Kukai on the Diversity of Living Beings (Sections from the Treatise on Ten Stages of Mind of Secret Mandala)
M. Os’kin
Yearbook Japan December 15, 2025 DOI: 10.55105/2687-1440-2025-54-290-322 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that beings at the lowest spiritual stage lack right seeing and wholesome inclinations, leading to heightened suffering due to unwholesome actions. |
Abstract
In the second scroll of his Treatise on Ten Stages of Mind of Secret Mandala , a Buddhist philosophy compendium, Kukai discusses the lowest level of spiritual progress highlighting the absence of right seeing and inclination towards the wholesome among the beings of this stage as the dominating trait of their mind. The scroll is largely concerned with the cosmological issues including the various classes of living beings whose way of life is based on unwholesome courses of action, as a result of which the sense of suffering is particularly heightened.