Sukuna's hand seal matches exactly with Enmaten/Yama, in fact most DE seals are identical to the mudras people have pointed out. The mudra associated with Megumi's hand seal is incorrect in this blog, the correct mudra can be seen here.
Gojo is often associated with Taishakuten/Indra because of his hand seal. However, the mudra associated with Taishakuten differs slightly to Gojo's hand seal which might be the reason why many have overlooked it.
His hand seal might get mistaken because of the change in perspective.
The fact that a slight change in finger position changes the mudra completely and its associated deity (like Megumi) made me look deeper. Especially because of the misinformation regarding Indra and Yama's apparent battle - which never actually happened.
Gojo's domain expansion hand seal is actually the mudra of Marici. More like, till now it was the incomplete seal.
More accurately, it is the Body seal of Marici, which is one of the two most important seals of Marici - the other being the Invisibility seal.
A closer look at Gojo's hand seal where the middle finger hooks to the index finger.
Marici (摩利支天: Marishiten) is a Buddhist goddess who is the personification of light, symbolizing the blinding rays of light that precede the rising sun (and moon in some scriptures). She's referred to as the goddess of Dawn. The dawn and the light associated with the goddess symbolize the radiance of spiritual illumination and enlightenment.
Marici being synonymous with Doumu is often addressed as the queen of Heaven (天后) which is quite contrasting to Enmaten, who's worshiped as the king of Hell.
She's also referred to as a bodhisattva vowing to bring all sentient beings to awakening. She represents awakening, triumph over evil, and victory in the face of extreme hardship.
Marici (lit., mirage) also has the power of illusion. Interestingly, one of Marici's greatest supernatural powers is invisibility. Throughout antiquity, warriors worshiped Marici (as a warrior goddess especially in Japanese Buddhism) at dawn to invoke her courage and her powers of invisibility. She's said to protect from the fury of war which often leads to her association with Durga - the martial incarnation of Parvati from Hindu mythology. According to the Marici Sutra, Marici always rides in front of the sun at tremendous speed, making her undetectable and can never be captured or bound.
The mudras don't directly correspond to the respective sorcerer/curses' powers and are rather meant as a symbolism. Gojo's incantations, the theme of enlightenment surrounding his name, his six eyes - they all allude to his connection to Marici - and Buddha in the bigger picture.
The motif of light in Gojo's incantations and subsequent connection to Marici
Blue:
Credits to Lightning 1 & 2 and tempenensis 1 & 2.
All these could be a subtle nod to Marici.
Gojo's symbolism as Buddha
Onto the more interesting aspect. Satoru (悟) means to understand/become enlightened. Gojo (五条) can be interpreted in various ways because aside from being an actual clan, five (五) has different connotations in Buddhism.
Next, Marici is an emanation of Vairocana (大日如来: Dainichi Nyorai) - the supreme Buddha. Vairocana is the central deity of the five self born (Dhyani) Buddhas/Five Wisdom Buddhas in Esoteric Buddhism.
Dainichi (大日) translates as “Great Sun,” as the being whose light illuminates and enlightens all beings in a way akin to the sun’s life-giving light. The term Nyorai (lit. "thus-come one") is an epithet for the enlightened Buddhas that occupy the highest rank in the Japanese Buddhist pantheon.
Now all these could sound like a big stretch, but there's more.
Vairocana is often portrayed with a mudra that symbolizes the unity of the five worldly elements with the six element, spiritual consciousness. He's said to possess the six elements.
Could this possibly be a new trick that Gojo is yet to unlock?
Are these merely a coincidence or intentional?
Side note: here's the colors associated with the rest of the Dhyani Buddhas
Let's go back to the hand seal. Gojo is the only one who uses one hand to manifest his domain. Even Sukuna uses both hands to open his domain. Now, it's said the mastery over jujutsu can be judged by the sorcerer's ability to minimize hand signs and incantations to fully activate their technique. Gojo, being the Honored One, the pinnacle of jujutsu society, meant he mastered the art of subtraction. His one hand domain seal is proof of that. Or is it?
