This Sunday was the monthly Kaji Kito – “purification” – ceremony at the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church, during which Ven. Kenjo Igarashi goes into the congregation and prays individually for each member. Today after the purification he explained that his purpose was to bring the light of the Lotus Sutra to the darkness that causes suffering in the individual’s life. In past ceremonies he has described the purification as erasing a portion of the individual’s negative karma to make room for positive karma.

Clearly I don’t have a full grasp of what’s going on in this esoteric practice. Ven. Igarashi’s daughter, Kyomi, wrote an Honors Thesis in 2012 while at Wellesley College on “The Development of Kaji Kito in Nichiren Shu Buddhism” in which she explains as much of the ceremony as can be explained given that the transmission is “secret” and limited to priests who have undergone the 100-day Nichiren Shu aragyo training. Ven. Igarashi has undergone the aragyo training five separate times at Nakayama Hokekyo-ji in Japan. As of 2012, he was the only priest in the continental United States to have completed all 500 days of training.

One of the benefits of the training is the ability to install Hariti and Mahakala idols on the altar.