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Mantra japa is a practice of repetitively uttering the same mantra [49] for an auspicious number of times, the most popular being 108, and sometimes just 5, 10, 28 or 1008. [ 2 ] [ 50 ] Japa is found in personal prayer or meditative efforts of some Hindus, as well during formal puja (group prayers).
In modern scholarship, Tantra has been studied as an esoteric practice and ritualistic religion, sometimes referred to as Tantrism. There is a wide gap between what Tantra means to its followers, and the way Tantra has been represented or perceived since colonial era writers began commenting on it.
Shugendō (修験道, lit. the "Way [of] Trial [and] Practice", the "Way of Shugen, or Gen-practice") [1] is a highly syncretic Esoteric Buddhist religion, [2] a body of ascetic practices that originated in the Nara Period of Japan having evolved during the 7th century from an amalgamation of beliefs, philosophies, doctrines and ritual systems ...
Western Zen is mainly a lay-movement, though grounded in formal lineages. Its Japanese background is in mainly lay-oriented new religious movements, especially the Sanbo Kyodan. Though a number of zen-buddhist monasteries exist in the western world, most practice takes place in Zen centers throughout the western world.
Cousins sees the practice of Southern Esoteric Buddhism as being defined by the mapping of inner and outer worlds, and calls it 'tantro-kabbalistic' mysticism. By this he means "a form of mysticism which utilizes a rather elaborate map of correspondences -between the human body, the cosmos and some kind of higher reality or knowledge.
The practice of ku-ji ho as found in Japanese esoteric Buddhism is a sanmitsu nenju (concentrated three mysteries practice), and as such, consists of several dependent, integrated practices. It can be practiced in the form of either of the two mandaras of esoteric Buddhism [mikkyo].
Esoteric practices are diffused throughout the Japanese Buddhist tradition in various forms outside of these schools. Mikkyō has been influential in Japanese culture and history, shifting aristocratic court culture away from the Confucian ritsuryō political structure, and contributing to the development of Japanese literature through waka and ...
In the generation stage practice of deity yoga (devata-yoga), one dissolves oneself and the world in emptiness and visualizes oneself as a "cherished divinity" (Skt. Iṣṭa-devatā, Tib. yidam). This involves the recitation of mantras, prayers and visualization of the deity along with the associated mandala of the deity. [30]