UC Riverside

Nestled in the heart of Little Tokyo, the Los Angeles Koyasan Buddhist Temple offers a monthly performance of the Goma fire ritual for the benefit of members and visitors alike. The practice of the Goma ceremony employs an elaborate ritual structure that utilizes the communal performance of visualizations, postures and chants in order to grant the practitioner's wishes and empower them to realize enlightenment. How do the visual, spatial and material elements of the Goma ceremony at Koyasan Los Angeles cultivate the independent participation of the temple laity in accordance with the Shingon practice of attaining enlightenment within the human body? In this thesis I will argue that the temple’s vibrant imagery, ritual choreography and sonic arrangements, as experienced in the Goma ceremony, mediate the somatic experience of the practitioner in order to evoke the experience of enlightenment. Rather than focusing on the experience of the priests’ administration of the Goma ritual, attention will be drawn towards the practice of the individual worshiper during the ceremony. The individual act of chanting, bowing, visualizing, smelling and touching the various components of the Goma ritual space reaffirms the nature of Shingon Buddhist art as a practical tool of worship.