purified Shint[=o] shrines.


The Sect of the True Word.


It is probable that the conquest and obliteration of Shint[=o] might
have been accomplished by some priest or priests of the Ten-dai sect,
had such a genius as K[=o]b[=o] been found in its household; but this
great achievement was reserved for the man who introduced into Japan the
Shin-gon Shu, or Sect of the True Word. The term _gon_ is the equivalent
of Mantra,[20] a Sanskrit term meaning word, but in later use referring
to the mystic salutations addressed to the Buddhist gods. "The doctrine
of this sect is a great secret law. It teaches us that we can attain to
the state of the 'Great Enlightened,' that is the state of 'Buddha,'
while in the present physical body, which was born of our parents (and
which consists of six elements,[21] Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, Ether, and
Knowledge), if we follow the three great secret laws, regarding Body,
Speech, and Thought."[22]

The history of the transmission of the doctrine from the greatest of the
spirit-bodied Buddhas to the historic founder, Vagrabodhi, is carefully
given. The latter was a man very learned in regard to many doctrines of
Buddhism and other religious, and was especially well acquainted with
the deepest meaning of the doctrine of this sect, which he taught in
India for a considerable time. The doctrine is recorded in several
sutras, yet the essential point is nothing but the Mandala, or circle of
the two parts, or, in Japanese, Riy[=o]bu.

The great preacher, Vagrabodhi, in 720 A.D., came with his disciples to