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Testing Shugendo's Secrets: A Translation of the Gyoja Mondo

  • Writer: koeiervin7
    koeiervin7
  • Aug 14
  • 9 min read

Updated: Aug 19


Konji-ji's Saito Goma fire ceremony
Konji-ji's Saito Goma fire ceremony

The Gyoja Mondo, or “Practitioner Questions and Answers,” are performed at the start of Saito Goma fire rituals. Now as in the past, these rituals are performed by Shugen practitioners as a way of sharing the merits cultivated in the mountains with communities. In the past, any authentic initiate of Shugendo was welcome to participate, as their presence was believed to enhance the potency of the ritual.


As a free lunch and a share of the donations were provided to each participant, what amounted to yamabushi cosplayers occasionally scammed their way into the assembly. As a way of preventing this, Yamabushi began memorizing and testing one another on essential sections of Yamabushi manuals that emerged in the Middle Ages. Prior to this, most Shugen teachings were transmitted orally between teachers and students or within practice communities, leading to huge local variations in teachings, tales, and rituals that had to be synthesized by the authors.


Though this information was originally highly secret, shared only with initiates, eventually the Mondo developed into a stylized ritual, shouted for anyone present (or anyone watching on YouTube, in recent years–see below) to hear. It makes for a very helpful introduction to the basics of Shugendo expressed through the framework of Esoteric Buddhism. There are a variety of versions of the Mondo practiced at different temples across Japan, but this version is the one I have studied and performed at Konji-ji, a Shingon temple in Tokushima Prefecture on Shikoku, and is shared with kind permission from the temple’s assistant head priest. Konji-ji is a well-known site for taki-gyo waterfall meditation, as well as a place to experience Goma fire ceremony. Check Konji-ji’s website (in Japanese) for more information.


See below for footnotes, and apologies for not being able to make them more navigable.


The “characters” of the Mondo are the Tabi no Gyoja, the “Traveling Practitioner,” (T) and the “Questioner” (Q).


You can see a doofus from Nebraska performing part of the Mondo at the beginning of the video, and the rest of Konji-ji's Goma.

The Gyoja Mondo: Practitioner Questions and Answers


T sounds the conch to announce his arrival.

Q sounds the conch to accept.


T: Let me in, I say, let me in! 


Q: Understood, understood. Traveling practitioner, on which mountain do you dwell?


T: I dwell at Busho-in in Mushashi Province, and I am wandering the provinces as an ascetic practice.


Q: What is the meaning of your coming to this mountain?


T: I understand that today on this mountain you will practice the Saito O-Goma¹ as a great 

rite in veneration of the Main Deity, and have come to request that I be allowed to join the assembly.


Q: If that’s so, according to the custom of this place of practice, I will first test you on the fundamentals of the Yamabushi Path. Answer every one clearly. First of all, what is the meaning of the name Yamabushi²? What is the meaning of Shugendo³?


T: Yamabushi is one who enters the mountain of the nature of reality and subdues the enemies of ignorance and defilement. Shugendo is the path of undertaking ascetic practices and manifesting the merits of the Dharma. 


Q: Well then, what of the founder of our Shugendo School?



An image of Shugen's founder, En no Gyoja, at Omine.
An image of Shugen's founder, En no Gyoja, at Omine.

T: Shugendo’s founder is En the Ascetic, Jinben Daibosatsu. Born in the sixth year of Emperor Kinmei, on the first day of the first month, in the village of Chihara in Yamato Province, at the age of nineteen he trained at Mt. Omine, subduing monstrous deities, and was inspired to pray to the Bodhisattva Nagarjuna at the falls of Minoo, upon which he received the deepest secrets of Shugen and opened the Thirty-Three Sites of Omine, and at the age of 68 he flew off from Mt. Tenjo.


Q: Well then, what of the Main Deity of our Shugendo School?


T: In totality I should say the Two Realms of the Diamond and Womb, in particular Dainichi Nyorai’s teaching manifestation: the Great Wrathful One, Fudo Myo-O. 


Q: Well then, what is the meaning of the Saito Goma offering?


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T: The Saito Goma was originally performed in advance of Entering the Mountains, and began with creating a boundary in the four directions and dwelling in the Samadhi of Fudo Myo-O in order to drive off poisonous serpents and evil demons and pray for the successful completion of Mountain Entry. That is to say, by taking the Wood of Ashuku in the East¹⁰, cutting it with the Sword of Amida in the West, piling it up on the Earth of Dainichi in the Center, setting it alight with the Wisdom Flame of Hosho in the South and burning the cordwood of defilement, pouring over it the Dharma Water of Shaka in the North and putting it out, venerating the Myriad Devas and Myriad Kami, we pray for the fulfillment of every petition.


