## 1. Biography



Kukai grew up during the Nara period (710-784CE) when the
Nara Buddhist schools flourished and the country was centralized under
the rule of the imperial family. And he was active during the
beginning of the Heian period (794-1185CE) when
institutionalized Nara Buddhism underwent reform due to the influence
of newer ideas coming from China, including Kukai's own
importations. He comes from an aristocratic family, the Saeki, and as
a boy, he was educated by his maternal uncle, a Confucian scholar. At
the age of seventeen or eighteen, he entered the state university at
the then-capital Nagaoka but was soon disillusioned with its Confucian
education. He suddenly dropped out of the university and retired into
the natural setting of the mountains, where as legend has it, he
devoted himself to various forms of esoteric practices. A few years
later at the age of 24, he completed the final version of his first
treatise, the *Sango shiki* (*Indications of the
Goals of the Three Teachings*) that covers and compares the
teachings of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. Herein one can
discern Kukai's reasons for turning from Confucianism to
Buddhism. In the text, Kukai relates how as a student he met a
Buddhist priest who taught him an esoteric meditative practice called
the *Kokuzogumonji no ho*
("Akasagarbha's method for seeking hearing
and retaining"), which involved the recitation of a mantra a
million times and was supposed to endow the practitioner with
miraculous powers of memory and understanding.



What Kukai found in Buddhism was a concrete path towards
enlightenment (and liberation from suffering) that involves bodily
practice and direct experience rather than mere theoretical
speculation. Kukai however did not involve himself in the
official schools of the Nara Buddhist orthodoxy for they emphasized
the exegetical study of the scriptures without providing any
theoretical grounding for ritual practice. Instead he remained in the
remote mountain regions of his native Shikoku as an unofficial and
privately ordained mendicant. It appears that between the ages of 24
and 31, he wandered through its various mountains and sacred sites,
practicing asceticism. Noticing the many different branches and
*sutras* (scriptures) of Buddhism, he hoped to find its
unifying essence that would also bridge the gap between ritual and
experience on the one hand and doctrine and theory on the other hand.
It was during this search that he came across the mid-seventh century
esoteric Buddhist text of the *Dainichi-kyo* (Skrt:
*Mahavairocana Sutra*; Chn: *Ta-ji Ching*;
"Great Sun scripture"). Intuiting that this text, with its
dual emphasis upon esoteric practice and doctrine, would provide the
kind of knowledge that he was seeking, Kukai decided to travel to
China to study it.



It was only in 804 at the age of 30 or 31 that Kukai was thus
officially ordained so that he could travel with an official
government embassy to China. He travelled to Ch'ang-an, the
great cosmopolitan capital of the T'ang (Tang) dynasty, where he
resided for thirty months. During this period, he studied Indian
Buddhism, Hindu teachings, and Sanskrit with two Indian monks. But
more significantly he met Hui-kuo (Huiguo; Jpn: Keika)
(746-805), the seventh patriarch of Chen-yen (Zhenyan; Jpn:
Shingon; Skrt: Mantrayana) Buddhism, from whom he received
initiation into the two lineages of Chen-yen esoteric Buddhism, one
centered around the Vajradhatu (Diamond realm) mandala based on
the *Vajrasekhara Sutra* ("Adamantine {or
Diamond} Pinnacle scripture") and the other focussing upon the
Garbha (Womb) mandala based on the *Mahavairocana
Sutra*. Kukai's accomplishment during his stay in
China is phenomenal in that not only did he manage to succeed Hui-kuo
in becoming the eighth patriarch of esoteric Buddhism, he also managed
to study Sanskrit, Chinese poetry and calligraphy, and various other
minor arts.



Kukai returned to Japan in 806 at the age of 33. He arrived in
Kyushu with a voluminous amount of sutras, collections of mandala
paintings, treatises and commentaries, books of poetry, and ritual
paraphernalia. In Kyushu, he composed the *Shorai mokuroku*
(*A Memorial Presenting a List of Newly Imported Sutras and
Other Items*) that gives a brief account of his activities in
China, describes what distinguishes esoteric Buddhism, and lists the
items he had collected and brought back to Japan. However he was not
permitted to enter the capital due to political unrest and was obliged
to remain in Kyushu for another three years. Only with the retirement
of Emperor Heizei (r. 806-809), did the new Emperor Saga order
Kukai in 809 to move to the new capital of Kyoto to reside at
Takaosan-ji, the center of the Kyoto Buddhist world, where he remained
until 823. Under the patronage of the new emperor, Kukai became
appointed over the years to various administrative positions of
several important official temples. This allowed him to perform the
first public esoteric ritual for "nation-protection,"
followed by other public esoteric ceremonies, including mass
initiation rituals and the founding of an annual ritual (the
*Mishuho*) to be held at court, hence gaining official
recognition for the efficacy of esoteric Buddhism and preparing the
rise of Buddhism as an ideological force in medieval Japan.



It was during his period at Takaosan-ji that he wrote some of his
major treatises of philosophical interest to us, such as
*Benkenmitsu nikkyoron* (*Treatise on the Differences
Between Esoteric and Exoteric Teachings*) around 814, and the
so-called *Sanbu-sho* ("Three Writings") of
*Sokushinjobutsugi* (*On the Meaning of
"Attaining Buddhahood in this Very Embodied
Existence"*), *Shojijissogi* (*On the
Meanings of "Sound, Sign, and Reality"*), and
*Unjigi* (*On the Meaning of the Syllable
Hum*) in the 820s. And towards the end of his life he
completed in 830 what has been considered to be his *magnum
opus*, the *Himitsu mandara jujushinron*
(*Treatise on the Ten States of the Mind as a Secret Mandala*)
in ten volumes, and soon afterward, completed its summary version, the
*Hizo hoyaku* (*The Precious Key to the Secret
Treasury*) in three volumes. 



In 816 Kukai began building a monastic center in Mt. Koya,
and there he died in 835 at the age of 61. In 921, he posthumously
received from Emperor Daigo and his court, the honorific title,
*Kobo Daishi* ("Great Teacher Who Spread the
Dharma").


## 2. Historical Background of Esoteric Buddhism



Kukai called his form of Buddhism, *Shingon*, which means
"the word of truth." This is the Japanese pronunciation of
the Chinese *chen-yen* (*zhenyan*) and the Sanskrit
*mantra*. The form of Buddhism that he learned in China was an
importation from India of *Mantrayana* (Mantra vehicle
{or: "school"}) Buddhism, more often known as
*Vajrayana* (Diamond {or: "Lightning Fast"}
vehicle). The word *mantra* signifies a secret teaching
inexpressible in ordinary words or linguistic formulations. This form
of Buddhism, whose origin dates back to the mid-seventh century India,
is more popularly known today in the West as "Tantric
Buddhism," especially in its Tibetan incarnation. It is
characterized by its emphasis upon rituals, involving the use of
mantras, mandalas, and other means in order to control both body and
mind to experience the "ultimate." Two major texts,
associated with this form of Buddhism, made their way into China from
India: *Mahavairocana Sutra* (Jpn:
*Dainichi-kyo*) from the mid-seventh century and
*Vajrasekhara Sutra* (Jpn:
*Kongocho-gyo*) from the later-seventh century.
Mantrayana made its way east to China during the T'ang
dynasty (713-765) around the beginning of the eighth century
through the translating and propagating efforts of the Indian priests
Subhakarasimha (Jpn: Zenmui; 637-735) who brought the
*Mahavairocana Sutra* to China; Vajrabodhi (Jpn:
Kongochi; 671-741), the sixth patriarch of Mantrayana,
who brought the *Vajrasekhara Sutra* to China; and
Amoghavajra (Jpn: Fuku, an abbreviation for Fukukongo;
705-74), Vajrabodhi's disciple, who won the support of
successive emperors during the T'ang period; and the Chinese
priest, I-hsing (Yixing; Jpn: Ichigyo; 683-727) who learned
the teachings of *Mahavairocana Sutra* from
Subhakarasimha and the teachings of *Vajrasekhara
Sutra* from Varjabodhi. Kukai's own teacher
Hui-kuo had also received initiation under both lineages of these two
major sutras, and is credited with gathering together their
teachings into one system. In the meantime during the eighth century,
another branch of Mantrayana made it north from India to Tibet.
But Chen-yen Buddhism in China did not survive the severe persecution
of Buddhism in general in 845. Kukai however had by then already
succeeded in transmitting to Japan the esoteric doctrines he had
studied in China. For much of the doctrines and practices, which he
had imported, became influential amongst the official Nara
monasteries. But his form of Buddhism was not just a product of his
inheritance and appropriation of the Buddhism he encountered in China.
As it involved developments and contributions uniquely his own, we may
regard him not only as the transmitter but as the *founder* of
the Japanized version of Mantrayana known as
*Shingon*.


## 3. Thought



Kukai has been regarded as the first comprehensively
philosophical thinker in Japanese intellectual history. The influence
of Mahayana philosophy is noticeable but they are
interpreted through the lens of Mantrayana with its emphasis upon
the inseparability of ritual practice from theoretical doctrine.
Traditionally, his thought has been divided into the following
aspects: 1) the theoretical (*kyoso*) which
explicates the uniqueness and distinction of esoteric Buddhism
(*mikkyo*) as opposed to exoteric Buddhism
(*kengyo*) and demonstrates its validity and
efficaciousness; and 2) the practical (*jiso*), which
prescribes his method of meditation and ritual. Ultimately however the
theoretical and the practical are inseparable in Kukai's
thought. Within the deep profundity and subtleties of his doctrine,
one recognizes philosophical elements inherited from Madhyamaka,
Yogacara, T'ien-t'ai (Tiantai), and Huayen
(Huayan) Buddhist thought. But with these are incorporated the
elements of devotional piety and magico-esoteric practice even in his
theoretical writings. What is especially pronounced and distinct in
his thought is the significance of bodily experience and practice.
Buddhist truths for Kukai were not simply meant to be
intellectually mused over but to be *experienced through bodily
practice*. One might say then that for Kukai it is the body
that provides the medium whereby theory and practice, doctrine and
ritual, thought and experience, are non-dualistic.



A major contribution made by Kukai for the orthodoxy of Nara
Buddhism with his systematization of esoteric doctrines, was to bridge
the gap between textual study and ritual practice. Kukai's
works provided for the first time a theoretical grounding for the
incantation of mantras and *dharanis* and other
esoteric practices already present in Nara Buddhism. It did this by
explicating their relationship to the doctrines expressed in the
scriptural texts. While esoteric elements were already present in Nara
Buddhism, their very *raison d'etre*, other than as forms
of magic, and their very connection to Buddhist doctrines had been
left in the dark. Kukai's success may be attributable to
his ability to provide a sound and intelligible systematic exposition
of the meanings of the esoteric elements of Buddhism and of the
interrelationships between text, ritual, and icon. In doing so it
succeeded in bridging the gap between esoteric rituals and scriptural
doctrines. (Abe 1999, 11) Kukai had to work out such an
exposition in order to establish and legitimize the independence and
role of his Shingon Buddhism vis-a-vis the other forms of
Buddhism already existent in Nara Japan.


