''Shiken haramitsu daikoumyo'' is a nine-syllable

Japanese Buddhist Buddhism has been practiced in Japan since about the 6th century CE. Japanese Buddhism () created many new Buddhist schools, and some schools are original to Japan and some are derived from Chinese Buddhist schools. Japanese Buddhism has had ...

mantra A mantra ( Pali: ''manta'') or mantram (मन्त्रम्) is a sacred utterance, a numinous sound, a syllable, word or phonemes, or group of words in Sanskrit, Pali and other languages believed by practitioners to have religious, ...

. Its

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

is 四拳波羅蜜大光明: * ''shi-ken'' 四拳: (''shi'' "four")-(''ken'' "heart" or "fist") * ''ha-ra-mitsu'' 波羅蜜: (''ha'' "wave")-(''ra'' "gauze")-(''mitsu'' "nectar") * ''dai-kou-myo'' 大光明: (''dai'' "great")-(''kou'' "light")-(''myo'' "bright") ''Shiken'' represents four attributes of the heart: * Mercy, with love for everything * Sincerity, doing what is right * An attuned heart, following the natural order of things * Dedication to a chosen pursuit ''Haramitsu'' means ''

pāramitā ''Pāramitā'' (Sanskrit, Pali: पारमिता) or ''pāramī'' (Pāli: पारमी), is a Buddhist term often translated as "perfection". It is described in Buddhist commentaries as noble character qualities generally associated wit ...

'', or the Buddha's ''

satori is a Japanese Buddhist term for awakening, "comprehension; understanding". It is derived from the Japanese verb satoru. In the Zen Buddhist tradition, ''satori'' refers to a deep experience of '' kenshō'', "seeing into one's true nature ...

'': reaching

Buddhahood In Buddhism, Buddha (; Pali, Sanskrit: 𑀩𑀼𑀤𑁆𑀥, बुद्ध), "awakened one", is a title for those who are awake, and have attained nirvana and Buddhahood through their own efforts and insight, without a teacher to point ...

despite worldly distractions. 波 are waves; ''kanojyo wa nami ga aru'' ("she has waves in her mind") implies that a person is unstable from worry and confusion. 羅 is gauze, which metaphorically clouds the mind. 蜜 is the nectar of enlightenment. 大光明 (''daikoumyo'') is a great, bright light; 光明 literally means "a bright future" (hope). According to ''

ninjutsu , sometimes used interchangeably with the modern term , is the martial art strategy and tactics of unconventional warfare, guerrilla warfare and espionage purportedly practised by the ninja. ''Ninjutsu'' was a separate discipline in some trad ...

'' as taught by

Masaaki Hatsumi , formerly Yoshiaki Hatsumi, is the founder of the Bujinkan Organization and is the former Togakure-ryū soke ( grandmaster). He no longer teaches, but currently resides in Noda, Chiba, Japan. Early life Masaaki Hatsumi was born in Noda, Chi ...

, there are lessons to be learned from everything—good or bad.

References

External links

Dai Ko Myo Revealed

Discussion of meaning

{{webarchive , url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180226062526/http://starbuck.virtualave.net/main/ninpo/bow_in.htm Buddhist mantras