Podcast appearances and mentions of tendai buddhist

In this episode, I speak to Reverend Shoshin Ichishima, abbot at the Senzoji Temple in Chiba-ken, Japan, and Professor Emeritus at Taisho University in Tokyo. Ichishima sensei is also the teacher or Monshin sensei, who I spoke to on episode 3 of this podcast. Ichishima sensei and I spoke on the day the Buddha's birthday is celebrated in Japan, talking about his experiences teaching Buddhism around the world, including a fire-ceremony that appeared in the local papers in San Fransisco, when it put an end to a drought. At eighty-two years old, Ichishima sensei is as active as ever, still guiding his students and disciples through the Tendai tradition. You can catch him through the weekly sessions at the Tendai Buddhist institute in New York through this website: https://www.tendai.org/

Intro It is good to have you with us,  Peter Malinoski, clinical psychologist  Weekly Podcast Interior Integration for Catholics  Part of our Online outreach Souls and Hearts and soulsandhearts.com  Which is all about your human formation, all about shoring up your natural foundation for a solid Catholic spiritual life.   Episode 66 Acceptance vs. Endorsement: A Critical Difference in Catholic Marriages.    we are in the middle of a series on Sexuality in Catholic Marriages, but there is so much in here that is relevant about all kinds of close relationships.   Where have we been?  Review the bed -- remember this canopied marriage bed represents the sexual life of a married Catholic couple.   The floor -- The Presence of God and His Providence -- everything begins here.  This is the most fundamental piece of the whole metaphor.  We need to be in contact with "I AM" with God who is the source of all reality.  We can't forget that The four legs Leg 1 -- the husband's commitment to his own interior integration and his own human formation  Leg 2.  the wife's commitment to her own interior integration, her own human formation  Leg 3.  Understanding Attachment needs and integrity needs.   Leg 4.  Internal Family Systems  -- Episode 60 --  How well do you really know your spouse?  In that episode, I made five bold assertions: You don't really know your spouse.   Your spouse doesn't really know you.   Your Father doesn't or didn't really know your mother  Your mother doesn't or didn't really know your father  And you don't really know you.   Gave evidence for those bold claims are likely, not going to repeat all that evidence here, you can go to Episode 60 and listen to them again.   For those of you listeners who are married: Can seem like spouse have such widely varying modes of operating  like they can be even different people when they are in these different modes of being.  Remember what your spouse or someone close to you is like when they are different states -- like when they are really angry, or really sad, or really anxious or really happy.  How different they think, how their worldview changes in these different states.   what we call parts:  Parts are constellations of emotions, body sensations, thoughts, feelings, impulses, assumptions about the world and so many other things.   Internal Family Systems thinking help us to make sense of our own internal experience and others' internal experience, breaking us out of the model that we have just one monolithic, homogenous personality.   That's what episodes 60 and 61 are all about   Surprising how not integrated the husband's internal object representations of his wife are -- surprising how unintegrated a wife's internal object representation of her husband can be.  How confused.   Definition time with Dr. Pete,  Definition of internal object -- Roots in Freud, really developed my Melanie Klein: Internal object refers to the mental representation that results from how we have taken others inside of us and viewed them.  Not necessarily similar to who the person actually is, it's how we construe the person to be, which depends heavily on our subjective experiences, including how we experience ourselves.  Two dimensional -- sometimes even one dimensional You are the person who is supposed to make me feel better about myself, help me avoid shame   Fragmented  How much husbands and wives don't see in and about each other.     Three of these four legs are really helpful in accepting what the actual realities are inside your spouse.   The fourth one is great to have, but it's not as essential.  It's the one that we sometimes require first, though Just tell me what's going on -- assumption that she knows what's going on.  90% unconscious.   Sometimes she just cant.   The frame and the box spring -- the firm, unwavering commitment of the husband his marriage vows and the wife to her marriage vows -- separately.  Independently The mattress  Empathetic attunement -- covered that in episode 65, last episode   Two pillows:  Self-acceptance and Spouse-acceptance -- this is what we are focusing on today.   Pillows support us, comfort us.   Great security with pillows Pam travels with her pillow -- learned this from her friend Cabrina -- comfort in having your own pillow  Comfort in being accepted by someone who knows you.   Bottom Sheet:  sexual attraction, the intensity of sexual passion Top Sheet:  Communication between the spouses The blankets:  human warmth, emotional connection Four Bedposts -- imagine two spiral intertwined, like the double-helix structure of DNA Mindset  Heartset  Bodyset  Soulset   The canopy and the curtains -- to protect privacy and propriety or to hide dysfunction, exploitation, even abuse.   