Siddham (Bonji in Japanese) is an ancient Indic Sanskrit script. It traveled with Buddhism into China, then into Japan — and there became the sacred writing of esoteric practice. Not an alphabet in the usual sense. Each character is a doorway. To a buddha. To a bodhisattva. To a force that has been kept alive for more than a thousand years.
Siddham (Sanskrit for "accomplished," "perfected") is a sacred Indic script. In the 9th century the Japanese master Kukai brought it from China to Japan, where it became the heart of esoteric ritual practice. In Japanese it is called Bonji — "seed syllables." Each character carries the seed of a buddha.
This is not a metaphor. In the Shingon tradition every Siddham character is treated as the living form of a buddha or bodhisattva. When a monk writes a Siddham, he is not meditating on an abstract sign. He is meeting the being the character embodies. The calligraphy itself becomes the ritual.
Dr. Mark Hosak did three years of research at Kyoto University, much of it in the temples. He practiced Japanese and Chinese calligraphy with the Zen monk Hoon Kenmyo in Heidelberg. And in his doctoral dissertation at Heidelberg University — Die Siddham in der japanischen Kunst – Rituale der Heilung (Siddham in Japanese Art – Rituals of Healing) — he traced the connection between Siddham, Reiki and Kuji Kiri through Japanese and Chinese source texts. The roots are not only Buddhist. They reach into Shugendo, Shinto and shamanic Daoist practice as well.
In Shingon Reiki this connection becomes alive again. The Reiki symbols, often passed on as abstract glyphs, find their way back to where they came from. Every symbol has a Siddham at its root. And every Siddham opens a doorway.
Each article is a doorway of its own. Choose the one you want to step through first.
"Bringing in one of the seven manifestations of the Medicine Buddha (Shichi Butsu Yakushi) for the recitation of the mantra lifted the event onto a whole new level. Working with the Siddham syllable bhai was a deeply special experience for me."
"After repeating the beautiful event with the medium-length Medicine Buddha mantra, I'm now bringing the practice into my daily life — reciting the medium-length Medicine Buddha mantra 108 times over a set period. That same beautiful energy is here again, and it builds from day to day."
Click on a character. See the calligraphy up close. Hear the syllable. Discover the buddha-nature it carries.
All calligraphies shown here were hand-painted by Dr. Mark Hosak.
All calligraphies were hand-painted by Dr. Mark Hosak. The six syllables shown here are a small selection from the much larger Siddham alphabet of the Shingon tradition.
In Mark's books you'll find the full story of the Siddham — their journey from India through China into Japan, and from there into Reiki practice. And on the Shingon Reiki path you experience what no text can convey: the initiation into the living force of the characters themselves.
Mark Hosak earned his PhD at Heidelberg University on Siddham in Japanese art, did three years of research at Kyoto University, and completed the full Shikoku pilgrimage on foot — all 88 temples. He is the author of the bestselling Das Große Buch der Reiki-Symbole (The Great Book of the Reiki Symbols) and has been transmitting Shingon Reiki for more than 25 years.