Kōyasan — the spiritual centre of Shingon

Kōyasan 高野山 is a mountain plateau about 800 meters high in Wakayama Prefecture, surrounded by eight peaks that are traditionally compared to the petals of a lotus. More than a hundred temples stand among old cedars, and in the morning the mist drifts through the lanes. For more than 1,200 years it has been the center of Shingon.

I've been to Kōyasan several times and practiced there myself. For anyone interested in the roots of Reiki, it's a fascinating place, because many of the practices of esoteric Buddhism that Usui drew on are still alive here today.

Kūkai and the founding 空海

Kūkai 空海, better known by his posthumous title Kōbō Daishi 弘法大師, "Great Master who spread the Dharma," had returned from Tang China in 806, where his master Huiguo had given him the full transmission of esoteric Buddhism. In 816 he asked Emperor Saga for permission to build a center of practice on this remote plateau, far away from the political center.

A legend tells that before leaving China, Kūkai threw his three-pronged vajra across the sea to find the right place for his monastery. Later he found it hanging in a pine tree on the Kōya plateau. That pine, the sanko no matsu 三鈷の松, can still be seen today. Whether legend or not, the eight peaks around the plateau were seen as an eight-petaled lotus, like the one at the center of the Womb Realm mandala. In other words, the landscape itself was read as a mandala.

The Konpon Daitō 大塔

At the center of the sacred precinct (danjō garan) stands the Konpon Daitō 根本大塔, the "Great Fundamental Pagoda." It's 48.5 meters high and painted vermilion, and it's impressive from the outside alone. The current building dates from 1937, since the earlier pagodas burned down several times. The real surprise is inside.

When you step inside, you're standing in a three-dimensional mandala. At the center sits Dainichi Nyorai 大日如来 of the Womb Realm, surrounded by the four Buddhas of the Diamond Realm, and the sixteen great bodhisattvas, painted by the artist Dōmoto Inshō 堂本印象, cover the sixteen pillars around them. The corner walls show the eight patriarchs who carried Shingon from India to Japan, with Kūkai as the eighth. So the two mandalas, which are otherwise shown as two separate pictures, come together here in one space. You don't look at the mandala from the outside, you stand in the middle of it.

Okunoin 奥之院

For many visitors, Okunoin 奥之院 is the most moving place on Kōyasan. It's Japan's largest cemetery, with more than 200,000 graves and memorial stones, many of them covered in moss, among cedars hundreds of years old. The path is about two kilometers long and leads past the graves of samurai families, monks and ordinary people who wished to rest close to Kūkai.

At the end of the path lies Kūkai's mausoleum. According to Shingon tradition, Kūkai didn't die. In 835 he entered eternal meditation, nyūjō 入定, where he waits for Miroku Bosatsu 弥勒菩薩, the Buddha of the future. That's why, to this day, monks bring him a meal twice a day, at 6:00 and 10:30 in the morning. This offering is called shōjingu 生身供, literally "offering to the living body." The food is prepared in the Gokusho 御供所 and carried to the mausoleum in a wooden box, rain or shine, as it has been for almost 1,200 years.

In front of the mausoleum stands the lantern hall, Tōrō-dō 燈籠堂, in which thousands of lanterns glow. Two of them are known as the "lamps that never go out" (kiezu no hi 消えずの火). One is the Kishin-tō 祈親燈, offered in 1016 by the monk Kishin Shōnin 祈親上人 to pray for the revival of Kōyasan. The other is the Shirakawa-tō 白河燈, offered by the retired Emperor Shirakawa in 1088. A lovely legend belongs to the Kishin-tō: a poor girl named Oteru お照 is said to have cut off and sold her long hair so she could contribute a lamp. That's why it's also called hinnyo no ittō 貧女の一燈, "the one lamp of the poor woman." Yes, you read that right: according to tradition, it has been burning for about a thousand years.

Temple stays 宿坊

Kōyasan isn't a museum, it's a living place. About fifty temples offer shukubō 宿坊, temple lodging. You sleep on tatami, often with a view of a garden, and eat shōjin ryōri 精進料理, the plant-based Buddhist temple cuisine.

Early in the morning, guests can usually attend the morning service, with sutras, bells and incense in the main hall while it's still dark outside. Depending on the temple, a goma fire ritual is also held. Some temples offer an introduction to Ajikan 阿字観, the contemplation of the Siddham syllable A (Bonji in Japanese), which in Shingon stands for the originally unborn, the origin of everything.

Kōyasan and Reiki 靈氣

Why does Kōyasan belong in a blog about Shingon Reiki? Many of the elements that you find in Reiki are still practiced in Shingon today, mantra, mudra, contemplation of Siddham syllables, and meditations such as Ajikan and Gachirinkan. The second Reiki symbol, Sei He Ki, goes back to the Siddham syllable hrīḥ, and the master symbol Dai Kō Myō appears countless times in the Buddhist sutras.

Shingon is only one of Reiki's roots, of course. Usui also drew on Shugendō, Shintō and shamanic Daoism, and in the Kurama mountains on traditions of a very different kind. But if you want to understand the esoteric Buddhist side of Reiki, Kōyasan is a very good place to start. Shingon Reiki isn't meant as a new invention, but as a reconnection with these roots.

Experiencing Kōyasan 旅

On my spiritual journeys to Japan I take small groups to the places where this tradition is alive. It makes a difference to visit such places with someone who speaks the language and knows the background, because the temples, the characters and the rituals start to make sense. If you could spend one night on Kōyasan, would you rather walk through Okunoin at dusk or sit in the morning service?