The fight between them has proved that despite Gojo having a superior CT & better CE efficiency, Sukuna has a higher mastery over jujutsu & more experience. Sukuna's open domain is a testimony to that. Manifesting his innate domain in the real world - coexisting with the real world. Unlike other DEs which are enclosed in a barrier isolated from the world. No wonder the narrator calls Sukuna's DE divine akin to an artist painting a masterpiece not a canvas but on thin air. Gojo, in fact none of the modern sorcerers were capable of pulling this off till now.
The reason for that is quite simple. Gojo latched onto Geto's parting words which kickstarted his identity crisis that he never managed to come to terms with while he was alive. He tried to find a meaning to his life and got hung up on his identity as the strongest. His strength defined him which isolated him from everyone and he lamented how nobody could understand him because of the disparity in their strengths. That's why Gojo went into this fight with Sukuna, who held a similar position, to understand the loneliness that comes from being at the top. He wanted to validate his very existence by being the strongest, once and for all.
Kinda ironic that both Gojo and Geto's stance on the weak led to their doomed mentality and ultimately to their death.
As much as his own mindset contributed to his isolation, the people around Gojo pushed him to his loneliness too. He was the strongest in his era and the jujutsu society placed an immense burden on his shoulders. He was put on a pedestal to the point that he felt dehumanized. His CT added a layer of irony. He clung to his best friend whom he considered his equal because Geto's perception of Gojo as a human was essential to Gojo's sense of self, it affirmed his humanity. It's also why he deeply values the youth of kids.
After Geto's defection, Gojo wanted to foster the new generation. His heart was in the right place. He wanted to change the system that failed him and his best friend in his youth. He actively tried to create an environment where his students wouldn't end up like Geto. However, he still identified people by their strength even though he cared for them. He seeked out strong allies to guide them, but he also did that to share his burden of loneliness as the strongest. His selflessness was rooted in his selfish desires. But that doesn't necessarily make Gojo a bad person nor does it discredit his humanity. Instead it shows how nuanced his personality is.
In chapter 230, Sukuna calls Gojo a 凡夫 (bonpu): a Buddhist term meaning someone who is not enlightened; the opposite of Honored One, which is gained via enlightenment. An ordinary person, a nobody. Credit.
And perhaps that is the truth - Gojo wasn't truly enlightened.
Sukuna is well aware and secure of identity, he isn't bound by the need to justify his existence. He has an overwhelming sense of self that Gojo seemingly lacked. It's also evident that he doesn't proclaim his strength to define himself. Sukuna doesn't need to prove anything nor does he seek to be understood. He's leagues above everyone else, utterly dominated by his desires and lives by his pleasure. He's free to do whatever he pleases. He ascended by discarding all earthly attachments.
Gojo momentarily shared a similar transcendence, detached from his emotions & relationships after his awakening. He had the same demeanor as Sukuna when fighting Toji. However, since he's so fundamentally different from Sukuna, later down the line, he couldn't abandon everything to ascend to a higher state, he chose not to. That temporary euphoric moment made him understand the core of cursed energy and that itself created the anomaly called Satoru Gojo.
And that explains why his dialogue was meant to show arrogance because at that moment he completely mirrored Sukuna.
Gojo's only weakness is his humanity which was exploited to handicap him. In Shibuya he didn't go all out to save as many people as possible, his emotional attachment to Geto was exploited by Kenjaku, and currently his student's body (whom he raised for the past 10 years) was used by Sukuna as a meat shield. Sukuna had long past discarded such attachments and lived for his selfishness, disregarding everything and that led him to truly master jujutsu - it shaped the calamity called Sukuna.
And this exact notion of Sukuna will be disproved by Gojo, who instead of abandoning everything, will ascend by embracing his attachments. His deep rooted problem in basing one's identity solely on their strength prevented him from realizing his own sense of self. He is liberated from his existential dread, by going down as a regular person. And that also explains Gojo's smile in his last panel. He'll head north to start anew.
