dontTranslate-intro-open-book
Chapter 3
Beyond the Struggles with My Teacher
1 My Teacher — The Chief Disciple of Master Myōsyoshi
At that time, the teacher from whom I learned directly
was Reverend Kagen Tominaga—
the foremost disciple of Master Myōsyoshi,
and also a survivor of the Kamikaze special attack corps.
(That makes me, in a sense, Master Myōsyoshi’s “grand-disciple.”)
Later, I was ordained into the Jōdo sect (Pure Land Buddhism) by Reverend Kōgo Yamanoue."
After the war, Reverend Tominaga withdrew into the mountains,
where he devoted himself to study so deeply that he read through the entire Buddhist canon—5,600 volumes in all.
He was a grand-disciple of the saintly master Bennei Shōnin,
and traveled throughout Japan as a missionary of the Kōmyōkai,
spreading the Dharma wherever he went.
2 Training and Inner Conflict at the Dōjō
At that time, the practice of Spiritual and Dharmic Dedication (Reikō)
based on Master Myōsyoshi’s teachings
was being carried out widely in temples and dōjōs across Japan.
At the Tokyo Dōjō, the guiding teacher was the wife
whom Master Myōsyoshi had married late in his life—
a woman of remarkable spiritual ability.
By a fortunate connection, I too had the opportunity
to train under her there.
However—
there was one difficulty.
She began to see me as a potential successor
to carry on the Dharma gate.
I couldn’t bear the weight of that expectation.
Caught between guilt for not being able to fulfill her hopes
and the inner conflict that followed,
I ultimately chose to follow Reverend Kagen Tominaga.
3 Conflict with My Teacher — “You Should Stop Practicing Spiritual Dedication”
One day, my teacher suddenly said to me:
“No matter how hard I try, Master Myōsyoshi’s teachings
simply cannot be reconciled with traditional Buddhism.
I’ve spent twenty-five years trying to find a way to make them fit.
…But it’s no use. I’m giving it up.
You should stop as well.”
—What a shock it was.
To be told to abandon Spiritual transference—
the very practice that had transformed my life at its deepest level,
that had given me my direct experience of awakening—
was almost unimaginable.
4 The Silent Baton Passed On
After that, I followed my teacher’s guidance
and devoted myself solely to traditional Buddhist practice.
Yet—no matter how earnestly I practiced,
I could not re-experience that overwhelming sense of reality
I had once known through Spiritual transference.
On the contrary,
spirits seeking salvation continued to approach me one after another,
and the heaviness of mind and body remained.
Conventional Buddhist practice could not address these spiritual issues.
And yet, I could not bring myself
to ignore my teacher’s words: “Stop practicing it.”
In the end, I found myself carrying alone
the very challenge Master Myōsyoshi had left unresolved—
how to unite Spiritual and Dharmic Dedication
with the principles of Buddhism.
Looking back now, I realize—
that was the silent baton
handed to me by Reverend Kagen Tominaga.
5 Forty Years of Struggle
Indeed, as my teacher had said,
there were aspects of that visualization of the honzon—the principal object of devotion—
that were difficult to reconcile with traditional Buddhism.
And yet—
I could never deny the truth of my own spiritual experiences:
their unmistakable power,
and the living sense of the Great Spirit of the Universe’s boundless love.
Even so,
the words “You should stop practicing Spiritual Dedication”
remained lodged in my heart for many years,
like a small but unyielding thorn.
So, I had no choice
but to confront this challenge head-on,
struggling and wrestling with it through the years.
—The “baton” I had received from Reverend Kagen Tominaga
was, in truth, an exceedingly heavy one.
6 Where Is the Scriptural Basis?
In Buddhism, it has always been the tradition
that every teaching must be founded upon the scriptures.
Even when a new school is established,
this principle is no exception.
For example, Hōnen Shōnin grounded his teachings
on a passage from the writings of Master Shandao,
and upon the Three Pure Land Sutras,
through which he founded the Jōdo-shū (Pure Land School).
Nichiren Shōnin, likewise,
based his doctrine squarely upon the Lotus Sutra.
However, Master Myōsyoshi never spoke of any scriptural basis
for his teaching of Spiritual transference.
That, in fact, was one of the reasons
why Reverend Kagen Tominaga eventually abandoned the practice.
So I continued to search—
for the sutra that could serve as the foundation
for Spiritual transference.
And at last, I realized—
it had been right before me all along,
hidden in plain sight, like “darkness beneath the lighthouse.”
Within the Sutra of Infinite Life (Muryōju-kyō)
there is a passage describing how the Buddhas
save suffering spirits in every realm:
“Even those who have fallen into the realms of animals, hungry ghosts, or hell—
if they encounter this Light, they shall all find peace;
their suffering will vanish, and they shall be delivered into the Pure Land.”
— The Sutra of Infinite Life, Chapter on the Praise of the Tathāgata’s Light
(paraphrased translation)
Conflict with the Philosophy of Emptiness
The problem was not just about scriptural authority.
What made it even more difficult was the question of how to reconcile the core teaching of Mahayana Buddhism — the philosophy of emptiness (śūnyatā) — with the practice of spiritual transference (ekō).
In the practice of spiritual transference, one recognizes various spirits through the act of objectification and carries out their salvation.
However, this stands in complete opposition to the standpoint that
“all phenomena are empty.”
How could I overcome this contradiction?
