Akasagarbha

Akasagarbha (ja: Kokuzo or Akasha; CH: Xukongzang pusa 虛空藏菩薩; Ti: Namkhai Nyingpo) is one of the eight large Bodhisattva S of the Vajrayana and one of the Thirteen Buddhas of the Japanese tantric school Shingon. Its worship was maintained mainly in Japan.

Name

Its name is made of akasa , “unlimited space”, and of garbha , “matrix” or “store”. He is interpreted like “store as space” or, according to his Chinese translation, “empty store”. The vacuum is here the true nature of reality, Sunyata, source and dépositoire of all wisdoms and all the virtues. The Sutra of the large assembly compares Akasagarbha with a rich man who opens without reserve his treasure with the others. The bodhisattva is known to distribute unbounded compassion and wisdom. The term akasa can also be included/understood like “spaces celestial”, in opposition to ksiti , “ground”. This interpretation gave rise to the dyad Akasagarbha/Ksitigarbha which knew a short existence at the time of the beginnings of Buddhism with Japan. The bodhisattva appears sometimes under other names with the direction similar to Akasagarbha: Gaganagarbha or Khagarba in Sanskrit, Xukongyun pusa in Chinese and Japanese Kokuzo. The translation Corbeille of Vacuity-Total is used by the French-speaking Bouddhisme Nichiren.

Origin and worship

It is gasoline of ether and belongs on the Mandala S to the family of the ratna (jewel). According to the Sutra d' Akasagarbha , one requests it turned towards the east while waiting for the paddle (aruna) which is its manifestattion. Elsewhere it is known as that the moon, the sun and the stars are also its demonstrations. Given that part of its name can have the direction of “sky”, some proposed to see a celestial or stellar divinity at the origin of the bodhisattva. It is associated with a ritual to improve the memory describes in will sutra which bears its name that it was introduced in Japan during the Period Nara (645-794). Nowadays still, many which is those recite its Mantra in the hope to mitigate a failing memory. On the island of Honshu, the children were accustomed to paying homage to Kokuzo the day of their thirteen years to request the improvement of their intellectual abilities. One requests also Akasagarbha to obtain the manual skill; he is regarded as the owner of the craftsmen.

Apart from these utility aspects, will mantra it of Kokuzo has also a spiritual effect. It is recited to ask happiness and wisdom. Kukai, founder of Buddhism Shingon, made its particular asceticism a long time, Goumanji and allotted the virtue to develop to him in the practitioner the universal wisdom of the Bodhisattva.

The last on the list of the Thirteen Buddhas of the current Shingon, Akasagarbha closes the cycle of the funeral rituals by chairing the ceremony commemorating the thirty-two years passed since the death.

Kokuzo also has a certain importance in Nichiren Buddhism. Seicho-ji (Kiyosumi-dera), temple where the founder of the current studied, was built around a statue the representative. According to the Gosho , collection of its writings, Nichiren saw one Kokuzo day appearing in front of him then to change into an old monk who given to him the pearl of wisdom.

Iconography

Akasagarbha is one of the first bodhisattvas arrived at Japan and its representations are numerous there. He in general is represented sat, holding in the left hand a pearl. In the line it holds a sword or makes the gesture absence of fear, or more rarely that of gift. Like that of Manjusri, its sword represents wisdom pourfendant ignorance. A surmounted flower of the “jewel which exauce the wishes” accompanies it or replaces it.

There exist whole of five Akasagarbha which is its emanations. They represent its five types of wisdom and are ordered according to the orients like the five Buddhas of meditation. A particularly remarkable example is that of to-ji temple of Tokyo, imported of China at the 9th century.

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