"Achieving Enlightenment in this Very Existence"

"All beings can truly attain enlightenment..." 

Last evening we had our first ever, formal sangha discussion group. Our topic was Master Kukai's seminal work, "Attaining Enlightenment in this Very Existence." We relied on the translation in Prof. Hakeda's, "Kukai: Major Works" for the reading. The idea was for each participant to pick at least one thing from the piece to discuss with the group. It could be something that struck one as profound, confusing, inspiring or just plain worthy of talking through.

Six students attended and happily, almost everyone had recently read Master Kukai's essay.

We began with a little background. "Attaining Enlightenment in this Very Existence" is one of Kukai's Trilogy, his "sambu no sho". Along with "The Meanings of Sound, Word and Reality" and "The Meanings of the Word HUM" they comprise Kukai's most concise articulations of Shingon's view. These three essays, aim "to demonstrate the validity of Kukai's Esoteric doctrine and to persuade the reader of the effectiveness of his approach" (Hakeda, p. 76).

Jumping into our discussion we talked over and tried to untangle such lofty notions as the "power of mirror-like wisdom", the Six Great Elements, the pervasive buddhahood symbolized by Mahavairocana and the place of meditation in helping to make sense of all this. Not surprisingly, connections to Ajari Tanaka's familiar teachings were made. Everyone contributed something of note and the give and take was rich - sometimes earnest, sometimes hilarious. It is safe to say, we all enjoyed this initial stab at a formal group discussion on a distinctly relevant and meaningful topic.

More importantly, we all decided to do it again. So stay tuned and try not to miss the next one.

Kukai: Major Works by Yoshito S. Hakeda, Columbia University Press, 1972

(The quote in bold at the start of this post can be found in the above book on page 227)