Siddham —
the sacred script of Shingon.

Signs that are not words

If you see a Siddham character for the first time, you might think it is just an exotic letter, with elegant curving lines. Perhaps you have seen something like it on a temple bell, on an old hanging scroll or on a grave in Japan.

In Japanese esoteric Buddhism (jap.: 密教 mikkyō), however, a Siddham character is used as a seed syllable. Each one stands for one or more Buddhas, bodhisattvas or protective beings, whose power becomes present in ritual.

In Japanese there are two terms for the script. 悉曇 shittan is used when it is about writing Sanskrit texts, and 梵字 bonji when the characters are used in meditations and rituals, especially rituals of healing, as they still are today.

Where the Siddham come from

Originally the Siddham come from the old texts of the Vedas of Brahmanism. What I find interesting is the order. Each Siddham stood for one or more beings of light whose power appears in ritual, and only over the centuries, with the development of the Indian writing systems, did people start to use them as a script for Sanskrit as well.

In India many types of script developed over the centuries, so the Siddham script isn't necessarily recognized there as a script for Sanskrit today. The Siddham that came to Japan, at first in individual pieces and from the beginning of the 9th century in large quantities with the sutras and documents of esoteric Buddhism, were not changed any further. The only difference was that people began writing them with the calligraphy brush instead of the Indian wooden brush.

Kūkai 空海, the founder of Japanese Shingon, returned from China in 806. Together with the two great mandalas, the ritual texts and the initiation lineages, he brought the Siddham practice, and he laid the foundation for the study of the Siddham in Japan. You can read more about this in the article on the history of the Siddham.

What a seed syllable is

Each syllable, such as a, hrīḥ, vaṃ or bhai, stands for one or more Buddhas, bodhisattvas or protective beings. You can think of it like a seed. The whole spiritual power of a being is contained in it, just as a whole plant is already contained in its seed.

The best-known meditation with a single Siddham is ajikan 阿字観, the contemplation of the syllable A, the seed syllable of the Great Sun Buddha Dainichi Nyorai. In Shingon the syllable a is seen as the primordial sound and the beginning of all sounds, mantras and language. You'll find more about the individual syllables in the article on Siddham syllables.

Six seed syllables and the beings they stand for

Here is an overview of six important Siddham of Shingon Buddhism, each connected with a particular Buddha, bodhisattva or element.

In Japanese temples you come across these signs on graves, on ritual objects and on stone stelae by the side of the path.

The three mysteries, body, speech and mind

In the Shingon tradition the Siddham are used within the framework of the three mysteries (jap.: 三密 sanmitsu): body, speech and mind. The body expresses itself through hand gestures (Skr.: mudrā) or through writing, speech through mantra, and the mind through visualization and contemplation.

In my book Reiki in der therapeutischen Praxis I describe that in Japan there are different ways of meditating, depending on the history of the religion. The less tantric a meditation is, the less is visualized or shown in writing or images. In tantric Buddhism, on the other hand, it is completely normal to visualize the main object of meditation. Lay people usually put their hands together in gasshō in front of the heart, while monks also use other mudras, and mantras are recited.

Siddham and the Reiki symbols

The Reiki symbols come from several traditions: from esoteric Buddhism 密教 mikkyō, from Japanese Shintō 神道, from Shugendō 修験道, the way of the mountain ascetics, and from shamanic Daoism. The symbol often called the mental symbol, Sei He Ki, is a stylized abstraction of the Siddham hrīḥ. As in kanji, there is a fixed order for the individual strokes within the symbol.

The seed syllable hrīḥ stands for Amida Nyorai and for the thousand-armed Senju Kannon. So when you work with Sei He Ki, you are working with a sign whose roots go back to this Siddham.

Why the form matters

I came to calligraphy as a student in Heidelberg, where I practiced every day with the Zen monk Hoon Kenmyo. The correct stroke order, the direction of each movement and the rhythm of the brush are not just aesthetics. They are the bodily side of the three mysteries.

Kūkai already placed great value on writing the Siddham correctly. That is also one reason why the Siddham were preserved so carefully in Japan, because they were kept as ritual tools and not as an everyday script.

My research on the Siddham

The Siddham are at the center of my academic work. I spent about three years doing research at Kyoto University, thanks to two scholarships, and much of that time I was in temples. There I found the original form of one of the Reiki symbols in the Siddham script. That became the basis of my master's thesis and of my doctoral dissertation at Heidelberg University, Die Siddham in der japanischen Kunst – Rituale der Heilung (Siddham in Japanese Art – Rituals of Healing).

The Siddham are not only historical artifacts. In Japan they are still used in rituals today, for example on talismans, in initiations and in meditation.

What the Siddham can mean for you

You don't need to be a Japanologist to get a feeling for the Siddham. In Shingon Reiki they are part of the practice, and further along the path there are initiations into the Siddham characters of great Buddhas and bodhisattvas. Which Siddham have you already come across, perhaps without knowing it?