PREFACE

74

Kukai

B. Secret Buddhism in the East

Kukai was considered a dazzling genius with a versatile
talent among great men. He was an erudite scholar, a
philosopher, an ascetic monk, and a skilled calligraphy artist. He
was known to possess many supernatural powers. He had
successfully fought off Demons when he was only a Sadi
(beginning level of yoga practice).
At Murato, he had chased away
fierce Dragons that came out from
the water by reciting a mantra. I t
was said that he took the star's light
in his mouth and spat out on them.
On another occasion, while he was
in deep meditation in a hut he
himself had built, evil spirits
appeared and were rendered
powerless when he drew a magic
circle and sat in the middle of it.
He was known to have created
many effective magical circles and
yantras from his mind's power.
Kukai's main purpose was to research the Mahavairocana Sutra
and Vajrasekhara Sutras, the two important compositions of
Shingon sect. In China, he was the disciple of Hui Guo, the 8th
patriarch of the Shingon sect and the 1st patriarch of the Secret
Sect in Japan. When he came back to Japan, he chose Koyasan to
be the capital for the Shingon sect in Japan. He liked having a
Buddhist monastery in the mountains, but he still kept a close
relationship with the outside world. The Toji monastery in the
south of Kyoto was the place that recorded his footsteps
whenever he was in the capital. Koyasan, located in a remote area