It has traditionally been understood that after Kukai passed away, the maintenance and management of Shingon-shu was handed over to Jichie _??__??_, who became the Toji choja _??__??__??__??_on the tenth day of the fifth month of 836. This has been based on a complete acceptance of the details provided in such works as Toji choja shidai _??__??__??__??__??__??_ and Toji choja bunin _??__??__??__??__??__??_ although in ninth and tenth century public documents and historical records the Toji choja is not mentioned. The first extant historical appearance is in Kukai's Yuigo nijugokajo _??__??__??__??__??__??__??_of the of the mid-tenth century, which is treated as his last will (hereafter referred to by the common name, Goyuigo _??__??__??_). The next citation is in the Shingon fuho sanyosho _??__??__??__??__??__??__??_ of Seison _??__??_, which was written in the eleventh month of 1060.
In this report I first extracted and examined all the instances of the terms Toji choja and choja from the Goyuigo. As a result, four characteristics were observed: (1) Jichie as the (first) Toji choja, (2) the person first appointed as sogo _??__??_ is to be called the Toji choja regardless of years of monastic seniority, (3) several passages indicate the understanding that the Toji choja is the zasu dai-ajariya _??__??__??__??__??__??__??_, who is the zasu dai-betto _??__??__??__??__??_, and (4) the Toji choja is in charge of: (a) the maintenance of the sutra repository of To-ji, (b) serving as the dai-ajari of officially sponsored kanjo-e _??__??__??_, (c) the examinations and ordinations of the yearly ordinands, (d) maintenance and management of Gufuku-ji _??__??__??_, and (e) maintenance and management of Kongobu-ji, _??__??__??__??_.
Next, I examined the first three earliest historical documents in which the word choja appears: Daigo tenno goki _??__??__??__??__??__??_, Benkan no kudashibumi _??__??__??__??_, and Sanjuchosakushi kanmon _??__??__??__??__??__??__??_. All were written in the eleventh month of 919, and the following three characteristics were noted: (1) all three use terms such as shu no choja _??__??__??_, shu no cho _??__??__??_, daidai shu no choja _??__??__??__??__??_, shingon choja ajari _??__??__??__??__??__??__??_, and monto sogo shu no choja _??__??__??__??__??__??__??__??_; (2) it is possible to treat the position of shuchoja as having already been established by 919; and (3) this shuchoja is the general representative and head of all of Shingon-shu.
Finally, I searched for uses of the term Toji betto _??__??__??__??_ based on the fact that jige bettor _??__??__??__??_ had already been positioned in temples nationwide. I located three such records for the late ninth century. The first use in the Toji geyujoan _??__??__??__??__??__??_ referred to Shinzen _??__??_, and was dated on the twenty-fourth day of the fifth month of 888.
Based on the above findings, the process of establishing the choja of To-ji-the overall head of Shingon-shu-proceeded in five stages as follows: zo To ji shobetto _??__??__??__??__??__??_→denbo ajari _??__??__??__??__??_→toji betto _??__??__??__??_(jige betto _??__??__??__??_)→shu no choja _??__??__??_→Toji choja_??__??__??__??_. In other words, passing through the historical usages of zo Toji shobetto in Kukai's day, the denbo ajari of Jichie and Shin zei's _??__??_ time, Toji betto of Shinzen's time, and shuchoja of Kangen's _??__??_ day, at the time of the completion of the Goyuigo in the midtenth century the usage may be assumed to have been Toji choja.

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In 2006 the term spiritual was extremely popular on Japanese television. The paranormal entertainment culture that had demonstrated a decline following the incidents concerning AUM Shinrikyo in 1995 regained opularity. In the background of this cultural popularity, however, was the emergence of a spiritual phenomenon over a much longer time span. If this may be called the New Spirituality Culture, it had already shown signs of emerging in the 1970s. At the time there was a pronounced desire for a utopian future in the culture mainly borne by the young, and this trend expanded in its social support base to permeate all levels of society. The field of care is representative of this, and the need for spirituality within all systems inclusive of medical care, education, and psychotherapy was recognized. In the background were the social circumstances of increased possibilities for encountering difficult problems within the dismemberment of communities and isolation of individuals. Put differently, the life collectivity of individuals became less robust. Such threats to life were felt to be brought on by modern civilization, and awareness of the limitations of modern civilization increased. Simultaneously, people's expectation towards religion increased, but in the developed countries the trend was to expect more of spirituality than of religions. It is important to understand the increasing interest in the field of terminal care within such trend.

