930 william m. bodiford
the founding of new Zen temples frequently depict Zen teachers as
being greater spiritual adepts than the practitioners of Japan’s estab-
lished esoteric Buddhism (Bodiford 1993, 111–121, 173–179). Dhāraṇī
played an indispensable role in this success, as indicated by the Japa-
nese Zen teacher Enni (Ben’en ; 1202–1280), who chastised
rival Buddhists with these words: “Monks in Japan meditate too little
and their ceremonies lack dhāraṇī. How dare they consume the alms
of the faithful?”^9 Leaders of Japan’s esoteric Buddhist schools were
equally harsh in their criticism of the Zen approach to dhāraṇī. The
Shingon teacher Shuzen Kakumu (1306–1362), for example,
wrote:
These Zen people only learn the two or three dhāraṇī such as the
Śūraṃgama spell and great compassion spell. They cannot fulfill all
types of prayers. Moreover, aside from the words they make no use of
the secret dharma rituals.... And what about the pronunciation that
contemporary Zen monks use for these spells? It is the dialect of Song-
dynasty China, not the correct pronunciation of India.^10While dhāraṇī in some ways place Zen in opposition to Japan’s other
traditions of esoteric Buddhism, they also can serve as a gateway that
promotes cooperation with them.
Esoteric Rituals within Zen
Many Japanese Buddhists regard rituals for attaining worldly benefits
one of the key identifying features of esoteric Buddhism. Using this
criterion, one could say that Japanese Zen has become one type of eso-
teric Buddhism. But this would be wrong. While it is true that many
Zen temples function as centers for prayer rituals (Williams 2005,
59–60) and proffer services and talismans that appear indistinguish-
able from those of Tendai and Shingon temples, upon closer examina-
tion rarely can one find cases of Zen prayer rituals that directly borrow
elements from Tendai or Shingon traditions. Ordinary laypeople do
not distinguish prayer rituals in sectarian terms because they largely
ignore the internal ritual logic and doctrinal basis of these rituals. They
(^9) Zōdanshū , “Jiri no gyōji” , fascicle 9 (Yamada and Miki, ed.
1973, 276). This account also reports that each day Enni chanted the Śūraṅgama spell
at dawn and the victorious 10 Uṣṇīsa-dhāraṇ ̣ī seven times at noon.
Kaishinshō , chap. 2, “Kikyō zengo mon” ( T. 2450.77:749c).