Practices and Features
One feature that Shingon shares in common with Tendai, the only other school with esoteric teachings in Japan is the use of Siddham Sanskrit Seed-syllables or Bija along with anthropomorphic and symbolic representations, to express Buddhist deities in their Mandalas.
There are four types of mandalas:
• Mahā-Maṇḍala (大曼荼羅, Anthropomorphic Representation),
• Seed-Syllable Mandala or Dharma-Maṇḍala (法曼荼羅),
• Samaya-Maṇḍala (三昧耶曼荼羅, representations of the vows of the deities in the form of articles they hold or their mudras), and
• Karma-Maṇḍala (羯磨曼荼羅) representing the activities of the deities in the three-dimensional form of statues, etc.
An ancient Indian Sanskrit syllabary script known as Siddham (Jap. Shittan 悉曇 or Bonji 梵字) is used to write mantras. A core meditative practice of Shingon is Ajikan (阿字觀), "Meditating on the Letter 'A'", which uses the Siddham letter representing the sound "Ah." Other Shingon meditations are Gachirinkan (月輪觀, "Full Moon" visualization), Gojigonjingan (五字嚴身觀, "Visualization of the Five Elements arrayed in The Body" from the Mahavairocana Tantra) and Gosōjōjingan (五相成身觀, Pañcābhisaṃbodhi "Series of Five Meditations to attain Buddhahood" from the Vajrasekhara Sutra.
The essence of Shingon Mantrayana practice is to experience Reality by emulating the inner realization of the Dharmakaya through the meditative ritual use of mantra, mudra and visualization of mandala i.e. "The Three Mysteries" (Jap. Sanmitsu 三密). All Shingon followers gradually develop a teacher-student relationship, whereby a teacher learns the disposition of the student and teaches practices accordingly. For lay practitioners, there is no initiation ceremony beyond the Kechien Kanjō (結縁灌頂), which is normally offered only at Mount Koya but can also be offered by larger temples under masters permitted to transmit the empowerment. It is not required for all laypersons to take.
Read more about this topic: Shingon Buddhism
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