While most of discussion will most likely be informed by Tibetan Vajrayana references, especially Tibetan strategies in presenting tantric teachings through history, the general intention is to consider whether there are new opportunities for an authentic yet naturalized tantra in the West. There’s a lot of dogmatism and resistance to be met, and distancing from conservative institutional forms of Buddhist esoterism will be unavoidable.

While David’s opinions are his own, they disclose a pattern shared by many, and his honest laying of cards is commendable. A bold discussion among peers is what we need at this point. A disambiguation is necessary before we can move on, and it can only be arrived at through engaged, informed, candid conversation.

On a personal note, the question of naturalized tantra – or naturalized esoteric Buddhism in general – has been at the heart of my study and practice for the past 20+ years, especially since I began teaching. There’s the obvious cultural disparity, whether Indian, Tibetan, or Japanese, and then there’s the gap in means and meanings from agricultural medieval society to a digital post-industrial society with entirely different notions of self and world. What seems as a huge obstacle, suggests that we should start from scratch, trusting our best intuitions.

Join the discussion.

Buddhahood is always already open source. Learn your code and get to work.

Traditional teachings are written in ancient, often obsolete code. Such codes were never designed to be used across platforms.

As radical code was standardized and normalized via subroutines, this gave rise to hidden side effects and even scareware.

Bridge the gap between institutional and hacker cultures through publicized source-management.

Genuine *esoteric* practices are only appropriate for individuals of exceptional sanity. We have too many smoking guns.

Values embraced by the present Dalai Lama – democracy, human rights, and religious freedom – were forged in Europe.

One authenticity test for post-traditional Buddhism is humor, given that one man’s Dharma is another man’s mockery.

World of Western Buddhism is a minefield of hidden assumptions.

Want Vajrayana in plain English? Read Ken McLeod’s “Wake Up to Your Life.”

Revisiting “Contemplative Science” by Alan Wallace.

The uncommon feature of spiritual teachers and groups is openly encouraging mature adult reasoning and behavior.

Stream-winner is a virtuous disciple endowed with genuine trust in Buddha, in Dharma, in Sangha.

The uncompounded: no arising, no passing away, no alteration of what stays.

Siddhartha and his patrons were vanguard in their time and place. So were later masters and patrons in every time and culture.

Attention is necessary, but not sufficient, for awakening.

Not everyone would benefit from awakening now.

If everyone was miraculously awakened now, most would wish they could restore factory settings.

Despite overlap and generic similarities, different paths are seldom commensurable.

Waking up depends on some serious renouncing. Now, what must always be renounced, and what should never be renounced?

Every practice has an end result, and every path an implicit strange attractor. It’s useful to clearly know what that is.

Dark age of Dharma, indeed. These days vajra masters can’t just pick young women and make them their sex slaves, or can they?

Genuine compassion is expressed in bold, ambitious aspiration, instead of a timid, hopeful expectation.

There’s way too much window-dressing and street-walking in the way teachings are presently offered on the web.

Only awareness you can maintain while walking, talking, and working is of any genuine benefit.

Not Slavoj Žižek: “Karma as belief can contribute to maintaining political and social structures.” Ken McLeod

Karma *as belief* hinders the development of awareness, not to speak of meaningful and compassionate social engagement.

Controversies and scandals are not about them perps and them victims. Such events are about our own fears and shadows.

It took me 20 years to appreciate how most Buddhadharma is really just views and opinions.

What kind of Buddhist are you, really?

Past is pride and shame, future hope and fear, present self and other. Watch out!

Intensive training reveals potential. Daily practice honors that promise.

We can only seek high standards for our teachers if we’re willing to uphold high standards as their students (and vice versa).

Quite a few types of spirituality are extinct in the wild. We see new species emerging through selection.

At this time it’s crucial we take a long, deep, critical look at the way Buddhism has been seen and done in the past 50 years.

Buddhist teachings on body, thought, & emotion differ across lineages, thus different methods employ contradictory perspectives.

Four noble truths are effectively a meta-framework for a number of distinct and divergent heterodoxies and heteropraxes.

At the level of Buddhist practice, what is path in one vehicle, may be heresy in another.

Renunciation & ordination, just as empowerment & initiation, were once concessions to dominant mores and customs.

Some students see their teacher as nonesuch, some as guide and mentor, some as just a person. They’re all presumably right.

As to Buddhist logic and epistemology, nothing is explained. But there are more and less useful ways of interpreting experience.

Four principles of solidarity and engagement: generosity, kind speech, meaningful activity, and cooperation.

Ridiculous how even at our worst we never stand outside of what is.

Growing into cosmocentric identity hurts.

Many committed practitioners feel undue attachment to a specific style and form of practice. Devotion is not obsession.

One does not come to terms with awakening. One comes to terms with our natural inclination to conceptualize it.

Everything we do reflects in our brains. Now, let’s move on.

Gratitude is expression of humility and respect, enabling one to notice and acknowledge what’s precious in every situation.

Even awakening is a step, not the goal.

“Plain language” is a good modernist idea, applicable to Dharma, inasmuch it is public communication.

Householders can practice and realize just as any monk or yogi can, given support, capacity, and sustainable commitment.

Don’t hesitate. Knock it out of the park.

The purpose of Dharma is to reveal and protect the sacredness that is our shared human heritage.

Inasmuch as Buddhahood is ideal, the Buddha is idol, and Buddhism an implicit idolatry.

Karma in plain English: your life becomes what you do; you become why and how you do.

“Emotions” remain bewildering for mainstream Buddhist discourse, whether East or West, traditional or modern.

Buddhism sans future lives, sans full awakening in this body, equals Buddhism without meaningful Nirvana.

Genuine inner path was never an escape or hideout from our personal and collective responsibility and engagement.

Traditionalists only seem more convincing and compelling because of our habit of imagining the future by clinging to the past.

Diversity in Western Buddhism is extraordinary and challenging. The awareness of that diversity, however, is far from optimal.

I don’t believe in literal reincarnation, but I do entertain rebirth and continuity as incredibly useful. #disclosure

Used to be that Buddhists engaged unsparingly in wicked disagreements and public debates. Look at us now, going along just nice.

Dharmadhatu is as real as it gets, eluding subjective and objective assessments, both invested in blinding reductionist agendas.

Stephen Batchelor: “Buddhism, in a sense, has a lot of catching up to do.” Couldn’t agree more.

Working on development of esoteric Buddhism, trying to make sense and understand the weaving of history and myth.

Dig into the past of esoteric & tantric lineages continues. To me, their history is almost as fascinating as their teachings.

Factual lives of great people are more inspiring than their hagiografies.

Between sessions working out a cultural app of Yogacara trisvabhava and having my mind chewed by it a la process philosophy.

