The One Who Shines Everywhere [Kukai]

In the deepest part of the mansion, there is a sealed room.

The door has no lock, and anyone can enter.

However, few people go inside.

This is because people think that there is nothing there.

People think so.

However, a certain monk said:

It is not that there is nothing. Everything is there. Only those who have the eyes to see, see it.

Kukai.

He was a Japanese monk who lived from 774 to 835 AD.

He is also known by the name Kobo Daishi.

The founder of the Shingon sect. The founder of Mount Koya.

History records him as a great religious figure.

But who was he really?

That is shrouded in mystery.

This is because Kukai was so multifaceted.

He was a monk.

But that is not all.

He was also a poet, a calligrapher, a sculptor,

an architect, an educator, and a civil engineer.

He built reservoirs, constructed bridges, opened schools,

He taught letters, painted mandalas, translated scriptures,

and created rituals.

Can one human being truly accomplish so much?

A certain historian wrote this:

Kukai was not a genius. He possessed an eye for the whole. He knew that everything is connected.

The core of Kukai's philosophy.

It is 'Sokushin Jobutsu'—attaining Buddhahood in this very body.

You do not need to die to become a Buddha.

You do not need to wait for the afterlife.

You can become a Buddha in this very body, in this very moment.

That was Kukai's assertion.

At the time, it was revolutionary.

Traditional Buddhism taught this:

This world is suffering. Cast away your worldly desires. Enlightenment is far away. You must be reborn many times, accumulate practice, and eventually arrive there.

However, Kukai said something different.

Enlightenment is not far away. It is here, now. It is within you. You simply have not realized it yet.

Then, how does one realize it?

Kukai answered.

"Practice it with your body, your words, and your mind."

The Three Mysteries. The mystery of body, the mystery of speech, and the mystery of mind.

Forming mudras with the hands (mystery of body),

chanting mantras (mystery of speech),

and focusing the mind (mystery of mind).

When these three are united, one becomes one with the Buddha.

This is not a theory. It is an experience.

Do not understand it; feel it.

Do not think about it; become it.

Kukai's teachings were not knowledge, but a system of practice.

What he brought back from China,

was Esoteric Buddhism.

Esoteric Buddhism.

It is not a secret teaching.

It is a teaching that cannot be put into words.

For things that can be explained in words, Exoteric Buddhism is sufficient.

If you read the sutras, you will understand.

However, things that cannot be put into words,

must be experienced.

A disciple asked,

"What is enlightenment?"

Kukai did not answer.

Instead, he formed a mudra with his hands.

The disciple did not understand.

"Please, teach me with words."

Kukai smiled.

"What can be said in words is not enlightenment. Try it yourself."

Kukai's method of education,

was thoroughly practical.

The Shugei Shuchi-in he opened.

Japan's first school for the common people.

There, they did not teach only Buddhism.

Classical Chinese, calligraphy, mathematics, medicine, astronomy

They taught all kinds of knowledge.

Why?

"All knowledge leads to the wisdom of the Buddha. It must not be divided."

For Kukai, there was no distinction between the sacred and the secular.

To pray and to build a bridge were the same thing.

To read a sutra and to teach letters were the same thing.

To meditate and to dig a reservoir were the same thing.

Everything was the work of the Buddha.

A farmer once asked,

"I cannot read, nor do I know the sutras. How can I become a Buddha?"

Kukai replied,

"When you till the fields, put your heart into it. That is your practice."

He did not separate religion from daily life.

Daily life itself was the place of practice.

Kukai's calligraphy. It remains today as art.

However, to him, calligraphy was not art.

It was an expression of truth.

Holding the brush. Grinding the ink. Facing the paper.

Every single movement was a meditation.

With every stroke, he poured his heart into it.

His breathing and the movement of the brush became one.

At that moment, it was not he who was writing.

The Buddha manifests through the brush.

This is not mysticism.

When concentration reaches its peak, the ego disappears.

When it disappears, something greater flows in.

Kukai called that the Buddha.

The reason Kukai chose Mount Koya is also symbolic.

Mount Koya is rugged.

It is far from the capital. Life there is harsh.

Why did he choose such a place?

Kukai answered.

"The mountain itself is a mandala."

A mandala.

It is a diagram representing the structure of the universe.

There is a Buddha at the center, with countless Buddhas arranged around it.

Mount Koya had the same structure.

Kongobu-ji Temple is at the center, surrounded by eight peaks.

Nature itself is exactly that.

It reveals the truth of the universe.

For Kukai, there was no distinction between nature and the artificial.

Mountains, temples, sutras, and humans,

all were manifestations of the Buddha.

His end, too, is shrouded in legend.

In 835, Kukai entered nyujo.

It is said that he did not die, but rather entered deep meditation.

Even now, his mausoleum remains in the Okunoin of Mount Koya.

Believers trust in this.

They believe that Kukai is still there, continuing his meditation.

Is this superstition?

No, that is not the point.

What matters is what it symbolizes.

Kukai's teachings do not die.

They change form, transcend eras,

and continue to live on within people.

In that sense, Kukai is still alive today.

Who is Kukai?

He was a monk. He was a genius. He was a revolutionary.

But above all, he was a bridge builder.

A bridge between heaven and earth.

A bridge between the sacred and the profane.

A bridge between theory and practice.

A bridge between the past and the future.

A bridge between the self and the Buddha.

Kukai.

An empty sea.

Seemingly containing nothing, yet encompassing everything.

There is a Zen koan.

What is emptiness?

It is nothingness.

Then, if it is nothing, is it worthless?

No. Because it is empty, it can contain anything.

Kukai emptied himself.

He did not fill himself with knowledge.

He did not adorn himself with status.

He did not harden himself with attachments.

Because he emptied himself, the universe entered him.

There are words he left behind.

Born and born and born and born, dark to the beginning of life; dying and dying and dying and dying, dark to the end of death.

No matter how many times one is reborn, the origin of life remains unknown.

No matter how many times one dies, the end of death remains unknown.

Human beings exist within a mystery.

However, there is no need to fear that mystery.

The mystery itself is beautiful.

Because we do not know, we seek.

Because we cannot see, we try to feel.

Because we cannot reach, we stretch out our hands.

That very activity itself is the Buddhist path.

I return to the sealed room in the mansion.

A room with nothing in it.

However, as I sit still, I notice.

There is silence.

There is breath.

There is a heartbeat.

Light is shining in slightly.

The air is moving.

The room I thought had nothing in it is

filled with everything.

This is what Kukai taught.

Cast away the mind that thinks there is nothing.

Open your eyes.

Listen closely.

Feel it with your body.

Then, you will see.

Everything is Buddha.

This moment, too.

This breath, too.

This body, too.

Do not seek it in the distance.

It is here, right now.

Kukai died over a thousand years ago.

Yet, his voice can still be heard today.

“Awaken. You are already a Buddha.
You simply have not realized it yet.”

In the deep sea, in the silence