Kūkai : Japan's first Vajrayana visionary /
Kūkai: Japan's First Vajrayāna Visionary is a wide-ranging account of how the ninth-century founder of the Japanese Shingon school of Buddhism, Kūkai (774–835), effectively forged a unique identity for the new meditative and ritual practices he learned during two years' study in China. Whi...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Berkeley, California : Moraga, California :
Institute of Buddhist Studies; BDK America, Inc.,
[2024].
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| Series: | Contemporary issues in Buddhist studies.
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| Subjects: |
| Summary: | Kūkai: Japan's First Vajrayāna Visionary is a wide-ranging account of how the ninth-century founder of the Japanese Shingon school of Buddhism, Kūkai (774–835), effectively forged a unique identity for the new meditative and ritual practices he learned during two years' study in China. While esoteric ("tantric") Buddhism is also known as Vajrayāna ("vehicle of the diamond/thunderbolt"), Kūkai alternatively named it the "esoteric teaching" (mikkyō), Vajrayāna and Shingon, the Sino-Japanese term for "mantra." He carefully articulated how contemplative practices engaging the "three secrets" of body (symbolic gestures, mudrā), speech (recitation of mantra) and mind (visualizing the world as a mandala) radically transform one’s sense of self. These practices aim to uncover hidden dimensions of being to reveal a state of profound existential freedom and power that is an embodied manifestation of awakened consciousness. Kūkai employed every available social and material resource to establish Vajrayāna practices on a solid foundation. |
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| Physical Description: | viii, 340 pages ; 24 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 1886439907 9781886439900 |