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Kongokai mandara
<The mandara made on the basis of the ideas of the Kongochogyo is called "Diamond World"mandara .Skt;Vajradhatu-mandala>
Taizo mandara
<The mandara which is described in the Dainichikyo is called the"Womb"mandara.Skt;Garbhakosa-mandala>
The monk named Kukai<774-835>,later given the honorary titleKobo Daishi established Shingon school of Buddhism in Japan. From China ,he brought the traditions belonging to the esoteric schoolof Buddhism to Japan. His school is called shingon mikkyo .Shingon means "true word",mantra in Sanskrit.
Shingon Buddhism is a religious science.It's meditations are a time-tested,systematic means of attaining the highest spiritual goal-enlightment in this very existance.
Meditaions of Shingon Buddhism involve active participation of the meditator's total being.The maditator uses mantra-syllables of profound mystical significance,mudra-symbolic hand gestures,and visualization-active creation of symbolic forms in the imagination.
The Three Mysteries of Mahavairocana,which are his Body-the universe,his Speech-mantra,and his Mind-the governing principle of the universe that is an all-encompassing mystical intuition far surpassing intellect or reason,permeate one's own activities of body,speech,and mind.
Gradually,the meditator experiences in direct revelation,with the entirety of his body and mind,that he is one with Mahavairocana.
Meditations of Shingon Buddhism is not directed toward selfish gratification of personal desires,so that,by continuous practce of this communion with Mahavirocana,a suprapersonal understanding and compassion become an integral part of one's life.
Body and mind harmonize ever more fully with the radiant universal power partakes of the limitless universe-sustaining energy that is enlightenment.
The meditation techniques of Shingon Buddhism were for centuries held as strict secrets,handed down only from master to initiated disciple.
So,for Shingon Buddhism it was not the doctrine in a certain text which included all other thought,but the nature of the doctrine itself.Kukai considered the esoteric school in which he was trained to be the summit of the development of Buddhist theory and practice and took this idea as the basic principle for the incorporation of all other expla-nations of the doctrine of Buddhism into his school.
Art is a powerful tool of meditation,since where words often fail to convey eternal truth,the perfection of aesthetic form may embody it.
Ceremonial implements such as bells and thunderbolts,sculptured deities,painted mandalas,the internal pictures of visualization,graceful mudra,powerful mantras,all come to transform the meditator's life to reflect that perfection of beauty.
The esoteric school had their origins in India,like
Buddhism itself ,buttheir ideas became widespread in India only
in the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. In India a number of systems
and ideas were developed,butthe esoteric schools of China and
Japan are based on only two cycles of esoteric texts and their
explanations. These two systems of thought were introduced in
China in the beginning of the eight century and brought to Japan
by Kukai in the ninth century to form the basis of his Shingon
school.
The two major texts were translated into Chinese after their introductionin China. They were called Dainichikyo,of which the Sanskrit text called
Mahavairocanabhisambodhi-vikurvitadhisthana-vaipulya-sutrendraraja-
nama dharmaparyaya,and Kongochogyo, Skt. text called Tattvasamgraha.
The seventh master,Hui-Kuo failed to find a successor until,near the end of his life,he met Kukai,a remarkable young Japanese priest. Kukai met Hui-Kuo in Ch'ang-an in 805,and Hui-Kuo immediately recognised in Kukai his long-awaited spiritual successor. Kukai rapidly absorbed the entire body of esoteric teaching from Hui-Kuo,and within months was ordained the eighth master in the Shingon line.
Kukai returned to Japan the next year and founded the Japanese Shingon school. Under Kukai's inspired guidance,the esoteric Buddhism which had come from India and China was transformed,thoroughly systematized and given a vitality which has lasted in Japan for twelve hundred years.
