As mentioned in the last article, in ancient times, most ninjas were fanatics of esoteric religion. Although many ninjas don't practice esoteric Buddhism deliberately, they are instilled with esoteric Buddhism from birth, and later they will unconsciously indulge in it and be influenced to some extent.
The so-called tantra is relative to Buddhism, which is the characteristic of Buddhism in the late ancient India and the product of the combination of Buddhism and Hinduism. In terms of genre, it can be divided into three parts, namely, the esoteric school representing Indian and China esoteric schools, the esoteric school improved and evolved after China esoteric school spread to Japan, and the esoteric school of Tibet. During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, three Indian tantric masters, Samamitabha, Vajrayana and Sanzang, came to China, and they passed on the tantric teachings. At the end of the Song Dynasty and the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, the tantric religion brought into Tibet by the Mongols merged with the local Lamaism to form tantric religion. During the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, the court thought that the tantra was too weird, so it was abolished, so the tantra gradually declined in the Central Plains, but in the late Tang Dynasty, the tantra spread to Japan from the master of the air sea. Tantric Sect regards Piluchana (that is, the sun is coming, and the famous Kamakura Buddha is Piluchana) as the supreme commander and the founder of religion, and strongly advocates inheritance, mantras and secret spells. Another major feature of tantric Buddhism is that the human body has many mysteries and potentials. Only through the unremitting efforts of Tantric Buddhism can the yogi bring his full potential into play, let the body communicate with the universe, and reach the realm of harmony between man and nature, which coincides with the ultimate body technique pursued by ninja.
"Three secret blessings" is an important part of tantric practice. Including body secret-handprint deed, language secret-mouth praise truth, meaning secret-heart view respect Buddha.
The main method of body secret is to "knot fingerprints". Simply put, it is the practice of crossing hands and fingers to form different shapes and cooperating with imagination. There are thousands of tantric handprints, each of which has a special meaning and function, such as: auspicious seal, King Kong Dahui seal, big wheel altar seal, magic seal, Bao Guan Bao Bao seal, light fireworks seal, bound thinking seal, quasi-nine-headed dragon seal and so on. Although some handprints have the same name, their shapes are quite different. For example, the seal of King Kong armor is a kind of demon-seeking protection (for example, if you imagine it as an armor with a clear seal, you will burn a flame on yourself and the disgusting demon will fly away). Ninja nine seals are: exclusive seal, Daikin steel wheel seal, external lion seal, internal lion seal, external binding seal, internal binding seal, knowledge seal, Japanese wheel seal and invisible seal.
As far as Dongmi is concerned, it can produce the effect of blessing practitioners through the combination of ten fingers and the idea of psychological imagination, which conforms to certain practice and forms different "handprints" with each other. Tantric theory holds that hands and fingers are externally connected with the Buddha nature of Buddhism and internally connected with internal organs. Therefore, when practicing Buddhism, the formation of "handprints" can inspire each other with the body secrets of buddhas and bodhisattvas that have been achieved in Buddhism, and increase the quick effect, just like gaining the divine power of the Buddha itself.
Besides handprints, there are all kinds of sitting postures, which are as diverse and meaningful as handprints. In full meditation, "auspicious sitting" and "magic sitting" are two kinds that ninjas often practice. Ninja usually needs to cooperate with the "incense" in the Five Classics of Ninja (detailed in later chapters) to practice the spirit of auspicious sitting and devil sitting.
Secret language, also known as mantras, is to create something in the mind of the practitioner by reciting a string of mantras and urge it to change. This special note is used to vibrate the qi pulse in the body, and the idea is concentrated on one point, forming extraordinary potential and inspiring magical power and high wisdom. The number of mantras of tantric schools is as varied as handprints, such as: Fire Mantra, Curse, Four Heavenly Kings Mantra, Golden Winged Bird Mantra, Luo Cha Mantra, Luo Cha Mantra, Blessing Sentence Mantra, Samadha Mantra, Immortality Mantra, King Kong Armor Mantra, etc. , and there are five-character mantra and six-character mantra (very famous in China). ), manjusri mantra.