For me, it was truly a matter of life and death.
Columbus’s Egg — The Insight of Esoteric Buddhism
After a long period of hesitation, I suddenly realized something one day.
It struck me that Esoteric Buddhism, too, actually interprets the philosophy of emptiness in a reversed way.
I recalled a passage from The Sutra of the Supreme Wisdom (Rishukyō).
There, the Heart Sutra’s notion of “emptiness” is applied to the five senses — sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch — yet all of them are revered as the very stages of the Bodhisattva.
In that moment,
“Ah, I see!” — my long-held doubt melted away.
It was not about denying the existence of the
spiritual world as empty,
but about perceiving the spiritual world as
a manifestation of emptiness.
That was it — that was the key.
I felt a deep sense of relief.
To others, it might have seemed like a trivial realization.
But to me, it was an answer I had discovered after years of struggle —
a true “Columbus’s egg” moment.
A Resolve Like Jumping Off a Cliff
Why did I suffer so much over it?
One reason was that I had to break the seal my teacher had placed upon me.
My teacher once said,
“If you follow a teaching that cannot be supported by the scriptures, you will fall into hell.”
“Eek!!”
Having read the terrifying depictions of hell in The Essentials for Rebirth (Ōjōyōshū),
I knew all too well how dreadful that could be.
What if I were to lead others down the wrong path,
and as a result, cause them to go astray?
Wouldn’t that mean not only I,
but also others, would be led into hell?
In the end, I had no choice but to make up my mind.
Even if this path turned out to be mistaken,
I would never let anyone else bear its karma.
I would take on all of that karma myself—
that was the resolve I came to.
And so,
with the wish that “it may be for the good of all beings,”
I ultimately had to cast aside my very self.
It was a resolve as if I were leaping off a cliff.
＊Ōjōyōshū (Essentials of Rebirth) — Written more than 1,000 years ago by the Buddhist monk Genshin. It vividly describes the realms of hell and paradise, almost as if he had seen them himself.
The Day the Door Opened
Though I had resolved myself,
I long believed it was impossible for others to directly experience
the method of spiritual transference.
But one day,
while teaching a technique in Tao Shiatsu, I decided to give it a try.
To my surprise, the students, too,
were able to feel and recognize the actual process of saving spirits.
At that moment,
I felt as though a long-closed door had quietly opened.
—The path to sharing spiritual transference
had finally been revealed.
7 In Search of a Universal Path — The Practice of Spiritual Transference
“Spiritual transference” (reiteki ekō)
is a discipline aimed at removing various mental and physical disturbances
caused by spiritual entities.
However—there was a challenge for me.
How could I systematize this practice
in a way that would not contradict traditional Buddhism,
and that would allow anyone to directly experience enlightenment?
And further,
how could I shape it into a form of practice
that transcends religion and culture,
so that all people could cultivate it together?
Before I knew it,
I had come to carry this theme as the very purpose of my life.
It was an endless quest,
with no way of knowing
when—or if—it would ever end.
When I look back now,
I realize I have been walking this path
for nearly half a century.
At the End of a Long Journey — The Birth of the “Hymn of the Flame of Hope”
At the end of that long journey, I finally arrived.
What I reached was the meditative method of “The Hymn of the Flame of Hope.”
At last,
I succeeded in systematizing the method of spiritual transference
while maintaining full consistency with the traditional philosophy of Buddhism.
Moreover,
it was free from attachment to any specific religion or doctrine,
possessing both universality and adaptability—
truly, a “Practice for the Sake of the World.”
The Lost Gate, the Inherited Dharma
In truth,
the Dharma Gate of Hōkai Ekō—the transference of merit within the Dharma realm—
once flourished throughout the country,
but now it has vanished without a trace.
No temples, no training halls—
not a single one remains.
And there is no one left
who speaks of Master Myōsyoshi or his practice of spiritual transference.
Yet—
through “The Hymn of the Flame of Hope” and its method,
the spiritual and Dharma-realm transference of merit discovered by Master Myōsyoshi
has found a new path to be shared with people all over the world.
It was both an ending,
and a new beginning.
Humanity now stands before
a new doorway to the spiritual age.
If we open that door—
there lies before us
a quiet path,
where all humankind may awaken together
and walk side by side.
Awakening to the Great Spirit of the Universe
Then—
once the door to the spiritual world opens,
what happens to our hearts and bodies?
What happened to me was this—
A sensation of becoming transparent,
as though light were passing freely through my entire being.
A sensation of body and heart dissolving
into the Great Love of
the Great Spirit of
the Universe.
Every single cell gently vibrating with joy,
resonating with a deep sense of bliss.
And a profound peace—
the peace of entrusting everything completely
to a greater power.
The Body Sensation of Enlightenment
I came to call this transformation of body and heart
“The Body Sensation of Enlightenment.”
Not because I thought,
“I have become enlightened!”
Rather, because my experience
echoed those of spiritual practitioners
and religious seekers throughout the ages.
(I will explain this in greater detail later,
but by “Body Sensation” I do not mean
the ordinary sense of touch.
It is something perceived in an entirely
different field of awareness.)
And the Body Sensation of Enlightenment
is not about acquiring something extraordinary.
It is about each of us remembering
our original, true nature.
So what kind of world is
the Body Sensation of Enlightenment?
Let us move on to the next episode
and continue our journey of exploration.
“The Body Sensation of Enlightenment” Station