Everything is energy, hence it’s difficult to use the word in meaningful ways. Still, for practitioners, attention is energy.

In this business of waking up that is like no other business, people do what they do in any other business.

The only way to discover the incessant symbolizing activity is to partake in it.

Further neuroscience will confirm the unique effectiveness of self-generation and awakening by means of three mysteries.

Presently, the most viable framework to explain the operation of three mysteries without nonsense rests in deep semiotics.

No matter how we slice and spin the Dharma, meditation is but 1/3 of Buddhist practice.

Desirelessness is an awkward way of expressing the method & purpose of relaxing & resting in what is already the case anyway.

Translators are to blame for most funny Buddhist ideas in the West today.

There is no one teaching, and no one teacher, appropriate and helpful to everyone at any given time.

A variety of methods serve a variety of purposes. Pursue methods aligned with your personal intention to maximize results.

Most people never get far in practice. Is it really that difficult? Yes. But aren’t we also doing a poor job at optimizing?

There is no way to work out, create, produce, manufacture, fabricate, devise, or contrive wakefulness.

To practice is to care.

Across mindsets, types, and levels we have very different real needs.

For the most part, it’s irrelevant what we get out of practice. What counts is what we put into it.

Future of religion? Faith without beliefs.

On one point all teachings agree, the need to cultivate awareness. Everything else is a tool at best.

When it comes to styles of practice, different toolboxes originate from different views of the basic problem.

There is no way of escaping the world by going inside, or vice versa. Awareness begins when inside and outside are one.

Released from a variety of conditioning constraints, this world is revealed as an unfolding majestic mystery.

Widespread myth of Dharma being averse to money has seriously impaired its dissemination in the West, diminishing its influence.

The meaning of teachings – whether doctrine or practice – is in their intention.

Meditation is [just] a subset of spiritual practice, itself a subset of spirituality, a subset of humanity.

And yet, without attention and imagination, humanity itself is easily compromised.

To say that genuine love is unconditional is rather misleading, since it is not undemanding for either party.

Most look for a way out. Some turn to look for a way in. Finally, the lucky few, seek the way.

Like it or not, the historical Buddha is contingent, and so are his teachings.

Spiritual institutions are by definition prone to every possible political and organizational corruption imaginable.

To find the middle way that goes beyond, hold both extremes in attention and see what happens.

Jack Engler said, “You have to be somebody, before you can be nobody.” Even more so after.

A popular belief says, the best adapted prosper. Such logic is like Swiss cheese.

Postmodern Buddhism renders Dharma to fit the blueprint of suspicion toward all meta narratives. Except its own, of course.

We cannot escape having a way of thinking, a philosophy, an ideology. Nonetheless, we need not blindly believe what it says.

There are many false dichotomies, some outdated, some in vogue. We need good, juicy dichotomies to work from.

Strong connection with one’s teacher reveals among other things how poignantly fragile human relationships are.

Orthodoxy combines early forms of licensing & copyright & branding to create institutional power, hampering original creativity.

Orthodoxy is built around originally groundbreaking, transgressive, unorthodox creativity.

Nirvana, the third of four truisms, remains the most ambiguous notion in Western Buddhist discourse.

Neuro-biological hardwiring vs. free will: if you attend and intend deep enough, it’s a false dichotomy.

Cultural and biographic conditioning – as related to sex, politics, and technology – must be penetrated with awakened awareness.

Realizing inwardly, and expressing outwardly, are two aspects of any path. Their mutual tension gives vitality to our practice.

For an individual practitioner, path walking is opening and releasing into uncharted experience.

Whenever you come out on the other side of serious practice, you tend to take yourself less seriously.

Secret and tantric teachings are often being manipulated to establish power, and withheld to hold supremacy.

Mending and transforming and waking up all at the same time… usually don’t work.

The basic meaning of Dharma is cure.

If some teachings produce people you’d never have as teachers, why would you practice such teachings? Now look at the opposite. #inquiry

Corny and insipid religious aesthetic isn’t improved by doing away with religious aesthetic. Art matters.

What cannot be said can be depicted. What cannot be explained can be singed.

After studying traditional teachings and subjecting them to reasoning, there’s ground for devotion, but also for embarrassment.

Non-attachment has nothing to do with detachment, and everything to do with being able to keep moving on.

Every point of view discloses something true. This something may be useless to me or you at this moment, but it’s significant.

No need to stay with one teacher forever, but don’t let your seeking be a spiritual chatroulette.

ends on April 19th 2012

We are a phase in the great unfolding. What we do in life echoes in eternity.

“A lot of good things sound crazy. And a lot of crazy things sound good.” – @hokaisobol

Christian “Holy Spirit” = Buddhist “impermanence” = Chinese “chi”

God is dead. Are Buddhists the last to notice?

We’ve had 50 years of reformation and deconstruction in Western Buddhism. Now we need counter-reformation and reconstruction.

We must not reduce Dharma to the lowest common denominator, just because profundity is painful to egalitarian sensitivities.

Your life is a continuation of your formal practice by other means.

This world is *not* our oyster.

Every day we die a little. Every day the deathless is revealed a little.

Shichi ten hakki! [or, in other words] Nana korobi yaoki!

And there, where I become nothing, is the magical point from which all good things come.

At the origin of every riddle, and every guess, stands someone who knows.

Deities are *not* imaginary friends living in fantasy worlds. All iconic forms and symbols are useful conventions at best.

Here is a primordial wakefulness of which all manifest spirituality is but an outward expression. It’s alive and kicking.

The line between genius and madness is as thin as our virtue.

Bodhicitta is the one siddhi.

Seeking does not lead to finding, but seekers have no choice.

If you suck at meditation, do not despair. There are other ways. Some more challenging, some more fun.

(cont.) there are yogas of devotion-grace, learning-knowledge, action-service, relationship-intimacy, and virtue-purity.

Insight divorced from four immeasurables is pseudo-wisdom, a kind of spiritual zombism.

We have little genuine choice in spiritual matters. It’s essential we exercise awakened will where we do.

All conscious action stems from imagining alternative futures.

Cultivation of awareness begins with imagining a meaningful alternative present.

Sudden awakening, lifelong cultivation. Serious intentions take time to actualize. Start today.

This body is the one holy place of buddhadharma. By sitting every day, erect a stupa.

Genuine practice exposes many gaps in our awareness. However embarrasing, do not stuff these gaps with shoulds.

Most people getting into meditation without proper guidance get worse as reactivity and repression grow stronger.

Even with proper guidance, meditation is not for everyone.

It’s not just how things are, it’s also how we could be.

Genuine potential is not a mere option that we can ignore without painful consequences.

Intense practice liberates energy. Without due awareness and skill, it will reinvigorate self-defeating habits.

