Curriculum

If you are interested in joining ISA and beginning your own Shugendo practice journey, please read the following carefully. It describes everything we can release publicly regarding our curriculum for beginners, lay practitioners, and those interested in deeper training including tokudo (ordination) and kegyo (post-tokudo intensive ritual training conducted in a retreat setting).
 

Virtual Learning Lessons for Beginners
The first step of ISA's training system is completion of a live, three-lesson virtual learning program designed to transmit basic knowledge for beginning practitioners. With this, you will be given various things to practice at home daily. You will also be able to begin attending in-person events, like nyubu shugyo (mountain training) in North America and Europe. Following satisfactory completion of these and other requirements, the option for ordination (tokudo) may be offered.

 

Please note: it is not possible to study Shugendo online. All other learning in ISA, including tokudo and the empowerments and instruction to begin intensive post-tokudo training, is conducted in-person at our centers or events in North America and Europe. 

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The three-lesson virtual instruction for beginners, which you may receive after joining ISA, includes the following:

Lesson 1:

- How to set up a home shrine or altar (placing statues or Buddhist images, preparing daily offerings, keeping the shrine clean, etc.).
- Simple daily recitation practice.
Lesson 2:
- Susokukan: breath meditation.
- How to set up the mikkyo altar and care for its implements.
- Daily recitation: continuing from lesson one, but including English translation.
Lesson 3:
- Gachirinkan: moon-disc meditation.
- Studying translation of the Hannya Shingyo from kanji to English word by word.
- Fudo Myo-o daily recitation.

Further Lay Practices

Lay practitioners go on to study a collection of profound practices useful in daily life, and may participate in our events.  If you wish to study primarily for your own fulfillment and self-development, the lay path is entirely sufficient. There are plenty of things to learn and practice, for example:

- Receiving of the the Five Lay Precepts.

- Basic Cleansing Ritual.
- Rituals for Eating and Segaki (hungry ghost) Offering.

- Mokuyoku Saho (cold water ablution practice).

- Kuji Saho ("9 cuts" practice for protection).

- Mantra and Recitation Practices of Various Deities.

- Rituals for Use When Walking and Practicing in Nature.

- Takigyo (waterfall training).
- Mountain Training Participation.

- And more

Tokudo and Kegyo

Persons wishing to enter the gate of tokudo (ordination) and deeply study Shugendo - recognizing that it will require dedicated practice over a period of years, including travel to receive teachings and participate in training events - should read the following. 

First, it should be noted that ordination in Shugendo is not the awarding of any status, teaching permission, or leadership role. You do not become a Shugendo "priest" with ability to guide others simply by receiving tokudo. Rather, tokudo just serves as the gateway to deeper training including kegyo (intensive in-person ritual training conducted in a retreat environment), transmitting the core practices of our tradition.

Attending all three of the virtual learning lessons is one of the first requirements for potential tokudo candidates. You will be given daily practice assignments based on these lessons, and subsequently tested on the content. During this time you should also plan to attend events with us as often as possible, and especially nyubu shugyo - mountain training - which is offered annually in North America and Europe. 

 

After tokudo, you may receive the instruction and empowerment to begin kegyo. You will eventually complete:

- Intensive raihai kegyo, a practice to purify body/speech/mind and create connection with our lineage.

- Juhachido kegyo, instructing foundational mikkyo ritual. In Ein Horyu this is centered on Benzaiten as the honzon (main deity).

- A series of six additional deity practices that, with juhachido, constitute the core Ein Horyu ritual transmission. These take as honzon: Jinja Daio, Kongo Doji, Aizen Myo-o, Fudo Myo-o, Ryuju Bosatsu, and Dainichi Nyorai. All are learned in a kegyo format.

-  Goma kegyo, instructing the Shugendo mikkyo fire ritual.

 

This intensive kegyo course of study is extremely demanding, both physically and mentally. It is conducted in strict retreat conditions. Those who complete it are then eligible to receive denbo kanjo, the dharma transmission empowerment that marks a newly trained practitioner qualified to conduct rituals and pray for others. However, denbo kanjo - like tokudo - does not signify that one is a "master" of anything. It is itself only the entrance into continued, deeper training.

Some of the additional Shugen-focused learning that ordained persons learn includes:

- Takigyo (waterfall training).

- Mountain training ritual.

- Saito goma, the outdoor fire ritual.

- Many miscellaneous practices: for protection, praying for others, removing obstacles and creating positive conditions, divination, etc.

 

To Be Reborn in Nature

What is the goal of all this training, lay or ordained? It is nothing less than to awaken within this very body and life, and so fulfill our bodhisattva vows to aid all beings. Shugendo is a way of dying to one's old self and being utterly reborn, as if cremated in the goma fire and coming to life again. Simultaneously climbing upward while reaching downward to help others - much as we do physically during mountain training - describes well the intent and spirit of the Shugendo practitoner.

 

It is within nature - among mountains, waterfalls, and forests - that we come realize the mandala of our own deepest wisdom-nature. But it is in the everyday world that we must embody and manifest that wisdom, all for the benefit of others.