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Terms like spiritual and spirituality are receiving unprecedented attention in Japan today. There is no doubt that the popularity of these words is connected with some unique (probably cross-cultural) social phenomenon. In English these terms have gone through some transformation and expansion in their range of usage: (1) the monastic spirituality of Christianity, (2) the inner spirituality of Christians in general, (3) the spirituality of other religions, and (4) extrareligious spirituality or the new spirituality. The Japanese, the term reisei _??_??__ was first used by such Shinto thinkers as URABE Kanetomo in the Kamakura period and HIRATA Atsutane in the Edo period to describe the human essence. SUZUKI Daisetsu applied this usage to Buddhism in discussing the transcending of the dualism of the mental and physical. In modern Japan, terms like spiritual and spirituality rendered in katakana are used with characteristic nuances in a wide variety of areas. For example, in the fields of medicine and welfare they are related to ideas of the meaning and purpose of life, and in psychiatry and psychotherapy they are often used in the senses of self-transcending or self-actualization.
A decisive turning point in this study will be achieved by examining the root term spirit, and the Japanese terms that correspond to it, including rei _??_ or tama. The linguistic root of the word spirit (ruah, pneuma, spiritus) is connected with wind or the breath, from which it acquires the sense of an intrinsic principle of life. The Chinese character rei _??_ originally refers to the descent of a deity into a priestess when praying for rain, and the meaning of the native Japanese word tama is a kind of free-floating spirit that is accompanied by a perfectly round mental image. Both of these concern inner realities of a different order than the physical or corporeal. From the point of view of a trichotomy of spirit, mind, and body that recognizes the innateness of spirit, three separate uses of the term spiritual can be discerned: the innermost dimension of man, activities that return to that point, and conversely activities that emerge from that point. The possibility of establishing a philosophical anthropology of spirituality is deeply intertwined with a fundamental transition to a view that treats the spirit as the innermost structural dimension of man.

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In recent years, new terms and concepts have been created in the field of religion in an attempt to understand the diversification of religious phenomena. On the basis of Amos 8: 11-12, which states, “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it, ” the paper will propose a new perspective to understand this flood of words in academic discourse that continues unabated in Japan today.
In particular, the incommunicativity between the prophet Amos and the people, as described in the text, is resulting from the conceptual gap between the desires of the autonomous spirit of the people who search for a satisfaction in the meaning of the words of prophecy, and the claims of the heteronomous spirit of the prophets who want the people to obey the order of God in action. In light of this gap, the longing for new terminology to explain modern religious phenomena in Japan can be understood as a parallel with a hunger for the autonomous spirit of the ancient Israelites as described in Amos 8: 11-12; their hungers should last as long as it lacks a sensitivity to the heteronomous spirit of obeying the word of God.
With the above understanding of the issue, in search for the ways of the autonomous spirit which do not reject the demands of the heteronomous spirit, the paper will explore preliminarily a possibility of the model-based thinking claimed by Adin Steinsaltz on Judaism and the language sense of the Talmud. As an example of the model-based thinking, the paper will focus on the dispute in Talmud related to conversion and circumcision in order to illustrate a contrast of the model-based thinking of Judaism with the definition-based thinking by philosophers in general.
The conclusion of the paper will be that when discussing life, a definition-based thinking ultimately proceeds first from a definition and therefore is not an adequate way for discussing the secrets of nature (the ineffable) such as the marvels of life. What we should be pursuing instead is a reevaluation of the heteronomous spirit of religions which commands an awareness of the issue of life. It will help one to understand the limits of modern ethical debates regarding life and to direct the pursuit of philosophical definitions of “Life” toward the concrete respect of “Life” rather than the sets of highly abstracted concepts which are fundamentally nothing but a formalized oblivion of modern ethical problems.