The sham, the bedspread, and the bedskirt -- Used to cover up the real bed, give an impression of the state of married life to the world.   Lay of the land:   Loving -- three elements:  Benevolence, Capacity, Commitment/Consistency Not only do we not understand our spouses very well We also don't accept the realities about our spouses that we do understand  or the realities that we could understand if we allowed ourselves to see. But so often we parts that don't want us to see who our spouses really are.   Some of that is due to confusion between acceptance and endorsement.   Acceptance vs. endorsement -- Definitions Acceptance -- acknowledging the reality of who I am in my entirety, all my parts with their burdens, all the roughness, the wounds, the disorder, the imperfections, all the baggage, all the "stuff."  It means admitting, conceding all the things that are really true about myself.    acknowledging the reality who my spouse Pam is, in her entirety, in her complete being, with her parts, with her perspectives, with her virtues her vices.  Right at this moment  Endorsement on the other hand.  means essentially approving or embracing as good some feature within myself or my spouse.  So husband can accept the idea that his wife is abusing painkillers without endorsing her misuse of pain medication.   Why we struggle with accepting something about our spouse, even when we know we don't have to endorse it  Strong motivation to not see our spouses as they really are To not see the injuries, the deficiencies, the disorder, the areas of stunted development -- how wounded they really are.   If we saw all those things, how would I get me needs met from my spouse? Needs for mommy, daddy  Needs for God?  Broken idols  Not gonna happen   Can be very difficult our parts to give up their illusions about the meaning and function of our spouse in our lives Parts want to be redeemed  Parts want to be loved  Parts want to have hope that things will be better in the future, that there is light at the end of the tunnel  We want to outsource the messy business of learning to accept and love ourselves.  But no one can do that for us, no one can take our place in loving ourselves in an ordered way.   So there is this tendency toward idealization of our spouses But when parts are disappointed, devaluation.  Pendulum swings the other way.   So much this is outside our awareness We could say it's unconscious   Parts are impelling us to try to get our needs met, parts are acting with good intentions, in ways we don't realize Often very maladaptive   When they do that, they tend to bring about the exact opposite of what they hope for e.g. make spouse God -- the intention is to find safety and security  But that breaks down.   God loves us, and he is jealous for us, takes our idols away   Often no outside perspective   Sometimes we are motivated by our own parts to stick our heads in the sand and not see.  Like an ostrich.  OK, so I looked up the ostrich thing.  I suspected maybe that ostriches were getting a bad rap.  In reality, Ostriches don't bury their heads in the sand when they feel threatened.  That's a myth.  The make their nests in holes they dig in the earth and the ostrich hen puts her head in the hole and turns the eggs. So it can look like the birds are burying their heads in the sand.  -- little zoological fact for today Where were we?  Yes, so often we have parts that don't want us to see who our spouses really are.  The ostrich metaphor didn't work out, so let's talk about monkey, instead.  Three monkeys  Three monkeys named Mizaru, Kikazaru, Iwazaru who are about 400 years old.  We're talking about some old monkeys here.   Mizaru -- hands over his eyes Kikazaru -- hands over his ears Iwazaru -- hands over his mouth.   See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no Evil:   From wikipedia:  The source that popularized this pictorial maxim is a 17th-century carving over a door of the famous Tōshō-gū shrine in Nikkō, Japan. The carvings at Tōshō-gū Shrine were carved by Hidari Jingoro, and believed to have incorporated Confucius's Code of Conduct, using the monkey as a way to depict man's life cycle. There are a total of eight panels, and the iconic three wise monkeys picture comes from panel 2. The philosophy, however, probably originally came to Japan with a Tendai-Buddhist legend, from China in the 8th century (Nara Period). It has been suggested that the figures represent the three dogmas of the so-called middle school of the sect.  We can be like those monkeys, but not motivated by social harmony like in Confucianism.   Motivated by defensive self-protection.   If I don't see it, if I don't hear it, I don't have to deal with it.  I don't have to acknowledge it, I don't have to address it.   Denial Avoidance Withdrawal James 4:11-12  11 Do not speak evil against one another, brethren. He that speaks evil against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you that you judge your neighbor? If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.   Acceptance without judging the soul of another  Not judging self -- soul St. Paul --  I don't judge myself.  