The following is a Dharma Talk given by Rev. Kōryu Atsushi at the home of a housebound, bedridden elderly person in 1989. It was then put into essay form and printed as a booklet in 1990 to commemorate the 1100th anniversary of the death of Shinnen, a disciple of Kōbō Daishi. I've tried to stay faithful to the original, but have added some explanatory phrases here and there to make it more accessible to an international audience.

The Goma is more visually striking than many Shingon rituals, but it is, in fact, something like an afterparty where the practitioner visualizes the hearth as the mouth of the deity and pours in additional offerings.

What may surprise even experienced pilgrims, though, is that the Shikoku 88 is not the only Henro–in fact most of the Seto Inland Sea’s islands, large and small, are home to Shima-Henro, “Island Pilgrimages,” the most famous of these being the one on Shodoshima. While seasoned pilgrims will notice many similarities to the Shikoku Pilgrimage, the Shodoshima Henro is an entity unto itself, with its own unique majesty and potency.

Though he's the main deity of just one of the 88 Temples of the Henro (T31, Chikurin-ji), Mañjusrī, or Monju-sama in Japan, is one of the most important deities in Buddhism. Kūkai powerfully invokes the deity in the opening line of his Secret Key to the Heart Sutra: “The sharp sword of Mañjusrī cuts off all mental proliferation.” To put it even more simply, Mañjusrī’s wisdom cuts the bullshit.