### 3.1 Works



Of Kukai's so-called theoretical works, the philosophically
most significant are *Benkenmitsu nikkyoron*, *Himitsu
mandara jujushinron*, *Hizo hoyaku*,
*Sokushinjobutsugi*, *Shojijissogi*, and
*Unjigi*. The former three provide comparative analyses
exploring what distinguishes Shingon esoteric Buddhism from other
forms of religious thought and practice, including the exoteric forms
of Buddhism. The latter three are expositions of the Shingon worldview
and its concepts, and are grouped together to comprise the so-called
*Sanbu-sho* ("Three Writings"). *Benkenmitsu
nikkyoron* (2 vols.) written in 814/815 sets forth the
differences between esoteric and exoteric Buddhism to emphasize the
superiority of the former. Starting from this foundation (i.e. of the
distinction and superiority of the esoteric standpoint), Kukai
composed the *Sanbu-sho*, in rapid succession from around 821
to 824. These "Three Writings" provide expositions of what
commentators have called the "metaphysics" of Shingon,
dealing in detail with the three so-called mysterious aspects of the
cosmic truth (Dharma): its "body, speech, and mind."
*Sokushinjobutsugi* explicates the concept of
*sokushinjobutsu* or enlightenment in one's
immediate embodied existence. *Shojijissogi* and
*Unjigi* are unique works of a "metaphysical
linguistics." They examine the interrelationship (which is
ultimately non-dualistic) between the phenomenal world, its sounds (or
"voices") as "signs" (or
"letters"), and reality itself, the "meaning,"
they convey. In doing so, those two works explicate the Shingon
concept of *hosshin seppo*, the Buddha's preaching
of the Dharma *via* cosmic phenomena. In fact all three of
these "Three Writings" deal with the embodied realization
of the Dharma. But they do this from the different angles of the
microcosm of the human body and the macrocosm of the cosmic body.
Embodiment then plays an important role in Kukai's
Buddhism. As we shall see below, the embodiment of the Dharma as such
also involves the incorporation of the mantra and the mandala along
with other esoteric features. The work that represents the culmination
of Kukai's thought, completed at the age of 57 in 830, is
his *Jujushinron* (10 vols.) along with its abridged
version, *Hizo hoyaku* (3 vols.). These two works
position Shingon esotericism as the culmination of all Buddhist and
religious standpoints. They make the grand claim that Shingon provides
the most comprehensive view to truth, the Dharma. All other religious
views on the other hand are mere approximations of that truth in
various degrees and from various perspectives. Each religious
standpoint then corresponds to a specific level of development of the
human mind, which in ten states leads up to the enlightened mind. The
final culminating stage of enlightenment then is what corresponds to
Shingon doctrine as the most comprehensive, and hence "most
true." Nevertheless, the pre-Shingon and exoteric teachings each
have their rightful place within this scheme so that they are not
utterly discounted. In addition to the above-mentioned six major
works, there is also Kukai's first work - written
prior to his trip to China -, the *Sangoshiki*.
This was his first look at Buddhism in comparison with Taoism and
Confucianism. In the following however, I shall focus on
Kukai's thought in the six major works. These are his
mature works, and also universally recognized as his most important
theoretical works.


### 3.2 Esoteric (*Mikkyo*) vs. Exoteric (*Kengyo*)



In *Benkenmitsu nikkyoron*, Kukai sets out to
establish the basic differences between the brand of Buddhism he was
introducing to Japan, which he regarded as "esoteric
teachings" (*mikkyo*; "secret teaching")
on the one hand, and the forms of Buddhism already officially
recognized and practiced in Japan, which he classified as
"exoteric teachings" (*kengyo*;
"revealed teaching," "public teaching"). This
distinction between "esoteric" (*mitsu*) and
"exoteric" (*ken*) Buddhism is not found in his
Indian predecessors. But some of his Japanese predecessors had already
been using the binary *ken*-*mitsu* categories.
Kukai's contribution was to interpret them in a new way
through appropriation of the esoteric texts he had brought back from
China. In Kukai's thinking, that distinction is crucial.
While we shall discuss some of these ideas in the following sections
with greater depth, we may here summarize the general distinctions
laid out in *Benkenmitsu nikkyoron* for now as follows: 1)
For exoteric Buddhism, the "embodiment of truth" (Skrt:
*dharmakaya*; Jpn: *hosshin*) is abstract and
transcendent and hence does not preach. But for esoteric Buddhism, the
phenomenal world from the enlightened perspective - that is, the
standpoint of the Buddha - *is* the preaching activity of
the cosmic Buddha Dainichi (Skrt: *Mahavairocana*) and
*as* that "embodiment of truth." Hence while
exoteric teachings may be traced to Sakyamuni, the historical
Buddha, esoteric teachings come directly from the Buddha Dainichi. 2)
For exoteric Buddhism, the absolute truth, i.e., the Dharma,
transcends world and language, and thus cannot be explained. But for
esoteric Buddhism, that Dharma itself is being perpetually expressed
*in* and *as* its embodiment in the phenomenal world, in
its sounds, movements, and forms, and even in the thoughts of sentient
beings. In other words, its embodiment refers not only to the
meditation of the Buddha but also to the Buddha's creative and
communicative activities. 3) Exoteric Buddhism lacks, according to
Kukai, a practical methodology for *experiencing* esoteric
truths. While exoteric Buddhism emphasizes the intellectual study and
comprehension of the doctrines set forth in the sutras, esoteric
Buddhism provides a bodily hermeneutic whereby esoteric truths hidden
in the sutras as well as in the world at large can be
experienced. And: 4) For exoteric Buddhism, it takes three infinitely
long epochs of repeated rebirths of training in order for one to
attain enlightenment (Buddhahood); but esoteric Buddhism makes it
possible for anyone, irrespective of karmic dispositions, to
immediately become a buddha in one's present embodied state.


### 3.3 The Esoteric View of the Buddha: The Four Embodiments of Truth (the Dharma)



In order to understand the above-mentioned distinctions made by
Kukai, we need to comprehend what exactly the Buddha signifies
for Kukai. This is also important as his esoteric view of the
Buddha underlies all of the major points of his philosophy that we
shall be discussing further below.



In traditional Mahayana Buddhist theory, the Buddha is
conceived in terms of three modes or forms of embodiments
(*trikaya*): *dharmakaya* (Jpn:
*hosshin*), *nirmanakaya*, and
*sambhogakaya*. While originally the term *buddha*,
meaning "enlightened one," was reserved for
Sakyamuni, the historical founder of Buddhism, it eventually came
to designate the ideal for humanity. This ideal became equated with
the "truth" (Skrt: *Dharma*; Jpn:
*ho*), taught by the Buddha, of the nature of being. To be
a "buddha" is then to be enlightened to that truth, which
came to also mean the realization of one's non-duality with the
Dharma. It is in this significance that one way of understanding the
Buddha is in terms of the universal "embodiment of the
Dharma" (Skrt: *dharmakaya*; Jpn: *hosshin*).
For traditional Mahayana, this *hosshin* is an
abstract principle and hence impersonal and non-preaching. However as
implied in the foregoing section, for Kukai the *hosshin*
is identified with the Buddha Dainichi. That is, in one aspect the
*hosshin* may be understood to be a personal being who preaches
the Dharma by concretizing it in the cosmos as his own body. (Of
course though to avoid anthropomorphism, the *hosshin* cannot
be reduced to this aspect.) In the traditional three-body doctrine,
however, it is the other two forms of embodiment that preach. The
Buddha, when regarded as embodying the Dharma in an historical earthly
being, such as Sakyamuni, who preaches the Dharma to humans, is
called the *nirmanakaya* ("embodiment of
transformation"). And the Buddha as enjoying his fruits of
enlightenment by residing in a celestial buddha-realm, while unfolding
further truths for advanced bodhisattva beings and acting as a savior
to the earthly, is called the *sambhogakaya*
("embodiment of bliss"). An example of would be Amida
residing in his "Pure Land."



What distinguishes Kukai's understanding of the Buddha is
that he takes the notion of the "embodiment of the Dharma"
literally and radically. *Hosshin* in Shingon thought is not an
abstract truth transcending the mundane world. Rather *all*
phenomena and thing-events of this cosmos, in their very transience,
are each themselves embodiments of truth and the cosmos as a whole
comprised of these impermanent and interdependent beings is eternally
an embodiment of truth, the *hosshin*. Moreover this concrete
cosmic identification between Buddha, truth, and the cosmos of
thing-events, was "personal." That is, *hosshin*
was equated with the Buddha Dainichi. The cosmos *as* the
manifestation of truth, the Dharma, was itself hence equated with the
body of the personal Buddha Dainichi. And in turn, Dainichi with his
cosmic body is then the embodied personification of the universal
Buddha-nature inherent in all beings and the Dharma that is manifest
everywhere. Prior to Hui-kuo, this identification of Dainichi with the
*hosshin* in Mantrayana Buddhism was ambiguous and not
thorough. In the *Dainichi-kyo*, a sun metaphor is used to
name its central Buddha, "Dainichi"
(*Mahavairocana*, transliterated as
*Makabirushana*), meaning "Great Sun," as the being
whose light illuminates and enlightens all beings in a way akin to the
sun's life-giving light. All other deities are seen as
manifestations of this light. Dainichi's identification with the
*hosshin* nevertheless remains ambiguous. While he probably
influenced Kukai in regards to this equation, Hui-kuo himself
however left no written explications. Kukai thus has been
regarded as the first to provide a complete and systematic exposition
of the nature of the Buddha Dainichi *as* the *hosshin*.
The sun metaphor of illumination - as the source of both being
and of knowledge (enlightenment) - befits the universality of
the *hosshin* perfectly. The illumination of the "Great
Sun" (Dainichi) becomes accordingly understood to mean the
omnipresencing of the Dharma throughout the cosmos, an omnipresencing
in turn equated with the Buddha's preaching. This
"proof" that the *hosshin* does in fact preach
helped Kukai in distinguishing his esoteric doctrines from those
of exoteric Buddhism.



This identification between Dainichi and *hosshin* held many
implications for Kukai, which became worked out in his various
doctrines. For example, the equation of Dainichi's body-and-mind
with the cosmos itself also means the immanent presence of the Buddha
within, and *as*, the body-and-mind of each and every one of
us. And so Dainichi's "enlightened mind"
(*bodhicitta*) becomes synonymous with the Mahayana
doctrine of "original enlightenment" (*hongaku*)
within all beings. But as the Dharma signifies the interdependent
origination, hence, emptiness (*ku*) of all beings, its
embodiment may be said to be an "empty body." We will
examine these ideas in greater detail later.



Kukai's Shingon Buddhism postulated four forms of
embodiment *as* the *hosshin* itself. This notion of the
four forms of the *hosshin* (*shishu hosshin*) roughly
corresponds to, while reworking, the Mahayana
*trikaya* doctrine. 1) First there is the *hosshin*
in its absolute sense, called *jisho* *hosshin*.
This is the embodiment of the Dharma as Dainichi eternally remaining
in the state of *samadhi* but also engaging in a monologue,
which reveals its "self-nature" and unfolds the Dharma
through its omni-presencing manifestations in the cosmos. 2) Secondly
there is the *juyu* *hosshin*, which is the
*hosshin* enjoying bliss. But this is characterized in its two
aspects: A) "the self-oriented embodiment"
(*jijuyushin*) describing the *hosshin* as enjoying
its own state of *samadhic* bliss; and B) "the
other-oriented embodiment" (*tajuyushin*) describing
the *hosshin* in the form of various celestial buddhas
directing the blissful fruits of self-enlightenment for the benefit of
others. 3) Thirdly there is the *hosshin* in its historical and
earthly transformation, called *henge* *hosshin* as
manifest in the enlightened personage of Sakyamuni. This
historical Buddha guides ordinary, ignorant, and irreligious people
towards the Dharma, but for this sake must improvise skillful (or:
expedient) means (Skrt: *upaya*; Jpn: *hoben*)
appropriate to the time, place, and comprehension of a given audience.
4) And fourthly there is the *hosshin* in its universal
emanation, called *toru hosshin*. This is its
manifestation in all sorts of bodily forms appropriate to the
situation in order to expound the Dharma, often appearing in the same
form as the listener in order to share in his suffering. This
conception also became generalized by Kukai to include all
phenomenal thing-events - together with their respective
environments or "realms" - as "bodies"
filling up the entire cosmos. As such every phenomenon plays the role
of a "buddha," teaching some aspect of the Dharma and
expressing the Buddha's enlightened wisdom and compassion, to
realize the original enlightenment of all. Interestingly this implies
that each one of us are *already* buddhas expounding some
aspect of the Dharma to one another, but which we must then become
aware of in order to realize our own Buddhahood.



