3 - Computing in the Humanities and Social Sciences

itself between shingon and their effects (or their symbolic efficacy) is of an
analogic and motivated character, as we will discuss in subsequent lectures.
(ii) In the esoteric system, the persons involved are obviously the ascetics,
practitioners, and the performers of the ritual (including meditation) in general;
the circumstances are primarily meditative and ritual. Many exegetes, however,
extended these categories to commoners (people not formally initiated) and to
everyday situations (outside of a strictly defined ritual context). In this way, all
possible contexts and all beings (not just humans) turn to sacred entities as part of
the esoteric universe.
(iii and iv) The Shingon teachings presuppose the correct and integral performance
of the procedure in the scrupulous respect of all its rules as the essential
condition for triggering the power of mantras; as we have seen, the rules of the
performance control a number of parameters. However, simplified uses of
mantras were gradually recognized and encouraged: they were based on simple
formulas (such as the two syllables a and un, associated with the two phases of
breathing), and the procedures were easy and short.
(v and vi) The Buddhist tradition describes minutely the psycho-physical state that
the practitioner must assume in order to participate in a ritual or a religious
practice. Ignoring these norms makes practice useless or, in certain cases, even
dangerous. In the middle ages, religious doubt and disbelief become serious sins
that in some cases could result in rebirth into the Uninterrupted Hell. Consider
for example this passage from a text by Kakuban:
In the case of people of no wisdom who engage themselves in practices
and devotions in a superficial way, if they have faith the merit they
acquire are far superior than the merit acquired even by practitioners of
the esoteric teachings over infinite kalpas. If a Shingon practitioner arises
a religious doubt even only once in a lifetime, that is a crime that
determines fall into the uninterrupted Hell as karmic retribution (Gorin
kujimyø himitsu shaku, in Miyasaka, ed., 1989: 210).
3.2. Talismanic Usages of Mantric Expressions:
The Illocutive Linguistic Space
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