Shingon Tachikawa School

The Shingon Tachikawa School^WP (真言立川詠天流^?) is a branch of Shingon Vajrayana Buddhism^WP, a sect generally considered heretical. Its foundational doctrine and technique is reaching enlightenment by the union of male and female.

History

In the Kamakura period^WP, a high monk of Shigon Buddhism, Ninkan^WP, failed in an attempted assassination of Emperor Toba^WP, and was exiled to the Izu Province^WP as punishment. It is said that there, in the Musashi Province^WP, Ninkan gave birth to the fundamental systems of Shingon Tachikawa in cooperation with the Onmyouji Kenren (from Tachikawa^WP). After that, the Tachikawa Sect spread and prospered to the point where it came to be the largest faction within Shingon Buddhism. Furthermore, with the decline of the Kamakura Shogunate^WP in sight, the Tachikawa Sect schemed to have the Imperial Family change its loyalties to prioritize Tachikawa over other sects. Emperor Go-Daigo^WP, who mastered the secrets of Tachikawa, starting from Yoshino^WP, spread it across the lands of the Southern Court^WP. After that, the Tachikawa Sect teachings were almost always present with the Southern Court, so with the decline of the Southern Court, the Tachikawa Sect also fell into ruin. The suppression of the Tachikawa Sect didn't occur because it was heretic or there was some problem with its teachings, it was due to its connection with the Southern Court. As Mount Kōya^WP, the birth place of Koyasan Shingon Buddhism, lies within the territory of the Northern Court^WP, almost all the authority figures in Koya held contempt for the Tachikawa Sect, and thus had all the Tachikawa scriptures destroyed.

In the World of Fate/EX, a branch of the Shingon Tachikawa sect, the Shingon Tachikawa Eiten School, existed up until 2030. Even after the Overcount 1999 of 1970, the sect engaged in the practice of old world magecraft theory. Essentially a "living fossil," it was a small community created in a remote mountain area far from prying eyes. In 2018, it took the initiative to reinvent its teachings, and revived itself as a new-world magus organization that had adapted to the internet society of modern times. As a cult, it rapidly increased its followers, but due to overly fast expansion, there were internal power struggles, so in 2020 it stopped all activities. Members of this religious community fought each other to the death, and it is said that the bodies of the dead followers still lie in plain view in its former headquarter in the mountains.

Characteristics

Shingon Tachikawa is a branch of Shingon Buddhism that is based on the Esoteric Buddhist scripture (tantra) Rishu-kyo, and its teachings revere and worship Dakiniten^WP, who is identified with the Vairocana Buddha and Amaterasu-oh-mikami. Shingon Tachikawa’s scriptures and theories are based on three points of view:

The first is Luminous Mind based on Rishu-kyo. Sex is a natural part of being human, and originally was considered to be something very pure that is connected with enlightenment. Sex tends to be assumed to be a simple pleasure, but strictly speaking it is not actually an act that affirms your desire. Desires that are connected with infatuation and indecision are an obstacle to enlightenment, but a pure sexual desire is a desire for the benefit of all living things, and it is something that you should maintain as part of your survival instinct. It is just affirming our survival instinct and thus is connected with enlightenment. This overview is extremely difficult to understand, and it is said that even most of the disciples taught directly by the founder of Shingon Buddhism, Kukai^WP, were not taught it. As a rule, those who were not of high monk rank or above were not permitted to read the related scriptures.

The second is Union, which is the concept of two beings sublimated into one being, and/or being reincarnated. This is derived from the concept of Taoist Onmyoudou “Cosmic dual forces connected together become taiji^WP” that was unified with the Shugendō concept of the universe and nature. It is from this unification that the techniques of miracle efficacy, the Sennin^WP art of love making, and tantric yoga^WP methods were introduced into Tachikawa.

The third is the method of drawing out power from "beyond" by breaking down your own boundaries. It is said that this method made many monks lose their self-control, power of reasoning, and moral values due to murder or eating meat, eating fish, or drinking alcohol; however, it is also theorized that this method may have not actually been put into practice by the Tachikawa Sect.

Through the combination of these three kinds of thoughts and methods, the Tachikawa Sect considered the unification of "Dakini^WP = Dainichi Buddha = Amaterasu Oomikami" to be the ultimate goal. Namely, they tried to achieve enlightenment by becoming one with the fundamental truths of the universe.

The fundamental methods of the Tachikawa Sect follow the main teachings of Shingon Buddhism and expand upon them. The methods of Tachikawa are not evil on their own by any means. The main example of "evil deed" attributed to it is the use of skulls as an object of worship, but really the use of skulls in rituals was not uncommon across Japan, and in the Kamakura Period, the use of skulls was endorsed by many a Buddhist master, and the use of skulls was not considered to be something out of the ordinary.

Like this, the taboos of Shingon Tachikawa more or less align with those of fundamental Buddhist teachings, wherein the greatest taboo is to defy your master. Buddhism is fundamentally a system where you [the disciple] attain enlightenment by using the methods left behind by the founder of Buddhism [the master] who became a Buddha, Shaka. So the relationship between master and disciple is core in the Buddhist system. And Shaka preached that disciples must not doubt his ideas in any respect, and must only obey— the only time a person may have doubt, is before they formally become a disciple. It’s fine to doubt as much as you like before becoming a disciple, but it best to only become a disciple once all your doubts have been cleared. For the above stated reasons, Buddhism has always been centered on the relationship between master and disciple, and the power of Buddhism to reach enlightenment is fundamentally passed down through the "bloodline" (the unbroken and perpetual master-disciple link continuity). So essentially, the only way to attain enlightenment through Buddhism is to become a very, very distantly connected disciple of Shaka, as it is he who has the power of Buddhism. So if you are excommunicated by your master, it means your link to Shaka will be severed, and all your ascetic practices until that point will be reverted to naught.