The Diamond Sword - Chapter 5: Wielder of the Sword
The fifth chapter of a long ongoing series.
Chapter 5 - The Other Immovable One
While Akshobhya Buddha was the first in the Buddhist textual canon to represent the trait of “immovability,” it’s through the wrathful esoteric deity Acala (Jpn: Fudo Myo-o) that this concept became firmly ingrained into the Japanese Buddhist consciousness.
In the esoteric texts, Acala is the messenger of Mahavairocana Buddha, the eternal cosmic Buddha from which all of the other Buddhas spring. He has existed since the Mahavairocana achieved self-realization and made his supreme vows vast eons ago.
Wearing the clothes of a servant and wielding the vajra sword and noose, Acala is simultaneously lord and servant to all beings. Per Shingon patriarch Kukai:
This deity is the patriarch of all Buddhas throughout the three ages and ten directions, and he is honored by all bodhisattvas in the forty-two stages. Nonetheless he assumes the form of a messenger with a squint eye, appears as a servant with a queue hanging down [over his left shoulder], stoops down from the honorable position that he has already attained, and feeds on the leftover scraps of novices. This means that although he is high[-ranking], he does not vaunt himself, and although he harms himself, he attracts surfeit.
Acala was present well before Kukai’s establishment of Japanese Shingon doctrine, of course, appearing first within one of Shingon’s primary texts, The Mahavairocana Sutra, as well as the Womb Realm Mandala, a primary object of worship within Shingon.
These were passed on to Kukai from his teachers in China. One teacher included in his lineage, Amoghavajra, was a famed translator of esoteric texts from India, and had assembled a great deal of ritual material revolving around Acala, showing that the deity’s importance extends very far back.
Acala’s description in the Mahavairocana Sutra is as follows:
Below the mantra-lord (i.e., Vairocana), in the direction of Nairrti (i.e. Southwest), is Acala, the Tathagata’s servant: he holds a wisdom sword and a noose, the hair from the top of his head hangs down on his left shoulder, and with one eye he looks fixedly. Awesomely wrathful, his body [is enveloped in] fierce flames, and he rests on a rock. His face is marked with [a frown like] waves on water, and he has the figure of a stout young boy.
Images of Acala must have captured the minds of Japanese buddhist, particularly amongst the samurai class, as depictions of him were commonly seen in things like katana engravings or helmet crests.
One particularly popular representation of Acala/Fudo Myo-o among the samurai was his dragon god form: Kurikara, which appears as a mighty and terrifying dragon wrapped around a massive vajra sword. In some depictions, the dragon’s jaws clamp down on the tip of the blade, keeping it in place with stern and unmoving power. Both the dragon and the sword are usually wreathed in raging flame.
Another form that Acala may take is one that is in combination with Aizen Myo-o, another popular wisdom king. Aizen is derived from the esoteric text the Yugikyo, or "The Sutra of all Yogas and Yogis of the Vajra-Peak Pavilion,” which reads:
The color of his body is like the rays of the sun; he resides in a blazing circle, and his three eyes gaze in fierce rage. In the hair-dress of his head he wears a lion crown, on which again is placed a hook with five points. His sharply standing hair gives him a wrathful appearance.
Garlands of flowers in five colours hang down [from his head dress], and heavenly bands cover his ears. In his left hand he holds a golden bell, and in his right hand a vajra-staff with five prongs. His demeanor is like that of Vajrasattva. In his next left hand there is a vajra-bow, and in his right he holds a vajra-arrow, as if he were aiming at the brightness of all the stars, and would thereby be able to accomplish the Rite of Great Attraction. In his lower left hand he holds 'that,' and in his [lower] right a lotus in the attitude of striking.
Known as the “King of Lust” (Ragaraja), Aizen Myo-o is often said to be a god of love and interpersonal relationships. However, the theology behind him goes far deeper than that. In truth, he represents the purification of worldly passions and desires and their application towards dharmic ends.
