learned in regard to many doctrines of
Buddhism and other religious, and was especially well acquainted with
the deepest meaning of the doctrine of this sect, which he taught in
India for a considerable time. The doctrine is recorded in several
sutras, yet the essential point is nothing but the Mandala, or circle of
the two parts, or, in Japanese, Riy[=o]bu.

The great preacher, Vagrabodhi, in 720 A.D., came with his disciples to
the capital of China, and translated the sacred books, seventy-seven in
number. This doctrine is the well-known Yoga-chara, which has been well
set forth by Doctor Edkins in his scholarly volume on Chinese Buddhism.
As "yoga" becomes in plain English "yoke," and as "mantra" is from the
same root as "man" and "mind," we have no difficulty in recognizing the
original meaning of these terms; the one in its nobler significance
referring to union with Buddha or Gnosis, and the other to the thought
taking lofty expression or being debased to hocus-pocus in charm or
amulet. Like the history of so many Sanskrit words as now uttered in
every-day English speech, the story of the word mantra forms a picture
of mental processes and apparently of the degradation of thought, or, as
some will doubtless say, of the decay of religion. The term mantra meant
first, a thought; then thought expressed; then a Vedic hymn or text;
next a spell or charm. Such have been the later associations, in India,
China and Japan with the term mantra.

The burden of the philosophy of the Shin-gon, looked at from one point
of view, is mysticism, and from another, pantheism. One of the forms of
Buddha is the principle of everything. There are ten stages of thought,
and there are two parts, "lengthwise" and "crosswise" or exoteric and
esoteric. Other doctrines of Buddhism represent the first, or exoteric
stage; and those of the Shin-gon or true word, the second, or esoteric.
The primordial principle is identical with that of Maha-Vairokana, one
of the forms[23] of Buddha. The body, the word and the thought are the
three mysteries, which being found in all beings, animate and inanimate,
are to be fully understood only by Buddhas, and not by ordinary men.

To show the actual method of intellectual procedure in order to reach
Buddha-hood, many categories, tables and diagrams are necessary; but the
crowning tenet, most far reaching in its practical influence, is the
teaching that it is possible to reach the state of Buddha-hood in this