I will temporarily stop accepting new students for practice. I will resume accepting new students when all current students have completed their Abhiseka.

There are three reasons.

I have been receiving a lot of follow-up and answers to questions about the practice and teachings on social media like LINE, WhatsApp and so on. Although I have translated and prepared commentaries on the practice, I’m surprised by the number of profound questions that go beyond my expectations. The first reason is to spend more time with those people one-on-one.

Currently, I have finished translating the texts of Shidokegyo, Abhiseka, and some of the practices of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, but this is not enough. The second reason is that I want to concentrate on translation.

The third reason is to prepare for the construction of the overseas temple. This is also a challenge for me. Esoteric Buddhism is said to be a universal teaching, but I want to see for myself if it is really a teaching that can be applied anywhere in the world. I want to confirm it by myself, not by what I have heard from someone else.

For example, mathematics does transcend time and space. one plus one is two whether at the South Pole or the North Pole. 100 years ago or 1,000 years ago, it is still two. It makes no difference whether it was 1,000 years ago or 1,000 years later, it is still two. If you ask whether esoteric Buddhism is the same as it was a thousand years ago, I think the situation is a little different. Especially in the last few decades, esoteric Buddhism in Japan seems to have shifted to the teaching that the Buddha saves us. In other words, if we ask the Buddha, he will save us. This is called Jodoshu-ization (浄土宗化). Since it is very easy to spread the teaching that if we worship the Buddha, he will save us, all the sects in Japan began to preach the same thing. Of course, it is necessary to discuss the difference between Jodo-kyo (the teaching of the pure land) in Buddhism and Jodo-shu in Japan, but that is a discussion for another time. In fact, they are totally different.

The main focus of esoteric Buddhism is to know our own mind, and there are many skilful means to attain this. The change in esotericism over the past few decades seems to be that the skilful means have started to be regarded as the goal. It is easy to reassure people that the Buddha will save us, but I wonder if I am the only one who thinks that this goes nowhere. Will our problems be solved by this?

Where did we come from and where are we going to leave this world? “Born, born, and born, we do not know its beginning. Dead, dead, and dead, we do not know its end (生れ生れ生れて生の始めに暗く　死に死に死んで死の終りに冥し)”, master Kukai said. I think that is what Buddhism explores. That is why I became a monk. The introduction of a monk’s practice is the observation of “Dharma,” or in other words, the observation of phenomena. Then it is both an initiation and, in fact, the ultimate.

If you are studying Buddhism, you may have heard the term Dharmadhatu. It has been interpreted in many ways, but our school teaches the following.

Dharmadhatu means your mind. The state in which you do not know your own mind is called the sentient realm (sattvadhātu), and the state in which you know your own mind is called the buddha realm (buddhadhātu). In other words, they have different names, but they are the same in essence.

The dhatu in Vajradhātu does not mean “realm” but rather “nature,” and Vajra symbolizes that which is unbreakable. In other words, the unbreakable nature is the nature of awakeness. Therefore, the practice of Vajradhatu is the practice of realizing the awakeness of our own mind. Since the Mahavairocana Sutra teaches us to know that this world is a manifestation of our mind, its mandala does not have the character for “界 (dhātu, realm)”. Master Kukai did not describe it as the Womb REALM Mandala, but always as the Womb Mandala. It is only that later generations added the character for “界” to match the “金剛界”. Dharmadhatu, in other words, is the nature of Dharma. It is our mind. Everything in the world is a manifestation of our mind. Therefore, to know that mind is called to dwell in buddhadhatu. In other words, we say that we dwell in the Pure Land of the Buddha. So the Pure Land is not somewhere else, but in our mind, and this world itself.

As I mentioned often, esoteric Buddhism is the teaching of knowing our own mind, never the teaching of thinking that there is a Buddha outside of ourselves, that we are dependent on him and that he will one day save us. It is only one of the skillful means to teach in such a way. What is really important is our mind itself. How can I convey this teaching? I would like to build an overseas temple to take on this challenge.

Of course, I will continue to update this blog, so please don’t worry.