His meaning cannot be fully understood outside of the doctrines developed within Mahayana Buddhism which seek to unify the apparent impurity of the transformed world with the purity of that which is unborn and eternal. Bodhisattva Manjusri elaborates on this subject in a conversation with Vimalakirti in the Vimalakirti Sutra:
Noble sir, one who stays in the fixed determination of the vision of the uncreated is not capable of conceiving the spirit of unexcelled perfect enlightenment. However, one who lives among created things, in the mines of passions, without seeing any truth, is indeed capable of conceiving the spirit of unexcelled perfect enlightenment.
Noble sir, flowers like the blue lotus, the red lotus, the white lotus, the water lily, and the moon lily do not grow on the dry ground in the wilderness, but do grow in the swamps and mud banks. Just so, the Buddha-qualities do not grow in living beings certainly destined for the uncreated but do grow in those living beings who are like swamps and mud banks of passions.
This plays into the “Middle Way” of the bodhisattva, which we discussed in a previous chapter. It is only through the unification of the compounded and uncompounded and the understanding of both simultaneously that true Buddha nature can be brought into the world. Considering this, the perceived impurities of the mundane world are the true seeds of ultimate awakening. This is the dharma that Aizen Myo-o seeks to instill in all beings.
However, understanding of the passions alone cannot lead one to self-realization. Indeed, it is only in combination with a diamond-like mind, body, and speech that this can happen, lest one fall victim to the passions themselves and run wild like a beast through the dismal realms of samsara. This is why Aizen Myo-o is actually considered to be a combination of two halves: "Aizen" and "Zenai."
"Aizen'' is the "lust-stained" half, representing the transformed world of the five elements and skandas, which has been overtaken by the three poisons of lust, anger, and ignorance. This is the "female" half.
"Zenai" embodies the diamond-like mind of enlightenment, which can cut through the passions and reveal their originally pure nature. This is the "male" half.
Zenai "loves" the clans of anger, lust, and ignorance, and through his universal compassion reveals them to be the seeds of ultimate enlightenment. Therefore Aizen Myo-o, the non-dual combination of these two halves, is the wrathful Buddha who burns through impurities while holistically embracing the human condition through all stages of enlightenment.
This memetic device of combining two halves is functionally similar to that of the later tantric "consorts," where one deity is shown in sexual embrace with another (this is very prominent in Tibetan Buddhism). In the Guhyasamaja mandala Akshobhya Buddha, in his tantric multi-armed form called Akshobhyavajra, embraces the goddess Prajnaparamita ("Perfect Wisdom"), completing essentially the same symbolic consummation as outlined above.
In Aizen Myo-o's case, this was conceived before the concept of the consorts had been fully developed (and such iconography was not imported to Japanese Buddhism anyway), so he is instead two seemingly opposing sides in a state of perpetual non-duality as one being. Usually this is implied, but is sometimes shown visually as a "two headed" Aizen. One version of this configuration shows Aizen in combination with a white bodhisattva-like being.
The origin of this form is the two halves of Zenai and Aizen, colored in the red and white of human creation. As the combined entity, Aizen Myo-o is said to be white-skinned, but his powerful, endless, and pure compassion for all beings causes blood to pour from his skin, staining him red.
The most common variant of the two-headed Aizen Myo-o, however, is Aizen combined with a red or blue-black Acala/Fudo Myo-o. The Aizen half in this context shows universal compassion, painted in the red of Amitabha Buddha’s auspicious Lotus Family.
The Acala half, usually marked with the blue-black of Akshibhya Buddha’s powerful Vajra Family, represents the diamond-like immovable nature of the Buddhas. The two deities together remain in a state of passionate unending affection for all sentient beings.
These two together are the formula for supreme awakening within the triple world of desire. It's because of this that two-headed Aizen Myo-o, especially the form that incorporates Acala, is said to be one of the most powerful Buddhas in the Japanese esoteric pantheon.
