Jokei's Monju Koshiki (Manjushri Litany)

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Losal Samten
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Jokei's Monju Koshiki (Manjushri Litany)

Post by Losal Samten »

Jōkei’s Monju Kōshiki in Five Parts trans. David Quinter

https://www.academia.edu/28079823/J%C5% ... ts_c._1196_
Lacking mindfulness, we commit every wrong. - Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche
འ༔ ཨ༔ ཧ༔ ཤ༔ ས༔ མ༔
ཨོཾ་ཧ་ནུ་པྷ་ཤ་བྷ་ར་ཧེ་ཡེ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ།།
ཨཱོཾ་མ་ཏྲི་མུ་ཡེ་སལེ་འདུ།།
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Heterodox Garden
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Re: Jokei's Monju Koshiki (Manjushri Litany)

Post by Heterodox Garden »

Oh what a treasure, thank you so much. There is so little on Jokei in English, particularly translations like this.

David Quinter is a mavelous scholar and I highly recommend his work on the Risshu revival, Japanese Manjusri studies in general, Manjusri contemplative practices and texts, and the brave Risshu monks who worked with medieval social outcastes. His writing is always a treat.

A lot of people are turned off by the Hosso/Yogacara idea of icchantika, sentient beings who supposedly innately lacked the proper karmic "seeds" (bija) to become Buddhas and that they were forever locked outside the possibility of enlightenment. This idea shocked (and continues to shock) Buddhists of just about every other sect, who take the potential for universal enlightenment of all sentient beings as a bedrock element of basic Dharma. At first glance it certainly sounds more like something from the mouth of a Calvinist Predestinist Christian, who holds that some people are just pre-ordained to suffer for eternity in hell and there is nothing that can be done for them. However, with skillful applications of Yogacara/Hosso analytic thought I'm convinced this is a superficial understanding and even the poor old icchantikas can attain Buddhahood. It's certainly been a contentious issue over the centuries, and that plus the dense and often bone-dry nature of Hosso epistomological writing tends to turn people off. (I can imagine generations of graduate students saying to themselves, "If I have to plow through something that abstruse I might as well study esoteric Buddhism, where at least I get to play with beautiful mandalas and implements and enact exciting, secretive rituals.")

So I think that there has never been enough scholarship done on Hosso theory, but I get the tingling intuitive sense this may be changing. (Or maybe I'm just deluding myself and it's just coincidence due to the fact that I've been reading a history of Kofukuji of late).

Regardless, Hosso theory deserves more treatment, particularly on the analytical level rather than "temple x jostling for power and money with temple y and aristocratic family z." That sort of thing has its place to be sure but GIMMIE THE DOCTRINAL MEAT ON THE BONE TOO, people. As a lazy consumer of texts and consummate layman who produces next to nothing original, I (with utmost respect of course) demand more translation and Hosso theology from the grad-student and professorial producers who I count on to feed my greedy yet lazy brain.

At any rate, for now at least, It looks like Quinter has delivered the goods, as he always does. Allow me to close with a round of applause and the crude neologism: MOAR!!!
Last edited by Heterodox Garden on Sat Sep 03, 2016 8:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
Recommended reading material of recent interest:
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http://gallerynyoze.web.fc2.com/syakyo.html
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