinen sanzen (“the three
thousand worlds in one thought”) and isshin sangan (“contemplation of emptiness, phenomena,
and their balance in one heart-mind”). The text also references the eighth-century Tiantai
monk Zhanran’s Jinpi lun (Jp. Konbei ron; also Jingangpi , Jp. Kongôbei); T
46:781a.
112 On connections in the Podiyu yigui hell-tearing text between the nine shiki (the ninth being
amarashiki ), the nine-layered moon rings, and the eight petals and nine divinities of the
Womb mandala, see T 18:913c–914a; and Misaki 1988, pp. 505–507. Also see the description of
the Jôhari and eight other karma mirrors in Jizô jûô kyô, p. 771.
113 Keiran shû uses the words mitsugon and kezô , which in Japanese esoteric thought
refer to the two worlds. See Horiuchi 2000.