In the broader sense of mantra, the whole cosmos is a language or text that must be “read” if one is to receive its meaning (the Dharma). Kūkai expresses this in the term shōjijissō. Shōji means “sound-and-sign.” Shō (or: sō), meaning “sound,” is the breath of Dainichi, the vibrations of the five material elements in their mutually non-obstructively colliding interplay that resonate sounds through the air. In the narrower sense, this would be the mantras voiced in ritual. Ji, meaning “sign,” “wo