Ucchuṣma
The Wisdom King Ucchuṣma.
Sanskritउच्छुष्म
(IAST: Ucchuṣma)
Chinese烏樞沙摩
(Pinyin: Wūshūshāmó)
穢跡金剛
(Pinyin: Huìjì Jīngāng)
火頭金剛
(Pinyin: Huǒtóu Jīngāng), etc.
Japanese烏枢沙摩明王（うすさまみょうおう）, 烏芻沙摩明王（うすしゃま）, etc.
(romaji: Ususama Myō'ō, Usushama Myō'ō, etc.)
穢跡金剛（えしゃくこんごう）
(romaji: Eshaku Kongō)
火頭金剛（かとうこんごう）
(romaji: Katō Kongō), etc.
Korean오추사마명왕
(RR: Ochusama Myeongwang)
예적금강
(RR: Yejeok Geumgang)
화두금강
(RR: Hwadu Geumgang), etc.
TibetanWylie: Khro bo sMe brtzegs
mNol ba med pa
sMe ba brtsegs pa
VietnameseÔ Xu Sa Ma Minh Vương
Uế Tích Kim Cương, etc.
Information
Venerated byMahayana, Vajrayana
AttributesDestroyer of defilements
Toilet god
icon Religion portal
Hōzan-ji

Ucchuṣma (Chinese: 穢跡金剛; pinyin: Huìjì Jīngāng; Rōmaji: Eshaku Kongō) is a Vidyārāja in Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism.

Ucchuṣma's full name in Sanskrit sources is Vajra Krodha Mahābala Ucchuṣma (lit. "Great Strength Furious Diamond Ucchuṣma"). In Chinese, this is translated as 大力威怒金刚烏芻使摩 (pinyin: Dàlì Wēinù Jīngāng Wūchúshǐmó), from the Chinese version of the Sūtra of Mahābala and the Tibetan version of the Ārya-Mahābalanāma Mahāyāna Sūtra.

Name

Ucchuṣma is known by various epithets and names in Chinese and Japanese Buddhism, which developed due to controversy surrounding the negative associations with impurities surrounding some of his names.

Epithets

The Vajra-being of Impure Traces

The Vajra-being who Removes Impurities

The Vajra-being of Secret Traces

The Vajra-being of Fire Head

The Vajra-being of Contact

Transliterations

Ucchuṣma Vidyārāja (Transliteration 1)

Ucchuṣma Vidyārāja (Transliteration 2)

Ucchuṣma Vidyārāja (Transliteration 3)

Ucchuṣma Vidyārāja (Transliteration 4)

Śūraṅgama Sūtra

According to the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, Shakyamuni Buddha asked the bodhisattvas and arhats to present their methods of understanding the ultimate truth. The eighteenth person to present his character was Ucchuṣma. The Sūtra states:

Ucchuṣma came before the Buddha, put his palms together, bowed at the Buddha’s feet, and said to the Buddha, "I can still remember how many kalpas ago I was filled with excessive greed and desire. There was a Buddha in the world named King of Emptiness. He said that people with too much desire turn into a raging mass of fire. He taught me to contemplate the coolness and warmth throughout my entire body.
A spiritual light coalesced inside and transformed my thoughts of excessive lust into the fire of wisdom. After that, when any of the Buddhas summoned me, they used the name 'fire-head.'
From the strength of the fire-light samādhi, I accomplished Arhatship. I made a great vow that when each of the Buddhas accomplishes the way, I will be a powerful knight and in person subdue the demons' hatred.
The Buddha asks about perfect penetration. I used attentive contemplation of the effects of heat in my body and mind, until it became unobstructed and penetrating and all my outflows were consumed. I produced a blazing brilliance and ascended to enlightenment. This is the foremost method."[1]

Ucchuṣma Vajrapāla Sūtra

The Ucchuṣma Vajrapāla Sūtra asserts that Ucchuṣma is actually the Vajra manifestation of Shakyamuni Buddha. Legend has it that when Shakyamuni Buddha was about to enter into Nirvana, all heavenly beings, with the exception of the ‘Spiral Hair-knot Brahma King’, came to pay their respect to Buddha. The Brahma King was in fact enjoying himself with the heavenly maidens in his own celestial palace. The heavenly gods, being unhappy with the arrogance of the Brahma King, went to his abode and try to persuade him to attend the Dharma assembly. Upon reaching his palace however, the gods found themselves trapped in the defiled energy cast by the supernatural powers of the king. Even some of the Vajra Deities (金剛神) who were later sent to apprehend the Brahma King were imprisoned by the foul forces as well.

