Shingon

The claim

The three mysteries. Body in mudra, speech in mantra and mind in contemplation of the mandala, performed together, align the practitioner with a cosmic buddha who is already what the practitioner is.

What it held

Kukai returned from China in 806 with a complete esoteric transmission and did something no Japanese Buddhist had done: he argued that awakening is available in this life, in this body, rather than over incalculable aeons.

The reasoning is that Dainichi — the cosmic buddha — is not a being elsewhere but the reality of everything, and the practitioner is therefore already that. What is needed is not transformation but alignment, and the three mysteries do the aligning: the hands form what the buddha's hands form, the mouth says what he says, the mind holds what he holds.

The philosophy of language is unusually developed. Ordinary language is conventional; mantra is not. Kukai argues that the sounds of mantra are the actual structure of reality rather than references to it — that reality is preaching itself continuously and mantra is participation in that speech rather than description of it.

He was also the greatest calligrapher of his age, is credited with a system for ordering the syllabary, and founded a school for commoners. The scale of the man is part of why the school has kept its authority.

How it argued

Ritual practice under transmission, with mandala, mantra and mudra performed together — knowledge that is enacted rather than propositional, and passed master to disciple.

What it was arguing against

Exoteric Buddhism's long path over many lifetimes, which Kukai ranked as preliminary in a scheme of ten stages of mind.

Where it disagreed with itself

Whether esoteric transmission can be assessed philosophically at all, given that it is deliberately not public. Where Shingon and Tendai's esoteric practice differ.

Common misconceptions

That the ritual is magic. Kukai's writings are technical philosophy of language and mind, and the ritual is argued for rather than assumed.

How it began

Kukai spent two years in Chang'an, received the full transmission from Huiguo — who reportedly said he had been waiting for him — and came home with texts, implements and mandalas.

What became of it

Living, with Mount Koya as its centre and a continuous institutional history of twelve hundred years.

Lasting influence

Japanese art, calligraphy and ritual life. Its account of language influenced later Japanese poetics, and Kukai is a cultural figure well beyond Buddhism.

Why it still matters

The claim that some knowledge is constitutively practical and cannot be stated propositionally is a serious epistemological position, argued here in detail.

Put another way

Two mandalas facing each other across a hall, each the other's completion.

Where to start

Attaining Enlightenment in This Very Existence. It is short and it states the claim that distinguishes the school.

The surprising bit

Kukai founded Japan's first school open to people of any class, arguing that education should not depend on birth. He is also traditionally held not to have died but to be in eternal meditation on Mount Koya, where monks still bring him meals twice a day.

In their own words

Connections

Answers

Yogacara Buddhism

Opposed by

Pure Land Buddhism (Jodo)

The verdict

A philosophy of embodied practice worked out by one of the most capable men in Japanese history.

Sources

• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy