This was some years ago but I believe it was in Taoist Meditation and Longevity Techniques ed. Livia Kohn, University of Michigan 1989Agreed! I want to hear more about this.
Rory, do you remember what book Kohn says this in?
gassho
Rory
This was some years ago but I believe it was in Taoist Meditation and Longevity Techniques ed. Livia Kohn, University of Michigan 1989Agreed! I want to hear more about this.
Rory, do you remember what book Kohn says this in?
I asked my wife about the Daoism connection. She knew about these paintings and practices but was not sure if and how they might be related to practices in Japan.
I'm just reading Ryuichi Abe's dissertation "From Kukai to Kakuban" and he says early in, that when Kukai brought esoteric practices back to Japan from China in the 6th century they were deemed exotic and foreign but they subsequently have entirely permeated Japanese culture to today; Shugendo, goma rituals etc He also talks about ritual and performance and esoteric theory. I do think you need to read about this to really understand how much transmission of various intellectual currents was going on. Kakuban the great reviver of Shingon consciously used Daoist elements and of course in the Heian period Chinese geomancy (feng-shui) was also common.Queequeg wrote: ↑Mon Apr 09, 2018 4:03 pm
As I mentioned above, esoteric sensibilities, along with other influences that would seem foreign to our materialistic assumptions about reality, permeated pre-modern Japanese culture. Its hard to delineate what is Buddhist, what comes from the native shaman traditions, what is Daoist, etc. In this respect, Yamabushi are really interesting - they are one of these unique intersections outside the formal institutions that seamlessly incorporate various influences in something that is unmistakably Japanese.
I was researching about Jainism today, and I came across these paintings called "Tirtha Patas". They are maps/paintings of pilgrimage sites used in place of actual pilgrimage, apparently these Patas exist in Hinduism and Buddhism as well. I wonder if this is the same thing as those "mandaras" you mentioned.Queequeg wrote: ↑Mon Apr 09, 2018 4:03 pm I asked my wife about the Daoism connection. She knew about these paintings and practices but was not sure if and how they might be related to practices in Japan.
Speculating on my part, the manner of interaction with the object is an imaginative journey into a real landscape does show similarities that might be closer than the nature of interaction with Mandala in Japanese Buddhism - as well as I understand it, which is not much at all.
Its not clear if the pilgrimage paintings were understood as symbols or 'extensions' of the actual place. In the case of the Kasuga Shrine paintings, it seems that the paintings were not mere symbols, but actually were extensions of the place.
As I mentioned above, esoteric sensibilities, along with other influences that would seem foreign to our materialistic assumptions about reality, permeated pre-modern Japanese culture. Its hard to delineate what is Buddhist, what comes from the native shaman traditions, what is Daoist, etc. In this respect, Yamabushi are really interesting - they are one of these unique intersections outside the formal institutions that seamlessly incorporate various influences in something that is unmistakably Japanese.
Did you edit your post? There was a link to an article... I passed that on to my wife and she is now very intrigued. She is going to follow up on that lead. You might get a footnote in an academic paper!Varis wrote: ↑Fri May 04, 2018 3:49 am I was researching about Jainism today, and I came across these paintings called "Tirtha Patas". They are maps/paintings of pilgrimage sites used in place of actual pilgrimage, apparently these Patas exist in Hinduism and Buddhism as well. I wonder if this is the same thing as those "mandaras" you mentioned.
Yes, I was going to replace it later with an academic article on the subject. I hope your wife finds something interesting!