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Old 05-25-2007, 01:00 PM   #19
Fred Little
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Re: Aikido is a pair of ducks- tantric practices and aikido

Quote:
Don J. Modesto wrote: View Post
Not an expert but have done some reading.

As I understand it, sexual practice was only one small--and vigorously repudiated--school (Tachikawa ryu) in Japanese Tantrism.

Tantrism seems to imply a discipline using the imagination to find similarities amongst otherwise disparate phenomena: "I am the universe", e.g. and integrating them through meditation with MANDALA, MANTRA, and MUDRA, or, as the tantra promised, "Mind and body united." Sound familiar?

It was through such esoteric practice that profane practices such as poetry, carpentry, and the martial arts came to be regarded as proper venues for spiritual practice we now call MICHI (DO).

The history I've read seems to point in this direction, anyway. I don't know how much of Osensei's practice or Omoto was tantric. It is safe to say, however, that most of this influence is dying or dead.
Don is largely correct here.

The common feature of tantrism (whether Hindu, Buddhist, or Taoist, in whatever national cultural context) is the use of sacred sound, prescribed body position or movement, and visualization to achieve meditative unity of some sort.

In Japan, all of the forms of Buddhist tantra that involved ritual sexual practice are regarded as heterodox, not orthodox, Buddhist practice.

Some details of the Founder's esoteric practice can be inferred from records of his initiation into Shingon practices prior to the Founder's military deployment in the Russo-Japanese War, photographs of him praying using ritual gestures associated with particular tantric deities, and the kinds of structural parallels Don notes.

The Tibetan tantra which involve mandala or visualizations showing deities united in meditative coital bliss are generally considered part of the uttara or anuuttara class of tantras. This whole class of tantra seems to have arisen in India well after the three classes of tantra practice that were unquestionably transmitted to Japan -- the kriya, carya, and yoga tantra. Extant evidence to the contrary is almost entirely inferential or circumstantial, and is widely rejected by both Buddhist practitioners and academic scholars specializing in the topic.

To the extent that there were cults like the Tachikawa-ryu in Japan, the current consensus is that they were spontaneous local reworkings or reconfigurations of orthodox tantric practices, and as noted above, they are generally viewed as heterodox.

That said, it is also fair to note that Shingon Buddhism in particular -- and Japanese Buddhism more broadly -- has a strong current of "this-worldism" starting with the core doctrine of sokushin jobutsu, which is generally translated as "becoming a buddha in this very body."

In the context of concerns raised by Western practitioners about abuse of students by teachers allegedly promising spiritual benefit through sexual practice, HHDL suggested that the test for a qualified instructor capable of carrying out such practice in a skillful manner was whether he could retain equanimity whether offered a glass of beer or a glass of urine and drink either without distinction. He also suggested that ten to twenty years of practice of the so-called "lower tantras" (i.e. kriya tantra, carya tantra, and yoga tantra) was a necessary prerequisite for actualization of "higher tantra" practices of this kind.

That would make for a pretty short list of qualified teachers even in Tibet or Dharamsala, and an even shorter list in North America.

Conversely, in the past I have arranged for a number of people practicing with me to have the opportunity to receive initiation in the Gachirinkan, or "Full Moon Viewing" meditation, which is a comparatively open foundation practice found in both Shingon and Tendai Buddhism, and have personally found the practice efficacious in a number of respects, some of which are directly relevant to aikido practice.

Hope this helps.

Best,

FL
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