(February 21, 1173 â February 11, 1232) was a Japanese Buddhist monk active during the Kamakura period who also went by the name Kà Âben (, Chinese: é«Â辨, GÃÂo Biàn). He was a contemporary of Jà Âkei and Hà Ânen.
Myà Âe 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 Tà Âdai-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 Myà Âe 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. Myà Âe 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 Kà Âzan-ji (é«Â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 ÃÂvataá¹Âsaka Sà «tra. Myà Âe 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. Myà Âe is also well known for keeping a journal of his dreams for over 40 yearsâÂÂwhich continues to be studied by Buddhists and Buddhist scholarsâÂÂand for his efforts to revive monastic discipline along with Jà Âkei.
Myà Âe 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, Hà Ânen, and the new Pure Land Buddhist. As a response to the increasing popularity of the exclusive nembutsu practice, Myà Âe wrote two treatises, the and the follow-up that sought to refute Honen's teachings as laid out in the Senchakushà «. Myà Âe agreed with Hà Ânen's criticism of the establishment, but felt that sole practice of the nembutsu was too restrictive and disregarded important Buddhist themes in Mahayana Buddhism such as the bodhicitta and the concept of upÃÂya. Nevertheless, Myà Âe also lamented the necessity of writing such treatises: "By nature I am pained by that which is harmful. I feel this way about writing the Zaijarin."
In the later years of his life, Myà Âe wrote extensively on the meaning and application of the Mantra of Light. Myà Âe's interpretation of the Mantra of Light was somewhat unorthodox, in that he promoted the mantra as a means of being reborn in SukhÃÂvatë, the Pure Land of AmitÃÂbha, rather than a practice for attaining enlightenment in this life as taught by Kà «kai and others. Myà Âe was a firm believer in the notion of Dharma Decline and sought to promote the Mantra of Light as a means of intercession.
Myà Âe 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, Myà Âe knelt before an image of the Buddha at Kà Âzan-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 Kà Âzan-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 still hangs in the northeast corner of the Sekisui'in Hall at Kà Âzan-ji detailing various regulations.
At the same time, Myà Âe was also pragmatic and often adopted practices from other Buddhist sects, notably Zen, if it proved useful. Myà Âe firmly believed in the importance of upÃÂya 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 Siddhaá¹ 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 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.
In the wooden tablet at Kà Âzan-ji, Myà Âe listed the following regulations to all monks, divided into three sections:
As Appropriate
Etiquette in the Temple Study Hall
Etiquette in the Buddha-Altar Hall
— The Kegon School Shamon KÃ Âben [Myoe]
The are a group of memorial stones erected by Myà Âe's disciple Kikai shortly after Myà Âe'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.