Enmaten (whose mudra is associated with Sukuna) guards the southern direction and according to 236, if one wants to resign to their old self they should head south. I believe through his death by Sukuna, Gojo learnt the much needed lesson to prevent him from regressing to his old, flawed self.
The Strongest died to pave the way for the birth of Satoru Gojo (I'm speaking strictly in terms of personality)
In Esoteric Buddhism it is said, "Aspiring to attain enlightenment meant to make a wholehearted effort to uncover one's originally enlightened mind". It requires the development of the human consciousness and to ultimately unveil the 'true self', which is identified as the enlightened mind. The awakening experience is considered to be as powerful and shocking as a flash of lightning.
In the Mandala of the Two Realms of Esoteric Buddhism, Vairocana appears in the center of both the Diamond Realm and the Womb Realm. In the former, Vairocana appears as the Body of Wisdom, symbolized by vajra. The vajra stands for the power of illumination, for penetrating insight that breaks through the darkness of ignorance and actualization. It is a symbol of the indestructible and irresistible truth. In the latter, Vairocana appears as the Body of Principle and is represented by a lotus which stands for principle yet unrealized, compassion, potentiality, growth, and creativity. Both the aspects of Vairocana are inseparably related. All these sound pretty familiar.
Gojo will return and open his domain with the completed hand seal. According to Esoteric Buddhism, the left hand represents sentient beings and the right hand the Buddha, and thus symbolizes the two-way response of the Buddha and sentient beings. When you entwine both the hands you become one with Buddha. Gojo will attain enlightenment to fully realize his own sense of self, Sukuna being the driving force behind that.
Changing barrier conditions, shrinking barrier size, and 0.2s DE were all a precedent to show his potentiality. His DE with the completed hand seal will definitely get an upgrade, perhaps something akin to being divine.
Lastly, Vairocana is said to be the universal Buddha and consists of the six elements from where other Buddhas originated. He's the source of enlightenment and is referred to as a teacher who furthered Buddhism, without him there would be no Buddhism and no path to enlightenment. This also parallels Gojo's decision to become a teacher/mentor and guide the youth. After attaining Nirvana he'll guide his students to the same path.
Final thoughts:
Even if JJK heavily references Buddhism, I don't think it portrays enlightenment in a literal sense. The themes of Buddhism will always be tailored to fit the setting of the story, so enlightenment, detachment, Nirvana, they all can have different meanings - straying from the traditional sense.
Personally, I believe even if Gege does plan to bring back Gojo, the damage from 236 cannot be undone (partially due to the fact that he decided not to add a few extra pages in between chapters and flesh out the dialogues in the release of Volume 26). While it was hinted at, Gojo's existential crisis was never fully established, and the execution was just bad.
Additional references:
Gojo is often associated with Taishakuten/Indra because of his hand seal. However, the mudra associated with Taishakuten differs slightly to Gojo's hand seal which might be the reason why many have overlooked it.
- It uses the left hand while Gojo uses his right hand
- The index finger is hooked to the middle finger - the position of the fingers are swapped for Gojo
His hand seal might get mistaken because of the change in perspective.
The fact that a slight change in finger position changes the mudra completely and its associated deity (like Megumi) made me look deeper. Especially because of the misinformation regarding Indra and Yama's apparent battle - which never actually happened.
Gojo's domain expansion hand seal is actually the mudra of Marici. More like, till now it was the incomplete seal.
More accurately, it is the Body seal of Marici, which is one of the two most important seals of Marici - the other being the Invisibility seal.
A closer look at Gojo's hand seal where the middle finger hooks to the index finger.
Marici (摩利支天: Marishiten) is a Buddhist goddess who is the personification of light, symbolizing the blinding rays of light that precede the rising sun (and moon in some scriptures). She's referred to as the goddess of Dawn. The dawn and the light associated with the goddess symbolize the radiance of spiritual illumination and enlightenment.
Marici being synonymous with Doumu is often addressed as the queen of Heaven (天后) which is quite contrasting to Enmaten, who's worshiped as the king of Hell.
She's also referred to as a bodhisattva vowing to bring all sentient beings to awakening. She represents awakening, triumph over evil, and victory in the face of extreme hardship.
