The Philo and Euhemerus of Japan was the priest Kukai, who was born in
the province of Sanuki, in the year 774. He is better known by his
posthumous title K[=o]b[=o] Daishi, or the Great Teacher who promulgates
the Law. By this name we shall call him. About his birth, life and
death, have multiplied the usual swaddling bands of Japanese legend and
tradition,[10] and to his tomb at the temple on Mount K[=o]-ya, the
Campo Santo of Japanese Buddhism, still gather innumerable pilgrims. The
"hall of ten thousand lamps," each flame emblematic of the Wisdom that
saves, is not, indeed, in these days lighted annually as of old; but the
vulgar yet believe that the great master still lives in his mausoleum,
in a state of profoundly silent meditation. Into the hall of bones near
by, covering a deep pit, the teeth and "Adam's apple" of the cremated
bodies of believers are thrown by their relatives, though the pit is
cleared out every three years. The devotees believe that by thus
disposing of the teeth and "Adam's apple," they obtain the same
spiritual privileges as if they were actually entombed there, that is,
of being born again into the heaven of the Bodhisattva or the Pure Land
of Absolute Bliss, by virtue of the mystic formulas repeated by the
great master in his lifetime.
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