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Thread: meaning and rendering of this kanji touin

  1. #1
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    Default meaning and rendering of this kanji touin

    touin kanji.jpg

    Does anyone know this kanji? Can you post it here and tell me what it means? Thank you.
    Erin O'Neill

  2. #2
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    Not so much a meaning as a thing.
    It looks like part of mikkyo teaching. Maybe someone with mikkyo training can help you.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuji-kiri
    Andrew Smallacombe

    Aikido Kenshinkai

    JKA Tokorozawa

    Now trotting over a bridge near you!

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    It is literally the 'sword symbol' mudra or 'hand symbol' (but there are also full body mudra - Buddha is always portrayed in one of seven body mudra). Used in ancient esoteric Buddhist rituals. This one's gross meaning is to cut through the fog of ignorance, to get to the true nature of things. In Shingon shu, an ancient 'mikkyo' (esoteric Buddhism) there are 8 main hand signs - the touin is top right:
    http://busson.jp/%E5%8D%B0%E3%83%BB%...8%AE%E5%AD%90/

    Often you'll see the right hand sword sheaved in the left as below. I'll not discuss the details.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    The grid above the hands is the 'kuji' 九字 - the nine characters. Consider it a map to meditation, incantations, or、if misused, ruin and madness.

    The mudra hand signs are mnemonics to help you navigate shortcuts through the kuji, as the full paths (navigating the twenty interrelationships and nine single elements in the correct sequence to invoke the desired effect) is tortuously long and difficult, and getting things wrong can invoke hazardous elements. It is 'esoteric' in that you must be taught, they are not available to anyone not an acolyte, and typically one on one with an adept.

    I have ancient scrolls that depict hand such hand sign sequences, and the shortcut mapping through the kuji, to invoke bravery in battle, invulnerability, and rid yourself of evil afterwards. I was researching a couple with my Takeuchi ryu jujutsu instructor, a graduate of a Buddhist university, and a yamabushi (mountain cult ascetic warrior) in training, when he died from a sudden illness. Others have posited that such was the way of the ancients to steel themselves for battle, then rid themselves of what today we would call Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome - ritual purification as practiced in many ancient cultures.

    The ninjers love this stuff, but most don't have a clue what it means or how to use it. As a practicing Buddhist I think it not to be toyed with.

    L Gatling
    Last edited by P Goldsbury; 29th April 2014 at 00:56. Reason: Request from the author.

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    Lance --

    In that vein, I've always suspected that the patterns of movement in older martial art kata (kamae, in kabuki terms) follow astrological lines. The reason is that, mapped, patterns often look (to me) suspiciously like Vedic horoscopes. If that theory is correct, then the rightly-guided adept is trying to invoke the power of the Great Bear or whatever to assist in the thumping one is hoping to deliver to some malefactor.

    It would seem very similar to what what voudon and candomble practitioners would call learning to let the lwa (also transliterated as loa and lua) ride you. Meet the devil at the crossroads, that sort of thing.

    Of course, esoteric energy being what it is, master its every nuance, and it will still cost you somewhere north of three bucks to get a cup of coffee from Starbucks.

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    Quote Originally Posted by O'Neill View Post
    Does anyone know this kanji? Can you post it here...
    I'll defer to the others for what it means, but I can post larger versions of the kanji. (Click on the thumbnail below to get the full-sized image if one doesn't automatically appear.)

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Yours in Budo,
    ---Brian---

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    Quote Originally Posted by Joseph Svinth View Post
    Lance --

    In that vein, I've always suspected that the patterns of movement in older martial art kata (kamae, in kabuki terms) follow astrological lines. The reason is that, mapped, patterns often look (to me) suspiciously like Vedic horoscopes. If that theory is correct, then the rightly-guided adept is trying to invoke the power of the Great Bear or whatever to assist in the thumping one is hoping to deliver to some malefactor.

    It would seem very similar to what what voudon and candomble practitioners would call learning to let the lwa (also transliterated as loa and lua) ride you. Meet the devil at the crossroads, that sort of thing.

    Of course, esoteric energy being what it is, master its every nuance, and it will still cost you somewhere north of three bucks to get a cup of coffee from Starbucks.
    Since I have no idea of what a Vedic horoscope looks like, I guess I'll take your word for it.

    You know, now that you mention it, I bet that Carlos Castenada had to buy coffee, too.

    I have a couple of Japanese books from the 1920-1930's that delve into this stuff - dragging in Sanskrit quotes, Shinto symbology, Taoist mysticism, Chinese astrology, forward and reserve manji.... Impenetrable stuff, really really obscure, almost unreadable in any language.

    I figure there are much better ways to spend my time.

    But there is an interesting link into the 1930-1940's national physical education system of Japan that I'm still exploring - move your body in a physical prayer for the wellbeing of the Emperor, blahblah.... so far I am resisting the attraction of diving into it......

    Lance Gatling

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    A Vedic chart.

    http://www.horoscopeastrologer.com/2...art-horoscope/

    If I knew more, I'd compare it to the sacred geometry of the sixteenth century Spanish schools of fence.

    My guess is that some of the Satanic rituals the medieval Christians feared were Buddhist symbols for invoking spirits ("demons").

    Theoretical example. Step this way. Place your foot on the spot for the planet. Make the proper hand sign. Say the correct utterance. Step to the next planet. Repeat.

    The symbolism represents the science of the late medieval/early modern day. In this worldview, ki is aether and/or vitalism, and that sort of thing.

    To my thinking, it would definitely be a good idea to have a mentor to get through such material, same as it helps to have a mentor to get through calculus. Nathaniel Bowditch may have amused himself by teaching himself Latin so that he could read Isaac Newton's books on calculus, but not everyone does that sort of thing at age 14. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Bowditch )

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