Shingon's Ten Levels of Mind: Level Eight

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 and recommended readings)

The Mind of the One Way of Non-Action (ichido-mui-shin).  This stage is also called the “Mind of the One Way of the Truth of Suchness” (nyojitsu-ichido-shin), and is the stage that corresponds to the teachings of the Tendai sect.  The “One Way of Non-Action” (ichido-mui), or the “One Way of the Truth of Suchness” (nyojitsu-ichido), refers to ultimate Reality, and in this stage the purified mind is seen to be like a lotus, as in the description given in the Saddharma-pundarika-suta.  In the seventh stage the non-duality of the mind and the dharmas was established, and the mind itself was seen to be void and only capable of being described by way of the eight negations.  Now the concept of the voidness of mind is itself seen to be void.  But if all is void, even Voidness itself, how is it possible to explain that the phenomenal world seems to exist?  To answer this question the Tendai doctrine classifies the dharmas into three categories (santai): “Voidness” (kutai), “Provisional Existence” (ketai) and “Middle Existence” (chutai).  “Middle Existence” refers to the Middle Way (chudo) between Voidness and Provisional Existence.  All dharmas arise by dependent co-origination and are nothing but the momentary combination of causal relationships.  Therefore they are Void.  In spite of their Voidness, however, their voidness cannot be denied because they are experienced.  For this reason the Tendai attributes to them a provisional existence.  The  ultimate Reality of the dharmas is not Voidness: it is not that the dharmas do not exist, but that existence is the reverse side of Voidness and Voidness is the revers side of existence.  Reality is the Middle Way of the non-duality (funi) of Existence-Voidness.  Forms are the Middle Way of Existence-Voidness and are nothing but manifestations of Suchness (tathata, shinnyo).  (Snodgrass, p. 9 - 10)   

The Mind of the Single Way of Truth (nyojitsu ichido-shin).  This level of mind understands that the worlds of delusion and enlightenment, the worlds of matter and mind, the human world, and all possible worlds, are contained in a single thought within the individual mind.  This is the level of realization that consciousness and its objects form one body, but it does not know that yet other realms transcend it.”  (Yamasaki, p. 96)

When they observe the One Way in its original purity, the Avalokitesvara softens his face in delight. [Tendai or T’ien-t’ai of Mahayana] (Hakeda, p. 160)

Recommended Readings:

Kukai: Major Works by Yoshito Hakeda, Part Three pages 205 - 211

The Threefold Lotus Sutra, translated by Kato, Tamura & Miyasaka, Losei Publishing, 1975, pages 319 - 327

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

Shingon's Ten Levels of Mind: Level Seven

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

Level Seven

The mind Awakened to the Unborn (kakushin fusho-shin).  At this level the individual realizes the void nature of both objects within the mind and the mind itself (the storehouse consciousness).  Such realization alone, however, does not reach beyond negation.  (Yamasaki, p. 96)

When they realize [the essential nature of] mind by means of [the Eightfold Negation beginning with] “unborn” and transcend all false predictions through the insight of absolute emptiness, they they realize One Mind which is tranquil, without a second, and free from any specific marks. [Sanron or Madhyamika of Mahayana]  (Hakeda, p. 160)

The Mind that is Awakened to the Truth that the Mind is Unproduced (kakushin-fusho-shin).  This stage corresponds to the Madhyamika (Sanron), the second of the two provisional Mahayana schools.  In the sixth stage the sadhaka realized that no dharmas exist outside of the mind, but he still distinguished the thinker and the object of thought.  Although he perceived that the object is void, he still imagined that the duality of subject and object exists in the mind.  The Madhyamika goes beyond this position and eradicates the duality by teaching that the mind itself is unproduced (fusho), unconditioned, immutable and timeless, and is only definable in terms of eight negations (happu); it is unborn and undying, neither coming nor going, without unity or multiplicity, and without continuity or discontinuity.  These eight negations deny all conceptualizations concerning phenomena.  The Madhyamika teaches that when all concepts are negated then the real nature of existence, its Suchness (tathata, shinnyo), is revealed.  This is the doctrine of the Middle Way of the Eight Negations (happu-chudo), the “Middle Way” being the same as the “Eight Negations” because the truth of the Middle Way is revealed when all false views are removed.  This implies the doctrine that “the removal of erroneous views equates the elucidation of right views” (haja-soku-kensho).  (Shodgrass, p. 8 - 9) 

The sharp sword of the Eightfold Negation cuts off all idle speculations;

The five one-sided views will be resolved of themselves, and man can gain genuine peace.

Thus he enters the Way of the Buddha, his mind being free and unobstructed;

(Hakeda, p.204)

Recommended Readings:

Kukai: Major Works by Yoshito Hakeda, Part Three pages 201 - 205

The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way, translated by J.L. Garfield, Oxford University Press, 1995,

pages 2 - 83 

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