Awareness is always immediate.

Although always immediate, awareness is never found separate from experience of variable subtlety.

Everything we ever experience depends on mind. Mind is the one asset worth working on from birth to death.

Ethics is wisdom applied to daily life.

Genuine, unbiased curiosity is rare and precious.

Spiritual diversity in 21st century is likely to replicate the trends of linguistic diversity and biodiversity.

Mainstream Buddhism in every culture is first and foremost mainstream, dominated by prevailing socio-memetic forces.

Mainstream Buddhism in the West accommodates and perpetuates the culture war, offering no genuine alternative.

With any lineage and path, there’s outsider info and insider experience. Both are useful, but don’t confuse the two.

Most polemics in traditional sources are not products of sectarian dispute. Some, however, are blatant abuses of argument.

Numerical indications – ie oneness or even not-twoness – are mere reminders or invitations, not to be taken literally.

Sacred texts always point beyond themselves to the source of meaning itself.

The power of speech comes from who’s speaking, resonates in how it’s spoken, and signifies through what is said.

Everything in the relative realm comes with a price, has a flip side, and potentially a dangerous shadow.

Make sure what you learn serves you and others well. Genuine knowledge has a purpose.

If this body is buddha-nature, what then is this world?

Cultural conversion and travesty is not the best way to help Western Buddhism, or the emergent global Buddhism.

Je pense que je vais commencer à enseigner le Dharma en français.

Now what?

Without reflecting on past and future events, we have no way of improving our lives now.

Trusting *everything* and *everyone* holds a mirror to your completeness can take you a long way into genuine awareness.

In the past, Buddhists worshiped sutras and stupas. What are 21st century Buddhists worshiping?

Genuine devotion is very rare. Most often we’re lost in childish projection and brute totem worship.

Awakening to mystery of being, and the resultant liberation and realization, do not begin or end with any historical tradition.

Common views only express visceral beliefs. Without exposing these, there can be no genuine development.

Philosophy doesn’t progress when it’s reduced to thinking, divorced from deep contemplative experiment and social engagement.

Awakening is the central, but not the sole purpose of Buddhist teachings.

Buddhahood is always already open source. Learn your code and get to work.

Subitism is cure for gradualism; gradualism, for subitism.

The 4th turning of the wheel of Dharma is trans-cultural, universal, yet flexible and diversified.

Truth and goodness, but beauty – without beauty we are lost.

To be a genuine Buddhist, be directly accountable for what Buddhism is like in this time and place.

Deepest meaning of Dharma is beyond words, not beyond expression. Where words fail, art and ritual take over.

Emphasis is crucial, because it reveals the purpose.

Passion, anger, dignity, and discrimination are expressions of awareness.

Service is the ultimate Dharma, wherein all teachings converge.

Peace is not mere absence of conflict, just as health is not absence of disease. Peace is beyond opposites.

Sensing our life we find it’s life itself doing the sensing, and thus we relax. Nothing to escape from, nowhere to escape to.

The central tool for awakening is the body.

When you think, say, or write “Now I am aware” – who is the author of this?

Our practice *must* have aesthetic, cultural, and political meaning beyond the circumstances of our personal lives.

Comment: having faith, one shuns all beliefs, the only safeguard being one’s own deepening experience and awareness.

As mystery, you give rise to awe. As miracle, to wonder. Is it possible that you have always been here with me, within me?

Samsara is a joyful garden.

Genuine effort equals opening and accepting what arises to reveal what is.

Four foundations of mindfulness are my consorts. Good practice is our love song.

Spiritual power is never usurped. It is bestowed by the student for reasons that may vary. Ultimately, power is born in-between.

Very few people are genuinely interested, or capable, in bringing awareness to emotional and energetic extremes.

What you discover in genuine practice is directly related to *everything* you experience, to what you are, and your whole world.

Dominant conventions may define legitimacy, but authenticity is beyond their scope.

Genuine esoteric practice is neither self-empowerment nor other-empowerment, but can be viewed as either, or both.

To progress through stages, generate and cultivate an irresistible urge for awakening of every experience in everyone.

No complaints book in meditation.

Meditation is not something we do in isolation, just for ourselves. The world depends on us.

Deity yoga is an example of sacred imbalance and asymmetry. Matching the intensity of the deity, we become transformed.

Genuine Dharma is just as shocking today as it was back then. Insofar as today conditions are different, so is the Dharma.

The esoteric approach is inherently transgressive, cutting through both social and spiritual conventions of happiness.

Medieval mindsets and parochial sensitivities are real life-draining obstacles making any meditative progress meaningless.

Siddhartha was a human being, just like you and me. Let that sink in.

Conditioned behavior, emotional reactions, subject-object duality, are veils that obscure and distort. Awareness is the light.

Embrace ups & downs with wonder and equanimity. Nothing’s wrong. You’re alive!

Open into the mystery. Let her make you laugh and cry. And then, bright and wounded, drop any sense of separation.

Fear nothing, especially fear itself.

Where three kinds of duhkha occur, only there can one find mahasukha.

What and how you practice comes from why you practice. Don’t cultivate a noble intention before knowing your actual reasons.

If one really loves life, how can one fear death?

The rich clarity cultivated through genuine practice dispels the inebriation of habitual, emotional, and perceptual veils.

A deeper meaning of dependent co-arising: what appears stands for, and actually means, what is. Reality in plain view.

We choose or let the choice be made for us, which amounts to the same thing. Deep down, we hold the power.

Deities, spirits, protectors etc. in esoteric Buddhism are contingent entities, real enough yet ultimately not other.

With understanding and compassion, aka bodhicitta, comes a sense of urgency unlike any other form of will we’ve come to know.

Actions mean what they do and vice versa.

The path of innate wakefulness is hard work, day in day out.

For most of us, 99% of taking Refuge is giving up deluded hopes. The remaining 1% is simple reliance on what is.

[There is no one teaching, and no one teacher, appropriate and helpful to everyone at any given time. #openDharma]

Yet the teacher principle is ever active, responsive, and adaptive, always there for the curious, receptive mind.

To say that everything matters is such an understatement.

The purpose of imagining oneself as deity isn’t to escape your condition, but instead to fully embrace what you are.

Practical wisdom, the “how to” of awakening mind, is precious and rare.

Even though evolutionary time is deep, it ain’t eternity. Deep features of the human phenomenon are not timeless, just enduring.

Right views are not right beliefs.

ends on March 14th 2012

Although the beginning of Western encounter with Buddhism can be traced to early or mid-1800s – that is, skipping much earlier Hellenistic episode – it’s not until the 1960s and 1970s that an actual Western Buddhism appeared as a cultural phenomenon. Nearing 50 years of this small but extremely influential movement (although we have nothing like an inception date), it seems a new phase in its development is becoming not just possible, but also necessary. This new phase will most likely be somewhat chaotic and multifaceted, yet also more mature. Information technology, global connectivity, and culture based on ubiquity of information will have strong influence in this passage.