Marici (lit., mirage) also has the power of illusion. Interestingly, one of Marici's greatest supernatural powers is invisibility. Throughout antiquity, warriors worshiped Marici (as a warrior goddess especially in Japanese Buddhism) at dawn to invoke her courage and her powers of invisibility. She's said to protect from the fury of war which often leads to her association with Durga - the martial incarnation of Parvati from Hindu mythology. According to the Marici Sutra, Marici always rides in front of the sun at tremendous speed, making her undetectable and can never be captured or bound.
The mudras don't directly correspond to the respective sorcerer/curses' powers and are rather meant as a symbolism. Gojo's incantations, the theme of enlightenment surrounding his name, his six eyes - they all allude to his connection to Marici - and Buddha in the bigger picture.
The motif of light in Gojo's incantations and subsequent connection to Marici
Blue:
- Phase (位相): one of the most important properties of light
- Twilight (黄昏): soft light from the sky when the sun is below the horizon, either from daybreak to sunrise or, more commonly, from sunset to nightfall
- Eyes of Wisdom (智慧の瞳): Prajna or wisdom in Buddhism is the ability to discern things and there are several types of it. There is also 智慧光 (chiekou), which is one of twelve lights of Amitabha Buddha that destroy the darkness of ignorance of living things
- Phase (位相)
- Haramitsu/Paramita (波羅蜜): refers to the practice by bodhisattvas to reach enlightenment
- Pillar of light (光の柱): probably refers to the sun pillar phenomenon, which appears because sunrays is reflected by miniscule ice crystal in the atmosphere. The light is reflected back to earth as a vertical beam of light by the crystals, causing the phenomenon
- Nine Ropes (九綱): refers to Kyushu written in Chinese, reportedly from where Japanese Buddhism originated
- Polarized light (偏光): another important property of light obtained from its phase nature. It also has another connotation. Red's kanji 赫 means “illuminate; be brilliant.” And Kyushu is known for its lush grasslands of bluish green, same as Blue's kanji 蒼. Thus it can be inferred 九綱 + 偏光 are references to Blue 蒼 & Red 赫 and the joining of two techniques
- Crows & Shomyou (烏と声明)
- Gap between within & without (表裏の間)
Credits to Lightning 1 & 2 and tempenensis 1 & 2.
All these could be a subtle nod to Marici.
Gojo's symbolism as Buddha
Onto the more interesting aspect. Satoru (悟) means to understand/become enlightened. Gojo (五条) can be interpreted in various ways because aside from being an actual clan, five (五) has different connotations in Buddhism.
Next, Marici is an emanation of Vairocana (大日如来: Dainichi Nyorai) - the supreme Buddha. Vairocana is the central deity of the five self born (Dhyani) Buddhas/Five Wisdom Buddhas in Esoteric Buddhism.
Dainichi (大日) translates as “Great Sun,” as the being whose light illuminates and enlightens all beings in a way akin to the sun’s life-giving light. The term Nyorai (lit. "thus-come one") is an epithet for the enlightened Buddhas that occupy the highest rank in the Japanese Buddhist pantheon.
Now all these could sound like a big stretch, but there's more.
- The element associated with Vairocana is Space/Void. Gojo's CT Limitless allows him to manipulate space. His domain expansion is also named Unlimited Void.
- Vairocana's sense is Sight. Gojo's Six Eyes grants him extrasensory perception, far beyond that of any other sorcerer.
Vairocana is often portrayed with a mudra that symbolizes the unity of the five worldly elements with the six element, spiritual consciousness. He's said to possess the six elements.
- Significantly, Vairocana is said to be the sum of all the Dhyani Buddhas and combines all their qualities. He is therefore, pure white, since white is a blend of all colors. Well, Gojo is also associated with white - including his hair, eyebrows, lashes.
Could this possibly be a new trick that Gojo is yet to unlock?
Are these merely a coincidence or intentional?