It is interesting to note that the celestial buddhas and the
historical buddha (Sakyamuni) are here included as themselves
forms of the *hosshin*, when in the traditional
*trikaya* doctrine of Mahayana, they were
distinguished from the *hosshin*, which in turn was seen as
abstract and impersonal. Furthermore, according to this doctrine of
the four forms of the *hosshin*, it is not only the celestial
buddhas in the heavens and the historical buddha on earth who preach,
but *all* four forms. From Kukai's esoteric
standpoint, the *hosshin* even in its *samadhic*
self-enjoyment is preaching the Dharma in its cosmic monologue -
for its very embodiment is the cosmos itself so that its
*samadhic* experiencing of the Dharma permeates everywhere and
everywhen. Simply put, Dainichi *as* the *hosshin* and
*as* the personification of the Dharma concretely embodied in
the cosmos, is directly preaching the Dharma to the world *via*
his omni-presencing being. And while in the broader sense the
*hosshin* is thus preaching *via* the cosmos, in the
narrower sense its preaching is manifest in the teachings of esoteric
Buddhism itself. On the other hand the doctrines of what Kukai
classified as exoteric are traced to either what the historical
buddha, Sakyamuni, preached or what the celestial buddhas are
preaching in the heavenly dimensions. Insofar as they themselves are
embodiments of the *hosshin*, what they preach are indirectly
teachings of the *hosshin*. But their teachings are
provisional, relative only to the comprehension of their audience and
the circumstance of time and place wherein they are preached.
Kukai claims, however, that through training in Shingon
esotericism, one can receive the teachings of the *hosshin*
*directly* - that is, receive the timeless and absolute,
cosmic and holistic, truth of the Dharma in its very embodiment. This
was a radical and heterodox claim at the time since the teaching
common to all orthodox Buddhist schools was that the sutras can
all be traced back to the preachings of Sakyamuni and this
lineage is what legitimated their use of the sutras. But for
Kukai, the historical Buddha was but one manifestation of the
cosmic Buddha, Dainichi, who embodies the truth (Dharma,
*ho*) it preaches as the *hosshin*.


### 3.4 The Three Aspects of the Embodiment of Truth (*Hosshin*; *Dharmakaya*)



In addition to its four forms of embodiment, Kukai (in his
*Sokushinjobutsugi* chs. 3, 4, 5) systematically
elucidates three aspects as belonging to the *hosshin* in its
cosmic significance: the six universal elements (*rokudai*) as
comprising its own body or somaticity (*hontai*), the four
mandalas (*shimandara*) as constituting its "marks"
or forms of appearance (*yoso*), and the three
mysteries (*sanmitsu*) constituting its functions
(*sayo*). In all three aspects, there is involved an
interrelationship of non-duality between its macro-cosmic significance
and its micro-cosmic significance, that is, between the
*hosshin* *qua* cosmos as a whole and the practitioner
as a being forming a part of, and partaking in, the cosmos. The three
aspects interpenetrate to make-up the macrocosmos while in their
non-duality with cosmic constituents, they become manifest through
successful Shingon practice and in one's consequent
enlightenment.



Kukai's elucidation of these three aspects provide both a
theoretical and a practical grounding for his own conception of
*sokushinjobutsu* or "becoming Buddha in this very
embodied existence," by clarifying both its possibility and its
method. Japanese commentators have often classified his thought along
the following lines: the theory of the six universal elements as
providing a metaphysic, the theory of the four mandalas as providing
an epistemology, and the theory of the three mysteries as providing a
metapraxis. But one must also keep in mind that all three concerns
- metaphysical, epistemological, and practical - are
intertwined and inseparable in Kukai's thinking.
Furthermore all three involve the significance of the body so that
even in his so-called "epistemology," embodiment cannot be
ignored.



In the immediately following subsections I will briefly discuss each
of these aspects before providing a more detailed exposition of them
in the following sections.


#### 3.4.1 Somaticity (the six universal elements)



*Hosshin* in its somaticity is identified with the cosmos as an
organic whole wherein thing-events come and go *via*
interdependent origination. The cosmos as such is called
*hokkai* (Skrt: *dharmadhatu*; world/realm of the
Dharma), and in turn *as* the *hosshin*, it is the body
or *soma* (*tai*) of the Buddha Dainichi. (However it
should not be understood as *substantial* in the western
philosophical sense because it is "empty" - more on
"emptiness" below.) Hence Kukai in
*Shojijissogi* cites lines from the *Avatamsaka
Sutra* that "all lands are in the body of the
Buddha," or that "each hair [of the Buddha] contains
myriad lands as vast as oceans..." And yet simultaneously
the truth, the Dharma, embodied in the entire cosmos is manifest
within each of its micro-cosmic parts. This view that the whole
permeates its parts - reminding us perhaps of the more recent
theories of holonics or the holographic model of the universe -
allows Kukai to show that the *hosshin* does indeed preach
the Dharma throughout the cosmos in its every single aspect.



This great cosmic body of the *hosshin* embraces all phenomena
through the mutual "non-obstruction" of the six universal
elements (*rokudai muge*). (Mutual
"non-obstruction" or *muge* here must be understood
to mean what allows for their interrelations and interpenetrations
that constitute things. In being non-substantial, they do not obstruct
each other. And "universal" or *dai* here must be
understood in its literal sense as "great," meaning that
it does not exclude any phenomena or thing-event in the cosmos at
all.) As the cosmos, the *hosshin* is made up of the six
"great" elements (fire, earth, water, air, space,
consciousness) which interrelate to constitute thing-events in their
interdependent origination. Their interaction thus constitutes the
somaticity of an ever-evolving whole. But as dependent origination
equals emptiness (Skrt: *sunyata*; Jpn:
*ku*) in Buddhism, this cosmic body is an embodiment of
the Dharma *qua* emptiness. Moreover emptiness also signifies
"space," for the same graph (*ku*) is used to
mean "emptiness" and "space." Hence the cosmic
body in its endless vastness, as space embracing everything, can be
seen as providing the space for the emergence of thing-events through
the intermingling of the six elements. Thus Dainichi's body as
the cosmic embodiment of the Dharma pervades *all* beings to
make up, through the six elements, each of their own bodies. And yet
from another perspective, as the cosmic body is a vast emptiness that
makes room for the emergence of beings, each of these beings are in
turn empty. For being and emptiness in the Buddhist understanding are
two intertwining aspects of the same truth. (We shall discuss the more
precise sense of "emptiness" in the following sections.)
So the *hosshin* in its somaticity designates the ontological
ground of all beings but also designates their underlying
de-ontologizing (or: me-ontologizing; or even better: anontological)
emptiness, their non-substantiality.


#### 3.4.2 Form of appearance (the four mandalas)



The *hosshin* in its cosmic significance appears in the form or
figure (*so*) of a *mandara* (Skrt: mandala). That
is, its cosmic body appears in a mandalic pattern, as represented in
the mandalas used in Shingon ritual. Correspondingly the mind of a
sentient being is also supposed to take on the form of a mandala
especially as one advances in practice to realize non-duality with the
mandalic *hosshin*. That is, the mind-and-body experience of
each sentient being mirrors in its own way the mandalic pattern of the
cosmos. As one becomes enlightened, one comes to realize this
inter-mirroring. In the envisioning of reality as a mandala, the
practitioner, who on the one hand is aiming for Buddhahood, is *at
the same time also* the Buddha existing in the mandalic reality
and expressing itself in mandalic form. Whether seen as the form
experienced in the mind or as the form of the cosmos, the mandalic
figure is the Buddha's mode of expressing the Dharma. This
mandalic appearance of the Buddha is categorized into four types,
which we will discuss in a section below.


#### 3.4.3 Function (the three mysteries)



The function of the *hosshin* is equated with all movements and
change that occur in the cosmos. Such cosmic alterations are
categorized in three ways in terms of visible form (e.g., loco-motion
or change of place, and trans-formation or change in shape), the
audible (sound), and the mental (the thinking process). Visible
alterations are movements of Dainichi's body (*shin*),
audible alterations are movements of Dainichi's speech
(*ku*), and mental alterations are movements of
Dainichi's thoughts (*i*). Together they are called the
"three mysteries" (Skrt: *tri-guyha*; Chn:
*san-mi*; Jpn: *sanmitsu*) making up the functions
(*yu*) of the *hosshin*. Since the body of Dainichi
is the cosmos itself, these "three mysteries" of its
functions are at work in all thing-events and are ultimately
non-dualistic with the corresponding movements of ourselves.


### 3.5 The Interpenetration of the Six Elements: The Embodiment of Emptiness as an Empty Body



Kukai (e.g. in his *Sokushinjobutsugi*, ch.3)
discusses Dainichi as a "body of the six great elements"
(*rokudaishin*, *rokudai-taidai*), which are the five
universal material elements (*godai*) of earth, water, fire,
wind/air, and space, representing the "known," plus the
universal mental element (*shindai*) of consciousness,
representing the "knower." Ultimately the five material
elements make up the body of Dainichi and the sixth element designates
the mind of Dainichi. Their dynamic but harmonious interplay
constitute the "timeless yoga" or *samadhi* (Jpn:
*jo*) of Dainichi's body-and-mind. But since
Dainichi is equated with the cosmos, all things comprising the whole
world are generated and perish through the interplay -
"non-obstruction" and "interfusion" - of
these elemental constituents. Kukai then is definitely not an
*idealist* taken in its western philosophical significance, and
Shingon thought in this aspect is distinct from the teachings of the
"mind-only" (*Yuishiki*; Skrt:
*Vijnapti-matrata*) school of Buddhism. For
the mental and the material, for Kukai, are two non-dualistic
(interpenetrating and mutually non-obstructing) aspects of the same
Dharma - as depicted in the two mandalic embodiments, which we
shall discuss below. In other words Kukai does not reduce reality
to either mind or matter; his perspective is neither merely idealist
nor merely materialist.



The interrelationship amongst the elements signifies their
non-substantiality, i.e. the fact that they are not ontologically
independent, and in Buddhist parlance this means
"emptiness" (*sunyata*,
*ku*). Hence all elements and things they constitute,
including the entire cosmos is empty. Dainichi's body, as the
*hosshin* that embodies the Dharma, is an embodiment of
emptiness, analogically understood as a vast empty space - it is
in part analogical but also exemplary of emptiness. Rather than
obstructing the emergence of things, this emptiness permits it through
their interdependent origination, which is the meaning of emptiness.
Their materiality is then just as real as their emptiness, and
emptiness and matter are non-dualistic. True to the "middle
way" of Buddhism, Kukai treads a path that avoids reifying
substantialism on the one hand as well as utter nihilism on the other
hand. And in the non-dualistic interrelationships between body and
mind, matter and emptiness, known and knower, the Dharma itself, as
the truth of non-duality in interdependent origination *qua*
emptiness is revealed in every physical and mental process of the
cosmos as the embodiment of the Dharma.



The "horizontal" interpenetration between the elements,
i.e., the interdependence and mutual non-obstruction amongst the
immanent phenomena of the cosmos, also translates into the
"vertical" interpenetration between the whole and its
parts, that is, between Dainichi as embodied in the cosmos and all
thing-events within. The implications of such cosmic non-duality for
the practitioner is immensely significant. In non-duality with the
cosmic Buddha, one's unenlightened self in *both*
mind-and-body is thus an expression of the *hosshin*, an
embodiment of the Dharma. That is, as one's mental states
express the *samadhi* of Dainichi, so also one's body
along with the bodies of all living and non-living things, in every
bodily movement, manifests Dainichi's body and its movements.
Dainichi is preaching the Dharma through all phenomena of the cosmos.
But as we ourselves are the bodies through which Dainichi preaches, we
are enabled to realize the cosmic *samadhi* that our
bodies-and-minds express. This points to the non-dualistic
significance between the two exemplary concepts of Shingon Buddhism:
*hosshin seppo* and *sokushinjobutsu*, both of
which we shall examine in detail in the following sections.