When Shakyamuni Buddha came to learn of this, He employed His Original Wisdom (本智), and the Light of Perpetual Joy and Pliancy was emitted from His heart. Ucchuṣma Vajrapāla (穢跡金剛) soon appeared from amidst the revolving radiance of the Buddha’s heart, and ascended to the celestial palace of the Brahma King. Despite the defiled energy hurled at Him by the Brahma King, Ucchuṣma was unharmed as he immediately turned these forces of contamination into ordinary soil. In no time, the Brahma King was subdued and brought to the feet of Shakyamuni Buddha. For this reason, Ucchuṣma is also known as the "Filth-Eliminating Vajrapāla" (不淨金剛).[2]

Mantras

According to the Ucchuṣma Vidyārāja Dhāraṇi, the mantra provided should be recited forty thousand times by any good man or good woman who is besieged with ailments inflicted by evil spirits. On the tenth day of purification, it should be recited one thousand eight times resulting in the removal of myriad afflictions. The mantra is as follows:

Oṃ vajra-krodha mahābala hana daha paca mātha vi-kiraṇa vidhavaṃsaya ucchuṣma-krodha huṃ huṃ huṃ phaṭ phaṭ phaṭ svāhā[3]

The short dhāraṇi of Ucchuṣma Vajrapāla:

  • Oṃ krodhana hūṃ jaḥ

Mantras for other purposes:

  • Oṃ śūri śūri mahā-śūri śūśūri svāhā (Purification of speech)
  • Oṃ śutāri śutāri śumari śumari svāhā (Purification of action)
  • Oṃ śrimali mamali mali śuśri svāhā (Removal of filth)[4]

Veneration

China

In China, Ucchuṣma is mainly venerated by the Chan tradition who mainly venerates him for his role in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra. He has also penetrated into the traditions of the other schools of Buddhism, such as Tiantai, Huayan and Pure Land Buddhism, as well as Taoism and popular religion. Known in particular as a scatological, obstetrical, and talismanic god, Ucchuṣma has often been invoked in therapeutic, exorcistic, birth and āveśa, or spirit possession, rituals in imperial China. Starting from the late Tang period, he gradually increased in popularity outside of his marginal position in maṇḍalas, eventually thriving as an independent protector deity with his own cult.[5] He is seen as a manifestation of Shakyamuni Buddha. His statue can be found in certain temples, usually enshrined in the Mahavira Hall.

In the Fujian region of Mainland China as well as Taiwan, Ucchusma is also one of the deities who are regularly invoked by Buddhist adepts and Taoist ritual masters in various ritualistic ceremonies, including rites of exorcism. The tradition of performing these rituals, as well as the liturgical works on which the rituals are based on, have a history dating back to at least the early Ming period.[6]

In addition, Ucchusma is sometimes paired or identified with Guhyapāda, who is commonly known in Chinese as Mìjī Jīngāng (密跡金剛).[7] In a thirteenth-century Chinese long gāthā elaborating on the two major scriptures relating to Ucchusama, the Huiji Jin’gang Shuo Shentong Daman Tuoluoni Fashu Lingyao Men (穢跡金剛說神通大滿陀羅尼法術靈要 門經; lit "The Scripture of the Numinous and Essential Gate to the Ritual Techniques of the Great Perfection Dhāraṇī of Supernatural Power as Spoken by the Vajra-being of Impure Traces"; T. 1228), and the Huiji Jin’gang Jin Baibian Fajing (穢跡金剛禁百變法經; "The Scripture of the Rites of the Vajra-being of Impure Traces for Binding the Hundred Transformations"; T. 1229), Ucchuṣma’s Chinese name Huìjì Jīngāng was changed to Mìjī Jīngāng due to negative connotations associated with the former name. In the Chongbian Zhutian Zhuan (重編諸天傳; lit "Recompiled Biographies of Devas and Devīs") from the Southern Song period, one of the Sanskrit transliterations given for Guhyapāda is Ucchuṣma.[8] In a repentance ritual for the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, both Guhyapāda and Ucchusama were invoked as a pair.[9] The two wrathful deities were also sometimes found standing opposite each other at the entrances of some monasteries.[10][11]

