It always struck me as strange. I had spent over three decades in deep study and practice of Buddhism—reading sutras, receiving transmissions, sitting with masters across traditions. And yet, I had never once heard of the Dragon’s Garland or its Pearls.
Not in Zen. Not in Tibetan Vajrayana. Not even in the esoteric corners of the teachings I had spent years unraveling.
But little by little, as I worked with the Seven Siddhas, I started catching whispers. When I asked where the Pearls came from, they would say things like, “From the Womb Realm,” or “Beyond, in the Diamond Realm.” At first, these names floated by me, unfamiliar. But something in me began to recognize them.
So I followed the thread. I researched, meditated, asked more questions. And to my surprise, I discovered that these realms were not new at all—they were ancient, central teachings of Shingon Buddhism, a tradition I had somehow never consciously encountered, but one that suddenly felt… deeply familiar.
This blog is the beginning of sharing that journey. Of remembering something I may have once known, but forgot. Of tracing the Pearls back to their true origin—and uncovering a powerful connection that has been silently waiting, across lifetimes.
Beautiful. Here’s Section II: What is Shingon Buddhism?, continuing with the same voice and flow:
What is Shingon Buddhism?
Shingon Buddhism is a hidden river beneath the visible surface of the Buddhist world.
It’s not often talked about in the West. You don’t stumble upon it in casual dharma circles. But it’s one of the most potent and intact transmissions of esoteric Buddhist wisdom, preserved in Japan for over 1,200 years. Its name, Shingon, means “true word”—a translation of the Sanskrit mantra.
Shingon was founded by Kūkai—also known as Kōbō Daishi—a mystic, scholar, and calligrapher who journeyed to China in the early 9th century to receive direct teachings from the lineage of Indian tantric masters. He returned not just with texts, but with a living vision: the path to awakening through ritual, mudra, mantra, and mandala.
Unlike some schools that emphasize renunciation or emptiness, Shingon is a path of direct embodiment. It teaches that the body is the vehicle of awakening, and that the entire cosmos is already the body of the Buddha—radiant, patterned, alive with meaning.
Its cosmology is rich and multi-layered. Practitioners don’t just meditate—they enter sacred space, inhabit celestial maps, and commune with realms that vibrate just behind the veil of this one.
And here’s what struck me: those very realms—the Womb Realm and the Diamond Realm—are exactly the ones the Seven Siddhas mentioned when speaking of the Pearls.
My Connection to Kūkai and Shingon
Some years ago, during a deep inner transmission with the Seven Siddhas, they told me something that stayed with me.
They said that Rama, my Buddhist master, was not just a wise teacher in this life—he was the reincarnation of Kūkai himself. At the time, I didn’t fully grasp the weight of that statement. I barely knew who Kūkai was. I had no intellectual reference point. But something deeper than thought stirred within me.
They went on to say that I, too, had a karmic tie to Kūkai’s legacy—that in some past life, I had walked beside him, learned with him, served the same flame of sacred knowledge.
There was a sense of quiet recognition when I finally looked into Kūkai’s life. His intensity. His poetic mind. His commitment to preserving sacred geometry, sacred sound, and cosmic order—not in abstraction, but in form. Through temples. Through mudra. Through voice.
So when I realized the Womb Realm and Diamond Realm were not just poetic symbols, but literal maps used in Shingon initiation—mandalas that organize the universe into Pearls, into assemblies of Buddhas—all this stuff about the Dragon’s Garland, and how I was innately a master of its pearls started to make much more sense.
It was my own Dharma resurfacing, from lifetimes ago.
The Mandalas of the Womb and Diamond Realms
At the center of Shingon practice are two vast, intricate mandalas—The Womb Realm (Taizōkai) and The Diamond Realm (Kongōkai). They aren’t just visual aids. They are dimensional maps. Portals. Reflections of how consciousness organizes itself across realms.
The Womb Realm (Taizōkai)
This mandala represents the nurturing, compassionate, generative aspect of the universe. It’s called the “Matrix Mandala” because it shows how all things arise from the cosmic womb—the primordial space of great love and potential.
At its heart sits Dainichi Nyorai, the Great Cosmic Buddha, surrounded by a radiant circle of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Each one is a facet of awakened compassion, a gate to higher understanding.
The Diamond Realm (Kongōkai)
In contrast, the Diamond Realm shows the indestructible clarity and wisdom that underlies all phenomena. Here, the focus is not on generation but on perfection—the complete, diamond-like awareness that cuts through illusion and reveals the truth of things.
It, too, is centered around Dainichi Nyorai—but this time, the Buddhas around him shine as pure embodiments of cosmic law, order, and intelligence.
Together, these mandalas form what’s known in Shingon as the Ryōkai Mandala—the Twofold World. The inner and outer. Compassion and wisdom. Form and emptiness. Womb and Diamond.
And it was here, as I studied the names, patterns, and sacred configurations of these realms, that I began to see something astonishing:
These assemblies of Buddhas… are the Pearls. Not metaphorically. Literally.
Each Pearl I had been shown through the Dragon’s Garland had an exact resonance in one of these mandalic assemblies. They weren’t some new, made-up teachings. They were, as the Seven said, “Enlightened Artifacts”, a re-emergence of ancient enlightened teachings, reborn through a different lens, a different language, and recodified for use in these very different times… yet carrying the same inexhaustible light and power.
The Revelation: The Pearls as Buddha Assemblies
This was the moment when it all clicked for me.
As I sat with the mandalas—studying the placements, the deities, the geometry, the dimensional origin of each quadrant—I began to see. Each assembly was a pearl of the Dragon’s Garland, alive — pulsing with enlightened presence.
Each Pearl corresponds to one of the Enlightened Assemblies in the Womb and Diamond Realms.
The Moon Pearl, with its relational wisdom of Unity—echoed the compassion of Senju Konnon in the Womb Realm.
The Diamond Pearl, focused on universal structure and sacred geometry—reflected the precise, piercing insight of the Diamond Realm Assemblies.
The Flame Pearl, with its purifying intensity—aligned with Fudō Myōō, the Immovable One, guardian of the Vajra realm.
This wasn’t new, it was a secret encoded in Shingon’s sacred essence, waiting to be unlocked again through the application of the Dragon’s Garland.
The Pearls are living mandalic stations—vortices of enlightened consciousness, arranged across dimensions. They are the living interface between the realms of enlightenment and our world. And the Siddhas had been pointing to them all along.
What’s Next: A Deeper Dive Into Each Pearl
Now that the connection is clear—that each Pearl is a gateway into a specific Buddha Assembly, and that the Dragon’s Garland is a reemergence of the Womb and Diamond Realms in modern form—it’s time to go deeper.
In the next series of blog posts, I’ll explore each Pearl, one by one:
• Its location within the mandalas
• Its corresponding Buddha or Bodhisattva
• The qualities it embodies
• The role it plays in both inner alchemy and outer world transformation
Some Pearls will be instantly familiar to those who know the mandalas—like the Diamond or Flame Pearls. Others might seem more esoteric, appearing as hidden connections that only arise through inner vision or Siddhic transmission.
Each Pearl carries a unique frequency.
Each is a wisdom gate.
Each is a world of enlightenment.
These aren’t teachings.
They are activations.
Activations of enlightenment for our whole world.