buddhists: Dealing with Tengu

okmyturn (

okmyturn) wrote in

buddhists,
@ 2008-05-17 17:27:00

Dealing with Tengu
My practice must be reaching a pinnacle, as I now have supernatural interference. Tengu have been appearing all over my townhouse, cackling while I try to meditate and knocking over my gorgeous meditation timer and Dalai Lama lithographs.

I talked to my guru and fashion designer ChiChi Saib, but he has no clue. Given that Tengu have been harassing enlightened monasteries for thousands of years, is there an exorcism ritual I can do?

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dwaleberry
2008-05-17 10:03 pm UTC (link)

In case this post is meant to be serious, perhaps you should inquire as to how other monasteries traditionally deal with these things. Instead of aiming to exorcise those spirits, you could maybe strike a deal with them, appeasing them with some treats/sacrifices/whatever, paying your respects and finding a way to exist peacefully.

Also:

"The patron of martial arts, the bird-like Tengu is a skilled warrior and mischief maker, especially prone to playing tricks on arrogant and vainglorious Buddhist priests, and to punishing those who willfully misuse knowledge and authority to gain fame or position. In bygone days, they also inflicted their punishments on vain and arrogant samurai warriors. They dislike braggarts, and those who corrupt the Dharma (law)."

http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/tengu.shtml

If that is true, I'd kinda try to look at when the mischief started, since someone may have done something to piss the Tengu off.
However, Wikipedia says:

"The Konjaku Monogatari, a collection of stories published sometime during the late Heian Period, contains some of the earliest tales of tengu, already characterized as they would be for centuries to come. These tengu are the troublesome opponents of Buddhism, who mislead the pious with false images of Buddha, carry off monks and drop them in remote places, possess women in an attempt to seduce holy men, rob temples, and endow those who worship them with unholy power. They often disguise themselves as priests or nuns, but their true form seems to be that of a kite.
Throughout the 12th and 13th centuries, accounts continued of tengu attempting to cause trouble in the world. They were now established as the ghosts of angry, vain, or heretical priests who had fallen on the "tengu-road" (天狗道, tengudō). They began to possess people, especially women and girls, and speak through their mouths ( kitsunetsuki). Still the enemies of Buddhism, the demons also turned their attention to the royal family. The Kojidan tells of an Empress who was possessed, and the Ōkagami reports that Emperor Sanjō was made blind by a tengu, the ghost of a priest who resented the throne."

so that maybe the Tengu just started with no particluar reason on your side whatsoever.
Anyways, I for one would first read up on some additional mythology and then maybe ask the Tengu politely on what it is that offeneded them and only start the exorcising as a last resort. After all, even if they're trying to distract you, this can be taken as an opportunity to work on your concentration and equanimity.

(Reply to this)

yukontodd
2008-05-18 12:25 am UTC (link)

Once, a monk was harassed by a spider. This spider was large and frightening in appearance, and it appeared whenever the monk was meditating, startling the monk out of his practice. The monk was seriously beginning to feel that he was loosing all equanimity. In talking to his teacher, the monk revealed that he had resolved to meditate with a knife in his hand, and stab the spider and kill it next time it appeared. The teacher suggested that, instead of killing the spider, the monk meditate with a brush full of ink in his hand, and remain in meditation while drawing an "X" over it to see what would happen. The monk, though unsure why this might help, followed the advice of his teacher. The very next time the monk meditated, there was the spider again, black and ugly and frightening, but the monk remained meditating, and simply reached out and drew an "X" over the spider, and the spider disappeared. Joyous, the monk completed his meditation period for the first time in weeks. When he stood up, he realized that he had drawn a large "X" over his own abdomen.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	cherydactyl 2008-05-18 01:23 am UTC (link)
	Awesome story. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	seer0000 2008-05-19 03:08 pm UTC (link)
	tibetan student in retreat actually but that is neither here nor there (Reply to this)(Parent)

	ocha_no_hanashi 2008-05-18 12:46 am UTC (link)
	Wow, I didn't know Japanese Tengu were even known about by Tibetans. :P (Reply to this)(Thread)

	owl_clan 2008-05-18 07:16 pm UTC (link)
	Tengu in Japan, some other name in Tibetan, hindering spirits abound, regardless of what we call them. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	sanjuuro 2008-05-18 09:27 am UTC (link)
	What on earth would you want to exorcise tengu for, even if you could? They're terrific teachers; they'll doubtless sense that they're wasting their time on you shortly. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	fivebells 2008-05-19 01:35 am UTC (link)
	Yeah, stick your head in the mouth of one of them, like Milarepa did. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	dharma_ben 2008-05-19 03:26 am UTC (link)
	Obstacles are teachers. (Reply to this)

	Chocolate just_be_hoppy 2008-05-19 07:37 am UTC (link)
	Share your chocolate with it. (Reply to this)

	this is actually funny because seer0000 2008-05-19 03:13 pm UTC (link)
	tengu guard shrines and temples harass the particularly proud so deal with your poison and if you are corrupting dharma try not corrupting dharma maybe you need to switch gurus :) (Reply to this)

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