3 - Computing in the Humanities and Social Sciences

cemeteries throughout Japan; the formula oµ ma√i padme h¥µ, very popular in the West
in its Tibetan form, but also widespread in Japan; and even imitation mantras that are
used in traditional performing arts. Such variety of uses makes it difficult for scholars to
provide a clear and systematic definition of mantras in Japan. Many terms refer to these
non-ordinary linguistic expressions. Among the more common ones we find, in
addition to shingon, mantora, shuji, darani, myø, myøju, ju, shinju, himitsugo, and mitsugø.
Esoteric Buddhism considers all these terms more or less as synonyms, even though
each has its specific connotations. Let us try a preliminary systematization and
definition of this complex lexical and semantic field.
(i) shingon is a generic term signifying “mantra” in opposition to the words of
ordinary language. Mantras are defined as “true words” (the literal meaning of shingon),
in contrast with ordinary words that are considered “fallacious,” as we have already
seen in Lecture 1. Kakuban described the difference between ordinary speech and
mantric language with the following analogy: ordinary words are as “illusory and
without reality” as the image of the moon reflected on a river or on water in a vase,
whereas mantras are true like the “full moon in the arcane sky” (Kakuban, Shingachirin
hishaku, in in Miyasaka, ed., 1989: 250). K¥kai also emphasized the truthfulness of
mantras by defining them as “non-deluded” (fumø), “true speech” (shingo), “words in
conformity [with reality]” (nyogo). (K¥kai, Dainichikyø kaidai, in Købø Daishi zensh¥ 1:
672.) The term shingon refers to expressions that are relatively short (from a few
syllables to a few words) and that are believed to embody the ultimate essence (Sk.
dharmatå, Jp. hosshø) of a being or an entity; as such, they are the privileged instruments
for the attainment of the soteriological goal of esoteric Buddhism, “becoming a buddha
in the present body” (sokushin jøbutsu).
(ii) Mantora (o mandara) is the Japanese pronunciation of the transliteration in
Chinese characters of the Sanskrit mantra. Kakuban and other authors further expand
the range of significations of the term mantra as also referring to the mind (citta),
samådhi, and the wisdom (prajñå) of the bodhisattva. 7 The polysemy of the term
mantora/mandara leads the esoteric exegetes to suppose the existence of a deep
connection between shingon (mantra) and mandara (maöala), as instruments of practice,
7 Kakuban, Shingachirin hishaku, in T 79/2520: 37c-38a.
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