“Buddhism as a movement has yet to consciously embrace and reflect upon its encounter with modernity. Nowhere do we see this more than in the Dharma centers, where technology, for example, is slowly creeping in. Meanwhile, many of our communities still seem to be struggling with incremental change regarding the 60′s & 70′s issues of Dharma in the West – including sectarianism, hierarchy, gender equality, devotion, monasticism, rites and rituals, preservation and adaptation/innovation, commercialization– while the world we live in seems to be changing exponentially.”  -Lama Surya Das

Without a systematic, comprehensive approach, what follows is just a sequence of remarks, written to ease my own thinking, in hope that whoever reads this may find it useful while possibly disagreeing in detail or gist. My assumption is that you, the reader, are a practicing Buddhist, at least sort of, most likely Western-born, with modern or secular education, and generally accepting that this 21st century is one of change and adaptation.

(1) The prevailing trend of mirroring national and sectarian identities adopted from Asian contexts cannot be sustained indefinitely, at least not by the “convert” Buddhist community. While discarding historical roots isn’t likely, branching away from specific cultural idiosyncracies will hopefully gain momentum as Western Buddhist practitioners of second and third generations, teachers and students alike, prevail.

(2) Parallel to further enculturation maturing beyond so much folklorism, we will also see more explicit attempt at cross-sectarian, trans-sectarian, and nonsectarian doctrine and practice, based probably on yana-specific principles. This has already been going on as cross-fertilization, but without obvious, significant conclusions in terms of actual organizations and projects devoted to this matter, while parochial attitudes abound resonating with romantic idealizations of this or that true lineage. Be that as it may, there are indications that openminded inquiry is once again gaining momentum among practitioners of Dharma, and that can only be good.

(3) The matrix of Western culture, within which one can practice many different – historically unconnected, and sometimes incompatible – styles of Buddhadharma, is yet to give us an embracing and generous Buddhist identity. There’s surely scope for both “ethnic” and “convert” Buddhists, and also for every ilk of supporter, believer, student, and practitioner, for both traditional and post-traditional forms that are feasible, whether secular, pragmatic, practical, reformist, engaged, hardcore, you name it.

(4) Keen collective self-awareness in Western Buddhism is far from developed, and I can think of three main bases for this hesitancy. First, there’s a generational reluctance exhibited by earlier Western Buddhists toward imposing a unified label on anything, or at least an insistence on holding it light, vague, and contingent. Second, there’s the ongoing semi-justified deference to Asian sources of legitimacy, with mixed results. And last but not least, the inner fragmentation into subcultures and groups and styles and customized hybrids etc. Just for example, a comprehensive and critical survey of the history of Buddhism in the West should very soon become requisite study in practicing circles, and that by itself would improve the present lack of self-awareness.

(5) English language Buddhist magazines advertise the eclectic triad of Vipassana, Zen, and Tibetan Buddhism, while emphasizing meditation as central practice but, when it comes to numbers, the majority of Buddhism in Western societies takes place in many ethnic communities. Thus, the designation “Western” retains the same ambiguity it acquired in notions such as “Western culture” or even “Western world” that serve so many different functions depending on who uses them for what purpose.

(6) As you’re reading this, ironically the fastest growing Buddhist group in the West could easily be the so-called “dark sangha,” namely those who practice by themselves. Just so, each of us separately may not be the future of genuine Western Buddhism, but a movement or current that would bring us closer together while reflecting the rich variety of emerging faces of Buddhism – a veritable rainbow body – that to me sounds like an encouraging promise. Where do you see us 20 years from now?

*prijevod na hrvatski slijedi

1 - Pramudita, joyful stage, where initial awakening is perfected by severing misleading views and gaining insight into emptiness. Misleading views (skt. kudrshti) are naive self (satkaya), extreme biases (antaragraha) like nihilism (uccheda) and eternalism (shashvata), perverted views (mithya) such as rejecting cause and effect, affirmation of the above three (drshti-paramarsha), ethical and moral offenses (shila-vrata-paramarsha), greed (raga), hatred (vyapada), delusion (moha), conceit (mana), and doubt (vichikitsa). Insight into emptiness is the understanding of the void nature of self and phenomena. The following stages constitute a breakdown of items inherent in the first stage.

2 - Vimala, immaculate stage, where purification is perfected.
3 - Prabhakari, luminous stage, where patience (kshanti) is perfected.
4 - Archishmati, brilliant stage, where vigor (virya) is perfected.
5 - Sudurjaya, hard-to-conquer stage, where meditation (dhyana) is perfected.
6 - Abhimukhi, facing stage, where understanding (prajna) is perfected.
7 - Durangama, fa-going stage, where skillful means (upaya) is perfected.
8 - Achala, immovable stage, where vow (pranidhana) is perfected.
9 - Sadhumati, good-minded stage, where power (bala) is perfected.
10 - Dharmamegha, dharma-cloud stage, where knowledge (jnana) of reality (dharmadhatu) is perfected.

Whereas the exoteric approach views the ten grounds as causal steps leading to Buddhahood, Shingon interpretation is twofold: a) practice, and b) innate.

a) Practice has two aspects: klesha-eliminating, and bodhicitta-revealing. Both of these perspectives make sense if the ten grounds are seen as stages, in general accordance with the exoteric view, although in the esoteric view every obstacle and negativity is seen as useful material from which awakening is born.

b) Innate perspective comes from the notion that everything is implicit in each thing, an idea we find in every Ekayana scripture. The influential Shrimaladevi-simhanada Sutra claims that all facets of morality are implicit in the bodhisattva activity of awakening [with] others, Tendai claims that three thousand worlds are implicit in one instant thought, and Kegon speaks of the ‘all-in-one.’ In later Japanese Buddhism, we find Zen teaching the three disciplines (shila, samadhi, prajna) are implicit in Zen, Jodo Shin claims that all practices are implicit in faith, and even Nichiren claims that all knowledges are implicit in their Lotus Dharma, the entirety of which is implicit in the chanting of the title of the Saddharmapundrika Sutra. The Shingon innate perspective presupposes that bodhicitta is inherent in the practitioner, so it does not conceive dashabumi as literal stages of practice. The numeral ten, following the Avatamsaka/Kegon tradition, is interpreted as inexhaustible. The ten grounds are therefore interpreted as the manifestation of the inexhaustible merits of bodhicittta. This perspective does not make practice useless. On the contrary, practice itself is a natural expression of the inexhaustible innate potential.

