Shingon

An East Asian Mahayana school.

Shingon is Vajrayana transmitted to Japan by Kukai in the ninth century; uncontroversial, no new research needed.

Agarwood is the base of the Japanese incense tradition, and the Shingon rites use it in the compounded forms the temples themselves blend.

Shingon works the seals with mantra and visualisation together as the three mysteries, and the sequences belong to the transmission received at abhisheka rather than to open instruction.

The bell is rung in the Shingon rites in the same pairing with the sceptre that the Indian tradition established.

Shingon priests wear the robe in the Japanese form, with colours and patterns graded by rank in the esoteric hierarchy.

Kongobu-ji on the plateau is the head temple of the school, founded by Kukai, who is held by the tradition not to have died but to be in meditation in the mausoleum there.

Taught at Mount Koya as part of the priest's training rather than as a musical accomplishment.

Shingon clergy married in large numbers after the decree, though the monastic precept it set aside was never formally rescinded by the school.

Shingon retains the Indian implements through the Chinese esoteric transmission, and the five pronged form is the one most used in its rites.

Shingon writes Sanskrit in Siddham and has done since the school was founded, keeping the script in use in Japan long after it had ceased to be written in India. The letters are studied as a set under the name shittan, and the contemplative practices attached to particular syllables are transmitted by initiation.

Shingon writes Sanskrit in Siddham and has done since the school was founded, keeping the script in use in Japan long after it had ceased to be written in India. The letters are studied as a set under the name shittan, and the contemplative practices attached to particular syllables are transmitted by initiation.

Shingon writes Sanskrit in Siddham and has done since the school was founded, keeping the script in use in Japan long after it had ceased to be written in India. The letters are studied as a set under the name shittan, and the contemplative practices attached to particular syllables are transmitted by initiation.

Shingon writes Sanskrit in Siddham and has done since the school was founded, keeping the script in use in Japan long after it had ceased to be written in India. The letters are studied as a set under the name shittan, and the contemplative practices attached to particular syllables are transmitted by initiation.

Shingon writes Sanskrit in Siddham and has done since the school was founded, keeping the script in use in Japan long after it had ceased to be written in India. The letters are studied as a set under the name shittan, and the contemplative practices attached to particular syllables are transmitted by initiation.

Shingon writes Sanskrit in Siddham and has done since the school was founded, keeping the script in use in Japan long after it had ceased to be written in India. The letters are studied as a set under the name shittan, and the contemplative practices attached to particular syllables are transmitted by initiation.

Shingon writes Sanskrit in Siddham and has done since the school was founded, keeping the script in use in Japan long after it had ceased to be written in India. The letters are studied as a set under the name shittan, and the contemplative practices attached to particular syllables are transmitted by initiation.

Shingon writes Sanskrit in Siddham and has done since the school was founded, keeping the script in use in Japan long after it had ceased to be written in India. The letters are studied as a set under the name shittan, and the contemplative practices attached to particular syllables are transmitted by initiation.

Shingon writes Sanskrit in Siddham and has done since the school was founded, keeping the script in use in Japan long after it had ceased to be written in India. The letters are studied as a set under the name shittan, and the contemplative practices attached to particular syllables are transmitted by initiation.

Shingon writes Sanskrit in Siddham and has done since the school was founded, keeping the script in use in Japan long after it had ceased to be written in India. The letters are studied as a set under the name shittan, and the contemplative practices attached to particular syllables are transmitted by initiation.

Shingon writes Sanskrit in Siddham and has done since the school was founded, keeping the script in use in Japan long after it had ceased to be written in India. The letters are studied as a set under the name shittan, and the contemplative practices attached to particular syllables are transmitted by initiation.

Attaining buddhahood in this very body is Kukai's central claim and the title of his own treatise on it, and it is what distinguishes the esoteric path he brought from China from the exoteric schools. The ritual method by which the claim is realised passes only under initiation and is not set out in the school's public literature.

The Yudono mountain tradition linked to Shingon

Tantric method, brought from China by this school's founder Kukai in the ninth century, is this school's defining practice within Japanese Buddhism.

Non-injury is held in Shingon.

The three poisons are held in Shingon.

Not-self is held in Shingon.

Impermanence is held in Shingon.

The bodhisattva motivation is held in Shingon.

Giving is held in Shingon as the first of the perfections.

Dependent origination is held in Shingon.

Dharma is held in Shingon, and Kukai's ranking of the teachings places the esoteric teaching above the exoteric as the dharma preached by the cosmic Buddha in his own person rather than adapted to an audience.

Suffering is held in Shingon.

Karma is held in Shingon.

Nirvana is held in Shingon.

Collected absorption is held in Shingon, and the school's ritual practice of body, speech and mind together is presented as its form.

Samsara is held in Shingon.

Shingon stands on the sudden side: Kukai's claim that buddhahood is attained in this very body is an argument that the esoteric path does not require the incalculable aeons the exoteric teaching allots.

Emptiness is held in Shingon.

The five aggregates are held in Shingon.

The four immeasurables are held in Shingon.

The four truths are held in Shingon.

The eightfold path is held in Shingon.

The six realms are held in Shingon.

The three jewels and going for refuge are held in Shingon.

The three marks are held in Shingon.

The two truths are held in Shingon as part of the exoteric inheritance the school ranks its own teaching against.

The perfections are held in Shingon.