Somoku jobutsu

"Trees and grass become buddhas" or "The salvation of inanimate things"

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Position: Inanimate things have the potential Buddha-nature, but cannot achieve enlightenment under their own power.

It is in a false text of the Dazhidu lun known to the Tendai school that it is said that there are three minds: irida, karida, and jittashin. It is the last that is sentience. And the idea that plants have no mind comes from Hinayana, it is not Mahayana: in sentient beings jittashin is the front, and irida and karida are suppressed; in plants, it is irida and karida that are the front, and jittashin remains unexpressed in the back. This is also the difference between beings in the Formless Realm and those in the Heaven of No-Thought, so it says.

Isshin knows this, and he knows a priest that will officiate unusual kuyo, no questions asked, when requested.

He is dressed in a dark suit, and the priest gives him a moment before the service is to begin, so he crouches down on the gravel and addresses a piece of candy he holds in his fist.

"Don't read too much into this," he tells it, "It's only that I wish to have things clear.

"I don't hate you. The truth is, you don't really mean anything to me. Not personally."

He tosses the pill in his hand lightly, weighing it, the other hand up covering his face as in thought, or as if holding a cigarette.

"I suppose I should thank you for how you helped my son.

"But he helped you too, you know. And what he gave you...

"Really, it was more valuable than you would have deserved."

He hears the approach of the priest over the gravel, and stands up. Isshin pauses for a moment, as if thinking or listening, but then hands over the pill to the priest, and steps back to observe.

The service is all prepared. For purification it's rope, ofuda, evergreen branches, and fire.

Isshin observes the fire, and decides he'll wait until everything has been extinguished. Undisturbed.

For if there would be any cries, of pain or fear, mysterious, well, the priest knows better than to ask.

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It is a peculiarity of Japanese religious practice that temples and shrines often, and at regular intervals, perform 'funerals' for used objects, such as needles, brushes, dolls...

The purpose of such ceremonies seems to be two-fold. One, for the owner or participant, is to show appreciation for the utility of the item, when it had been used.

The other, is so that the item might never come back to the owner again.