Now, dashabhumi is modeled upon the classical Mahayana six paramita (tr. ‘far-reaching’ practices). The six were elaborated into ten, so that dashabhumi corresponds to ten paramita. The six far-reaching practices are generosity (dana), morality (shila), patience (kshanti), vigour (virya), meditation (dhyana) and understanding (prajna). In the Ekayana context, prajna embraces and gives birth to all other paramitas. That is, understanding is meditation as the source of morality that, through ongoing patience and vigour, is expressed in generosity. Such integrated far-reaching practice is expanded by additional four paramitas, themselves descriptive attributes of prajna: skillful means (upaya), vow of commitment (pranidhana), power to awaken (bala), and pristine awareness (jnana). Shingon identifies the first five as items of self-cultivation, and the last four as instruments to benefit others. All paramitas are implied in prajna.

Insofar as the itemized description of dashabhumi is concerned, there is no difference between exoteric and esoteric. What distinguishes the two is the interpretation: exoteric conceives dashabhumi as graded stages of practice; Shingon esoteric views them as embodiment of a variety of virtues, not stages to eliminate something or to gain something. Hence, path is the embodiment of awakening – Dharmakaya. Awakening is described iconographically as four buddhas (Akshobhya, Ratnasambhava, Amitayus, and Amoghasiddhi), each with four attending bodhisattva, represent the four attributes of pristine awareness (jnana) of Dharmakaya Mahavairochana. The whole mandala of awakening, each stage and path, each aspect and attribute, presented simultaneously. This concomitance is no coincidence. And yet, it’s a mystery in plain sight.

Summary. Mahayana literature reveals the nature of buddhahood, while Mahayana practices are disciplines to achieve buddhahood, the purpose of Mahayana being realization of buddhahood. Questions as to whether buddhahood consists of a theoretical or a factual possibility, a mental realization or an actual physical attainment, a state limited to Shakyamuni or a universal one shared by all humans, a past possibility, a present possibility, or a future possibility – these have been discussed for centuries among Buddhists in Asia. The history of the development of Buddhist thought has been in large part a history of the evolution of the concept of buddhahood.

In India, after the death of Shakyamuni, buddhahood was conceived as a special realization, a possibility limited only to Shakyamuni. Reverence to Shakyamuni eventually gave rise to deification, and later to the development of the theory of universal body of awakening, Dharmakaya. The theory of universal buddhahood paved the way for the development of the theory of innate buddha-nature. Universal buddhahood was discussed in India for centuries, as attested by Saddharmapundarika, Nirvana, Vimalakirti, and Shrimaladevisimhanada Sutras. Chinese and Japanese Buddhists accepted this teaching, but they were not satisfied to interpret it merely as the possibility of one becoming a Buddha, an idea which presupposes a duration of time and a process of becoming. Instead they emphasized that universal wakefulness means the recognition of the innate wakefulness in all sentient being. This means that all beings are in themselves, as they are, the embodiment of wakefulness.

Master Kukai wrote in the Nenji Shingon Rikan Keihaku-mon (Treatise on Visualization of Truth by Mindful Recitation of Mantra):

If the Buddhas are the Dharma Realm, they exist within my body. If I myself am also the Dharma Realm, then I exist within the Buddhas.

For Shingon, this is evident in the teaching sokushin jobutsu, meaning ‘realizing buddhahood in this body.’ This phrase has three levels of meaning. (1) Rigu jobutsu is the innate principle presupposing that man, whether awake or not, consists of six elements, four mandalas, and three mysteries; that his body is the Garbhakosha mandala, and his mind the Vajradhatu mandala. (2) Kaji jobutsu is the ‘buddhahood by blessing’ i.e. awakening experienced through practice. (3) Kendoku jobutsu is buddhahood acquired by revealing our own inherent nature.  These are not three distinct approaches to buddhahood, for the first two are dependent upon one another to realize the third. Rigu provides the doctrinal premise for practice; kaji provides evidence for validity of that premise; kendoku is the purpose. Shingon is thus a combination of gradual and immediate methods to enlightenment. Gradual for the practitioner, immediate for the awakened one.

Excerpts from Minoru Kiyota’s “Shingon Buddhism: Theory and Practice” 

(1) Sannirbhaya, fearlessness of virtue, the stage of virtuous deeds. At this stage one is free from the dictates of impulse and mindless behavior, develops a feeling for humanity, and observes moral principles. Conventionally, this corresponds to abandoning eight worldly concerns and performing ten good deeds (not killing, not stealing etc.). In Shingon, the practitioner comes to realize the need to perform daily tri-guhya practice (three mysteries of body, speech, and mind), is guided into the mandala, receives the samaya precept, learns various mudras, mantras, and visualizations, and generates bodhicitta.

Comment: At ground level, before recognizing any responsibility for our condition, we’re subject to an almost incessant functioning of habits in behavior, emotional reaction, and conceptual biases. Although this first stage affords very little freedom or wiggle room for genuine transformation, it’s an important step in that one significantly disengages from cross-purpose of arbitrary hopes and fears, and thus finds a different orientation by relying on felt purpose and resultant intention to produce a way of living. At this point, to which one frequently returns during fluctuations in the subsequent stage(s), the practitioner has yet to internalize a sense of direction, reliance, and confidence. It’s a crucial first step, however, in that one becomes fearlessly intentional, not unlike an adolescent boldly asserting their will for the first time. As Shingon emphasizes a non-linear view of ground, path, and fruit, this stage is said to be ‘shoji soku goku’ or ‘the first is the final.’

(2) Kaya-nirbhaya, fearlessness of body, the stage of eliminating the naive identification with the body. Here one enters the Buddha-path, a realm beyond mere moral principles. One contemplates the limitations of the coarse body, appreciates mortality, rids himself of the anxiety of craving, and realizes liberation from the delusion of attachment to the separate self. This is the shravaka stage. In Shingon, the practitioner attains the vision of “the wondrous form” of the deity, experiences heat in the practice while working with elements and energies, and enters various samadhi states.

