Not read. Entered.
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 practiced this tradition for three years in the temples of Kyoto. He studied Japanese and Chinese calligraphy with a Zen monk. And in his doctoral dissertation at Heidelberg University — Die Siddham in der japanischen Kunst — Rituale der Heilung (The 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 that were passed on in the West 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.
