 In this scheme, Kūkai is adamant in using the above-discussed concepts to distinguish esoteric from exoteric Buddhism. And yet, given a bird’s eye view, the truth, the Dharma, in Kūkai’s scheme is encompassing enough to include exoteric Buddhism and all other teachings as its unfoldings or manifestations, in relative degrees in accordance with the appropriate circumstance or context and the level of attainment. In order to explain the different levels or states (jū, literally “dwellings” or “lodgings”) of mind (jūjūshin) that correspond to the various doctrines of other schools and religious sects, Kūkai developed an hierarchical scheme. Shingon Buddhism is placed at the top of the hierarchy as providing the most comprehensive view to the Dharma. Kūkai provides this systematization in what many consider to be his magnum opus, Himitsu mandara jūjūshinron (Treatise on the Secret Mandala of the Ten States of Mind) in ten volumes, composed around 830, five years before his death. It was written in response to an order of Emperor Junna that each Buddhist sect present an introductory treatise of its teachings. When the text proved to be too difficult for the emperor, Kūkai produced an abridged and more accessible treatise on the same theme, Hizō hōyaku (Precious Key to the Secret Treasury) in three volumes. At the core of both works is this classification of the various doctrines whereby each is critically evaluated under the light of the culminating and most comprehensive view of Shingon. A similar sort of system of classifying doctrines, called p’an-chiao (panjiao) or chiao-pan (jiaoban) (Jpn: kyōsō hanjaku or kyō-han) already existed in China, e.g. within the T’ien-t’ai and the Hua-yen traditions. Such a system of classification proved helpful in their attempts to distinguish themselves from, and at the same time, incorporate previous doctrines as expedient means that are relatively true. The Lotus Sūtra had also already expressed the similar idea that various doctrines were meant as expedient means that lead eventually to a fuller truth (expressed within its own text). It is Kūkai’s own invention however to associate the different doctrines evaluated and classified with specific states of mind or stages of spiritual attainment. That is, each state in the development of the mind is correlated with a specific set of doctrines appropriate to it, as its perspective and lived experience of reality, true to a certain extent within its limited purview but not yet the whole truth until the final state is reached. In other words, to move up this hierarchy of levels of mind, is to experience the unfolding of the Dharma as one becomes further awakened until one fully realizes one’s enlightenment in non-duality with the Dharma itself, i.e. the attainment of Buddha-hood. From a mandalic perspective, this unfolding of the Dharma is also indicative of one’s evolution from the periphery towards the center of the mandalic universe. However as each level of mind is a “dwelling” or “lodging” place for the mind, the hierarchy from the lowest to the highest “stages” is sequential only in the exoteric dimension. That is to say that the sequential ordering is not necessary in itself when viewed from the esoteric, i.e., holistic, standpoint. In other words, it is possible to move directly from any state or “dwelling” to the most comprehensive realm.