Cielesność w tradycji shingon, japońskiej szkoły buddyzmu ezoterycznego

In Buddhist teachings, a human body is often regarded as an obstacle in religious practice, due to the fact that bodily passions are a source of attachment to worldliness. Buddha taught that there is no separate, unchanging self and therefore the experience of a ‘no-self’ state is a necessary condition for attaining Enlightenment. No-attachment to the self was often understood as no-attachment to one’s body and as a readiness to sacrifice one’s life. Many Japanese Buddhists have propagated a negative image of the human body, as can be testified by Ōjōyōshū (The Essentials of Rebirth in Pure Land), a treatise written by a Tendai monk, Genshin (942-1017). Under the influence of Blood Bowl Sutra (Jpn. Ketsubonkyō; Chin. Xuepanjing), the female body was perceived as especially impure, as it is polluted by menstrual or childbirth blood. In this article the author tries to answer the question, why in Shingon, contrary to other Japanese Buddhists sects, is a human body not treated as an obstacle in religious practice. The key term ‘the mystery of the body’ (Jpn. Shinmitsu) was explained in the context of the theory of ‘attaining Enlightenment in this very existence’ (Jpn. Sokushin jōbutsu). Special attention was directed at the possibility of the transformation of bodily passions into a desire for Enlightenment during religious practice.