Agon Shu Toronto Buddhist Temple
About Our Holiness Seiyu Kiriyama
In the midst of great crisis and despair, Seiyu Kiriyama became a practicing Buddhist under the guidance of the Juntei Kannon. Later, in search of ways of liberation from karmic causes and conditions, he walked the path of the seeker, moving from early Mahayana rituals to the esoteric Tantric practices of the late Mahayana, until at long last he discovered, in the Agama sutras, that are the sole original scriptures conveyed by the Buddha himself, the Method for the attainment of Buddhahood he had been searching for. This great teacher who practiced and mastered this method on his own led the followers of Agon Shu in its practice while continuing to pray for world peace and perform fire rites throughout the world.
Biography
Seiyu Kiriyama was born in Yokohama, Japan, on January 5th, 1921. In his youth, he aspired to become a successful writer and strived in his studies for his dreams. However, at the age of 18, he contracted tuberculosis while Japan was involved in World War II. Mandatory military enlistment was in place, but he was exempted from military service due to his poor health conditions. Because the cure for his disease was not yet discovered at that time, his illness was referred to be fatal. However, he fought his odds and successfully healed himself through deep meditation and sunbathing techniques.
After the war, he regained his health and found success selling rice and flour mills until his business was doomed to failure. Of his immense frustration and hopelessness, he tried to commit suicide on the site of a former factory built by his father. On the verge of his life and death, he found a small book of scriptures laying on the lintel above him.
As he went through the pages, he found a line which reads as follows: "Receive great merit in Juntei Kannon and elude all manner of misfortune." As soon as he read these words, his despair was swept away by a light of hope. Filled with a determination to live on, he became a Buddhist practitioner under the support of Juntei Kanzeon.
In 1954, he established Kannon Jikeikai to spread the teachings of Juntei Kanzeon.
As years passed, his faith and practice granted him the ability to see through the karma inherent in people. But, he soon discovered the truth that neither clairvoyance nor Buddhist teachings alone were capable of changing the fate of individuals nor his own. For this reason, he began his Buddhist studies in search for the solution against karma.
He studied and practiced from Mahayana Buddhism to Late Mahayana Buddhism (or Esoteric Buddhism). And, in January 1970, he successfully completed "The Psychokinetic Method of Goma," the secret method of Esoteric Buddhism which only in legends was it achieved. He then told to his fellow followers: "Pray for world peace through this sacred pyre."
He finally discovered the secret method of karmic liberation (the method of obtaining the wisdom to purge karma) and of the awakening of Buddhahood in the sutras of Agama, the scriptures in which the original teachings of Buddha were written down. Then, he founded Agon Shu. In addition to teaching the method of liberation, he held Sacred Goma Fire Ceremonies in India, New York, Paris, Auschwitz and Israel to pray for world peace.
Below is the list of his next achievements:
After countless undertakings, he passed away on August 8th, 2016, leaving his discoveries and his achieved methods of karmic liberation and awakening of the higher self on this earth.