1 Cor. 4:3 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. I do not even judge myself.   Not judging others' souls -- our spouse's souls We don't really know them   Cautions to new therapists Often tempted to align with the client's parts against a spouse.   We can and often should judge behavior.  Catholic Theologian Edward Sri - Who Am I to Judge?: Responding to Relativism with Logic and Love -- excellent book.   We can and often need to judge actions Some are obviously wrong and easily identifiable as bad.   Affairs Drinking and drug use Sexual abuse of children Violence Financial irresponsibility -- gambling, compulsive shopping Some are not so obvious Gaslighting  Psychological Manipulation  My experience with cults  Subtle abandonment, undermining  Subtle shaming   Need for limits and boundaries Near occasion of sin   Complicated when we've been punished for having emotions or desires -- no distance.  Lots of misunderstanding -- bad spiritual advice  e.g. Fr. Tadeusz Dajczer -- p. 130 "The Gift of Faith"  -- imprimatur "Anxiety and sadness are always bad and always flow from self-love."  Nonsense  1769 In the Christian life, the Holy Spirit himself accomplishes his work by mobilizing the whole being, with all its sorrows, fears and sadness, as is visible in the Lord's agony and passion. Jesus was anxious -- he was like us in all things but sin.  St. Paul.  Garden of Gethsemane  Mark 14:32-34  And they went to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” 33 And he took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. 34 And he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch.”[d] 35  Luke 22:  And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony, he prayed the longer. 44 And his sweat became as drops of blood, trickling down upon the ground.   WebMD Hematidrosis, or hematohidrosis, is a very rare medical condition that causes you to ooze or sweat blood from your skin when you're not cut or injured. Doctors don't know exactly what triggers hematidrosis, in part because it's so rare. They think it could be related to your body's "fight or flight" response. Tiny blood vessels in the skin break open. The blood inside them may get squeezed out through sweat glands, or there might be unusual little pockets within the structure of your skin. These could collect the blood and let it leak into follicles (where the hair grows) or on to the skin's surface. Research suggests that tiny blood vessels that cause bloody sweat are more likely to rupture under intense stress. The stress can be physical, psychological, or both. Jesus was sad Lazarus  -- John 11:33-36  Jesus wept over Lazarus  33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved[e] in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34 And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”  Wept over Jerusalem -- Luke 19:41   Mary, conceived without original sin was anxious -- searching for the 12 year old Jesus. Reflects a failure to understand the human person and a failure to understand human formation.   CCC on emotions.  1763 The term "passions" belongs to the Christian patrimony. Feelings or passions are emotions or movements of the sensitive appetite that incline us to act or not to act in regard to something felt or imagined to be good or evil.  1764 The passions are natural components of the human psyche; they form the passageway and ensure the connection between the life of the senses and the life of the mind. Our Lord called man's heart the source from which the passions spring.40 Anxiety and Sadness are emotions.  Emotions don't carry a moral weight in and of themselves. 1767 In themselves passions are neither good nor evil. They are morally qualified only to the extent that they effectively engage reason and will.  We may have parts of us that hate other parts of us Catholics often have parts that hate their spouses.  I mean hate.  Can be really threatening to think that my spouse hates me.  Easier and more accurate to accept that a part of my spouse hates me.   What carries the moral weight is what we do with our emotions Hatred as an emotion  Hatred as a position.   Bad idea not to accept that they exist -- if we see them as "bad." parts of us are tempted to suppress them Revenge of the repressed.   Same thing with desires, impulses, attitudes, intentions, thoughts Case of scrupulosity   How it leads to self-absorption, difficult loving each other  Battle royale inside among parts  Sympathy   Limits Catechism on Marriage  1643:  "Conjugal love involves a totality, in which all the elements of the person enter - appeal of the body and instinct, power of feeling and affectivity, aspiration of the spirit and of will. It aims at a deeply personal unity, a unity that, beyond union in one flesh, leads to forming one heart and soul; CCC 1770 Moral perfection consists in man's being moved to the good not by his will alone, but also by his sensitive appetite, as in the words of the psalm: "My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God."46 But we are wounded.   You are gravely wounded Your spouse is gravely wounded.   Two gravely wounded people together Apollo 13 scene -- describe it.  Kevin Bacon and  Tom Hanks release the service module form the command module.  damage to the service module as it was jettisoned from the Command module.   In the desert.  -- Bring in some Fr. Dajczer here.   Signs of non-acceptance of another person.   