### 3.6 *Hosshin Seppo*: The Buddha's Cosmic Preaching of the Dharma



As the *hosshin*, the Buddha Dainichi preaches the Dharma
*via* his omnipresencing, that is, through every sensible media
of the cosmos. Kukai called this, *hosshin seppo*
(literally: "the *dharmakaya*'s expounding of
the Dharma"), and used its concept (e.g. in his *Benkenmitsu
nikkyoron*) as an important criterion for distinguishing
esoteric Buddhism from exoteric Buddhism. In his work
*Shojijissogi*, this concept of *hosshin
seppo* serves as the starting point. The *seppo*
("preaching," "expounding") therein is equated
with the phenomena of the cosmos as comprising
*shojijisso*, that is, sound, sign, reality, and
their meanings. (We will discuss the linguistic or semiological
significance of this idea in the following section.) The point is that
every thing and every event in the universe, as objects of our six
senses, are the Buddha's preaching of the Dharma. Each
phenomenon manifest serves to explain (*setsu*) the truth, the
Dharma. The *hosshin* in its omnipresencing throughout the
cosmos, permeating every aspect of it, is perpetually informing all
things of the Dharma. This cosmic omnipresencing of the Dharma via
*hosshin seppo* entails a dynamism of continuous activity
that accounts for the movements within the universe - both
physical and mental.



Since everything to which Dainichi preaches, is itself his
manifestation as an embodied part of the cosmos, the sermon is
ultimately a monologue. The expounding of the Dharma is in one sense
then really the Buddha's monologic expression of his own
self-enjoyment in *samadhic* bliss. And yet simultaneously it
expresses Dainichi's compassion for the unawakened (though
ultimately they are non-dualistic with the Buddha) so that they may
also enjoy the fruits of the Dharma. Through the help of
Dainichi's compassionate con-descension or *kaji* (more
on this in a later section), the practitioner is enabled to
inter-resonate with the sermon of the cosmos.



The idea of *hosshin seppo* also expresses a
universalization in Shingon of the Mahayana Buddhist notion
of expedient (or: skillful) means. The Shingon doctrine of
*hoben kukyo* ("ultimacy of expedient
means") means that any phenomenon or thing-event of the cosmos
can serve as a means to enlightenment, entailing a gradation of
understanding, hinging on how the event speaks to the person relative
to the time, place, and situational context. This also corresponds to
the levels of mental states discussed in Kukai's
*Jujushinron* (which we will examine in a further
section below). The key to immediate and complete enlightenment
however is to understand the *comprehensive* (or
*holistic*) sense of the truth being spoken by the cosmos as a
whole even if through the medium of a particular thing-event.



Kukai's claim was that only through the Buddhism of
esoteric teachings can one attain to an experiential recognition of
*hosshin seppo*, i.e. that the cosmos itself is describing
the immediate enlightened body-and-mind state of the Buddha. By
contrast exoteric truths preached by other forms of Buddhism are meant
for a specific audience in a specific place and time, and hence are
conditional, relative, and provisional. Moreover exoteric truths are
limited by human language, which is inadequate to describe the state
of enlightenment and the absoluteness of the Dharma. The esoteric
truth revealed in *hosshin seppo* on the other hand
unfolds through a non-human language, that is, a cosmic and esoteric
language originating in the *hosshin* itself. This is the
language of the mantra or in Japanese, *shingon*, literally
meaning "the word of truth," and from which
Kukai's brand of Buddhism derives its name. Mantra
(*shingon*) is the language of the cosmos involving all mental
and physical-sensible phenomena. The esoteric truths expressed in this
mantric language of the Buddha/cosmos reveal themselves only in
accordance with the reader's capacity to attune himself to, and
read, this cosmic (con)text of the mantric universe.


### 3.7 Mantra: Cosmic Sound and (Con)Text



The idea of the mantra, inherited from Indian Mantrayana,
occupies a significant position in Kukai's philosophy,
which he elucidates in each of his *Sanbu-sho* and
systematically and most comprehensively in his
*Shojijissogi*. Mantras denote the reality of all
*dharmas* (*shoho*) - the elemental
constituents of reality - as themselves signifying the Dharma
preached by the *hosshin*. (In Buddhism, the term
*dharma* (*ho*) has many meanings, among which are
the significances of truth itself and the elemental constituents of
reality. When speaking of truth in its absolute sense as preached by
Dainichi or as embodied in the *dharmakaya*
(*hosshin*), I have been capitalizing *Dharma*, and when
speaking of the elements that constitute reality, I leave
*dharma* uncapitalized.) It represents the primordial speech of
the Buddha Dainichi uttering and expositing the Dharma, taken in both
its restricted human significance and its broader cosmic significance.
That is, Dainichi's sermon as a mantra in the broad sense means
*all* phenomena in general as vibrations emanating from
Dainichi's eternal *samadhi* through the interplay of the
elements *via* the three media of body, speech, and mind.
*All* objects of the six senses as based upon those three media
of visible and tangible forms, audible sounds, and thoughts, embody
mantras as syllables uttered by Dainichi. And in its narrower sense
the mantra takes the abbreviated verbal form of syllables written in
the esoteric sutras and uttered in esoteric ritual practice by
the practitioner. That is, the mantras uttered by practitioners in
ritual practice are to be taken as focused condensations of those
cosmic vibrations in a particular sound. They are condensed
manifestations of the content of Dainichi's sermon, namely the
truth of enlightenment, the Dharma.


#### 3.7.1 *Shojijisso*: sound, sign, reality



In the broader sense of mantra, the whole cosmos is a language or text
that must be "read" if one is to receive its meaning (the
Dharma). Kukai expresses this in the term
*shojijisso*. *Shoji* means
"sound-and-sign." *Sho* (or:
*so*), meaning "sound," is the breath of
Dainichi, the vibrations of the five material elements in their
mutually non-obstructively colliding interplay that resonate sounds
through the air. In the narrower sense, this would be the mantras
voiced in ritual. *Ji*, meaning "sign,"
"word," "letter," or
"character/graph," is sound in its signifying character as
naming or meaning something. As *letter*, it also provides a
material base whereby the sign's distinction from other signs
becomes retained and fixed. For what makes something a sign signifying
a specific meaning rather than another is difference
(*shabetsu*). Anything that manifests its distinction from
others in virtue of its pattern (*mon*) - the various
combinations of shape, color, and movement among visual objects
- then, for Kukai, is a sign or letter (*ji*).
Marking distinct patterns (*mon*), such things are
"characters" (*monji*;
"pattern-letter"). In the broadest and cosmic sense then,
all phenomena of the six senses (i.e., the five physical senses plus
the thinking mind) as constituted by the inter-vibrations of the five
material elements and *via* their mutual distinctions
(*shabetsu*), serve as letters of the cosmic (con)text,
ultimately signifying the Dharma but in its different aspects. In its
narrower significance, however, *ji* would be the written
Sanskrit letters as saturated with that esoteric meaning of the
Dharma. *Jisso*, meaning "reality," is that
which is named, intended, meant, as evoked by *sho* becoming
*ji*. The ultimate referent or meaning of the world as text is
the Dharma in the spontaneous playing of its embodiment, the
*hosshin*. In turn the process of articulation of the Dharma by
the *hosshin* generates everything in the cosmos, including the
myriad beings, their various realms, and its various forms of
embodiment such as the celestial buddhas and the historical human
buddha. It also generates human languages in general which are thus
seen as manifestations of this cosmic articulation. The cosmos as such
is a text articulating the Dharma within the empty space of the vast
limitless and formless body of the *hosshin*. The cosmos as
mantra *is* hence *hosshin seppo*.



From the mantric articulation of the Dharma emerge ten realms and
their respective languages (of hell dwellers, hungry ghosts, animals,
asuras, humans, celestial heaven dwellers,
*sravakas*, *pratyeka-buddhas*,
*bodhisattvas*, and buddhas). Each realm as an articulation of
the Dharma, has its own "sounds-and-signs," i.e., its own
language, in accordance with a specific perspective corresponding to
the degree of enlightenment and illusion of its inhabitants. But only
the language of the highest, the most comprehensive realm, i.e., the
realm of the Buddha, is identified with the "true word"
(*shingon*, *mantra*), designating the Dharma as it is.
The nine other languages are by contrast "illusory words"
(*mogo*). And yet they nevertheless do express the Dharma,
each from its own relative and limited perspective. In this restricted
sense, they are all mantras as well. For they take part in the cosmic
text of the *hosshin* written in the same inter-referential
interrelationships obtaining in all thing-events *via* the
interplay of the same universal elements. The difference is that while
the other languages are not conscious of their source, the most
comprehensive language, the "sounds-and-signs" of the
Buddha-realm, entails self-awareness of its mysterious origin.


#### 3.7.2. The cosmic text of the *Dainichi-kyo*



The text of the *Dainichi-kyo* itself is taken by
Kukai to be a condensation in scriptural form of that cosmic text
of the mantra, comprising of the most comprehensive language of the
Buddha-realm. And that same mantric text is then further condensed
into each syllabic-root letter of the Sanskrit alphabet itself, which
thus serves as a means for meditation. In Kukai's scheme
(set out in his *Dainichikyo* *kaidai*), the true
original text of the *Dainichi-kyo* is the eternal Dharma
itself as the cosmic (con)text or mantra and cosmic mandala, existing
permanently and comprising the universe and all phenomena. Within the
world, an abridged translation appeared that supposedly consisted of
20,000 volumes and was circulated in India but became lost. The
version Kukai brought back from China is a much smaller one, but
his claim is that every word, character, stroke or dot, within it in
its mantric nature encompasses countless meanings and truths. Thus
while the most abbreviated text is implaced within the original cosmic
text, the entire content of the cosmic text is itself encapsulated
within the characters of its abridgment representing a condensation.
This "inter-textuality" exemplifies the Hua-yen (Huayan;
Jpn: Kegon) sense of interpenetration whereby the entire whole is
contained within each part, but here this Hua-yen idea is translated
in mantric terms. This same scheme used in explaining the
*Dainichi-kyo* was used by Kukai to explain the
relationship of the *Kongochogyo* and other
esoteric texts to the world as well.


#### 3.7.3 Non-origination (*honpusho*), emptiness (*ku*), and difference (*shabetsu*)



What exactly is the Dharma, the truth that all languages and all texts
point to as their mysterious source? Kukai explicates its
significance *qua* emptiness in terms of "primal
non-origination" (Skrt: *adyanutpada*; Jpn:
*honpusho*). What Kukai means by
"non-origination" is related to his understanding of the
emptiness of things and the differential referentiality of signs. By
incorporating the Mahayana thought of emptiness,
Kukai's linguistic ontology of the mantra proves to be
simultaneously a linguistic "an-ontology" (or:
"meontology") of sorts. Every phenomenon of the cosmos,
being empty of substantiality, is what it is through its
interdependent origination (Skrt:
*pratitya-samutpada*; Jpn: *engi*). Likewise
each signifying letter of the cosmic text is *what it is* not
because of its own substantial identity but rather through its
difference from other signifying letters. Its identity is constituted
not on the basis of a self-same essence but rather in reference to,
and difference from, others. Signification then for Kukai is
nothing but differentiation (*shabetsu*), which is another way
of speaking of the non-substantiality, i.e., emptiness, of phenomena.
Every thing - rocks, mountains, ants, etc. - is what it is
in mutual distinction with everything else. And this differentiation
occurs *via* its implacement into a specific situation or
context vis-a-vis other things in an endless chain of mutually
referring (and differing) correlative thing-events. In reference to
others and without substantial self-presence, each thing-event is
hence empty. In this respect, every thing, as signifying letter, is an
embodiment of emptiness. And as such a sign or letter manifesting
emptiness and differential referentiality, each thing-event is thus a
mantra, Dainichi's "seal of wisdom of
differentiation" (*shabetsu chiin*). The cosmic text
constituted of mutually differing signs is then the empty place of
empty things, and as such, the ultimate scripture of emptiness. The
*hosshin* as the embodiment of this truth, the Dharma, is thus
itself differentiation, emptiness.



