The problems related with self-cultivation and the body have already been discussed in various ways in the history of religious studies. First, the author provides an overview of problems in the framework of belief and knowledge/practice, as well as the spirit and the body. Second, he deals with Yuasa Yasuo's theory of the body as one of self-cultivation. One of its characteristics is that it insists that the essence of Eastern self-cultivation assumes the unity of body and mind. From this perspective the author analyses Saigyo's verses on the Buddhist teachings and texts. He illuminates Saigyo's religious view of nature through the concepts of the mind, the moon, and the west in the Buddhist context. Although Saigyo led a life enchanted by the cherry blossoms and the moon, his images of the moon were also put in the context of Buddhist teachings, and it was especially related to the Esoteric Buddhist visualization called "moon-disk visualization" (gachirin-kan). The author discusses the idea that Saigyo develops his images of the moon according to the various teachings of Buddhism.

View full abstract

This text considers "religion, austerities, and the body" from a theoretical as well as practical viewpoint, and considers the problem in terms of its meaning for the present age. The origin of religious austerities can be found in hunting skills, and the Shugendo tradition that developed in the Japanese islands carries this genealogy. Religious austerities arose out of the life-and-death struggle for inner transformation and transcendence. It meant controlling our bodies and minds, asking about one's own origin, and thinking out the training method for integration with gods and buddhas and nature. I will consider the essence and some aspects of such training, and discuss a part of my own Higashiyama Shugendo practice.

View full abstract

Shugyo, a Japanese term for spiritual exercise or asceticism, is a key term in Religious Studies in Japan. However, it seems difficult to analyze ascetic or meditation practices in established Theravada Buddhism in contemporary Thailand using the term shugyo, especially in the narrow sense of shugyo. On the other hand, in the case of Thammakai or Dhammkaya temple that have newly appeared as a Theravada Buddhist group in Thailand, it is easy to apply the narrow meaning of shugyo to the practice of this temple. This article analyses these two types of religious practices with reference to the term shugyo. For this purpose, at first, the three characteristics of the narrow meaning of shugyo are mentioned. Then the problems of these characteristics are clarified when these are applied to the practices in Theravada Buddhism. Some of the characteristics of shugyo can be applied to the theoretical theme of "Body and Space" in the case of Thammakai temple. However it needs a different point of view to understand the meaning of the broad sense of shugyo, which includes ascetic or meditation practices in established Theravada Buddhism. In order to find this new point of view, the theoretical theme of "Shugyo and Time" are argued with the comparison of ritual and shugyo.

View full abstract

The aim of this article is to shed some light on the significance of "body" in religious life in Western Christianity, and to present some aspects of it comparable to the "Oriental" or Japanese religious practices called gyo (or shugyo). First I emphasize the strong tendency to mind-body dualism throughout the history of Western religiosity, notwithstanding the Christian dogma of incarnation that implies the essential significance of "bodiliness" for human existence. It is mainly in the medieval and early modern monastic tradition that rich practices and speculations about body in the religious life can be observed. In them I tentatively distinguish four attitudes toward body, according to the evaluation of and concern for it: the attitude 1) that evaluates the bodiliness of human existence negatively and concerns it actively (vita ascetica) , 2) that evaluates it positively and concerns it actively {vita activa), 3) that evaluates it negatively and concerns it passively {vita contemplativa) , and 4) that evaluates it positively and to concerns it passively (vita mirabilis), illustrating each of them by cases from 16th and 17th century Spanish monks and nuns, especially that of Peter of Alcantara and Teresa of Avila. In the conclusion the argument is focused on the fourth attitude, in which the body is significant, not for the religious themselves but for others who observe it and receive a deep impression from it.

View full abstract