| More About Kuukai |
| Exhibitions Junko's Writings Publications Selected Works About Junko Reviews Contact Links Home | | Reflections of Kuukai "In this fathom-long body a whole universe is revealed!" Thus said the Buddha. But what did he mean? Was he thinking of the infinite complexity of the internal organs and tissues which make up the body? Or was he focused on the relationship between body and spirit which offers the individual endless possibilities of self-expression and fulfillment? Kuukai's New Idea One of Buddhism's central teachings is that each of us is caught up in a cycle of death and rebirth: we are reborn in order to pay the karmic debts we accumulated in past lifetimes yet in each current lifetime we accumulate new karmic debts. This cycle continues for each of us until we reach enlightenment because only the enlightened can live without accumulating further debts – a depressing prospect. As Kuukai wrote: "Dying, dying, and dying yet again, in the cycle of reincarnation, in darkness. Born, reborn, and born yet again, in the cycle of reincarnation, in darkness." But Kuukai developed a new teaching: enlightenment can be achieved in this very lifetime! This teaching was fundamentally optimistic and merciful. It offered a new hope to the countless poor, sick, and downtrodden: no longer did they have to see their situation as karmic payback for sins they had committed in their previous lifetimes, but instead they could view themselves as being positioned to achieve enlightenment -- if only they could refine their understanding and educate themselves to behave correctly. Kuukai's new religion, based on this central idea, attracted a large following during his lifetime and it remainsone of the most popular forms of Buddhism in Japan today. The Body as Vehicle - Not Obstacle to Enlightenment The Esoteric Buddhism which Kuukai studied in Chang'An was a development from Tantric Buddhism, which celebrated the body and sexuality as one of the great sources of energy which could move people towards enlightenment. The sexuality which Tantric Buddhism celebrated was not lustful or orgiastic: it was the sexual energy which comes from being aligned with the energy of the Universe. The central teaching of Kuukai's new religion was an extension of this doctrine. Kuukai's teaching that enlightenment could be achieved in this lifetime carries with it the implication that the body is not an obstacle to enlightenment, but is instead a vehicle. The Mandalas Kuukai exemplified the integration of what we today call "right brain" and "left brain": passionate and mystical, he was yet practical, worldly, and technically advanced for his day. He commissioned artists to create mandalas - diagrams intended to show the structure of the cosmos and man's place in it. By contemplating the mandala, the seeker could reach higher and higher levels of understanding. The Rite of Ten Thousand Lights Japan’s native religion, Shinto, is a sophisticated form of animism in which nature plays a central role. Every mountain, and every tree and river and stream, has a kami – a spirit which must be respected. Raised in this tradition, Kuukai admired and absorbed what was the more advanced and cosmopolitan world view of Buddhism yet he integrated these two traditions - and most probably, all the traditions he encountered in the great city of Chang'An - in his own life and in his teaching. His Rite of Ten Thousand Lights was itself such an integration: the oil lamps come from Buddhism and the Mountain and the Forests come from Shinto! By remembering Kuukai's life we may find new models for our own inner lives: new ways of being open to cultures foreign to our own without yet losing ourselves, new ways to live spiritually in the practical world. And if we could ask him, What did the Buddha mean when he said that in this fathom-long body, a whole universe is revealed? Kuukai would surely have told us that the answer will never be found in words - but only in dance. After all, dance is the highest form of meditation. |