Endless quest for enlightenment
Driven to extremes to become one with the exalted, reach immortality
Stemming from Shingon doctrines
Bizarre customs emerge
Practice of living embalment baffling
Uninitiated minds
Persevere to preserve (Your earthly vessel)
Your earthly vessel becomes a monument of spiritual sublimity
Sublimity achieved through acts of self-denial
Endurance beyond humanity
Stage 1
Meditation beneath icy waters
Self imposed hardships to drain body fat
Merciless reduction of food intake
Deprived of all earthly pleasures
Stage 2
Bark and roots, your sole nutrition
Toxic substances cause rapid loss of body fluids, vomiting
Arsenic ingestion corrupts
The little meat left on your bones
Stage 3
Encased alive in your tomb
Engrossed in spirituality
The bell rings for 13 days
Until silence signals transformation
Strengthened through excruciation
Body fat extermination
Deliberate contamination
Flesh now unfit for consumption
Torment chocked through meditation
Locked tight in Lotus position
Successful mummification
Postmortal idolization
Sacred site of admiration
A dead body’s exhibition
Visitors confronted with greatness