Acala’s popularity in Japan persists even to this day. Fire ceremonies are carried out by Buddhist monks in Japan for protection and purification, and his mantras are often invoked for the purpose of exorcism. His cleansing flames continue to drive away wicked spirits and demons as he instills the hearts of men with strength that is as tough as diamonds and as swift and powerful as lightning.
By seeking refuge in him, it’s believed that practitioners can achieve true peace and quiet strength, even among the most turbulent of situations. This is something I feel will be increasingly necessary as we continue further along into this age of decline.
Chapter 5.5 - Wielder of the Diamond Sword
Some may be aware of the concept of “samsara” through a pop culture understanding: that being the cycle of death and rebirth that one must escape from. However, actual Buddhist understandings of samsara are quite complex and vary in some regards.
Samsara is one of the earliest Buddhist doctrines, extending back to the oldest teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha. One of the primary references for describing samsara comes from the “Assusutta,” or the “Tears Sermon”:
...transmigration has no known beginning. No first point is found of sentient beings roaming and transmigrating, shrouded by ignorance and fettered by craving. What do you think? Which is more: the flow of tears you’ve shed while roaming and transmigrating for such a very long time—weeping and wailing from being united with the unloved and separated from the loved—or the water in the four oceans?
Another is the “Dandasutta” or “Stick Sermon”:
From an inconstruable beginning comes transmigration. A beginning point is not evident, though beings hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving are transmigrating & wandering on. Long have you thus experienced stress, experienced pain, experienced loss, swelling the cemeteries…
The escape from this is called “nirvana” (Pali: “nibbana”) or “extinguishment.” This is achieved via realization of the world’s true transient nature and the elimination of the “Three Poisons” (or kleshas) which are:
Raga (Pali: lobha) - lust/greed
Dvesha (Pali: dosa) - anger/hatred
Moha - ignorance/foolishness/delusion
A primary source for this is the “Adittapariyaya Sutta” or “Fire Sermon”), in which Shkyamuni Buddha tells his followers that “all is burning… Burning with what? Burning with the fire of lust, with the fire of hate, with the fire of delusion…”
Essentially, in order to escape the endless suffering of samsara, one must learn to see the universe as it truly is. However, our ignorance (the first of the poisons, as well as the first link in the 12-link chain of dependent origination) leads us to wrong views (e.g. view of the “self” as a separate entity from the rest of the cosmos). Wrong views lead us to the poisons of lust and hatred, and these poisons lead us to commit impure and violent acts that inevitably cause more suffering. With this in mind, it is the ignorance of deluded beings that must be cut as the root of samsara.
During the Buddha’s first sermon at Deer Park, recorded in the “Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta”, or “The Sermon that Turns the Wheel of the Dhamma,” he established the “Four Noble Truths” to go alongside his other hypotheses. These, as well as beliefs in samsara and the “Middle Way,” form the foundation of the Buddhist faith as a whole. The noble truths, as laid out in the sutta, are as follows:
The noble truth of stress: “Birth is stressful, aging is stressful, death is stressful; sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair are stressful; association with the unbeloved is stressful, separation from the loved is stressful, not getting what is wanted is stressful. In short, the five clinging-aggregates are stressful.”
The noble truth of the origination of stress: “the craving that makes for further becoming — accompanied by passion & delight, relishing now here & now there — i.e., craving for sensual pleasure, craving for becoming, craving for non-becoming.”
The noble truth of the cessation of stress: “the remainderless fading & cessation, renunciation, relinquishment, release, & letting go of that very craving.”
The noble truth of the way of practice leading to the cessation of stress: “precisely this Noble Eightfold Path — right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.”
The second of the Noble Truths, the Noble Truth of the origination of stress, is the basis for a doctrine known as the “three cravings” or “tanha”: “craving for sensual pleasure, craving for becoming, craving for non-becoming.”