Ninja's mantra of "facing, fighting, fighting, having, fighting, being fierce, having, and going forward" is the mantra of the nine mandalas in Dongmi. Tomi incantations are mainly pronounced according to the combination of sounds and rhythms of ancient Indian Sanskrit letters. However, the incantations handed down from Tomi Avenue in Kameyama, Japan, have generally become Sanskrit with Japanese pronunciation. It is a very complicated problem to study the phonology of tantric spells in detail now. However, unlike the six-character mantra of Tibetan secrets, which originated from Sanskrit in ancient India, the nine characters of "pro, soldier, dou, zhe, Jing, Zhen, Lie, Zai and Qian" originated from the Taoist classic Bao Puzi in the Eastern Jin Dynasty in China. Everyone knows that Bao Puzi is a Taoist classic, which is divided into two parts: inside and outside. The inner part mainly introduces Taoist alchemy, forbidden art and health preservation, while the outer part is related to military strategy and political theory. The nine-character mantra comes from "Bao Puzi, Inner Chapter, Deng She".
There are many forbidden arts in Taoism in China, which are also called "forbidden laws". Taoism believes that ghosts and poisonous insects and beasts can be suppressed. The forbidden art cover originated from the early Qi Shu and Fu Shu, which only appeared at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. It can be divided into two categories: Ban Qi and Curse Class. It involves a variety of contents, from traveling in the cloud for rain, expelling insects and avoiding disasters to inviting ghosts to send spirits. One of them is the "calling the wind and thunder to control ghosts and gods" that Tiangou has been pursuing. This article about the nine-character mantra in Bao Puzi belongs to the curse. The original text is: "When you enter the mountain, you should know the secret wishes of six families. Wish:' All those who get cold feet are marching forward', and all nine words should be secretly wished all the time. When crossing the river, I wish: "The wind is rolling, Hebo leads the dragon, and it is difficult to wipe the sky. ".The Japanese changed this a little, and it became what we see now.
From the practice method of Tantric chanting, it uses a special note to vibrate the qi pulse inside the body, so that it radiates the potential of life, becomes a role beyond ordinary phenomena, enters the mysterious field, and even inspires magical power and high wisdom. Therefore, there are different spells in the three secrets of the East Secret, such as King Kong, Fetal Tibetan and Lotus, which enable practitioners to achieve different effects for different purposes. From this point of view, the biggest focus of tantric mantra is the relationship between sound and human pulse, which is purely a mysterious function beyond physics.
The secret of meaning is the most important part of the "Three Secret Blessings". In the whole process of practicing the secret method, whether it is body secret or language secret, it depends on meaning secret to play its role. The secret of meaning leads to the potential of consciousness through "visualization" and reaches the realm of transcendence. As mentioned earlier, the nine-character mantra of Ninjutsu is a secret technique of self-hypnosis, just like a magician hypnotizes an assistant in a modern magic show and says, "You are holding a stick." At this time, even if someone stood on the assistant's suspended body, he didn't know. One meter uses the process of sticking fingerprints and praising the truth to concentrate and paralyze yourself. He made the ninja excited, made him forget the pain in the battle for a while, and completely turned into a killing machine running at full capacity.
The most basic classics of Dongmi are Sun Sutra and King Kong Ding Jing. Through the basic principles mentioned in these two classic works, we can know that human beings have self-instinct beyond the universe. As a warrior engaged in the special occupation of ninja, every battle is a life-and-death struggle. Since it is a life-and-death struggle, I certainly hope to exert my full potential to fight for survival. At this time, I need a catalyst that can stimulate my spiritual pillar and make my body fully function. Nine-character mantra just meets this demand, so it is highly respected by ninjas.
After learning about the "three secret blessings" of Tantric Buddhism, I think everyone should understand the reason why ninjas must print, recite scriptures and concentrate their thoughts before each battle.