Қамакура дәуірінің буддалық саяхатшысы Мёэ туралы деректер

Myōe (明恵) (February 21, 1173 – February 11, 1232) was a Japanese Buddhist monk active during the Kamakura period who also went by the name Kōben (高弁, Chinese: 高辨, Gāo Biàn). He was a contemporary of Jōkei and Hōnen.

Myōe was born in what is now the town of Aridagawa, Wakayama. His mother was the fourth daughter of Yuasa Muneshige, a local strongman who claimed descent from Taira no Shigekuni, and from thence Emperor Takakura. His childhood name was Yakushi maru. Orphaned at the age of nine, he was educated at Jingo ji north of Kyoto by a disciple of Mongaku and was ordained as a priest in 1188 at Tōdai ji. He was trained in both the Kegon and Kusha schools and trained in Shingon at Ninna ji. He later also studied Zen Buddhism under Eisai, all by the age of 20. In medieval Japan, it was not uncommon for monks to be ordained in multiple sectarian lineages, and Myōe alternately signed his treatises and correspondence as a monk of various schools through much of his career. However, at the age of 21, he refused a request to participate in a national debate on the various schools of Buddhism, and at the age of 23 he broke off all ties with secular society and sought solitude in the mountains of Arida District in Kii Province, leaving behind a waka poem expressing his disgust for the politics of the various schools of Buddhism. Around this time, he cut off his right ear with a razor as a symbol of his rejection with society. At around the age of 26, he moved to Yamashiro Province, but after short time he returned to Kii Province where he spent the next eight years, living a nomadic existence. Myōe sought twice to go to India, in 1203 and 1205, to study what he considered true Buddhism amidst the perceived decline of the Dharma, but on both occasions, the kami of the Kasuga taisha urged him to remain in Japan through oracle. In 1206, he served as abbot of Kōzan ji (高山寺), a temple of the Kegon school located near Kyoto, where he sought to unify the teachings of the various schools of Buddhism around the Avatamsaka Sutra. Myōe is perhaps most famous for his contributions to the practice and popularization of the Mantra of Light, a mantra associated with Shingon Buddhism but widely used in other Buddhist sects. Myōe is also well known for keeping a journal of his dreams for over 40 years—which continues to be studied by Buddhists and Buddhist scholars—and for his efforts to revive monastic discipline along with Jōkei. Myōe also strove to find ways to make the teachings of esoteric Buddhism more understandable to lay people; on the other hand, during his lifetime he was a scathing critic of his contemporary, Hōnen, and the new Pure Land Buddhist movement. As a response to the increasing popularity of the exclusive nembutsu practice, Myōe wrote two treatises, the "Breaking the Circle of Heresy"; 摧邪輪; Zaijarin and the follow up "Breaking the Circle of Heresy—Elaboration"; 摧邪輪荘厳記; Zaijarin Shōgonki that sought to refute Honen's teachings as laid out in the Senchakushū. In the later years of his life, Myōe wrote extensively on the meaning and application of the Mantra of Light. Myōe's interpretation of the Mantra of Light was somewhat unorthodox, in that he promoted the mantra as a means of being reborn in Sukhāvatī, the pure land of Amitābha, rather than a practice for attaining enlightenment in this life as taught by Kūkai and others. Myōe was a firm believer in the notion of Dharma Decline and sought to promote the Mantra of Light as a means of intercession. Myōe was equally critical of the lax discipline and corruption of the Buddhist establishment, and removed himself from the capital of Kyoto as much as possible. At one point, to demonstrate his resolve to follow the Buddhist path, Myōe knelt before an image of the Buddha at Kōzan ji, and cut off his own ear. Supposedly, the blood stain can still be seen at the temple to this day. Records for the time show that the daily regimen of practices for the monks at Kōzan ji, during Myoe's administration, included zazen meditation, recitation of the sutras and the Mantra of Light. These same records show that even details such as cleaning the bathroom regularly were routinely enforced. A wooden tablet titled "As Appropriate"; 阿留辺畿夜宇和; Arubekiyōwa still hangs in the northeast corner of the Sekisui'in Hall at Kōzan ji detailing various regulations. At the same time, Myōe was also pragmatic and often adopted practices from other Buddhist sects, notably Zen, if it proved useful. Myōe firmly believed in the importance of upāya and sought to provide a diverse set of practices for both monastics and lay people. In addition, he developed new forms of mandalas that utilized only Japanese calligraphy and the Sanskrit Siddhaṃ script. Similar styles were utilized by Shinran and Nichiren. The particular style of mandala he devised, and the devotional rituals surrounding it, are recorded in his treatise, the "Thrice daily worship"; ; Sanji Raishaku written in 1215. In 1231, he was invited by the Yuasa clan to open the temple of Semui ji in his hometown in Kii Province. The day following the ceremony, on January 19, 1232, he died at the age of 58.

The Myōe Kishū Cenotaphs (明恵紀州遺跡率都婆) are a group of memorial stones erected by Myōe's disciple Kikai shortly after Myōe's death. A total of seven cenotaphs were constructed, one at the place of his birth, and the other six at locations in Kii Province where he had trained. Originally made of stone, they were replaced by sandstone in 1345. Each is made of sandstone, from 1.5 to 1.7 meters high, with a capstone. Four are located in the town of Aridagawa, two in the town of Yuasa, and one in the city of Arida. Six of the seven were designated a National Historic Site in 1931. The original seventh cenotaph (located in Aridagawa) was lost and replaced in 1802, and was excluded from the designation.