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The transmission of the Dafoding tuoluoni _??__??__??__??__??__??_ in Shingon Buddhism dates back to Vajrabodhi (671-741). Vajrabodhi learned this dharani in India and brought it to China, where he wrote the Xinyi fanhan dafoding tuoluoni _??__??__??__??__??__??__??__??__??__??_ Amoghavajra (705-774) met Huiguo _??__??_ (746-806), and was deeply impressed by his promising talent. Amoghavajra orally taught Huiguo the Dafoding tuoluoni and the Dasuiqiu tuoluoni _??__??__??__??__??__??_ in Sanskrit. Huiguo displayed marvelous results upon reciting these, surprising all. Kukai _??__??_ (774-835) received from Huiguo the Sanskrit texts and Chinese transliteration of these, and returned with them to Japan. Among the three courses for yearly ordinands _??__??__??__??_, he included the Dafoding tuoluoni and Dasuiqiu tuoluoni in the shomyo-go _??__??__??_, thus establishing them within Shingon-shu. Subsequently, Engyo _??__??_ (79 9-852), Eun _??__??_ (798-869), Jogyo _??__??_ (?-866), and Shuei _??__??_ (809-884) all brought buddhosnisa-related texts to Japan. These were carefully transmitted by Shinzei _??__??_ (800-860), Shunnyu _??__??_ (890-953), GOho _??__??_ (1306-1362), Kakudo _??__??_ (1500-1527), Jogon _??__??_ (1639-1702), Renta _??__??_ (1663-1726), Jiun _??__??_ (1718-1804), Shozen _??__??_ (1676-1763), Yuten _??__??_ (?-1915), and others. The Dafoding tuoluoni was recited daily in Shingon-shu probably until about the middle of the twentieth century.
The Zhu dafoding zhenyan _??__??__??__??__??__??_ has been described as the composition of Nanchu _??__??_, (?-847) of Tendai. This paper will demonstrate that it was imported to Japan by Engyo but not including in his catalogue, and will also introduce commentary that places the Dafoding tuoluoni among the five *buddhosnisa. Based on that classification, the author will discuss the content of the Dafoding tuoluoni, and as a result describe its nature as strongly of the abhicaraka type.

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In the theory of the ten bhumi in the Dasabhumika-sutra, the stages after the eighth are called anabhoga (non-endeavor) and are clearly distinguished from the prior seven stages. It may be assumed that the key to understanding this may lie in adhisthana.
Attention is drawn to a term appearing in the opening section of the eighth stage, svadhisthita-tathagatadhisthana, which refers to the bodhisattvas who receive the adhisthana of the tathagatas. These bodhisattvas are grounded in the purva-pranidhanadhisthana, or adhisthana as the original vow following from the tathagatas. These bodhisattvas, who now possess for the first time the power of their vows having attained anutpada-dharma-ksanti on the eighth stage, receive the jñanabhinirharamukha of the tathagatas, and having done so shift to unrestricted bodhisattva practices. This can also be considered an aspect of adhisthana. Even after they begin their unrestricted activities, the adhisthana of the tathagatas forms the basis for the bodhisattvas' activities which are by themselves ineffectual. This is seen in several passages as the basis of the eighth stage.
Next, two meanings may be conceived of for the adhitisthati that manifests through the unrestricted activities of the bodhisattvas: (1) determination, or (2) establishing. For (1), to guide beings in the correct direction in the bhajana-loka, the bodhisattvas change their own forms (svakaya) to conform with that of particular beings. In other words, it is the determination of the bodhisattvas to change their appearance through the power of their vows, and accordingly such bodies arise (adhitisthati). On the other hand, (2) on the basis of the bodhisattvas' wisdom and insight they perceive that their own bodies and the bodies of all sentient beings are the same and attain the realization of the identity of self and other. The bodhisattvas for the first time attain their true role in liberating beings through the power of their vows. The bodhisattva's body is established (adhitisthati) without restrictions among the bodies of the sentient beings and all the ten bodies. Reaching this level of unimpeded practice, the bodhisattvas lose all sense of relativity and can engage in all aspects of non-discriminating bodhisattva practice.
As outlined above, two aspects are explained in the text: that of the ineffectuality of the eighth stage, and the adhisthana of the tathagatas and the unrestricted practice of the bodhisattvas based on that.

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