Paper short abstract:

The science of sound became the core of Kūkai's philosophy of cosmos. Here I will explore how he expanded on an Indian text collected by Amoghavajra in the mid-eighth century, which assigns meaning to each syllable in the Sanskrit alphabet, comprising an expression of every aspect of the universe.

Paper long abstract:

The esoteric Buddhist methods for attaining awakening take as their basis the Indian division of the human being into body, speech and mind. This psycho-somatic analysis became embellished with pertinent activities, which were then ritualized and systematized as a body of esoteric practices: mudrā for physical movements, mantra for the sounds that we utter, and samādhi to concentrate mental functions towards a cognitive rupture from the desiderative habits that entangle us in the interminable round of death and rebirth. Although Kūkai (774-835) honed a system that incorporated esoteric parallels to each aspect of psycho-somatic activity (his "three mysteries" (sanmitsu 三密) of body speech and mind), his focus moved very much towards sound as the most powerful and effective avenue to pursue in the quest for awakening.

In articulating his interpretation of the "science of sound" (śabdavidyā, shōmyō 聲明), Kūkai used a text that one of his predecessors in China, Amoghavajra (704-71), had collected in Sri Lanka on a voyage there in the early 740s, and translated as the Shi zimu pin (T. 880). Kūkai expanded on what is essentially a simple list of the syllables of the Sanskrit alphabet and set out his explanations in his Bonji shittan jimo [narabi ni] shakugi (T. 2701). Building on the Indian idea that the evolution of the sounds made in human speech (from the initial neutral "a" through to the nasal final "ṃ") reflects the arising, proliferation and ending of all phenomenal existence, Kūkai presents the science of sound as a direct expression of each facet of the Buddha's teaching and hence as a direct way of cognizing this universe, this cosmos, in its entirety. His Sanskrit corpus from 806 contains the key to his innovation inasmuch as those texts are not translations into Chinese, and not primarily discursive: as direct expressions of sound (śabda) and its science (vidyā, i.e. shōmyō), they offer a more immediate, affective and cognitive means to realization than conventional Buddhist dogma and practice. I will explore the implications of his innovative reading of Bonji shittan jimo in the context of early Heian cosmology.