Shingon's Ten Levels of Mind: Level Three

AN OVERVIEW OF “THE PRECIOUS KEY TO THE SECRET TREASURY”
Kobo Daishi Kukai’s Ten Level’s of Mind and Path of Spiritual Development
(A collection of relevant materials, recommended readings and some sporadic comments)

The Childlike, Fearless Mind (yodo mui-shin).  Wearied with human suffering, the person at this level seeks the peace of dwelling in heaven,  This is the mind that first awakens to religion.  Like a child seeking the comfort of its mother's embrace, unaware that its mother, too, is subject to sickness, old age and death, the person at this level seeks to believe in an eternally unchanging god or spiritual doctrine."  (Yamasaki, p. 95)

When they perform the Six Practices and the Four Mental Concentrations, they increase their dislike for the world below and their longing for the world above and make progress towards gaining pleasure in heaven. [Popular Taoism and Hinduism]  (Hakeda, p. 159)

Kukai assigns to this level of mind Taoism, the sixteen Hindu schools such as Samkhya and Vaisesika, the various types of Yogic practices, and the Buddhist groups that emphasize rebirth in heaven.  (Hakeda, p. 69)

The Mind with the Fearlessness of a Baby (yodo-mui-shin).  The "fearlessness of a baby" is the fearlessness of one who has complete faith in the gods.  This is the stage of those who follow the path of worship, such as Hinduism and Taoism. (Snograss, p. 7)

At the third level of mind, an amazing spiritual vision is first conceived.  The perfections of some type of heaven, some pure-land are envisioned as possible, but only in a life beyond the one we live now, today.  At the third level our vision of what is possible expands to the infinite, but our confidence that this vision can happen in the current life or perhaps even on this earth has not yet taken root.  Again some of the traditional language here seems critical, or suggest that this level is faulty, but here the first inklings of human, social and environmental perfection dawn.  So, again, despite any limitations inferred at this level, the conception that the limitless possibilities are inherent in the human condition have begun to sprout and flourish.  That is simply amazing.  (jk)

Recommended Readings:
Kukai: Major Works by Yoshito Hakeda, Part Three pages 170 - 175
The Way of Lao Tzu (Tao-te ching), translated by Wing-Tsit Chan, The Library of Liberal Arts, 1963
Chang-tzu Basic Writings, translated by Burton Watson, Columbia University Press, 1964


Bibliography
Shingon:Japanese Esoteric Buddhism, Taiko Yamasaki, Shambhala, 1988
Kukai: Major Works, Y.S.Hakeda, Columbia University Press, 1972
The Matrix and Diamond World Mandalas in Shingon Buddhism, A. Snodgrass, International Academy of Indian Culture and Aditya Prakashan, New Delhi, 1988