The craving for sensual pleasure is perhaps the most self-explanatory. It’s the overindulgence in delight of the senses that manifests in destructive addictions around food, sex, drugs, alcohol, etc. The cravings for “becoming” (or “existence”) and “non-becoming” (“non-existence”), however, are a little bit more complicated
The first can be conceived as a clinging to existence for the sake of existence itself; an urge to make that which is and can only be temporary into something eternal. It’s a kind of delusion that can only result in suffering. Everything in this world of transformation is transient and illusory, without true self-nature, and to expect otherwise is ignorance.
The craving for non-existence is effectively the opposite; it’s the urge to annihilate anything and/or everything out of despair or resentment. This comes from the wrong view of Annihilationism: the belief that things that are destroyed (killed) will disappear. Perhaps one thinks “if I kill myself, everything will simply cut to black.” Or they could think “destroying that which frustrates me will bring me a life free of such suffering.”
However, this is never the case. Things return again and again as the wheel continues to turn. A person who kills themself will inevitably be sent to an unfortunate rebirth, and must live out their ignorance in a new form. Those who feel that destroying what they hate will finally bring them contentment, on the other hand, will find their problems only multiplying in time.
The poison of Ignorance leads to the poisons of lust and hatred. The poison of lust leads to cravings for sensual pleasure and existence. The poison of hatred leads to the craving for non-existence. And so samsara continues its dismal march into the dark forever.
It’s for this reason that when Akshobhya Buddha made his vows in “The Dharma-Door of Praising Tathagata Akshobhya’s Merits,” he included emphatic vows to cut himself off from the three poisons, saying “if I generate any desire, hatred, or ignorance toward sentient beings, or am prone to stupor, arrogance, or misdeeds from now until my attainment of supreme enlightenment, I will be deceiving all Buddhas.”
The wrathful Wisdom King Acala is much the same. Wielding the mighty diamond sword of wisdom, he cuts through the cravings and burns through the passions with his raging flames. He pulls beings away from harm with his rope and leads them towards the Buddhadharma. When one summons his presence, the purifying flames spread through all, encompassing the entire cosmos in a glorious storm-like blaze.
We are often encouraged these days to indulge our cravings. Rampant and conspicuous consumption is what the economy runs on, after all. Corporations have an interest in making sure you are indulging in petty pleasures at every moment of the day, and wearing the most expensive designer clothes possible.
As a result, our entire society and its culture is propped up on the illusory value of meaningless and overindulgent products. Ads run constantly on television showing off the newest sneakers and luxury cars, music is constantly being written about overindulgence in drugs, alcohol, and designer fashion while artists show off their cartoonish riches in music videos.
Corporations, over the past decade, have spent a great deal of time trying to rehabilitate their images. Rather than show off beautiful people as an advertising strategy, they would instead focus on “diversity, equity, and inclusivity.” Of course, all this accomplished was a bizarre fetishization of “marginalized identity” replacing the more usual fetishization of physical appearance.
Meanwhile, we’ve seen a glorification of mental illness among the younger generations, with people inserting various mental afflictions and maladies in their social media biographies as if they were listing their qualifications on a resume. Under our new “diverse and inclusive” paradigm, it’s those who are the least healthy and most afflicted who get the final say, as they have the “lived experiences” to bolster their authority. Of course, who wants to take instruction on running society from someone who can’t even properly operate their own brain?
Now we have a society where everyone is insane and on drugs, and they’re constantly encouraged to overindulge in sensory pleasures as a means of self-medication. Moreover, we have subcultures springing up that are built entirely around things like rampant sexual deviancy or the consumption of corporate media products. After scrapping traditional cultural adhesives like religion, we have been left with little but our dead corporate-run popular media and a hideous worship of sexual gratification.
In such an age of degradation, it’s necessary for followers of the dharma to wield the shining diamond wisdom sword of Acala in order to cut through all of the foul influences that cloud the air like thick swarms of black flies, and to don Akshobhya Buddha’s armor of vigor against the hungry spirits and demons who wish only to drag others down into the abyss.
Welcome to the “Latter Age,” which is a topic we will cover in finer detail in the next chapter. Until then, thank you all very much for reading.