Abstract
Kobo Daishi Kukai treats the passages in Bodhiruci's translation of the Lankavatara-sutra on the “preaching of the *Dharmabuddha” (dharmata-desana; Bodhiruci trans.: fafo shuofa, _??__??__??__??_) as textu al evidence of his own interpretation of the preaching of the Dharmakaya (_??__??__??__??_) in his Ben kenmitsu nikyo ron (_??__??__??__??__??__??_). This concept of the “preaching of the *Dharmabuddha” in the Lankavatara-sutra was interpreted by the Faxiang and Hosso schools as meaning a “bodhisattva raising non-discriminating wisdom.” Kukai criticizes that interpretation, and offers his own. There are problems in Kukai's interpretation of the theory of the bodies of the Buddha, however, and concerning the point of a direct manifestation of awakened wisdom, his interpretation seems to be similar to Saicho's.
Kukai also claims that in the “preaching of the *Dharmabuddha” in the Lankauatara-sutra, preaching by insentient beings is also discussed. However, this point is not discussed even in the Huayan and Kegon schools. Gomyo (_??__??_), in his Daijo hosso kenjin sho (_??__??__??__??__??__??__??_), notes that “scholars of the day” teach the awakening of all beings and the awakening of inanimate beings based on Huayan and Kegon scholarship, and Kukai perhaps was one of them. In that sense, Kukai's Esoteric Buddhism may have been understood by the Hosso school of the time as being within the category of the single-vehicle teaching (_??__??__??_), which Kukai treated as the “teachings of the Dharmakaya body of other-enjoyment” (_??__??__??__??__??__??__??_).
