修験道の入峰修行におけるシンボリズム(橋本孝先生古希記念論文集)

概要

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橋本孝先生古希記念論文集The purpose of the mountain austerities of shugendo is to awake the Buddha-Nature which man is believed to possess by nature, by practising austerities in a sacred mountain. (Sokushin-Sokubutsu = 即身成仏) The rites of mountain austerities are the products of religious device for the achievement of this goal. Generally speaking, predecessors have interpreted these rites by linking them to the process of attainment of the Buddha-Nature and called them Jikkai-Shugyo = 十界修行. However, through participation in the mountain austerities of Mt Omine and Mt Haguro we have recognized a motif of death and rebirth in a series of symbolic actions in the mountain austerities of shugendo ; shugenja, a mountain ascetic, is dressed in clothes which symbolize the dead, pushes down Bonten, a sacred staff with cut paper, to symbolize sextual intercoruse, and enter into the place for training which symbolizes a mother's womb. Then they practise Jikkai-Shugyo and are given their new name. When all these rites are over, they practise a rite of birth in which they mimic the first cry of a new born babe. In this way the mountain austerities of shugendo betrays such a mechanism that the significance of Jikkai-Shugyo for the attainment of the Buddha-Nature may be enhanced with these symbols of death and rebirth, an essential motif in our life.