Too much focus on the spouse -- the spouses actions, the spouses thoughts, emotions, almost exclusively external perspective so that there is not a balance between a focus on the other and a focus on me.   Too much of a focus on systems -- the back and forth.   Systemic problems -- problems between spouse rather than within spouses -- e.g. communication He just doesn't know how to put his love into words  Communication issues  We just don't match up very well, we're not in synch.   Time  Dwelling in the past She never used to be this way  Living in the golden years, pining for the  Flying to the future If I change this thing about myself, or if we do marital therapy, my husband will be so much better in the future   It will be better when We move to a real house from this little apartment  When we have our first child  When he gets a promotion and there's not so much financial stress  When the last kid gets into school and we're not always changing diapers  When the last one graduates and we are through the tumultuous teenagers at home phase  When we retire.   How much am I in the present when thinking about my spouse   Harboring bitterness, nurturing it, feeding grievances.   Resignation vs. acceptance Resignation -- downheartedness and lack of hope for change.   Certainty in the descriptions of the other spouse Broad generalizations of the other spouse -- untempered, not nuanced, not appreciating the different dimensions and parts of the spouse.   Lack of openness to new or deeper perspectives -- clinging to current assumptions Spouse is fearfully and wonderfully made.   Two-dimensional representations He's withdrawn and silent, he doesn't talk, we're just like roomates, he has no emotions.   One-dimensional representations He's a narcissist.   Pendulum swings upon discovery.   Loss of a sense of Providence.  This is the floor -- the rock solid foundation is your childlike trust in God's Providence And like other little children, you be imperfect, not do thing well, and make mistakes and still be cherished and loved by God.   Some with an intellectual understanding of Providence But it's just head knowledge   We have parts that feels safer if they are driving our bus, if they are in control.   Acceptance in the sex life.   Is among the trickiest if not the most tricky area in the marriage.   We will discuss this more next week.   Recommendations Let's go a lot deeper.  Have the courage.  Have the trust that your needs will be met, not necessarily by your spouse, but by others, including God and Mary.   Letting go of assumptions -- some of them very handy, seem helpful, seem like they explain things -- but they may not be true.  Filtered thr ough our lenses, through our parts' perspectives.   Prayer:   My Lord, My Lady, I accept whatever is in my spouse as reality.   Lord, what would you have me to see, understand, and accept in my spouse.   Why, Lord, are you showing me this new thing about my spouse now, at this point in my life? Time each day to consider your spouse -- think of her, think of him Write about her, about him -- putting experiences into words.    Break up patterns - mix it up, try new things  -- new behaviors  Being a sounding board -- putting experience into words with another person.  A fresh set of eyes.   Pilgrimage  Human formation We all need help  We all need structure  We all need support.   Relaunch discussion.   Get on the waiting list -- soulsandhearts.com/rcc  more than 100 on the waiting list so far.   Mark your calendars  Tuesday, May 25 from 7:30 to 8:45 PM meeting about the RCC reopening, Q&A.  -- that meeting will be on our landing page -- register for it.  Also the link will go out in our next email to our waitlist which will be sent on Tuesday, May 4 Ad for a researcher, dissertation -- student  Second Wednesday Zoom Meeting Wednesday May 12 7:30 PM to 8:45 PM -Time - that one is all about the changes in the community.  Conversation hours Tuesday and Thursday May 4 and 6 -- 4:30 PM to 5:30 PM Eastern time  

Hosted by filmmaker Yujiro Seki, Carving the Divine TV is a series of Q&A sessions with Buddhist scholars and practitioners. These Q&A sessions explore the basic concepts of Buddhism and the history of Buddhism so that when viewers finally watch Carving the Divine they will get the maximum value of the documentary. Today, we will be talking about Tendai Buddhism with a special guest Rev. Monshin Paul B. N. Naamon. That’s right! We have another practitioner’s episode! Tendai Buddhism is one of the earliest Buddhism sects in Japan that went beyond the Buddhism of novelty and aristocracy. Out of Tendai, many subsequent sects of Japanese Buddhism emerged! Yes, without doubt, it’s one of the important Buddhist sects in Japan… Even today! We will be asking important questions such as: What is Tendai Buddhism? What is the brief history of Tendai Buddhism? Why is Tendai Buddhism called syncretic Buddhism?Who is Rev. Saicho (Dengyo Daishi)? What is the difference between Shingon and Tendai? What is lotus sutra and why is it important? What is the most important Buddhist deity in Tendai Buddhism?What is the Tendai view of Butsuzo (Buddhist statuary)? Reverend Monshin Paul B. N. Naamon is the Jushoku (Abbot) of Jiunzan Tendai-ji, of Tendai Buddhist Institute, a Tendai Buddhist temple, teaching, retreat, and meditation center, located in the Berkshire foothills in upstate New York. It is also the Tendai-shu New York Betsuin (Branch temple of Enryakuji), the Head Temple of Tendai Buddhism in North America. He was an interdisciplinary professor, in Buddhism, East Asian studies, and biomedical anthropology at Bard College at Simon’s Rock, in Great Barrington, MA. He retired from college teaching in 2016. He is the author of professional papers and articles in human biology, anthropology, Buddhism and Japanese culture, in Japan and the U.S. http://www.tendai.org/Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/carvingthedivine)