The world emerges in the articulation of the Dharma through such
mutual differentiations in pattern. From out of the sea of emptiness,
through Dainich's articulation *qua* mutual interplay of
the five material elements, the cosmos is ordered into distinct and
discrete things and events, and the *hosshin* transforms itself
into a legible - albeit ambiguous - cosmic (con)text. This
linguistic cosmogeny is simultaneously ontological and me-ontological.
For each thing as sign in differential reference to the rest of the
cosmic text, mirrors the infinity of all the other mutually referring
and mutually differing thing-events. In its own emptiness, each
thing-letter mirrors the emptiness of the cosmos, i.e., the Dharma.
They are traces of the *hosshin*'s omnipresencing
non-substantiality, emptiness as the "primal
non-originating" source of these thing-events in their
beginningless and endless interrelations. Kukai takes this
linguistic cosmo-genesis in emptiness *via* the
*hosshin*'s world-play, to be the meaning behind the
"playful striding of great emptiness," mentioned in the
*Dainichi-kyo* (T18:21a) and which he quotes in his
*Sokushinjobutsugi*. Furthermore this cosmogeny that is an
articulation of truth, the writing of the cosmic text, is open-ended
and on-going, dynamically being continuously reworked. This accounts
for the ambiguity of the cosmic text and every sign within it.



The ambiguity of the *mantric* nature of the cosmos and of all
thing-events is in the fact that they entail simultaneously both hope
and difficulty for enlightenment. The language of the *hosshin*
in the form of thing-events may either guide one to enlightenment or
deceive one into delusion. For in spite of their emptiness, their
interdependent origination, thing-events can be easily reified in
light of human desires. When this happens the cosmic text they
constitute is misread under the pretext that the world as such is
nothing but a system of substantial things, and that any corresponding
language is nothing but a system of signs representing those
substantial things. Through the reification of their being, their
"primal non-originating" emptiness is ignored. And
correspondingly one becomes predisposed to cling to them and hence
suffer. But this lack of essential origins in each and every
phenomenon, the absence of their first cause, simultaneously means
that we ourselves, all sentient beings, are endowed with the original
enlightenment of the *hosshin* (*hongaku hosshin*).
Hence there is hope for the *realization* of this enlightenment
for all.


#### 3.7.4 Mantra intonation



Shingon ritual practice attempts to trigger this realization through
the mantric pronunciations of the five basic syllables of Sanskrit
- *A*,*Va*, *Ra*, *Ha*,
*Kha*, (and sometimes adding a sixth syllable
*Hum*) -, emulating the primordial utterance
of Dainichi. This is to attune the practitioner to the inter-resonance
of the basic elements underlying all phenomena, so that he may hear
the "true words" being preached by Dainichi. The
mantra's power is in its incomprehensibility to human
understanding. Its significance cannot be explained analytically or
understood conceptually; it is instead to be experienced in ritual.
Through ritualized experience, these intellectually incomprehensible
sounds, in the self-deconstruction of any assumed or projected
meaningfulness, paradoxically evoke the emptiness they mean and the
emptiness of their meaning, the emptiness of all in their mutual
non-obstruction and interdependence. Its incomprehension makes
explicit the materiality and dynamic process involved behind the
emergence of signs. This undermines any linguistic assumption of the
substantiality of things and hence any delusory attachments to them.
What is invoked is a paradigm shift from seeing the surface pattern of
things to seeing their underlying emptiness. (Abe 1999, 297-98)
In addition to mantric intonations, another form of practice was
*a-ji* meditation, wherein the written form of the Sanskrit
letter *A* is treated as an object of meditation. The purpose
of such concentrated attention on the material form of a sign is to
gain some sort of an experiential comprehension of its esoteric
significance, somewhat similar to that of mantra incantation as just
discussed. However we must note the special significance of the
particular letter *A*, which we shall discuss below.


#### 3.7.5 The *mantric* syllable of *A*



The two most important *mantric* syllables from Sanskrit
- in the *Siddham* (Jpn: *shittan*) script system
popularized in East Asia - emphasized in Shingon Buddhism, in
both sound and graph, are *A* and *Un*
(*Hum*). The former is the seed-syllable of Dainichi
as explicated in the *Dainichi-kyo* and the latter is the
seed-syllable of the *Kongo-satta* (Vajrasattva, a
buddha-being believed to have received instruction directly from
Mahavairocana) as explicated in the
*Kongocho-gyo*, and together seen as
non-dualistic in significance. In the following I will discuss the
significance of these seed-syllables.



Kukai in several works (especially in
*Shojijissogi* and *Unjigi*) explicates the
syllabic letter *A* as signifying the above-mentioned
"primal non-originating" character of all thing-events, as
the "mother" of all syllables, letters, and languages, and
the king of all mantras. The sound *A* is also the primal sound
made when the mouth first opens to exhale. And in its written form,
*A* constitutes the first stroke of every other syllable.
*A* is the first syllable of the Sanskrit alphabet as well as
of the Sanskrit words for "origin" (*adi*) and
"unborn" (*anutpada*), combined in the
Sanskrit word "primal non-origination"
(*adyanutpada*). It is also the first letter of the
root mantra of Dainichi as depicted in the Taizo Mandara (which
we shall discuss below): *A Vi Ra Hum Kham*
(Jpn: *A Bira Un Ken*). Furthermore in
Sanskrit, *A* is used as a negative prefix. All of these
manifold meanings are combined in Shingon's *mantric* use
of *A* to represent the primal vocalization of Dainichi. Its
omnipresence in form and sound symbolizes the Buddha-nature of the
*hosshin* pervading everywhere, while condensing the
significance of that all-prevalence within its singular form and
sound. But its all-pervasiveness also means the origin of all things
in their interdependence, that is, their interdependent origination,
hence emptiness. This emptiness of substance is denoted by its use as
a negative prefix, i.e., the absence of self-presence in infinite
referentiality. As stated above, *A* signifies the
"primal non-originating" character of all being. For in
signifying the origin of all in their on-going dependent origination
*A* is thus the "origin of no origin." What this
points to is the endlessness of the chain of conditions behind each
thing-event, never reaching an ultimate origin or first cause. But
paradoxically this primal absence of any distinguishing origin, this
ubiquitous in-difference of all differentiation, is itself the
ultimate origin of all thing-events in their mutual differentiations
and co-relativity. Or put differently, Dainichi's mind (along
with his body), making no discrimination between this and that, is
like a great space ("emptiness"; *ku*) from
out of which he transforms himself through self-differentiation into
the myriad thing-events and beings. This causeless cause is symbolized
in the last letter in Sanskrit, the letter *H*, the first
letter of the mantra *Hum* (Jpn: *Un*). Its
meaning thus coincides with the "primal non-origination"
denoted by the first letter of the alphabet, *A*. The syllable
*A*, together with *H* then embodies the meanings of
emptiness, dependent origination, and primal non-origination, all
expressing the beginningless and endless dynamic non-substantiality of
the entire cosmos and all being, the empty space that is the body of
the *hosshin*, the Dharma of all dharmas.



It should be remembered however that while Kukai thus links the
*hosshin*'s preaching to the *mantric* sound and
letter of *A*, this same preaching, symbolized in *A*,
in fact encompasses all movements of the cosmos, involving colors,
shapes, silence, bodily movements, etc., not just the explicitly
vocal. Dainichi preaches the Dharma *via* all phenomenal means
through the three media, the "three mysteries," of body,
speech, and mind, omnipresencing himself through all objects of the
six senses (the five physical senses plus thought). The entire cosmos
is hence the language of the Buddha, inseparable from the
Buddha's body that is in fact the embodiment of the Dharma
(i.e., *hosshin*, *dharmakaya*). We now turn to the
mandalic aspect of the embodiment of the Dharma and of
Dainichi's preaching of the Dharma.


### 3.8 The Mandalic Cosmos/Cosmos as Mandala


#### 3.8.1 *Rishin* and *chishin*: Two mandalic embodiments



Viewed in light of the concept of *hosshin seppo*, the
cosmos is a flowering of the Dharma preached by Dainichi, as it
spreads outward towards beings receiving it in various degrees in
accordance with their level of understanding. The form that this
flowering takes is the mandala (Jpn: *mandara*). The mandala in
Shingon Buddhism is a diagram or picture, usually a painting,
picturing the doctrines expounded in the two major esoteric
scriptures, *Dainichikyo* and
*Kongochogyo*. It depicts visually the form that
enlightenment takes as it becomes manifest in the universe. In other
words, it is taken to be a visual depiction of the *hosshin*
itself and the flowering of *hosshin seppo* throughout the
cosmos, serving as a map for one's journey to enlightenment.



This use and understanding of the mandala was another distinction of
Shingon Buddhism differentiating it in Kukai's mind as
esoteric from exoteric Buddhism. The mandala proves to be "a
metaphor for a new envisioning of reality, self, and world"
(Gardiner 2008, 44), a vehicle for the transformation of vision,
whereby one *envisions* the world *as a mandala*.
Kukai's contention was that exoteric teachings move the
practitioner towards the central summit of the mandala, step-by-step
from its own specific vantage point without taking a comprehensive
view of the whole. Esoteric teachings on the other hand take the
entirety of the cosmic mandala into one comprehensive view, allowing
for the practitioner to leap, as it were, into the center to realize
non-duality with the *hosshin*.



In the esoteric tradition that Kukai inherited from Hui-kuo,
there are two major mandalas that depict the *hosshin* in two
different mandalic forms. Each mandala originally belonged to one of
the two esoteric lineages, which became combined in China, and is
associated with either of the two sutras. All Shingon doctrines,
traceable to the two sutras, are supposed to be pictorially
depicted in these two mandalas: the *Taizo* (Skrt:
*Garbha*, "Womb of enlightenment") and the
*Kongokai* (Srkt: *Vajradhatu*,
"*Vajra* realm," "Diamond realm" or
"Realm of the adamantine thunderbolt") mandalas. Together
they are called *ryobu mandara* and represent a
comprehensive unity. Each are also associated with one of the two
different concepts of *ri* (pattern, order - referring to
emptiness as the reason discerned in patternment) and *chi*
(wisdom, i.e., the wisdom of emptiness). Accordingly the
*hosshin* can be understood in its embodied form as
*ri-hosshin* (or *rishin*) and as *chi-hosshin*
(or *chishin*), two aspects which are ultimately non-dualistic
(*richi funi*). The *ri-hosshin* is depicted in the
Taizo mandara that expresses truths expounded in the
*Dainichi-kyo*. And the *chi-hosshin* is depicted
in the Kongokai mandara that expresses truths expounded in the
*Kongocho-gyo*. Both depict Dainichi as the
central deity, with buddhas and bodhisattvas surrounding him in
geometric arrangement.



The *Taizo-mandara* (full name: *Daichitaizosei
mandara*; Skrt: *Garbhakosadhatu mandala*;
"Great compassion womb repository birth mandala")
represents the "female principle" and expresses the
material world in its underlying empatternment of *ri*, which
is the Buddha's view to truth from the summit of enlightenment
downward to the mundane world of humans. *Ri* (Chn:
*li*) often translated into English as "principle,"
in fact has the sense of "pattern," and in the esoteric
Buddhist context signifies the pattern found in the interplay of the
five material elements that constitute the myriad thing-events and
phenomena. As the material elements form the objects of cognition, the
mandala depicting the *rishin* represents the known. In his
commentary on the *Dainichi-kyo*
(*Dainichi-kyo* *kaidai*), Kukai equates the
nature of Dainichi taken as *jisho hosshin* with this
*rishin*. He then in turn identifies the *rishin* as the
original enlightenment intrinsic to all sentient beings but hidden in
its unmanifest potentiality as what is to be known. 



As a descending view from the summit, this Taizo mandala
represents the enlightened universe from the perspective of
compassion, an expression of the "female" principle. Just
as a mother enfolds her child in the care of her womb, the
Buddha's compassion nurtures the original enlightenment in all.
With the lotus as chief symbol, the picture represents the
manifestation of Dainichi through his cosmic activities. Dainichi
occupies the unmoving center with myriad buddhas, bodhisattvas, and
other deities layered around it, while Dainichi simultaneously
pervades all up to the outermost edges of the diagram. From that
center, enlightenment radiates outward in a spiral, passing through
the various buddhas and bodhisattvas, descending through various
levels of being and mind, outward to the phenomenal world as it
becomes more and more concrete, reaching the human world and further
into the realms of animals, hell-beings, and hungry ghosts. Thus a
wellspring of activity is depicted to be endlessly flowing out of the
center. This activity manifests the welling-up of compassion from the
Buddha's wisdom as it moves outwards and downwards.
Simultaneously all beings are directed inwards and upwards towards
enlightenment depicted in the mandalic center. The two movements are
non-dualistic.



