Kuden

The passing on of the inner meanings of traditional Mikkyo symbols and practices is known as 'Kuden' but this term also means much more. Many teachings are not complete without their Kuden, for this is what makes the teaching 'real' to the student. Kuden also describes the manner in which a teaching is delivered to to a student along with all the different experiences and events which lead up to and arise after it. Sometimes the verbal Kuden of ancient teachers were written down, but these are of historical or doctrinal interest only as a true Kuden is a living interactive event which, because it can only be generated and transmitted from within the special relationship and experiential history developed between a teacher and his student, loses all significance to an outsider. The actual information transmitted in Kuden may or may not be very important but the experiential environment which a teacher creates in order to deliver it is, for it is this which enables a student to fully understand the principles and significance of what is shown and transforms what was previously only seen as information into an informed, living and practicable wisdom.

The ways in which Kuden can be given are many and all the different forms of Shingon have their own traditional, ritualised, forms as well as others. In general the term 'Kuden' refers to the explanation of a sacred text, as when your teacher explains the essence of its esoteric meanings and shows how it should be understood. Kuden is therefore important in literary or doctrinal study, but of course we should remember that it also refers to a type of experience of the literature, a penetrative living insight into the meaning of what is being studied.