Shingon Buddhism - Doctrines

Doctrines

The teachings of Shingon are based on early Buddhist Tantras, the Mahavairocana Tantra (Jap. Dainichi-kyō 大日経), the Vajrasekhara Sutra (Kongōchō-kyō 金剛頂経), the Adhyardhaśatikā Prajñāpāramitā Sutra (Rishu-kyō 理趣経), and the Susiddhikara Sutra (Soshitsuji-kyō 蘇悉地経). These are the four principal texts of Esoteric Buddhism. They are all Tantras and not Sutras despite their names. The mystical Mahavairocana and Vajrasekhara teachings are expressed in the two main mandalas of Shingon, The Mandalas of The Two Realms - The Womb Realm (Skt. Garbhadhātu, Jap. Taizōkai 胎蔵界曼荼羅) mandala and the Diamond Realm (Skt. Vajradhātu, Jap. Kongōkai 金剛界曼荼羅) mandala. These two mandalas are considered to be a compact expression of the entirety of the Dharma, and form the root of Buddhism. In Shingon temples, these two mandalas are always mounted one on each side of the central altar. The Susiddhikara Sutra is largely a compendium of rituals. Buddhism is concerned with the rituals and meditative practices that lead to enlightenment. According to the Shingon doctrine, enlightenment is not a distant, foreign reality that can take aeons to approach but a real possibility within this very life, based on the spiritual potential of every living being, known generally as Buddha-nature. If cultivated, this luminous nature manifests as innate wisdom. With the help of a genuine teacher and through proper training of the body, speech, and mind, i.e. "The Three Mysteries" (Sanmitsu 三密), we can reclaim and liberate this enlightened capacity for the benefit of ourselves and others.

Kūkai also systematized and categorized the teachings he inherited from Huiguo into ten stages or levels of spiritual realisation. He wrote at length on the difference between exoteric mainstream Mahayana Buddhism and esoteric Tantric Buddhism. The differences between exoteric and esoteric can be summarised as:

1. Esoteric teachings are preached by the Dharmakaya (Hosshin 法身) Buddha which Kūkai identifies as Mahavairocana (Dainichi Nyorai 大日如來). Exoteric teachings are preached by the Nirmanakaya (Ōjin 応身) Buddha, which in our world and aeon, is the historical Gautama Buddha (Shaka-muni 釈迦牟尼) or one of the Sambhoghakaya (Hōjin 報身) Buddhas.
2. Exoteric Buddhism holds that the ultimate state of Buddhahood is ineffable, and that nothing can be said of it. Esoteric Buddhism holds that while nothing can be said of it verbally, it is readily communicated via esoteric rituals which involve the use of mantras, mudras, and mandalas.
3. Kūkai held that exoteric doctrines were merely provisional, skillful means (Skt. Upāya) on the part of the Buddhas to help beings according to their capacity to understand the Truth. The esoteric doctrines by comparison are the Truth itself, and are a direct communication of the "inner experience of the Dharmakaya's enlightenment". A simple way to put it would be to say that when Gautama Buddha attained enlightenment in his earthly Nirmanakaya body, he realized that the Dharmakaya body is actually reality in its totality and that totality is Mahavairocana.
4. Some exoteric schools in the late Nara and early Heian Japan held (or were portrayed by Shingon adherents as holding) that attaining Buddhahood is possible but requires a huge amount of time (three incalculable aeons) of practice to achieve, whereas esoteric Buddhism teaches that Buddhahood can be attained in this lifetime by anyone.

Kūkai held, along with the Chinese Huayan (Kegon 華嚴) school that all phenomena could be expressed as 'letters' in a 'World-Text'. Mantra, mudra, and mandala are special because they constitute the 'language' through which the Dharmakaya (i.e. Reality itself) communicates. Although portrayed through the use of anthropomorphic metaphors, Shingon does not see the Dharmakaya Buddha as a god, or creator (as a separate entity). The Dharmakaya is in fact a symbol for the true nature of reality and a representation of emptiness (Śūnyatā). Its important to note that,because of the interdependence between emptyness and form,Vairocana is also a representation of collective phenomena,of the universe itself.