Observations placeholder
Myōe – There was a pole made of lapis lazuli hanging from the sky
Identifier
021381
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
From Shingon Refractions – Professor Mark Unno
This is a vision Myoe had in the eighth month of 1220, the same year that he had the pivotal vision of the Mantra of Light. In this vision, recorded in his Yume no ki (Chronicle of Dreams), he speaks of the sudden, simultaneous realization of cause and effect, faith and enlightenment. Again, paradoxically, it is only at the end of a long process of self-cultivation that the real significance of initial faith becomes apparent, that faith and enlightenment were always one, mutually sustaining.
During my early evening meditation, I prayed for the extinction of sins and received the body which maintains the precepts.... My body and mind became quiescent in the midst of samadhi as had happened in the sixth month. There was a pole made of lapis lazuli hanging from the sky, and I think it was hollow like a tube.
I grabbed the end, and someone pulled me up. I maintained my hold and seemed to have reached the Tusita Heaven.
There was a jewel at the top of the pole. Pure water poured forth, washing my entire body. After that the thought arose in my mind that I would like to see my actual body.
My face suddenly became like a bright mirror. My entire body gradually became like one. I felt completely whole, like a bead-jewel of quartz.
I rolled and moved to another place. I was waiting for a voice, and someone said, "All the Buddhas have entered. You have now attained purity."...
Before this, however, I exited the gate of True Wisdom and traversed the Fifty-Two Stages. The mind that arises at the stages of Faith is Manjusri [himself). The Wisdom of the Buddha is then divided into [the next] ten levels, [all of) which manifest the wisdom of emptiness. The principles [of enlightenment] and the phenomena [of existence] are contained within these Ten Abiding Stages [11-20] which exhaust all dharmas....
The production of the fruit of the Abiding (Stages] through True Wisdom signifies the production of the fruit of Buddhahood through [the power] of Manjusri. The arising of a portion of the initial [stage] of Abiding in the stages of Faith means that Manjusri becomes the disciple of the fruit of Buddhahood.
In other words, this is the mutual correspondence of cause and effect.. . . 'When the meaning of this is suddenly grasped in the midst of samadhi, cause and effect are simultaneous. This should be contemplated. It is difficult to express in words.
The source of the experience
MyōeConcepts, symbols and science items
Concepts
Cause effect chainLevels and layers
Out of body manoevering
Out of body separation methods
Purification