Japan

In Japan, Ucchuṣma is venerated in several schools of Buddhism, including Tendai, Shingon, Zen and Nichiren. He is recognized as a guardian of the bathroom, where his effigy is often present. He is known to the general public for his powers of purification of the unclean, in particular in respect to sexual diseases.[12][13]

Ucchuṣma was also thought to be able to change a female fetus into a male one.[14]

Temples

A non-exhaustive list of temples that enshrine Ucchuṣma are as follows, arranged according to tradition:

Shingon

  • Mangan-ji (Chiba)
  • Kiburi-ji (Gifu)
  • Fudō-in (Kyoto)

Tendai

  • Tōkō-ji (Tokyo)
  • Kannonshō-ji (Shiga)

Sōtō Zen

  • Kaiun-ji (Tokyo)
  • Zuiryū-ji (Toyama)
  • Akiba Sōhonden Kasuisai (Shizuoka)
  • Myōtoku-ji (Shizuoka}
  • Daikō-in (Aichi)

Jōdo-shū

Nichiren

  • Gokoku-ji (Kyoto)
  • Honkyō-ji (Hyōgo)

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ The Surangama Sutra with Commentary - Volume 5 - Explained by Venerable Master Hsuan Hua p.94
  2. ↑ Ucchusma Vajrapala Sutra
  3. ↑ "秽迹金刚说神通大圆满陀罗尼梵音". Youtube. 馬來西亞萬撓佛教會 Rawang Buddhist Association, Selangor, Malaysia. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. Retrieved 2019-06-25.
  4. ↑ "常見經本真言集" (PDF). wisdombox.com. Retrieved 2019-06-25.
  5. ↑ Zhaohua., Yang (2013). Devouring impurities : myth, ritual and talisman in the cult of Ucchusma in Tang China. OCLC 848167476.
  6. ↑ Flanigan, Stephen McIver (2019). Sacred Songs of the Central Altar: Texts and Histories of the Ritual Master in the Religious World of Southern Taiwan (Thesis thesis). University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. hdl:10125/66194.
  7. ↑ Zhaohua., Yang (2013). Devouring impurities : myth, ritual and talisman in the cult of Ucchusma in Tang China. OCLC 848167476.
  8. ↑ 釋行霆. (2005). 重編諸天傳 : [上下卷]. Xian zhuang shu ju. ISBN 7-80106-234-5. OCLC 828410455.
  9. ↑ sheng., Zhang, Shou yue. Lu, Guang zu. Xu qing. Che (1573–1722). 依楞嚴究竟事懺(二卷) : 2卷. [Ke shu zhe bu xiang]. OCLC 989511208.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. ↑ Bonnefoy, Yves (1993). Asian mythologies. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-06456-5. OCLC 473747570.
  11. ↑ 林克智. (2000). 祥和洒脫之路. Zong jiao wen hua chu ban she. ISBN 7-80123-262-3. OCLC 57071132.
  12. ↑ Williams, Duncan Ryuken (2005). The other side of Zen : a social history of Sōtō Zen : Buddhism in Tokugawa Japan. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691119287. OCLC 54479202.
  13. ↑ Baroni, Helen Josephine. (2002). The illustrated encyclopedia of Zen Buddhism (1st ed.). New York: Rosen Pub. Group. ISBN 0823922405. OCLC 42680558.
  14. ↑ The Taiheiki : a chronicle of medieval Japan. McCullough, Helen Craig. Rutland, Vt. 15 March 2004. ISBN 0804835381. OCLC 86222702.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
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