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
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