The essential, pith instructions....

The following quote, excerpted from Professor Yoshito Hakeda's translation of Kobo Daishi Kukai's treatment of the tenth, and highest level of mind and spiritual development in his "Precious Key to the Secret Treasury" is (in my humble opinion) perhaps the most important bit of Shingon in the English language.  Enjoy and see what you think....


"The student of the yoga should devote himself to the mastery of the Three Mysteries and the Five Series of Meditation.  The three Mysteries are: the mystery of body - to make mudras and to invoke the presence of the sacred object of meditation; the mystery of speech - to recite the mantras in secret, pronouncing them distinctly without making the slightest error; the mystery of mind - to be absorbed in yoga, keeping one's mind in a wholesome state like that of the bright, pure, and full moon, and to meditate on the enlightened Mind.  The Five Series of Meditation are: to have an insight into the Mind; to meditate on the enlightened Mind; to visualize the enlightened Mind in the form of the vajra; to transform one's body into a vajra; and to realize unsurpassed enlightenment and obtain the adamantine body like a vajra.  When the student becomes perfected in the Five Series of Meditation, then and only then will he become the Body of the most sacred One.  Then his luminous being will be the all-pervading Body and Mind, which are identical with that of the Buddhas of the ten directions."

From "Kukai: Major Works" (Y. Hakeda, Columbia University Press, 1972, p. 220 - 221)