Clark Chilson‘s new book, Secrecy’s Power: Covert Shin Buddhists in Japan and Contradictions of Concealment (University of Hawai’i Press, 2014) examines secret groups of Shin (i.e., True Pure Land Buddhist) practitioners from the thirteenth century onward, but focuses primarily on the past 150 years. Although today at least thirty different lineages of secret Shin continue to operate, with a total estimated membership numbering in the tens of thousands, because they have been so successful at hiding (a technique they have perfected over a period of centuries), few scholars are even aware of their existence. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork that he conducted from 1998 onward and a number of reports written by mainstream Shin monks who infiltrated these groups or researchers who befriended them, Chilson explains why certain groups concealed their doctrines and practices (and even existence) and, more importantly, reveals the long-term consequences that secrecy had on these groups.In addition, Chilson provides an in-depth theoretical introduction, showing that scholarship on secrecy has too often conflated different types of secrecy (e.g., esotericism and social secrecy), a problem that is particularly vexing in the case of Japanese religion, in which the influence of esoteric Buddhism is so pervasive.Rather than simply confining such theoretical concerns to the introduction and conclusion, Chilson skillfully weaves issues related to concealment into the fabric of each chapter, explaining how the case studies he presents illustrate this or that function or consequence of secrecy. Chilson distinguishes between two types of covert Shin groups–those that went into hiding due to persecution, and those in which secrecy was an integral element from their very genesis–and outlines the similarities and differences between the two. While much scholarship on secrecy in religion has focused on why groups have secrets in the first place (e.g., to avoid persecution) and on secrecy’s personal power (e.g., personal authority, or the power to avoid detection), Chilson draws our attention instead to how concealment influences the structure, doctrines, and practices of these groups, and to the way in which secrecy, at first a consciously wielded instrument, is eventually incorporated so thoroughly into a tradition that its power becomes structural, a force controlled by no single person but which pervades the group and becomes central to its identity.In this way, Chilson answers the question that many readers will want to ask: why did the practice of secrecy continue in persecuted groups once the threat of persecution had subsided? On a fascinating journey that takes us from Shinran’s thirteenth-century admonition of his eldest son for claiming to possess secret teachings, to a twenty-first-century covert Shin leader who worries about the dwindling number of adherents, we hear of secret caves in southern Kyushu used for clandestine worship, dietary proscriptions of chicken and milk, punishment of covert Shin members in northeastern Japan (ranging from promises to abandon covert Shin to crucifixion), and a covert Shin group whose members associated themselves with the KÅ«yadÅ and became ordained Tendai Buddhist priests in order to deflect suspicion.In addition, through access to groups that few scholars have been granted, Chilson describes in detail many of the initiation rituals and teachings at the center of certain covert Shin groups, all the while addressing the ethical dilemmas that researchers studying secret groups face. This book will be of particular interest to those researching or interested in Jōdo shin shÅ« (Japanese True Pure Land Buddhism), secrecy in religion, secret societies, Edo-period regulation of religious groups, modern Japanese religion, and religious identity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Clark Chilson‘s new book, Secrecy’s Power: Covert Shin Buddhists in Japan and Contradictions of Concealment (University of Hawai’i Press, 2014) examines secret groups of Shin (i.e., True Pure Land Buddhist) practitioners from the thirteenth century onward, but focuses primarily on the past 150 years. Although today at least thirty different lineages of secret Shin continue to operate, with a total estimated membership numbering in the tens of thousands, because they have been so successful at hiding (a technique they have perfected over a period of centuries), few scholars are even aware of their existence. