"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 most Westnerners. 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 meditative ritual or ritual meditation. In a spirit of interreligous dialogue, he suggests parallels between the Shingon path and the Christian path."