The Way of Kuji, Opening Consciousness: History, Myth, and Practice of Kuji-In, the Japanese Hand Seals

Nine syllables. Nine hand seals. Seventeen hundred years.

Before you were, the syllables were. Kuji-in, "the nine-syllable seals," is a Japanese meditation done with the hands: fingers woven into a seal, a syllable spoken into the dark, the mind gathered on one intention. In the moment hand, voice, and mind fold into one, something rare occurs - awareness turns and looks at itself. Nine such seals form a single stair, rising from standing firm in the world to, at last, vanishing from it. Th...