Comment: In the Pali tradition, we find ‘sakkaya-ditthi’ (tr. ‘view of the existing body’) as the first samsaric fetter to be abandoned by stream entry. The body here stands for personal identity. According to the esoteric teaching, the body is not to be feared (skt. nirbhaya). When physical needs have been taken care of, an open-ended relationship with one’s world becomes possible. Imagination and inspiration come center stage at this point, and one becomes keenly aware of the possibility of partaking in a realm beyond physical limitations, yet firmly grounded in the openness and vulnerability of an embodied sentient impermanence. The practitioner at this stage finds an increasing ability to challenge his or her instinctual limitations, while also discovering fresh ways of being with the body, in the body, and – perhaps most importantly – as the body. In master Kukai’s Shingon thinking, ‘body’ became a signifier for body-mind-spirit, one’s whole being. ‘Fearlessness of body’ thus means both a firmness of will *and* a capacity to relax into presence, both implicit in the exoteric Buddhist notion of ‘preciousness of this human birth’ and also in the wealth of body-based purification, devotion, and mindfulness-awareness methods in various schools. In the esoteric paradigm, this is a challenging transition, as the practitioner negotiates a *balance* in this not-just-instinctual embodiment, while holding to the vision of the deity as a developmental omega point, and deepening one’s steadfast resolve through occasional relapses to the previous stage of virtue. In short, one becomes unflinching in dealing with embodiment-and-environment, while sensitive at all times to their energy and vitality.

(3) Nairatmya-nirbhaya, fearlessness of selflessness, the stage of realizing the emptiness of self. One who is free from attachment to the separate self now also finds freedom from the notion of possession. This is also a shravaka stage. In Shingon, the practitioner, who has perfected visualizing the presiding deity, is no longer obsessed by its representation.

Comment: This stage corresponds to the insight that body and mind are a temporary combination of various elements, being devoid of substance, yet apparent and functional. Such insight leads to a stable realization of emptiness of personal identity, which cuts away coarse attachments. In Shingon practice, based on the experience of arising as deity, one abandons pride and envy, which leaves the mind in a refreshing state of profound calm and balance.

(4) Dharma-nirbhaya, fearlessness of phenomena, the stage of realizing the emptiness of phenomena. Five aggregates are themselves empty of essence. This is the pratyekabuddha stage. In Shingon, the practitioner realizes that arising as deity is empty of essence and signless (skt. alakshana), like a moon in the water or an image in the mirror.

Comment: Simply put, one abandons fascination with various experiences, inquires into the nature of phenomena and finds their dependent nature. In Shingon context, contemplating ten allegories (phantoms, heatwaves, dreams, reflections or shadows, forms in clouds or in the mist, echoes, moon in water, floating bubbles, dust or motes, fire-circle) to discover that every experience is already open and pellucid in the realm of suchness, the practitioner becomes ‘arya.’

(5) Dharmanairatmya-nirbhaya, fearlessness of emptiness, the stage of simultaneous emptiness of phenomena and self. This is liberation from all phenomena, a recognition of the objective world as a mental construct. This is the stage of Yogacara and Madhyamika. In Shingon, the tri-guhya practitioner realizes the presiding deity as one’s own mind cultivated through samadhi. All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are mind, here meaning qualities.

Comment: Seeing that apperances and meanings arise from potentialities (‘seeds’) that have no substance, one discovers undivided emptiness. In Shingon context, meditating on the sacred syllable A, the practitioner finds primordial awareness is not separate from one’s own mind, and that all experience arises – as experience – from this unbounded potential. One is no longer afraid of being nothing and thus free to experience everything.

(6) Samata-nirbhaya, the stage of sameness (skt. sarva-dharma-svabhava-samata), where one no longer distinguishes between supreme and conventional, between mind and attributes. One realizes the unity of diversity, since all phenomena are interrelated because of emptiness and co-arising. This is the Ekayana stage of Tendai, Kegon (and Zen), and Shingon. In Shingon, the practitioner gains insight into the source of unity of diversity by realizing adhi-anutpada, the originial non-arising state, namely primordial awareness.

Comment: At this highest stage one finds sameness of suchness and apparent reality, while recognizing that even emptiness is devoid of being something – ontologically, logically, semantically, and pragmatically – thus abandoning the most subtle separation of apparent and real, realizing non-discriminating wisdom. In Shingon terms, maintaining constant awareness that phenomena neither arise nor vanish, the practitioner enters the equality of everything interior and exterior, interpenetration of sacred and mundane, to accomplish identity of mind and body, awareness and appearance. Further stages may be said to exist in the unfolding of this natural samadhi, but these are not conceived as realization, since openness/emptiness has been fully probed. Anything further pertains to an unending responsiveness, moment to moment. Reality is forever new, bright, and fresh. All deadening influences (skt. mara) have been pacified in stages, liberating an inexhaustible source of creativity, goodness, and intelligence.

Summary. The first four nirbhayas correspond to the first kalpa, while the fifth and sixth nirbhaya correspond to the second and third kalpa, respectively. Next, ten stages (skt. bhumi).

Notes from Minoru Kiyota’s “Shingon Buddhism: Theory and Practice” with personal annotation.

The term “kalpa” means an immeasurable duration of time (skt. maha-asamkhyeya-kalpa). In exoteric Mahayana, it takes three of these immense aeons to complete the path of bodhisattva to complete awakening of Buddhahood. However, Shingon interprets the term as three levels of grasping the unreal (skt. mithya-graha), namely the coarse (skt. sthula), the subtle (skt. sukshma), and the very subtle (skt. prasukshma). The Awakening of Faith describes these three veils as follows: confused action, the perceiving, and the perceived. Therefore, Shingon does not conceive kalpa as an immense duration of time. Instead, it conceives it as layer of delusion. This leads to a controversial issue which must be clarified before describing the Shingon concept of kalpa.

Disputes surrounding the sudden vs. gradual awakening are largely based on whether wakefulness (skt. bodhi) is determined by the length of practice or not. According to Kukai’s system of doctrinal evaluation, the exoteric schools affirm the kalpa (duration) requirement, though there is considerable dispute around that for Mahayana schools like Tendai or Kegon (and Zen). Shingon presupposes inherent buddhahood but in practice it nevertheless requires the triguhya (‘three mysteries’) meditation and claims that practice is the actualizing of human-Buddha identity. In practice, it would seem, there is no difference between esoteric and exoteric, but the rationale involved in practice is quite different. The two are different because of the interpretation of the term kalpa. It follows that in Shingon wakefulness is not a matter to be realized in terms of a duration of time (whether short or long). In other words, wakefulness does not take place in time, strictly speaking. Thus, the sudden/gradual dispute only arises in an attempt to temporalize wakefulness.

The first, coarse kalpa is the delusion of grasping the self-sense of separate existence. It’s a delusion because such self is impossible, while its seemingly-real appearance is a distortion. Every Buddhist school teaches this self is devoid of essence (skt. pudgala-shunyata or pudgala-nairatmya), instead of which only five aggregates are found, none of which is this self. According to Shingon, the shravaka and pratyekabuddha have transcended the first kalpa, and have realized the emptiness of self-sense of separate existence.

