Yukai's View of Bonno-soku-bodai

Abstract

In this article, I examine how Yukai understood the concept of bonno-soku-bodai (klesa or afflictions are the same as bodhi or enlightenment). Yukai (1345-1416) was a Muromachi era scholar-monk of the Shingon School. In his first work, the Hokyosho, he criticized the heretical Tachikawa Sect emphasizing their misunderstanding of bonno-soku-bodai. In his treatise, the bonno-soku-bodai-gi, he used Kukai's classification from The Ten Stages of the Development of Mind (Jujushinron) to analyze and rank bonno-soku-bodai in ten stages. He insisted that each stage be considered carefully and that bonno-soku-bodai be accurately understood according to the Shingon School's teachings. Yukai's fundamental interpretation of bonno-soku-bodai was based on Kukai's philosophy and then further developed.