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork that he conducted from 1998 onward and a number of reports written by mainstream Shin monks who infiltrated these groups or researchers who befriended them, Chilson explains why certain groups concealed their doctrines and practices (and even existence) and, more importantly, reveals the long-term consequences that secrecy had on these groups.In addition, Chilson provides an in-depth theoretical introduction, showing that scholarship on secrecy has too often conflated different types of secrecy (e.g., esotericism and social secrecy), a problem that is particularly vexing in the case of Japanese religion, in which the influence of esoteric Buddhism is so pervasive.Rather than simply confining such theoretical concerns to the introduction and conclusion, Chilson skillfully weaves issues related to concealment into the fabric of each chapter, explaining how the case studies he presents illustrate this or that function or consequence of secrecy. Chilson distinguishes between two types of covert Shin groups–those that went into hiding due to persecution, and those in which secrecy was an integral element from their very genesis–and outlines the similarities and differences between the two. While much scholarship on secrecy in religion has focused on why groups have secrets in the first place (e.g., to avoid persecution) and on secrecy’s personal power (e.g., personal authority, or the power to avoid detection), Chilson draws our attention instead to how concealment influences the structure, doctrines, and practices of these groups, and to the way in which secrecy, at first a consciously wielded instrument, is eventually incorporated so thoroughly into a tradition that its power becomes structural, a force controlled by no single person but which pervades the group and becomes central to its identity.In this way, Chilson answers the question that many readers will want to ask: why did the practice of secrecy continue in persecuted groups once the threat of persecution had subsided? On a fascinating journey that takes us from Shinran’s thirteenth-century admonition of his eldest son for claiming to possess secret teachings, to a twenty-first-century covert Shin leader who worries about the dwindling number of adherents, we hear of secret caves in southern Kyushu used for clandestine worship, dietary proscriptions of chicken and milk, punishment of covert Shin members in northeastern Japan (ranging from promises to abandon covert Shin to crucifixion), and a covert Shin group whose members associated themselves with the KÅ«yadÅ and became ordained Tendai Buddhist priests in order to deflect suspicion.In addition, through access to groups that few scholars have been granted, Chilson describes in detail many of the initiation rituals and teachings at the center of certain covert Shin groups, all the while addressing the ethical dilemmas that researchers studying secret groups face. This book will be of particular interest to those researching or interested in Jōdo shin shÅ« (Japanese True Pure Land Buddhism), secrecy in religion, secret societies, Edo-period regulation of religious groups, modern Japanese religion, and religious identity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Clark Chilson‘s new book, Secrecy’s Power: Covert Shin Buddhists in Japan and Contradictions of Concealment (University of Hawai’i Press, 2014) examines secret groups of Shin (i.e., True Pure Land Buddhist) practitioners from the thirteenth century onward, but focuses primarily on the past 150 years. Although today at least thirty different lineages of secret Shin continue to operate, with a total estimated membership numbering in the tens of thousands, because they have been so successful at hiding (a technique they have perfected over a period of centuries), few scholars are even aware of their existence. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork that he conducted from 1998 onward and a number of reports written by mainstream Shin monks who infiltrated these groups or researchers who befriended them, Chilson explains why certain groups concealed their doctrines and practices (and even existence) and, more importantly, reveals the long-term consequences that secrecy had on these groups.In addition, Chilson provides an in-depth theoretical introduction, showing that scholarship on secrecy has too often conflated different types of secrecy (e.g., esotericism and social secrecy), a problem that is particularly vexing in the case of Japanese religion, in which the influence of esoteric Buddhism is so pervasive.Rather than simply confining such theoretical concerns to the introduction and conclusion, Chilson skillfully weaves issues related to concealment into the fabric of each chapter, explaining how the case studies he presents illustrate this or that function or consequence of secrecy. Chilson distinguishes between two types of covert Shin groups–those that went into hiding due to persecution, and those in which secrecy was an integral element from their very genesis–and outlines the similarities and differences between the two. While much scholarship on secrecy in religion has focused on why groups have secrets in the first place (e.g., to avoid persecution) and on secrecy’s personal power (e.g., personal authority, or the power to avoid detection), Chilson draws our attention instead to how concealment influences the structure, doctrines, and practices of these groups, and to the way in which secrecy, at first a consciously wielded instrument, is eventually incorporated so thoroughly into a tradition that its power becomes structural, a force controlled by no