The *Kongo-kai mandara* (Srkt: *Vajradhatu
mandala*; "*Vajra*-realm mandala") represents
the "male priciple" and embodies the
*vajra*-wisdom, a wisdom that is adamantine and imperishable
and that illuminates and enfolds all beings. This symbolizes the sixth
element, the mental element of *chi* (wisdom), referring to the
mental realm of the knower, the subject of cognitive experience. But
it also represents the Buddha's adamantine power of illumination
that realizes enlightenment, symbolized by the *vajra* (an
adamantine weapon with many points). In this respect the mind it
symbolizes is not only the practitioner's mind but also the
all-comprehensive mind of Dainichi as indestructible potentials of the
cosmos, as the Buddha's "embodiment of wisdom"
(*chishin*). 



This *Kongo-kai* mandala is a rectangle consisting of a
combination of nine smaller mandalas, each an originally independent
mandala, juxtaposed to depict a double spiraling movement, centrifugal
and centripetal: on the one hand outward of the Buddha's
enlightenment towards the phenomenal world, and on the other hand
inward of beings on the periphery from the mundane world in spiritual
progression towards enlightenment at the center. Of the nine smaller
mandalas, the most basic, which are on the lower left corner, are
representations of the so-called "four mandalas"
(*shimandara*) that Kukai classified as the form of
appearance of the *hosshin*. (More on the *shimandara*
in the next section.) All together the nine depict the unending
activity of the enlightened mind, moving clockwise from the center, to
take on increasingly concrete forms, engaging in skillful means to
help the unenlightened, while the unenlightened evolve towards the
center. From the Buddha's perspective, the center is moving
outwards; and from the individual practitioner's perspective,
the periphery is being drawn inwards. Enlightened wisdom cannot remain
aloof from the realities of unenlightened life. Skillful means thus
embodies wisdom in concrete phenomenal activity. In this respect, the
mandala emphasizes the non-duality between wisdom (*hannya*)
and skillful means. And it symbolizes the wisdom that knows truth, the
Dharma, in all its separate manifestations.



Together these two mandalic forms depict the form of the cosmos as a
dynamic process interrelating and uniting the transcendent and the
mundane, the enlightened and the ignorant, Buddha and man, macrocosmos
and microcosmos, matter and mind, pattern and wisdom. They visually
represent two simultaneous overlapping aspects of enlightenment,
variously described as emptiness and form, compassion and wisdom,
object and subject, the dimension *from which* the practitioner
is guided by the Buddha and the dimension *towards which* the
practitioner evolves. In Kukai's reading, these are
inseparable aspects of the *hosshin*, depicted in the two
mandalas from different but non-dualistic perspectives. Enlightenment
would be the experiential realization of their non-duality: *richi
funi*. In Shingon practice, therefore the Taizo mandala
(*rishin*) is hung on the east wall of the meditation hall; and
the Kongokai mandala (*chishin*) is hung on the west
wall.


#### 3.8.2 The four types of the mandala



In addition to the two mandalic embodiments of the *hosshin*,
Kukai (in *Sokushinjobutsugi*, ch.4) classifies
mandalas in general into four types, depicting the different ways
whereby the Dharma is manifest: 1. The "great mandala"
(Skrt: *maha-mandala*; Jpn: *daimandara*)
symbolizes the cosmic Buddha in its physical extension along with all
the stages of being, including the buddhas, bodhisattvas, and deities
that are depicted in perfect anthropormophic form surrounding Dainichi
at the center and painted in different colors to represent different
material elements. 2. The "*samaya* mandala" (Skrt:
*samaya-mandala*; Jpn: *sanmaya mandara*) pictures the
Buddha-*cum*-universe through a variety of articles or signs,
symbolizing the omnipresencing of Dainichi's intention (Skrt:
*samaya*; Jpn: *sanmaya*). They include swords, gems,
lotus, vajra, etc., as each signifying a specific improvisation of a
skillful mean to enlighten the unenlightened. This also represents the
unity-in-diversity of all thing-events as forms of Dainichi's
body. 3. The "Dharma mandala" (Skrt:
*Dharma-mandala*; Jpn: *ho mandara*) pictures the
universe as the sphere of Dainichi's continuous communication of
truth (Dharma), as depicted in the arrangement of *mantric*
seed syllables. And 4. The "karma mandala" (Skrt:
*karma-mandala*; Jpn: *katsuma mandara*) was originally
a three-dimensional mandala in sculpted form - including the
physical layout of the temple compound at Mt. Koya - but
which more often became a painted one instead. Showing the activities
(*karma*) of buddhas and bodhisattvas implied in the other
three, this mandala depicts the fact that every change in any form
within the cosmos is an act of the *hosshin* and conversely
that every act of the *hosshin* is an occurrence of things and
events in the cosmos. The four then depict four different aspects of
truth: body (the five material elements), mind (intention, compassion,
the sixth element), speech (communication), and action (all
movements). Through meditation upon them one comes to view everything
as a mandala, the cosmos as a mandalic unfolding of the Dharma.
Ultimately the mandala depicts not only the cosmos or the Dharma as
object but also one's own interior self in meditation as one
interiorizes it or as one visualizes it within.


### 3.9 *Sokushinjobutsu*: Enlightenment *via* Embodiment



One of the most distinguishing characteristic of Kukai's
Buddhist thought is his concept of *sokushinjobutsu*, the
attainment of enlightenment in this very embodied existence. This idea
of *sokushinjobutsu* represents the apex of
Kukai's synthesis of Buddhist *theoria* and
*praxis*. The doctrine itself is not explicit in the two major
esoteric sutras, the *Dainichikyo* and the
*Kongochogyo*. The idea first appears rather in
I-hsing's commentary on the *Dainichikyo*
(*Ta-jih Ching Su*; *Commentary on the Mahavairocana
Sutra*). Kukai was the first however to provide the idea
with a systematic explication in his *Sokushinjobutsugi*,
which has been regarded by commentators as the most important of his
philosophical expositions. Kukai's appropriation and
systematic development of the theory takes the form of a unique
philosophy of *praxis* that is simultaneously a philosophy of
the body.



The phrase *sokushinjobutsu* means literally,
"attaining enlightenment in this very body" or
"becoming buddha in this very body." "Body"
(*shin*) - as Kukai explains in
*Sokushinjobutsugi*, ch. 6 - here is not merely
one's corporeal body but one's lived embodied existence of
body-and-mind as one whole. In addition "body" here takes
on myriad significances when one views *sokushinjobutsu*
in light of Kukai's other concepts such as *hosshin
seppo* and *sanmitsu*. *Sokushin* ("this
body"), for example, can signify the cosmos of the
*hokkai* as the macrocosmic body of the *hosshin* with
which one's own embodiment is non-dualistic. It can mean each of
the six universal elements or all of them together that comprise the
cosmic body and its *samadhi*. It can also mean the four
embodiments of the *hosshin*. It can mean the bodies of all
living things other than one's self. In correspondence with the
"three mysteries" of body, speech, and mind, or
*mudra*, mantra, and mandala, it can mean bodily gestural
symbols (*in*), figures of letters (*ji*), and
expressive demeanor or countenance (*go*). All of these
senses of "body" are interrelated and inseparable,
mutually mirroring one another.



Shingon has inherited much of the metaphysics of Chinese
Mahayana thought: e.g., the equation of *hosshin* and
*hokkai*, traceable to Hua-yen Buddhism; and the equation of
the *hosshin* with the universal Buddha-nature inherent in all
beings as their "original enlightenment", traceable to
T'ien-t'ai (Tiantai; Jpn: Tendai) Buddhism. Combining
these Mahayana equations, in Shingon, the embodiment of the
Dharma equals the cosmos as the realm of truth, the Dharma, which in
turn means the inherent universal original enlightenment (*honnu
hongaku*) in all beings. But what distinguishes Kukai's
thought is in his focus upon the body and its concrete practice. The
cosmos is the "body of truth" and our own bodies take part
in that cosmic body. It is this bodily aspect, as a universal medium
or plenum that allows for the concretization of universal
enlightenment to be realized through ritualized bodily experience.
Both Hua-yen and T'ien-t'ai had similar notions of
universal original enlightenment although that idea was quite new to
Japan at the time. But what they lacked was any concrete ritual means
for realizing that enlightenment aside from basic meditation.
Kukai contended that their teachings were thus lacking in the
area of practice. His emphasis upon a bodily ritual *praxis*
that cohered with scriptural doctrine provided them with
soteriological - rather than just magico-secular -
significance. This helped to bridge the gap between theory and
practice, doctrine and ritual, that was previously left unexplained by
the orthodox Nara schools of Buddhism. As a consequence of his
explication of *sokushinjobutsu*, Kukai thus provided
*both* a coherent explanation of the relationship between
theory and practice, *and* a concrete method for realizing
through bodily experience those teachings, a practical method for
realizing what Mahayana already taught in China as
*hongaku*.



Kukai's claim was that this esoteric method of
ritual-bodily-meditational practice - involving the three media
(or "mysteries") of body, speech, and mind - will
allow one to realize one's direct embodied participation in the
Dharmic *samadhi* of the *hosshin*, i.e.,
"enlightenment in this very embodied existence"
(*sokushinjobutsu*). The lack of any systematic esoteric
ritual practice in exoteric Buddhism - from Kukai's
perspective, their rituals were unsystematized, haphazard -,
fails to lead to immediate enlightenment. Moreover the orthodox
teaching of the exoteric schools was that it would take innumerable
rebirths of training until one could attain Buddhahood. Kukai
instead claimed that esoteric Buddhism, with its rituals and
meditational methods, can lead one, regardless of *karmic*
dispositions, to instant enlightenment "in this very
body." Through *yogic* and *mantric* practices
involving the body, the practitioner was to eliminate all attachments
to the substantiality of self and of things and to their
dichotomization - this for the sake of immediately realizing
non-duality with the *hosshin*. In this way the idea of
*sokushinjobutsu* is put forth as a major distinguishing
characteristic of esoteric from exoteric Buddhism, demonstrating the
possibility of attaining enlightenment in one's
*presently* embodied existence in distinction from the long and
gradual process over countless aeons of rebirths as taught by the
exoteric schools.



For Kukai this bodily and concrete nature of the realization of
original enlightenment, which he so emphasized, is ultimately
predicated upon the fact that one's self and Buddha are
non-dualistic, that man in his very embodied existence - that
is, in body-and-mind - is already a micro-cosmic mirror of the
*hosshin*. We next turn to this aspect of man's mirroring
of the Buddha, which simultaneously is also the Buddha's
salvific helping of man.


