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Comparing Kukai's Mandala And Esoteric Buddhism

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During his time in China Kukai was exposed Buddhist practices that had not been known to Japan. His knowledge of mandala “enabled him to recognize that some dharanis, iconographic images of certain divinities, and devotional rituals to those divinities that had been popularized in a random unrelated manner in early Heian society belonged to a yet-to-be-introduced class of teaching called Esoteric Buddhism (Abe).” Kukai knew he could combine mundras, Sanskrit, and symbol instruments with what he had learned in China and the Heian Buddhist together and Kukai would be the mastery of it. This new system was Esoteric Buddhism. He needed to get support from the emperor and others he hoped would help him and therefore he wrote a letter explaining …show more content…

He school would be different from the other schools due to the scriptures he was teaching, but “in its hermeneutical, semantic, and semiotic theories regarding the workings of textual language (Abe)”. Kukai sect believed that all beings are innate Buddha nature which means they are connected to him. Due to Kukai’s school and beliefs in the three mysteries (body, speech, and mind) which everyone possesses and they contain the secrets of the universe within the person can obtain Budda through one of these connections. Mystery of body through meditation, mind through truth, and speech through the true words spoken by Buddha. In Kukai’s school the mysteries were passed down from master to student through speech and not written down. You must learn through your …show more content…

As he had interpreted the six elements from the root of mantra with syllables, Kukai believed before syllables are words are even put together to be a word they are already capable of meaning and illustrating the truth. He believed that mantras were full of meanings and because of this, the dharanis “impregnated with the power to condense the meaning of scriptures, to protect chanters, or to bring about supernatural effects” (Abe). If you knew mantra, Kukai felt any word in any language could be mantra and therefore language in general was a place for the Buddhist ultimate truth of emptiness

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