single person but which pervades the group and becomes central to its identity.In this way, Chilson answers the question that many readers will want to ask: why did the practice of secrecy continue in persecuted groups once the threat of persecution had subsided? On a fascinating journey that takes us from Shinran’s thirteenth-century admonition of his eldest son for claiming to possess secret teachings, to a twenty-first-century covert Shin leader who worries about the dwindling number of adherents, we hear of secret caves in southern Kyushu used for clandestine worship, dietary proscriptions of chicken and milk, punishment of covert Shin members in northeastern Japan (ranging from promises to abandon covert Shin to crucifixion), and a covert Shin group whose members associated themselves with the KÅ«yadÅ and became ordained Tendai Buddhist priests in order to deflect suspicion.In addition, through access to groups that few scholars have been granted, Chilson describes in detail many of the initiation rituals and teachings at the center of certain covert Shin groups, all the while addressing the ethical dilemmas that researchers studying secret groups face. This book will be of particular interest to those researching or interested in Jōdo shin shÅ« (Japanese True Pure Land Buddhism), secrecy in religion, secret societies, Edo-period regulation of religious groups, modern Japanese religion, and religious identity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Clark Chilson‘s new book, Secrecy’s Power: Covert Shin Buddhists in Japan and Contradictions of Concealment (University of Hawai’i Press, 2014) examines secret groups of Shin (i.e., True Pure Land Buddhist) practitioners from the thirteenth century onward, but focuses primarily on the past 150 years. Although today at least thirty different lineages of secret Shin continue to operate, with a total estimated membership numbering in the tens of thousands, because they have been so successful at hiding (a technique they have perfected over a period of centuries), few scholars are even aware of their existence. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork that he conducted from 1998 onward and a number of reports written by mainstream Shin monks who infiltrated these groups or researchers who befriended them, Chilson explains why certain groups concealed their doctrines and practices (and even existence) and, more importantly, reveals the long-term consequences that secrecy had on these groups.In addition, Chilson provides an in-depth theoretical introduction, showing that scholarship on secrecy has too often conflated different types of secrecy (e.g., esotericism and social secrecy), a problem that is particularly vexing in the case of Japanese religion, in which the influence of esoteric Buddhism is so pervasive.Rather than simply confining such theoretical concerns to the introduction and conclusion, Chilson skillfully weaves issues related to concealment into the fabric of each chapter, explaining how the case studies he presents illustrate this or that function or consequence of secrecy. Chilson distinguishes between two types of covert Shin groups–those that went into hiding due to persecution, and those in which secrecy was an integral element from their very genesis–and outlines the similarities and differences between the two. While much scholarship on secrecy in religion has focused on why groups have secrets in the first place (e.g., to avoid persecution) and on secrecy’s personal power (e.g., personal authority, or the power to avoid detection), Chilson draws our attention instead to how concealment influences the structure, doctrines, and practices of these groups, and to the way in which secrecy, at first a consciously wielded instrument, is eventually incorporated so thoroughly into a tradition that its power becomes structural, a force controlled by no single person but which pervades the group and becomes central to its identity.In this way, Chilson answers the question that many readers will want to ask: why did the practice of secrecy continue in persecuted groups once the threat of persecution had subsided? On a fascinating journey that takes us from Shinran’s thirteenth-century admonition of his eldest son for claiming to possess secret teachings, to a twenty-first-century covert Shin leader who worries about the dwindling number of adherents, we hear of secret caves in southern Kyushu used for clandestine worship, dietary proscriptions of chicken and milk, punishment of covert Shin members in northeastern Japan (ranging from promises to abandon covert Shin to crucifixion), and a covert Shin group whose members associated themselves with the KÅ«yadÅ and became ordained Tendai Buddhist priests in order to deflect suspicion.In addition, through access to groups that few scholars have been granted, Chilson describes in detail many of the initiation rituals and teachings at the center of certain covert Shin groups, all the while addressing the ethical dilemmas that researchers studying secret groups face. This book will be of particular interest to those researching or interested in Jōdo shin shÅ« (Japanese True Pure Land Buddhism), secrecy in religion, secret societies, Edo-period regulation of religious groups, modern Japanese religion, and religious identity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices