From Kukai To Kakuban

Download or read book A Study Into the Thought of Kōgyō Daishi Kakuban written by H. van der Veere and published by Japonica Neerlandica. This book was released on 2000 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ktgyt Daishi Kakuban (1095-1144) is the second most important figure in the history of the Shingon sect of Esoteric Buddhism, but there are few studies on him in Western languages. This work contains a biography and a discussion of Kakuban's works, focusing on his doctrines. Although it is widely believed that Kakuban incorporated Amidist ideas and practices into Shingon, this study shows that Kakuban's aim was to explain the practices of other schools from an orthodox Shingon perspective. The translations of Kakuban's major works, the "Amida hishaku" and the "Gorin kuji myt himitsushaku," clearly support this idea.