### 3.10 *Kaji*: Macro-Micro-Cosmic Co-Respondence



The realization of enlightenment cannot be attained on one's
own. For one is not a substantial, i.e., ontologically independent,
being to begin with. As the cosmos itself is a web of interdependently
originating thing-events, nothing can stand alone to claim complete
self-sufficiency. The same interdependency that obtains horizontally
between the constituents of the cosmos also obtains vertically. That
is, the whole is what it is in virtue of its parts just as the parts
are what they are in partaking of the whole. The realization of
enlightenment then as an event, as well as the relative degrees of
spiritual development, entails a micro-cosmic and macro-cosmic
correlativity. This is expressed in *Sokushinjobutsugi*,
ch. 5, in Kukai's notion of *kaji* (Skrt:
*adhisthana*), which has been variously translated as
"empowerment" or "grace." In religious (or
devotional) terms, this is explained to involve *both* the
Buddha's great compassion and the practitioner's piety,
devotion, or faith, which in their correspondence, act together in the
attainment of enlightenment. But one must keep in mind that
*kaji* in itself is not necessarilly enlightenment because the
empowerment is in proportion to the level of spirituality attained by
the practitioner. Through such mutuality, one's own effort
partakes in the omnipresencing of the *hosshin*, realized in
various degrees. This *mutuality* is expressed in the meanings
of the two characters that make up *kaji*: *Ka*,
literally meaning "adding" or "increasing," is
explained to be the Buddha's compassion that pours down upon,
entering into, the practitioner's mind (*shin*) like
sunrays on water. And *ji*, literally meaning
"retaining" or "holding," is explained to
refer to the practitioner's mind that keeps a-hold of, absorbs,
the compassion just as water retains and reflects the sunlight.
*Ka* is the *gift* that Dainichi *gives*; and
*ji* is our acknowledgment of that gift by *cherishing*
it. Practically speaking this becomes expressed in the bodily ritual
training that the practitioners undergo as they strive to ascend
"upwards," to meet Dainichi's compassionate descent
"downwards." In the terminology that becomes later
popularized with Pure Land Buddhism, this would signify a mutuality
and non-duality between self-power (*jiriki*) and other-power
(*tariki*). The two movements are aspects of a single movement
of enlightenment. In other words, one's own striving *is*
the "grace" of the Buddha helping one towards
enlightenment. But this cannot simply be construed to mean one's
reliance upon other-power but entails that one must appropriate that
"grace" in self-power. This mutuality of *kaji* is
also expressed in Kukai's phrase, *nyuga
ganyu* ("[Buddha] entering into me, and I entering
[into Buddha]").



*Kaji* is realized as one becomes aware of one's self and
activity as the micro-cosmic manifestation of the macro-cosmic
activity and mystery of the cosmos itself. One could then also say
that *kaji* expresses the mutuality and coherence or
co-responding that obtains between the two major concepts
characterizing esoteric Buddhism for Kukai: *hosshin
seppo* and *sokushinjobutsu*, as two ways of
conceiving from different angles the same interrelationality of the
cosmos in its *mantric* and mandalic expressions. That is to
say, in the *mantric* and mandalic nature of this
interrelationality, the Buddha's *hosshin seppo* on
the one hand descends from the summit and spreads-out from the center,
and the practitioner's *sokushinjobutsu* on the
other hand raises him from below and gravitates him to the center.
Their simultaneity means their non-duality as different aspects of the
same dynamism of a cosmic emptiness. To realize this, is to affirm
one's own original enlightenment in one's present body in
simultaneous reception of Dainichi's expounding of the
Dharma.


### 3.11 *Sanmitsu*: The Three Mysteries



The "true words" (*mantra*) preached by Dainichi,
as we have already seen, are equated with the dynamism of the cosmos
itself, which includes our own mental and bodily experiences. The
Buddha's preaching through every phenomenon is classified by
Kukai in terms of the three forms of bodily, verbal, and mental
activities, or the three media of *mudra* (*ingei*),
mantra, and mandala, i.e., Dainichi's cosmic gestural language,
phonic language, and imaging language. Dainichi expresses the
self-enjoyment of his enlightenment in these three functions of bodily
gestures (*mudras*), the intoning of sounds (mantras), and
visualizing-thinking (mandalas). Since the cosmos is Dainichi's
body-and-mind, his deeds, words, and thoughts (or visualizations) form
the configurations, resonances, and patterns of the universe, in these
three media of "body, speech, and mind," called the
"three mysteries." All visible and/or tangible forms and
movements constitute the Buddha's body and its movements, all
sounds are his voice, and the mind's comprehension of this
principle is the manifestation of the Dharma in mandalic form
expressing the Buddha's state-of-mind. That is, all objects of
the six senses make up the configurations, resonances, and patterns of
the cosmos, the cosmic body-and-mind of the Buddha Dainichi,
communicating the Dharma. As Kukai explains in his
*Unjigi*, the three mysteries are in every single phenomenon,
passing through all stages of being without discrimination, including
stones, plants, trees, animals, humans, gods, demons, and places. Each
of these serves as a "linguistic" medium that communicates
Dainichi's sermon in his omnipresencing, a sermon of the Dharma
which cannot be expressed or described by means of the mundane human
languages.



As these three media are in fact different expressions of the same
Dharma, they are not independent of each other. For example, the
mantra is an expression of the mandala in sound, and conversely, the
mandala conveys in pictures what the mantra intones. Together they
convey in visual form and in audible sound, the meaning of the Dharma.
Through these three media, sentient beings are thus aroused from their
ignorance to realize their own enlightenment.



Implaced within this vibrating cosmos, we are all then taking part in
Dainichi's bodily, verbal, and mental activities as
"originally enlightened," non-dualistic with the Buddha.
On the basis of *kaji*, which we discussed above, the three
mysteries of the *hosshin* and the three corresponding forms of
activities of sentient beings inter-permeate. That is, our own bodily,
verbal, and mental activities are already expressions of the three
mysteries of the *hosshin*. This inter-permeation is hence
"always already," and yet what is lacking for the most
part is our awareness of it that would realize it. That is why
Kukai, following the *Dainichikyo*, prescribes the
ritual practice of bodily acts, verbal acts, and mental acts. Bodily
acts involve *mudra*-formations - these are complex
series of gestural movements of the hands and fingers in coordination
with mantra-chanting and visualizations -, meditative bodily
postures, and the handling of ritual instruments. Verbal acts involve
mantra-recitations and other forms of prayer formulas or chants and
verses (*dharanis*). And mental acts involve
visualizing or focussing upon mandalas or the figures of Sanskrit
mantra letters as well as visualizations (*kanso*,
*kannen*) of deities or buddhas - a realization of self
and world in the sense of *both* transformation *and*
awakening as their fruit. Together with *ingei*
(*mudra*) and *shingon* (*mantra*), the
practitioner's *kanso* allows the mandalic structure
inseparable from the insight attained in such practice - an
"image" that in itself is visually unrepresentable and
hence irreducible to the visual mandalic icon - to unfold. The
three acts are performed simultaneously in a practice wherein the
practitioner utters a mantra, forms *mudras*, and visualizes
their form and meditates their meaning and lets his mind abide in
*samadhi*, all at the same time. 



The point of Shingon practice is to intentionally accord with, or
inter-resonate with, Dainichi's movements, mirroring the
macrocosmic world in one's own microcosm. Thereby original
enlightenment is realized in one's very own embodied dynamism of
bodily, verbal, and mental acts. Shingon ritual meditative practice,
as such, involving all three activities is meant to intentionally
express the realization of one's participation in the cosmic
mantra language of the *hosshin*. This practice then provides
the means of penetrating Dainichi's cosmic mantric language so
that one may directly comprehend and experientially verify *hosshin
seppo*. By making use of all of the faculties of one's
embodied existence - thinking, feeling, sensing, acting,
visualizing, etc. -, one is led *via kaji* to comprehend
the Dharma, not merely conceptually or intellectually but through
one's body-and-mind. In non-duality with the Buddha's
cosmic embodiment, one's own three human activities (Srkt:
*trikarma*; Jpn: *sango*) - bodily, verbal,
and mental - immediately become experienced *as* the
Buddha's own acts, the three cosmic mysteries, as immanent to
one's self. Thereby one is now intentionally participating in
the *yoga* or *samadhi* of Dainichi, thus realizing
one's own original enlightenment. In this state called
"secret" or "mysterious *samadhi*"
(*himitsu sanmaji*) or "secret meditation"
(*himitsu zen*), with the help of *kaji*, the
integration between man's "three acts" and
Buddha's "three mysteries" is realized, and Buddha
"enters me and I enter" Buddha. As one's mind thus
becomes enlightened and one's body becomes
"adamantine," one attains Buddhahood. (See
*Sokushinjobutsugi*, ch.5) In bodily-mental co-respondence
with the *hosshin*'s omnipresencing *via* the
three mysteries, Kukai claims, the non-duality between self and
Buddha is thus realized immediately in one's embodied existence,
thus *sokushinjobutsu*.



With successful completion, this practice of the three mysteries,
which initially has the aspect of "with form"
(*uso*) - that is, in rituals -, comes to
occur naturally, no longer restricted to its ritualized context. That
is, the individual's every action in daily life, without ritual
form (*muso*), comes to intentionally reflect the
enlightened body-and-mind of the Buddha and its three mysteries. Every
word uttered is thus a mantra, every bodily movement a *mudra*,
and every thought *samadhi*. It is in this culmination of
bodily practice, that all of Kukai's major concepts,
*hosshin seppo*, *hongaku*, *sanmitsu*,
*sokushinjobutsu*, *nyuga ganyu*,
converge in the attainment of Buddhahood. While from the Shingon
esoteric perspective, this attainment is instant, from another
perspective, viewed in light of all other (i.e., exoteric) doctrines,
the attainment is gradual and relative. We now turn to this final
topic in our discussion of Kukai, the development of the mind
through ten states from the animal to the enlightened.


### 3.12 Ten States in the Development of the Mind



By 830 Kukai has shifted his interest from an earlier focus upon
the controversy between Madhaymaka and Yogacara concerning
the emptiness or existence of the dharmas and his critique of their
view on language as not conveying truth (the Dharma), to evaluating
Buddhist doctrines as a whole, including the other major Buddhist
schools. This shift is most likely connected to the dispute on-going
during that period between the founder of the Tendai school,
Saicho, and the older Nara Buddhist schools. In providing a
comprehensive scheme that would explain the place of each religious
teaching as well as the place of esoteric Buddhism in relation to the
other Buddhist doctrines, Kukai aimed to demonstrate the
significance of his version of Buddhism.



In this scheme, Kukai is adamant in using the above-discussed
concepts to distinguish esoteric from exoteric Buddhism. And yet,
given a bird's eye view, the truth, the Dharma, in
Kukai's scheme is encompassing enough to include exoteric
Buddhism and all other teachings as its unfoldings or manifestations,
in relative degrees in accordance with the appropriate circumstance or
context and the level of attainment. In order to explain the different
levels or states (*ju*, literally "dwellings"
or "lodgings") of mind (*jujushin*) that
correspond to the various doctrines of other schools and religious
sects, Kukai developed an hierarchical scheme. Shingon Buddhism
is placed at the top of the hierarchy as providing the most
comprehensive view to the Dharma. Kukai provides this
systematization in what many consider to be his *magnum opus*,
*Himitsu mandara jujushinron* (*Treatise on the
Secret Mandala of the Ten States of Mind*) in ten volumes,
composed around 830, five years before his death. It was written in
response to an order of Emperor Junna that each Buddhist sect present
an introductory treatise of its teachings. When the text proved to be
too difficult for the emperor, Kukai produced an abridged and
more accessible treatise on the same theme, *Hizo
hoyaku* (*Precious Key to the Secret Treasury*) in
three volumes. At the core of both works is this classification of the
various doctrines whereby each is critically evaluated under the light
of the culminating and most comprehensive view of Shingon. A similar
sort of system of classifying doctrines, called
*p'an-chiao* (*panjiao*) or *chiao-pan*
(*jiaoban*) (Jpn: *kyoso hanjaku* or
*kyo-han*) already existed in China, e.g. within the
T'ien-t'ai and the Hua-yen traditions. Such a system of
classification proved helpful in their attempts to distinguish
themselves from, and at the same time, incorporate previous doctrines
as expedient means that are relatively true. The *Lotus
Sutra* had also already expressed the similar idea that
various doctrines were meant as expedient means that lead eventually
to a fuller truth (expressed within its own text). It is
Kukai's own invention however to associate the different
doctrines evaluated and classified with specific states of mind or
stages of spiritual attainment. That is, each state in the development
of the mind is correlated with a specific set of doctrines appropriate
to it, as its perspective and lived experience of reality, true to a
certain extent within its limited purview but not yet the whole truth
until the final state is reached. In other words, to move up this
hierarchy of levels of mind, is to experience the unfolding of the
Dharma as one becomes further awakened until one fully realizes
one's enlightenment in non-duality with the Dharma itself, i.e.
the attainment of Buddha-hood. From a mandalic perspective, this
unfolding of the Dharma is also indicative of one's evolution
from the periphery towards the center of the mandalic universe.
However as each level of mind is a "dwelling" or
"lodging" place for the mind, the hierarchy from the
lowest to the highest "stages" is sequential only in the
exoteric dimension. That is to say that the sequential ordering is not
necessary in itself when viewed from the esoteric, i.e., holistic,
standpoint. In other words, it is possible to move directly from any
state or "dwelling" to the most comprehensive realm.