The second, subtle kalpa is the delusion of grasping the reality of phenomena. It’s a delusion because phenomena are also devoid of essence (skt. dharma-shunyata or dharma-nairatmya), so that experience is neither absolutely real, nor absolutely unreal. According to Shingon system of evaluation (see the post on Ten Stages), those who practice according to Yogacara gain insight into mind-onlyness, while those who practice according to Madhyamaka realize the middle. Through the insight into emptiness of phenomena, both transcend the second kalpa.

The third, very subtle kalpa is the delusion of grasping to ignorance (skt. avidya), namely distinguishing phenomena in terms of conditioned and unconditioned. According to Shingon system of evaluation, Tendai and Kegon (and Zen) have transcended the third kalpa by realizing the synthesis of the conditioned and unconditioned. Through such synthesis Tendai realized the realm of suchness, while Kegon and Shingon realized the realm of Dharmadhatu, the dynamic creative universal realm, a seamless fusion of emptiness and form.

Thus, this three kalpa theory is a categorization of Buddhism into Hinayana, Triyana, and Ekayana. Hinayana refers to the shravaka and pratyekabuddha vehicles; Triyana, meaning ‘three vehicles,’ claims the superiority of the bodhisattva vehicle; Ekayana does not discriminate the three but encompasses all three within one universal vehicle. Shingon is also Ekayana, but it is esoteric, and therefore called Vajra-Ekayana. 

Doctrinally, Kegon and Shingon are closely related. What distinguishes the two is the interpretation of Dharmadhatu. The Avatamsaka Sutra (ch. Huayen, jap. Kegon) describes Dharmadhatu from the perspective of cause. This distinction is important. Shingon, unlike Kegon, does not speak of one becoming Buddha (which ‘becoming’ presupposes a duration of time), because one already is Buddha by one’s inherent buddha-nature. Shingon practice is the revelation of Buddhahood in a concrete context – the attributes indicated by six elements, four mandalas, and three secrets. This brings us back to sudden vs. gradual awakening theories. The process of awakening is gradual, but once awakened, one realizes that the very moment is abrupt, sudden, and direct – like a flash of lightning. Shingon awakening – consisting of direct awareness of one’s inherent bodhicitta – refers to the latter. Apart from such distinctions, both approaches are Ekayana, transcending the three kalpas, and realizing Dharmadhatu. Hence, master Shubhakarasimha’s Commentary on the Mahavairocana Sutra says,

“If one transcends the three graspings in one’s lifetime, then in the present life s/he shall realize Buddhahood. Why should the duration of time be discussed?”

Next, the six nirbhayas.

Notes from Minoru Kiyota’s “Shingon Buddhism: Theory and Practice”

While practice here means eliminating one’s own reactive patterns, such elimination cannot be accomplished just by realizing a new conceptual horizon. One must simultaneously act in accordance with that new horizon. View and action must merge as a single concern. Shingon refers to the awakening of this kind of will as ‘arising bodhicitta’. Sanskrit word bodhicitta means ‘awakening heart-mind.’ This initial awakening takes place when one becomes aware of the futility of an indulgent life and of the paradox involved in leading a wholesome life, but also, more importantly, when one develops an intense desire to overcome such futility and paradox. This type of will presupposes that human nature is inherently clear and bright, hence it is also confidence in this inherent nature. Thus, bodhicitta and buddha-nature are synonymous.

The Bodhicitta Shastra describes three attributes of such bodhicitta: supreme truth, compassion, and samadhi. Supreme truth is insight into emptiness, and equals wisdom or understanding; compassion refers to the application of emptiness at an empirical level, and equals vow or practice; samadhi refers to the internalized discipline required to cultivate both understanding and practice, these two supplementing one another, for there can be no understanding without practice, and no practice without understanding. In this context, samadhi is the agent of integrating understanding and practice.

From this we see that bodhicitta – representing the ‘middle’ – is not merely a matter of apprehension. It is to be realized in experience, since it involves faith in the inherent good, as well as an empirical demonstration of that inherent quality.

Buddha-nature is that which is sought by one who has become aware of the futility and paradox of life, and has become deeply sensitive to the tragic problems of mankind. Master Kukai defines faith in buddha-nature as

“…the awareness of the inherent quality within all men which can be discovered by penetrating beneath the consciousness level dominated by ‘seeds’ of attraction, aversion, and indifference.”

This inherent and universal quality is real only to those who have come to understand the limits of the intellect in pursuit of an existential insight – the paradox one faces in pursuit of his authentic being. Such faith (skt. shraddha) and confidence (skt. adhimukti) is beyond self-awareness. Nonetheless, our very own self is the basis of discovering the authentic situation of one’s own beingness.

How is such bodhicitta cultivated to maturation? In response to this question, master Kukai refers to the triple formula from the Mahavairochana Sutra, which says,

“Bodhicitta is the seed, great compassion (skt. mahakaruna) is its roots, and skillful means (skt. upaya) is the fruit.”

This sutra explains understanding (skt. prajna), the function of awareness which cognizes supreme truth, by comparing it to a seed, requiring the condition to establish its roots and to produce fruit. Bodhicitta is the cause (seed) of understanding, and compassion (i.e. actual daily practice) is the condition which enables that cause to produce result (fruit of buddhahood). Bodhicitta cannot be awakened and matured without compassion, the conditioner which brings about buddhahood. This triple formula articulates the theory of the primacy of practical wisdom (i.e. phronesis or prudence). In other words, though arising bodhicitta is essential to practice, practice at the same time is the conditioner which cultivates the maturation of the arising bodhicitta.

Notes from Minoru Kiyota’s “Shingon Buddhism: Theory and Practice”

1. Unstable goatish mind: stage of the worldling, at which the unawakened mind understands neither good nor evil, neither cause nor effect. One is driven by instincts and needs for security, sex, and food. This stage may be seen as prehumanistic.

2. Foolish abstinent mind: something has stirred in the buddha-nature so that one begins to restrain, so that this mind strives to be ethical and moral. This stage may be seen as humanistic.

3. Childlike fearless mind: seeking the peace of dwelling in heaven, due to weariness with human condition. First awakening to spirituality. Like a child seeking comfort of mother’s embrace, the person at this level seeks to believe in an eternally unchanging god or salvation doctrine.

4. Mind of selfless aggregates: self seen as impermanent, but five aggregates (skt. panca-skandha) seen as real. This corresponds to the “vehicle of hearers” (skt. shravakayana). One seeks personal liberation through insight into three characteristics, namely suffering (duhkha), impermanence (anityata), and no-self (nairatmya).

The treatise Abhidharmakosha explains existence in terms of karmic cycle, conditioned by misleading views and misleading thoughts. Existence essentially means karma, and liberation means severance from karma. Insight into the four truths is the initial step. A shravaka therefore negates the reality of self and affirms the reality of basic phenomena. Complete liberation means extinction of both mind and body, because both are accumulator and repository of unwholesome qualities.

