A CRITICAL TANTRISMwith karw;ii, the universal compassion of Vairocana reflected upon him, so as to
realize the final aim (paryavasiina ~Ji;) of saving all living beings through prac-
tical means (upiiya "Jj{;!). This aim is to be realized only when he attains
enlightenment (abhisambodhi m~W:).
The religious ideal of the Vairocaniibhisambodhi-siitra is placed in the far
future beyond the three great uncountable aeons c=::;kjlji.J{j"~:;IJ); but, as long as
one continues walking on the way toward the ideal, one is walking within the
ideal itself.
iv. The theory of one hundred and sixty monadic minds
As can be expected from the remark in the previous section (seep. 183) that "the
enlightenment and the state of the omniscient are to be sought after from one's
own mind" the structure of the world is determined by that of the individual
existence. Tha latter should also serve as a basis of morals helping people to
decide their practical behaviour in the world. The structure of the individual
existence, which we will refer to as 'the theory of one hundred and sixty minds'
may well be regarded as the most important problem of the whole theoretical
system of the Vairocaniibhisambodhi-siitra.
The Chinese title of the first chapter of the Vairocaniibhisambodhi-siitra, viz.
{:E,c,,~ literally means "the chapter of the various stages of human mind". Kobo-
daishi Kukai (5b.Jil;;:;k!W~i'fi.f), the founder of the Shingon-sect of Japanese Eso-
teric Buddhism, taking the word tE'L' literally as referring to the process of
promoting the grades of mind (•L'~~j:f-17)~~) (seep. 15), established his fun-
damental system of 'the ten progressive stages of mind' ("l-13:•1)17)~'-fU ).
According to this system, the process of the promotion of mind mentioned in
the siitra is divided into ten stages from the first, viz. 'the mind of people (in the
natural state) as foolish as goats or sheeps' ( ~~l.:J!:'f-•G) to the tenth, viz. 'the
mind (constituting the world of Vairocana) as a secret ornament (of it)'
(~Will:iH.' ). He applied each of the extant sects of Buddhism and even Confu-
cianism and Taoism to these ten stages, and thus established successfully a com-
plete system which presents to us the magnificent, harmonious image of the
world of Vairocana. On the uppermost layer of this world is situated the Esoteric
Buddhism of the Shingon-sect ( 1Lit-W), and at the same time, all the layers
are included within the field of Esoteric Buddhism (tLit +W).
As Kukai's systematization is so complete and his influence so decisive, it
has never been doubted that the word -(:l::,c,, means the progressive stages of the
human mind or that it refers to the process of promoting the grades of mind
(,t,,~$$*17)~~). This fact, however, does not necessarily mean that the only
possible interpretation of the word {:E,c,, is as the vertical, progressing stages of
human mind. In fact, we do not even find this word in the text of the first chapter
of the Vairocaniibhisambodhi-siitra itself, which is the context in which one
should interpret the meaning of the title of the chapter ff:,c_.,&t.
Now, if we enlarge our scope to the Tibetan version of the text and the