Inori no Mori祈りの杜working title

Buddha (nyorai)

Shaka Nyorai (Shakyamuni)

釈迦如来しゃかにょらい

An illustration of Shaka Nyorai (Shakyamuni) created for this site
An original illustration made for this site.

Shaka Nyorai is the name under which the historical Shaka, who taught in India, is revered as a buddha who attained awakening. Shakamuni means "the sage of the Shaka clan." He looked closely at the suffering of life and taught people its cause and the path that leads away from suffering.

This introduction is based on materials from Shōhōin (Tobi Fudō). It is summarized within the scope of the beliefs and traditions those materials convey, and does not present explanations or practices shared by all schools, temples, and shrines.

English pages are the site’s own translations of its Japanese pages. The sources cited are in Japanese. 日本語で読む

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The awakened one who founded Buddhism

Shaka Nyorai is the name under which the historical Shaka, who taught in India, is revered as a buddha who attained awakening. Shakamuni means "the sage of the Shaka clan." He looked closely at the suffering of life and taught people its cause and the path that leads away from suffering.

Source: 曹洞宗・飛不動尊 正宝院

Wisdom and compassion that face suffering

Shaka's teaching sets out suffering, its cause, the ending of suffering, and the path that leads there as the "Four Noble Truths" (shitai). He is not placed as a deity in charge of one particular wish, but is looked up to as a guide for leaving delusion behind through one's daily way of life and practice.

Source: 曹洞宗

Leaving harsh austerities for the bodhi tree

In the accounts of the Buddha's life, Shaka confronted the problems of old age, sickness, and death and left home to become a renunciant. After undergoing severe austerities, he realized that tormenting the body alone does not resolve them. It is said that he gave up the austerities, meditated, and awakened to the principle of dependent origination (engi): that things arise from causes and conditions.

Source: 真宗大谷派 真宗会館

Different forms for birth, practice, and preaching

Statues of Shaka include figures shown preaching, as well as the infant Buddha at birth, pointing to heaven with the right hand and to the earth with the left. The absence of the ornate jewelry worn by bodhisattva statues is a feature that marks the form of a buddha who has renounced the world. Among the Thirteen Buddhas (Jūsanbutsu), he is assigned as the guiding buddha of the second seven-day memorial (futananoka).

Source: 飛不動尊 正宝院

Mantra (in Japanese, as written in the sources)

なーまく さ-まんだ ぼだなんばく。

Source: 飛不動尊 正宝院

Shown as written in the Japanese sources. This site does not set how or how many times to recite it.

Related shrines and temples

Related kami and buddhas

Sources (in Japanese)