5. Mind free of karmic seeds: understanding the process of conditioning, one destroys the ignorance that is at root of all bad karma. This mind, however, like the previous stage, still lacks compassion for other beings, corresponding to the “vehicle of solitary realizers” (skt. pratyekabuddhayana).

Masters of Abhidharma conceived two types of ‘nirvana:’ one reserved for the historical Buddha, and the other for the professional monk as the state of arhat. The laity was expected to be guided by the monks, to lead wholesome secular life, to dedicate themselves to supporting the monks, and to aspite for better rebirth in the future. Nirvana suggests a “blowing out” of human passions. Hence, in referring to awakening, Mahayana generally employs the term ‘bodhi,’ from which the term ‘buddha’ is derived. Even when Mahayana does employ the term ‘nirvana,’ in the context of its own doctrine, the term does not mean “extinction” of body and mind. It generally refers to a state of tranquility and quiescence. But more often than not, it is spoken of with reference to the identity of nirvana and samsara, based upon the doctrine of emptiness and dependent co-arising, which led to the development of the theory of universal buddhahood. Kukai thought that the Abhidharma tradition of analyzing existence in terms of dharmas is speculative, contributes to de-centralizing the human personality, does not in fact offer awakening for all beings, and thus on its own cannot serve as basis of human creativity and the ultimate dignity of all mankind.

6. Compassionate mahayana mind: great compassion wells forth. Objects are seen as void, but the nature of storehouse consciousness is real. This corresponds to teachings of Yogacara school, founded by Indian masters Asanga and Vasubandhu. According to esoteric perspective, they were inspired by bodhisattva Maitreya.

Mahakaruna is compassion without discrimination. While in previous stages compassion is present as sensitivity to others’ suffering, in Mahayana it becomes a positive, proactive concern for the awakening of all beings. Turning our heart-mind at the basis (skt. ashraya-paravrtti), we shift from discrimination based on arbitrary values to non-discrimination, that is, to unconditioned concern for every being. Cittamatra school also enumerates basic phenomenal constituents, but puts emphasis on their transformation. For example, every type of consciousness (skt. vijnana) becomes a type of deep awareness (skt. jnana) or wisdom.

7. Mind awakened to the Unborn: realization of the void nature of both objects and mind itself. This corresponds to teachings of Madhyamaka school, founded by Indian masters Nagarjuna and Aryadeva. According to esoteric perspective, they were inspired by bodhisattva Manjushri.

 This teaching reveals the middle path principle by positing two levels of thought – the realm of emptiness, which is called the ‘supreme’ (skt. paramartha), and the realm of co-arising, which is called the ‘conventional’ (skt. samvrtti). Co-arising is possible because of emptiness; that what co-arises, due to emptiness, is the sign of emptiness; the insight into the organic relationship between the supreme and the conventional is the middle. The middle path articulates the principle of nonduality, thus providing the basis for the theory of the identity of nirvana and samsara. 

Kukai’s work “Precious Key” says, ‘The great space, boundless and silent, encompasses ten thousand images in its life-force; the great sea, deep and still, embraces thousand elements in its single drop. The all embracing one is the mother of all things. Emptiness is the source of conventional reality. Conventional reality is not real existence but it exists conventionally. Emptiness is not nothingness for it exists non-abidingly. Because form is not different from emptiness, it produces phenomena and eternally abides as emptiness; because emptiness is not different from form, it brings phenomena into extinction and eternally abides as form. Form is emptiness and that very emptiness is form. All dharmas as so likewise. What is there that is not? The water and the waves are inseparable, the gold and its marks are indistinguishable. Nothing is identical nor is anything different. This is the essence of the two truths, the middle. Realize the nature of emptiness without grasping it; and through the eight negations, transcend meaningless arguments.’

8. Mind of the single way: worlds of delusion and awakening, worlds of matter and mind, all possible worlds are contained in a single thought within mind. Consciousness and its objects form one body. This corresponds to teachings of T’ien T’ai, established on the basis of Lotus Sutra and the works of Nagarjuna (this is one reason why Kukai breaks the historical development and places Madhyamaka a step higher than Yogacara, so as to establish an inseparable continuity between Indian Madhyamaka and Chinese T’ien T’ai). According to esoteric perspective, these were inspired by bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara.

9. Mind of ultimate no-self-nature: all things interpenetrate, and all things contain the ultimate. Still, limited by void and nothingness, this mind does not progress beyond negation. This corresponds to teachings of Hua Yen, rooted in the Flower Ornament Sutra, inspired by bodhisattva Samantabhadra.

Four worlds according to Hua Yen: (1) world of co-arising, the phenomenal reality; (2) world of emptiness, principle underlying phenomena; (3) harmony between phenomena and principle, their synthesis; and (4) harmony between phenomena, the synthesis among the co-arising, also called ‘dharmadhatu,’ a dynamic cosmic harmony beyond being and non-being.

Dharmadhatu as conceived in this school refers to the world of harmony between phenomena, an empirical world in which all forms of diversity are unified and harmonized.  Ten principles of causation follow. (1) Co-arising of all elements at the same time to complete the whole; the whole is suchness (skt. tathata). (2) Complete blending of one and many, like many lights directed at one spot. (3) One and many are implicit in each other. (4) Co-identity of one and many. (5) Actualized and potential, revealed and unrevealed, are implicit in each other, like seed and sprout. (6) Blending of all parts. (7) Indra’s net, a metaphorical description of universal interpenetration, i.e. every thing reflects everything. (8) Co-identity and interpenetration seen through phenomenal reality. (9) All time periods implicit within the one.  (10) Harmony between causes and conditions produces results.

10. Secret sublime mind: breaking through attachment to void, fully realizing true nature. In this realm of affirmation, one finds the creative mind at the source of all things.

Master Kukai states in “Ten Stages” – ‘The glorious mind, the most secret and sacred is, ultimately, to realize one’s own mind in its fountainhead and to have insight into the nature of one’s own existence.’ He conceives man as ‘body-mind’ and holds that this body-mind is grounded in the Body-Mind, the secret and sacred living Body-Mind of all, the Dharmakaya Mahavairocana.

Some levels are only slight steps, others are separated by a vast chasm of purpose and meaning. All levels are necessary and valid in their own framework. The last levels does not reject but fulfills all preceding levels, and lower levels embody the potential fulfillment of higher ones. The tenth level is not realized by penetrating in the same direction as the previous nine, though. It does not exist separate from the previous nine, but is seen as bringing them to new life.

Notes from Taiko Yamasaki’s “Shingon – Japanese Esoteric Buddhism,” Minoru Kiyota’s “Shingon Buddhism: Theory and Practice”, and Yoshito Hakeda’s “Kukai: Major Works”

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