A Nebraskan burns his feet in Shugendo garb
A Nebraskan burns his feet in Shugendo garb

Q: Well then, what of the meaning of the tokin [cap] you wear upon your forehead? 


T: The tokin is Dainichi Nyorai’s Crown of Fivefold Wisdom. Its shape is the shape of a Wish-Granting Gem, manifesting the total fulfillment of Fivefold Wisdom¹¹. Its twelve grooves are the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination¹², manifesting the wondrous Principle that the Three Evil Realms¹³ are, without any change, the Secret Storehouse of the Three Merits¹⁴, a sign of the nonduality of the nine modes of existence.


Q: Well then, what of the meaning of the suzukake?


T: It is a dharma-robe for Mountain Entry. Suzu [“bell”] is the Five-Prong Vajra Bell; this Seal is the Samadhi Form of Dainichi Nyorai, and its Dharma-stimulus is the very preaching of the Dharmakaya. Hanging [“kake”] this Treasure-Bell of the Nonarising A-syllable of Dainichi upon one’s collar, one practices and manifests the potency of the Sacred Mountain of Bodhisattva Practice, giving the robe its name.


Q: Well then, what of the meaning of the Yuigesa slung over your shoulders?


T: The Yuigesa is a Buddhist garment unique to Shugendo. As a folded nine-paneled robe it represents the nine assemblies of the nine realms, and with the practitioner as the Buddha Realm it represents the oneness of the Ten Realms¹⁵. Its three sections are the seal of the Triple Body. Its six adornments represent the Six Paramitas¹⁶. By these Six Paramitas the practitioner transforms to adapt to the Six Realms of rebirth. 


Q: Well then, what is the meaning of the Shakujo?


A trumpet player tries Buddhist percussion
A trumpet player tries Buddhist percussion

T: The Shakujo is the totality of the universe, the wisdom staff which awakens sentient beings to the Way. Of this there are three types. The four-ringed type symbolizing the Four Noble Truths is the Shakujo of the Sravakas. The twelve-ringed type, representing the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination, is the shakujo of the Pratyekabuddhas. The six-ring type, representing the Six Paramitas, is the shakujo of the Bodhisattvas. The sound of the shakujo startles sentient beings in the six realms of suffering in the three worlds into awakening from their delusive dreams.


Q: Well then, what of the meaning of the Kongozue, [the Vajra Staff]?


T: The Kongzue is the staff which possesses the deliverance of all sentient beings, and has the meaning of the Single-Prong Vajra. Since it is the Vajra which possesses the deliverance of sentient beings, it is called the Vajra Staff. According to the Denki, as the Stupa of the Nonduality of Vajra and Womb, it is the Samaya form of the Jimben Daibosatsu¹⁷.


Q: Well then, what of the Kaino-o, [“the Shell-shaped Rope”] tied around your hips?


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T: This is a rope for moving through the mountains, and is the figure of the harmonious origin of the two waters of the syllables RAM and VAM¹⁸. This is separated into five colors, blue, yellow, red, white, and black, which symbolize the Five Great [Elements] of Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, and Space. The left side is the Seal of the Womb [Realm] Dharma Wheel, and its length is twenty-one shaku¹⁹. The right side is the Wisdom of Non-arising of the Vajra Realm, and its length is sixteen shaku. The combined length of the two is thirty-seven shaku. This symbolizes the Thirty-seven Deities [of the Vajra Realm Mandala], which has the meaning of the fulfillment of cause and effect in the Principle and Wisdom of the Dharmakaya. 


Q: You are supposed to be a follower of the Buddhas, endowed with mercy, compassion, and patience, so what is the meaning of the sword on your hip?


T: This sword is itself, and is not a sword for harming humans or beasts. This sword, in which each and every one of the myriad kami reside, is the defilement and demon-subduing merit-sword of Fudo. Further, as a tool used in the Saito Goma, it is the obstruction-smashing, rope-like Dharma sword [which pulls beings toward the right path].


Q: Well then, what of your eight-looped waraji [straw sandals]?


T: They are the mind of treading on the Eight-Petaled Lotus Dais²⁰.


Q: Every answer since your coming has been correct, and there is no reason to doubt you. Now then, now then, you may enter! 


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¹ 柴燈大護摩 “Brushwood-light Great Goma.” The word goma is directly from the Sanskrit Homa, the ritual fire offering practiced since Vedic times and adopted into Buddhism in the medieval period. Unlike a typical Goma, where wood is piled and burned on a relatively small hearth within a temple, a Saito Goma is performed outdoors on a grand scale, with a pyre of logs and cut branches of the oily Japanese cedar or cypress piled over it.

