Kūkai

Kūkai was a Japanese Buddhist monk, scholar and calligrapher who studied esoteric Buddhism in Chang'an and founded the Shingon school on his return, with its centres at Tō-ji in Kyoto and Mount Kōya. He held that sound, sign and reality are internally related: the cosmos itself is the Dharma-body's expression, so language is a manifestation of the real rather than a mere label for it. He also taught that enlightenment can be attained in this very body.

Key ideas

• The Dharma-body (the cosmic Buddha Mahāvairocana) itself expounds the teaching through all phenomena.
• Sound, word and reality are internally related, so the world is a kind of text of the real.
• Enlightenment can be realised in this very body and lifetime through ritual practice of body, speech and mind.
• Teachings and schools can be ranked as ten ascending stages of mind, culminating in esoteric Buddhism.

Major works

• Sangō shiiki (Indications of the Goals of the Three Teachings, 797)
• Sokushin jōbutsu gi (Attaining Enlightenment in This Very Body)
• Shōji jissō gi (The Meanings of Sound, Word, and Reality)
• Himitsu mandara jūjūshinron (The Ten Abiding Stages of Mind, c. 830)

In the conversation

• Discussion Kūkai and Bhartṛhari: when a word is part of what is real rather than a label for it Rin Matsuda · 5 replies
• Question Who was Hunayn ibn Ishaq, and what was new about the way he translated? Zainab Kadhim · 4 replies