My Experience with the Shingon Fire Ritual

Recently while in Japan, a friend and reader named “Johnl” took me on a whirlwind tour of temples and shrines in Tokyo for a day, and the last trip was to a large Shingon Buddhist temple of the Daikakuji school that is actually not very well-known by Westerners due to its remote location in west Tokyo: Takahata Fudō Temple, or more properly known as Kongōji. I’ll post pictures about it in a related post, but for now I want to concentrate on just one aspect.

The temple’s main figure of devotion is a deity named Fudō Myōō (不動明王), one of the Vidyaraja or one of the “Wisdom Kings”. As stated in the link, this character is a fierce, but benevolent protect of Buddhism, whose flames purify ignorance and bad habits, and is an example of Buddhism’s all-inclusive ability to absorb and “buddhify” various divinities. More information about Fudo Myoo and the Goma ritual, as well as explanation of its significance, can be found here.

In any case, the temple of Kongoji holds daily observances of the important Shingon ritual of goma (護摩) mentioned briefly here (under “Synthesism” section). The ceremony is a lay-oriented ceremony (thus open to the public) and at this particular temple is held four times a day, due to corporate sponsoring (more on that later). I could not pass up the chance to see it at last. My experiences with Shingon Buddhism in Seattle have been very limited due to commuting and time issues, and I always managed to miss the “goma” ceremony there.

The ceremony began promptly enough in the main hall of the temple, where the altar was dark and candlelit, and the black statue of Fudō was prominent. Anyway, about twenty people had visited, with only me and “Johnl” as the only non-Japanese, though a few people came in late. We all sat or knelt in the lay person’s section, while the Shingon priests assembled.

Unfortunately at this time, the loudspeaker came up a couple times to remind us that such-and-such company had sponsored this ‘goma’ ritual, which I felt was a bit crass, but in all fairness I couldn’t even do this blog post if they hadn’t, so I can’t be ungrateful either.

As with all Shingon Buddhist altars, there is a large platform marked off for the sacred rituals, and the head-priest, dressed in purple knelt before it, while other priests dressed in green knelt to the left and right, and began chanting something I didn’t recognize. This particular color scheme of robes is particular to the Daikakuji subschool, from what I have been told previously. One priest was shaking ringed-staff at key points. I suspect the chanting was the public mantra to Fudō:

nōmaku sanmanda bazaradan senda makaroshada
sowataya un tarata kanman

…but I can’t confirm it. This part lasted for about five to ten minutes, while the head priest began to build a small fire in the space. During this time, most people sat quietly as curious onlookers, though I noticed at least one old lady seemed to be chanting along with them, word for word. Another lady prostrated deeply to the ground in prayer.

Then, the ritual shifted to a new phase as the fire started to build, and the chanting, before slow and monotonous, began to build in intensity. Now, one of the monks was beating a drum in a steady rhythm, which also built in intensity. As things reached a crescendo, one of the priests came forward and explained that people could line up and come into the inner altar area to make a prayer to Fudō if they wanted to. I couldn’t resist the opportunity, so I fell in line with the others. As we stepped through the door into the inner sanctum, another priest gave everyone a pinch of incense to spread on their hands and such as a kind of purification. By this time, I realized the intense chanting was none other than the Heart Sutra!

On the rare chances I could visit the Shingon temple in Seattle, a frequent part of the service was to chant the Heart Sutra, while people came up and offered incense to the altar. The chanting repeated over and over again until everyone had finished. Here, the service was more elaborate, but still essentially the same.

By now the fire the priest had built was quite large, and we walked single-file past Fudō’s statue, and as per Japanese religious tradition left a coin, and made a quick, solemn prayer. It happened very quickly, so I missed a lot of details, but the walls of the inner sanctum had lots of Buddhist art depicting Fudō, and the repeated chanting of the Heart Sutra continued over and over.

Finally everyone had their turn and we filed back out into the lay person’s area, and knelt again. The head priests took some large wooden planks, frequently used as charms in Japanese culture, and briefly fanned them over the flames, possibly for a special blessing by whomever requested it. Then almost abruptly the ceremony was over. I was a bit surprised as there was no Dharma Talk or anything I’ve seen in Buddhist ceremonies (including Shingon), but I was still pretty moved by the whole experience.

As strange as the ceremony may sound for some, I have to admit that for some reason as the ceremony first began, I found my mind became very calm and a great feeling of piety and compassion came over me. I found myself thinking over and over again things like “may all beings be well” or “may all beings be free from pain” and so on, vaguely recalling a beautiful passage from the Golden Light Sutra chapter 4 that I hadn’t recalled in years.¹

So, while the ritual itself may seem inscrutable and alien to those not familiar, Shingon Buddhism is one approach in Buddhism to actualizing noble states of wisdom and compassion, and somehow the ambience of the place really moved me that way for a time. Shingon Buddhism is definitely hard to explain in books, so you just have to see it for yourself in person.

While I personally have no sense of affinity² toward Fudō Myōō (as you can guess, I am drawn toward the Buddha of Infinite Light, Amitabha), the experience was unique, highly educational into Shingon esoteric Buddhism, and greatly humbling. I was very grateful for the experience, and would recommend anyone with the opportunity to visit Takahata Temple and/or attend a Goma Ritual if possible.

Namu Amida Butsu

Update: Corrections made thanks to input from a helpful source in the Shingon Buddhist community.

P.S. Still working on getting photos from the whole trip up, but wanted to write about this part early, due to the unique experience, while it was still fresh in my mind.

¹ The early part of Chapter 4 when the bodhisattva Ruchiraketu dreams of a drum of golden light and makes a long series of wishes like so:

By the sound of this majestic drum, May all beings be endowed with the melody of Brahma; May they touch the sublime enlightenment of buddhas; May they turn the virtuous wheel of the Dharma.

Remaining for inconceivable eons, May they teach the Dharma to guide migrating beings. Conquering delusion and overcoming affliction, May their attachment, hatred and ignorance be pacified.

² I suspect that many of the pious people there at the ceremony did have a karmic affinity with Fudō, and for that I wish them well on the Buddhist path.