Attaining Enlightenment in This Very Body (Sokushin jōbutsu gi)

A short doctrinal treatise by Kūkai, founder of the Shingon school of Japanese esoteric Buddhism, written after his study of esoteric teachings in China. It defends the claim that buddhahood can be realised in this present body and lifetime, rather than over countless ages as the exoteric schools taught. Kūkai first cites scriptural proofs from the Mahāvairocana and Vajraśekhara sutras and from a treatise on the awakening mind. He then comments on a verse of eight lines. Its first half explains 'this very body': the six great elements (earth, water, fire, wind, space and consciousness) interpenetrate without obstruction as the essence of reality; the four kinds of maṇḍala are its forms; the three mysteries of body, speech and mind are its activity; and all things interconnect like the jewels of Indra's net. The second half explains 'becoming buddha': every being is already endowed with the Buddha's wisdom, which practice uniting one's body, speech and mind with the Buddha's makes manifest.

It is the clearest short statement of Kūkai's thought and of the esoteric claim that the body, the cosmos and the Buddha are not separate, a view with few parallels in Western philosophy.