“It is a pity that Kukai, also known as Kobo Daishi (774–835), and the Shingon school of Esoteric Buddhism he established in Japan have been ignored so far by mostWesterners. The Shingon teachings and practices offer a rich heritage of rituals and symbols steeped in body language and cosmic consciousness. Peter Baekelmans, who went through a full program of Shingon study and initiation under Japanese masters, provides a penetrating introduction to this tradition of meditative ritual or ritual meditation. In a spirit of interreligious dialogue, he suggests parallels between the Shingon path and the Christian path.” Jacques Scheuer SJ Peter Baekelmans (born 1960) is a Belgian Roman Catholic missionary who belongs to the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (CICM) and worked in Japan from 1990 to 2010. He is presently director of SEDOS (Service of Documentation & Study on Global Mission) in Rome and teaches Buddhism as guest professor at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies of the KU Leuven, Belgium. He holds an MA in Comparative Religion (IUL, Switzerland), BA in Theology (KU Leuven, Belgium), and an MA in Buddhist Studies (Koyasan University, Japan). He received a Doctorate in Theology of Religions from Nanzan University (Nagoya, Japan) in 2005. His mission as priest-theologian is to enhance the dialogue of the Catholic Church with other religions. He teaches meditation and yoga and has been initiated into the ritual practices of Shingon Esoteric Buddhism by Reverend Shōdō Habukawa at Muryōkōin, Kōyasan, Japan.weiterlesen