² 山伏, made up of two characters, “Mountain,” and “Lie down.” While many sources interpret this as referring to the Yamabushi practice of mountain entry and veneration, here it refers to bringing of the causes of suffering to an end by confronting reality itself as an ascetic training ground.

³  修験道: Shu is an abbreviation of 修行 Shugyo, religious training; Ken an abbreviation of 験力 Kenriki, the spiritual potency acquired through training; and 道 means “path” or “way.” Thus Shugendo may be translated, “The Way of Practice and Potency” or “The Way of Cultivating Potency.”

Mumyo Bonno 無明煩悩: Literally “non-wisdom” and the Sino-Japanese for the Sanskrit klesas, afflicted states of mind. Shugendo, whose esoteric Buddhist framework is heavily intertwined with indigenous Japanese concepts of purity and impurity, thus the translation defilement.

神変大菩薩, “Divinely-transformed Great Bodhisattva,” a name bestowed upon En no Gyoja by the Emperor Kokaku in 1799.

634CE

This refers to the Dual Mandalas, the Vajra Realm (金剛界 Kongokai) and Womb Realm (胎蔵界 Taizokai), which together express the awakened nature of the universe itself itself. 

Dainichi Nyorai 大日如来, “The Great Sun Thus-Come One” (Sanskrit Mahavairocana Tathagata) is the awakened nature of the universe itself, his wisdom expressed in the Vajra Realm Mandala, and his compassion in the Womb Realm. Whether we realize it or not, all phenomena in the universe are endowed with Dainichi’s awakening just as the light of the sun touches everything equally. However, Dainichi takes on a wrathful form (教令輪身, “Manifestation for the purpose of teaching,”) in order to help the stubborn along the path toward Awakening.

不動明王, “The Unmoving Wisdom King” (Sanskrit Acalanatha Vidyaraja)

¹⁰ The list of deities and their directions are the Five Tathagatas of the Diamond Realm mandala, in this case manifesting themselves as the materials of the ritual. Fundamental to the understanding of Shugendo is the idea that there are no symbols; that is to say, tools and gear do not obliquely refer to deities and states of being. Rather, the deities and states of being manifest themselves as these tools in order to teach sentient beings. This idea will be useful in the next section on the different gear Yamabushi carry. 

¹¹  Dainichi’s wisdom manifests in five primary ways, just as white light can be split into different colors. These are the Wisdom of the Nature of the Universe (法界体性智 Hokkai Taisho-chi), the Wisdom of the Great Mirror (大円鏡 Daienkyo-chi), which sees all phenomena like reflections in a mirror; the Wisdom of the Nature of Equality (平等性智 Byodosho-chi), which understands that self and other are absolutely equal, the Wisdom of Wondrous Perception (妙観察智 Myokansatsu-chi), which correctly perceives reality, and the Wisdom which Brings About (成所作智 Joshosa-chi), which brings about benefits for self and other.

¹² The process by which things come into being from primordial ignorance: ignorance, formation, consciousness, name-and-form, sense faculties, contact with stimuli, sensation, craving, grasping, becoming, rebirth, old age and death.

¹³ Of the ten modes of rebirth, the three worst ones: hell-beings, hungry-ghosts, and animals.

¹⁴ The three qualities of Buddhas: the merit of Wisdom, the merit of Cutting Off Defilements, and the merit of Bestowing Blessing. In other words, without changing a thing, the worst modes of existence are absolutely equal to the most rarified qualities of the Buddhas themselves.

¹⁵ The Ten Realms are the Six Suffering Reals (Hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, fighting spirits, humans, and gods) and the Four Enlightened Realms (Sravakas, Pratyekabuddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Buddhas). In other words, the stole’s nine panels in combination with the body-mind of the practitioner represent that the realm of complete Awakening completely penetrates the nine realms of delusion.

¹⁶ Rokuharamitsu 六波羅蜜, the Six Perfections of Bodhisattva practice, namely Generosity, Ethics, Equanimity, Endurance, Concentration, and Wisdom. These Perfections form the foundation of both ordained and lay Buddhist practice, and make them the common ground on which Yamabushi, considered “half-monk-half-lay,” build the foundation of their practice.  

¹⁷ This line is a direct quote from Sokuden (1509-1589); the work he is referring to is not clear.

¹⁸ The first step in many Esoteric Buddhist rituals is the empowerment of water by the Sanskrit syllables RAM and VAM, the powers of fire and water, and then the sprinkling of this water on the practitioner and practice place. The wearing of these symbolizes the inherent purity of the practitioner because of their union with the origin of RAM and VAM: the non-arising A syllable of Dainichi Nyorai.

¹⁹ One shaku is 30 cm (about a foot).

²⁰ The central chamber of the Womb Realm Mandala.


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