The teachings evaluated here not only include Buddhist schools but
also variations of Brahmanism, Hinduism, and Indian religious
practices as well as Chinese non-Buddhist doctrines. And the Buddhist
teachings include the major Indian and Chinese doctrines that have
made their way to Japan: Ritsu (Chn. Lu-tsung, Vinaya studies), Kusha
(based on Abhidharma), Jojitsu (Skrt. Satyasiddhi, based on
Sautrantika), Hosso (Skrt. Yogacara, Chn.
Fa-hsiang), Sanron (Chn. San-lun based on Indian Madhyamaka), Tendai
(Ch. T'ien-t'ai), Kegon (Chn. Hua-yen), and Shingon.
Kukai's classification system may be briefly summarized in
the following schema:



1st to 3rd states: Pre-Buddhist stages: worldly
"vehicles" of *samsaric* entrapment:



1st state: "The mind of the goat foolishly
transmigrating in the six destinies (or realms)" (*isho
teiyo-shin*): The state of desire driven by animal instincts
without moral restraint; the stage to which belong common people,
hell-beings, hungry-ghosts, beasts, *asuras*
("titans"), and various deities or celestial beings
trapped in their *samsaric* destinies.



2nd state: "The mind of the child tempered but
ignorantly obsessed with moral precepts" (*gudo
jisai-shin*): The state of ethical actions and virtue that promote
social order but without any "religious" goal; the stage
to which belong Confucianism and the Buddhist precepts
(*ritsu*) for the laity.



3rd state: "The mind of the child composed and
fearing nothing" (*yodo mui-shin*): The state of
deity worship and extrinsic magico-religious practice for the sake of
overcoming anxiety with the thought of attaining supernatural powers
or immortality, or reaching an eternal and blissful heaven; the stage
to which belong Taoism and various forms of Hinduism or
Brahmanism.



4th to 10th states: Buddhist stages (the fourth
to ninth being exoteric Buddhism and the tenth being esoteric
Buddhism):



4th to 5th states: Hinayana stages:
"vehicles" of those who aspire towards self-enlightenment
without caring for the enlightenment of others.



4th state: "The mind of one affirming only the
elements and negating the self" (*yuiun muga-shin*): The
state of the *sravaka* who analyzes phenomena into
the psycho-physical "aggregates" (*skandhas*)
and/or the elements (*dharmas*), to thus negate any belief in a
permanent ego (*atman*); the stage to which belong the
teachings of the historical Buddha and his direct disciples and of the
*Abhidharma* scholastics. While the substantiality of reality
is thus deconstructed into its elemental *dharmas*, the
*dharmas* themselves however become fetters, thus taking from
three lives to sixty aeons to achieve liberation.



5th state: "The mind freed from karmic seeds"
(*batsu goinju-shin*): The state of the
*pratyeka-buddhas*, who, masterless on their own, attain
insight into the chain of dependent origination to recognize the
impermanence, self-less-ness, and non-substantiality of all, thus
preventing new karma to arise. But in enjoying a certain level of
"enlightenment," they fall back into the
"egoism" of self-complacency, compassionless apathy
towards fellow beings, and the narrow vision of other-worldliness.
Hence they have not yet reached complete enlightenment. The
Sautrantika school belongs to this stage.



6th to 9th states: Mahayana stages:
"vehicles" of the *bodhisattvas*, those who seek
enlightenment both for self and for others, by overcoming self-other
duality and recognizing the interdependency between self-enlightenment
and other-enlightenment and between wisdom and compassion.



6th state: "The mind of the Mahayana
adherent who is concerned with others" (*taen
daijo-shin*): The state of Yogacara with its
*Vijnapti-matrata* (Jpn: *yuishiki*)
standpoint that everything is "mind-only," reached by its
analysis of thing-events as phenomena of consciousness originating
from a deep un-conscious "storehouse" or "receptacle
consciousness" (*alaya-vijnana*). Its
point is to detach oneself from the discriminating objectification of
phenomena in order to realize the tranquility of
"mind-only" from a non-discriminating perspective, which
would allow the practice of "great compassion." And yet
this still takes several aeons of practice to achieve and is not the
final state.



7th state: "The mind of one who realizes
non-origination" (*kakushin fusho-shin*): The state
of Madhyamaka with its *sunyavada* (Jpn:
*kugan*) standpoint that everything is empty. Here
reifying and substantializing conceptions - including both
objects and mind - that act as fetters are eliminated through
Nagarjuna's eight-fold negations which *via*
their dependent origination show their emptiness.



8th state: "The mind of one who realizes harmony with
the one path of truth" (*nyojitsu ichido-shin* or
*ichido muishin*): The state of T'ien-t'ai
with its standpoint of "oneness of all," wherein one
realizes that one moment contains eternity, a single thought contains
all possible worlds, and a sesame seed contains a mountain, i.e. the
non-duality between one and many; and between emptiness, dependent
origination, and their "middle."



9th state: "The mind of one who realizes the absence
of substance within ultimate truth" (*goku
mujisho-shin*): The state of Hua-yen with its standpoint of
the mutual non-obstruction and interpenetration between the
patternment (Chn: *li*; Jpn: *ri*) of all and the
concrete thing-events (Chn: *shih*; Jpn: *ji*) on the
basis of their emptiness, whereby one and many are non-dualistic. This
non-duality is extended to the level of the entire
*dharmadhatu*.



10th state: Both Tendai and Kegon for Kukai however
lack the crucial element of direct experiential understanding to truly
realize what they preach. One must thus proceed further by means of
bodily ritual practice provided by the next and final state:
Mantrayana: "The mind of secret sublimity"
(*himitsu shogon-shin*). This is the state of Shingon,
whose esoteric teachings and bodily experiential practice constitute
the summit of the development of the mind. At this summit *hosshin
seppo* is revealed and one attains
*sokushinjobutsu* through the micro-macro-cosmic
correlativity of the three mysteries and through *kaji*. 



Rather than rejecting or negating the previous states, this final
state fulfills and encompasses their standpoints from what is claimed
to be the most comprehensive standpoint, in view of - or rather
in non-duality with - the Dharma. In light of the Dharma, the
truths taught in those previous states are but relative or provisional
truths, expedient means that are helpful only insofar as they lead one
towards this final truth but which can also serve as fetters if one
becomes attached to them. Each state is referred to as a
"palace" (*kyu* or *gu*), which
are all combined in the one grand cosmic palace
(*hokkaigu* or *hokkai shinden*). This grand palace
constitutes the entire cosmos as a mandala, with the tenth and highest
state, the innermost secret palace of Dainichi, at the center and
summit from which the Dharma emanates into its various manifestations
in the lower states, the outer palaces. The closer one is to the
center, the stronger one feels the pull of *kaji* drawing one
up towards the central summit. But as stated above, the sequential
ordering of the hierarchy is not necessary when the whole is viewed
from this most comprehensive standpoint. For the grand cosmic palace
penetrates and comprehends all of the specific palaces or dwellings of
the mind. Hence one can make a sudden leap from any point in this
cosmic mandala towards the center by successfully engaging in the
esoteric practice of Shingon Buddhism. It is this mandalic structure
that the term *mandala* in the title of the longer version of
this work (*Treatise on the Secret Mandala of the Ten States of
Mind*) signifies. It refers to the blueprint of the cosmic
embodiment of the Dharma (*hosshin*), which in turn structures
one's (ritual) practice in its arrangement and how one
accordingly experiences the Dharma.


## 4. Concluding Remarks



Among the better known philosophers of the Kyoto School, references to
Kukai or Shingon, when compared to Zen or Pure Land Buddhism, are
hardly noticeable. It has been suggested that this neglect may have
something to do with an intellectual's prejudice against the
"esoteric," e.g. the significance of ritual with its
symbols and images, which are not so easily amenable to rational
comprehension and instead conjure up preconceptions of the
"occult" and the "magical." However the
philosophical aspects of Shingon Buddhism are often traceable to the
same Mahayana seeds that sprouted Zen. Once such prejudices
are overcome, it would not be so difficult for the contemporary
philosopher to find in Kukai a well-spring of ideas and thoughts
which may be of interest today.



We need to acknowledge, however, that Kukai and Shingon Buddhism
in general have not altogether been ignored by contemporary
philosophers of Japan. Even within the Kyoto School, its current
representative Ueda Shizuteru in a 1993 lecture, *Basho to
mandara*, discusses the significance of mandalas in Shingon
Buddhism in relation to the ontological structure of human existence
understood in his terms as being-in-the-twofold-world. In his analysis
of Kukai's mandalas, Ueda approriates contemporary
philosophical concepts, such as Nishida's "place"
(*basho*), Nishitani's "field" (*ba*),
and Heidegger's "being-in-the-world"
(*In-der-Welt-sein*), and takes the mandala as indicative of
the always assumed semantic space (*imi kukan*) belonging
to the world (*sekai*) as the total framework of meanings
(*imi no waku gumi*) wherein we find ourselves. A couple of
other graduates of Kyoto University's philosophy department have
entire books on Kukai. In *Kukai no shiso ni
tsuite*, Umehara Takeshi discusses Kukai both as a religious
practitioner and as a theorist, who explicates the world's
infinite "treasure" unfolding within the self. And
ex-Nishidian turned Marxist, Yanagida Kenjuro, has a study
on Kukai and his works: *Nihon shingon no tetsugaku:
Kukai Hizohoyaku to Ben'kenmitsu
nikyoron*.



Among other twentieth century Japanese philosophers, Yuasa Yasuo,
known for his theory of the body, often refers to the doctrines and
practices of Shingon Buddhism, and has writen entire chapters on
Kukai in *Shintairon: Toyoteki shinshin ron to
gendai* and *The Body: Towards an Eastern Mind-Body
Theory*. Comparative philosopher of religion, Izutsu Toshihiko, as
well, in *Ishiki to honshitsu* and other works, has found
Kukai's ideas - especially his
cosmological-linguistic theory - inspiring enough to incorporate
into his own theory of essence as part of his attempt to build a
synthetic "Oriental philosophy" (*toyo
tetsugaku*). Philosopher of Buddhist thought, Tamaki
Koshiro discusses the significance of Kukai's
philosophy within the history of Japanese Buddhism in his *Nihon
bukkyo shiso ron*. And philosopher of religion and
religious studies scholar Nakazawa Shin'ichi, like Ueda, focuses
on Kukai's mandalic philosophy in his book, *Seppen
kyokusenron*. He reads Kukai's works on Shingon as
involving a hydrodynamic mode of thinking that in its flexibility
deals with the non-Euclidean currents of nature with its forces of
reality, undulating in ripples and forming vortexes. He views the
Shingon mandala as approximating, with its circles and lines, what is
expressed in today's fractal geometry, whereby the
infinitesimally microcosmic part endlessly and indefinitely iterates
the patterns of the whole of nature in its innumerable vortexes and
curves.



Kukai's ideas engender an holistic view towards nature and
the cosmos as encompassing ourselves and in our interrelationships
with others. They may be of relevance to the dilemmas we face today in
this epoch of globalization, religious wars, technological
"enframing" (to use Heidegger's terminology), and
environmental hazards. And in terms of scholarship, as can be seen in
some of the above-mentioned Japanese scholars' works on
Kuka, Kukai offers a wealth of ideas for comparative
analyses: e.g. with Derrida on the world as text, with Process thought
on "cosmo-holism," with Merleau-Ponty or Deleuze on the
significance of the body and bodily spatiality and interrelationality
vis-a-vis the environment, with Nishida or Hegel on dialectics
and interrelationality, or with major "mystic" thinkers of
other religious traditions such as Ibn Arabi of Islam or Meister
Eckhart of Christianity on a dynamic non-duality as opposed to both
static monism and subject-object dualism. Kukai's thinking
provides a wealth of insights, of much value, to offer to philosophers
of today.