872 mark unno
The themes of bright light and meditative absorption are common to
both dreams, which Myōe purportedly experienced around the same
time. In the first dream particularly, there is an emphasis on the meld-
ing of body and mind as a mirrorlike quiescent expanse, suggesting an
interdependent, nondual realization of body-mind. In the practice of
the mantra of light, this nonduality extends to the relation between the
monk invoking the mantra and the supplicant receiving the power of
the mantra: “The mantra master applies the mystic power of the sand
to another person... by virtue of this nondual mystic power” (Unno
2004, 271). In the Buddhist body-mind understanding of the mantra,
each type of understanding has its place, but there is a deepening level
of realization with the nondual as the most profound, at least accord-
ing to Myōe’s view, in which the mirrorlike coalescence of body-mind
reflects the “entering of all buddhas.”
The non-dual view of the mantra, however, is not simply a realized
state. Rather, it becomes the basis for addressing the discursive con-
ditions of history, or, in Buddhist terms, karmic circumstances. Two
passages from Myōe’s writings in particular illustrate the intersection
of the nondual basis of the mantra and its application at the discursive
level of form and karma.
In the first, Myōe emphasizes the purity of the sand that is imbued
with the mystic power of the mantra (Unno 2004, 233–38). In this
exchange, Myōe sets up a dialogue with an imaginary interlocutor, to
whom he says that even grains of gold must be culled out of the sand
so that it is pure enough to hold the power of the mantra. As I have
discussed elsewhere, the religious logic of this rests on the inversion of
conventional values (Unno 2004, 112–23).
In emptiness, everything is equal, and in the mantra of light, this
is expressed as the wisdom of the equality of things realized as the
quality of the middle maṇi-syllables of the mantra, those represent-
ing the wish-fulfilling jewel. In conventional society, however, there
is a material hierarchy of value, with gold at the top and “useless”
sand at the bottom. The practice of culling sand and removing impu-
rities, including gold, effectively inverts the conventional hierarchy in
a contemplative action that fosters the samādhi of the mantra. Thus,
in order for the equality of emptiness to be realized in the realm of
form, the mantra and sand must be cultivated to cancel the false hier-
archy of conventional values. It is not that sand or even the mantra is
inherently superior to gold or other material objects. Rather, accord-
ing to Myōe, when the sand and mantra are practiced appropriately,