Side note: here's the colors associated with the rest of the Dhyani Buddhas
- Akshobhya (Ashuku Nyorai) - Blue
- Amitabha (Amida Nyorai) - Red
- Ratnasambhava (Hōshō Nyorai) - Yellow
- Amoghasiddhi (Fukūjōju Nyorai) - Green (lime green?!)
Let's go back to the hand seal. Gojo is the only one who uses one hand to manifest his domain. Even Sukuna uses both hands to open his domain. Now, it's said the mastery over jujutsu can be judged by the sorcerer's ability to minimize hand signs and incantations to fully activate their technique. Gojo, being the Honored One, the pinnacle of jujutsu society, meant he mastered the art of subtraction. His one hand domain seal is proof of that. Or is it?
The fight between them has proved that despite Gojo having a superior CT & better CE efficiency, Sukuna has a higher mastery over jujutsu & more experience. Sukuna's open domain is a testimony to that. Manifesting his innate domain in the real world - coexisting with the real world. Unlike other DEs which are enclosed in a barrier isolated from the world. No wonder the narrator calls Sukuna's DE divine akin to an artist painting a masterpiece not a canvas but on thin air. Gojo, in fact none of the modern sorcerers were capable of pulling this off till now.
The reason for that is quite simple. Gojo latched onto Geto's parting words which kickstarted his identity crisis that he never managed to come to terms with while he was alive. He tried to find a meaning to his life and got hung up on his identity as the strongest. His strength defined him which isolated him from everyone and he lamented how nobody could understand him because of the disparity in their strengths. That's why Gojo went into this fight with Sukuna, who held a similar position, to understand the loneliness that comes from being at the top. He wanted to validate his very existence by being the strongest, once and for all.
Kinda ironic that both Gojo and Geto's stance on the weak led to their doomed mentality and ultimately to their death.
As much as his own mindset contributed to his isolation, the people around Gojo pushed him to his loneliness too. He was the strongest in his era and the jujutsu society placed an immense burden on his shoulders. He was put on a pedestal to the point that he felt dehumanized. His CT added a layer of irony. He clung to his best friend whom he considered his equal because Geto's perception of Gojo as a human was essential to Gojo's sense of self, it affirmed his humanity. It's also why he deeply values the youth of kids.
After Geto's defection, Gojo wanted to foster the new generation. His heart was in the right place. He wanted to change the system that failed him and his best friend in his youth. He actively tried to create an environment where his students wouldn't end up like Geto. However, he still identified people by their strength even though he cared for them. He seeked out strong allies to guide them, but he also did that to share his burden of loneliness as the strongest. His selflessness was rooted in his selfish desires. But that doesn't necessarily make Gojo a bad person nor does it discredit his humanity. Instead it shows how nuanced his personality is.
In chapter 230, Sukuna calls Gojo a 凡夫 (bonpu): a Buddhist term meaning someone who is not enlightened; the opposite of Honored One, which is gained via enlightenment. An ordinary person, a nobody. Credit.
And perhaps that is the truth - Gojo wasn't truly enlightened.
Sukuna is well aware and secure of identity, he isn't bound by the need to justify his existence. He has an overwhelming sense of self that Gojo seemingly lacked. It's also evident that he doesn't proclaim his strength to define himself. Sukuna doesn't need to prove anything nor does he seek to be understood. He's leagues above everyone else, utterly dominated by his desires and lives by his pleasure. He's free to do whatever he pleases. He ascended by discarding all earthly attachments.
Gojo momentarily shared a similar transcendence, detached from his emotions & relationships after his awakening. He had the same demeanor as Sukuna when fighting Toji. However, since he's so fundamentally different from Sukuna, later down the line, he couldn't abandon everything to ascend to a higher state, he chose not to. That temporary euphoric moment made him understand the core of cursed energy and that itself created the anomaly called Satoru Gojo.
And that explains why his dialogue was meant to show arrogance because at that moment he completely mirrored Sukuna.
Gojo's only weakness is his humanity which was exploited to handicap him. In Shibuya he didn't go all out to save as many people as possible, his emotional attachment to Geto was exploited by Kenjaku, and currently his student's body (whom he raised for the past 10 years) was used by Sukuna as a meat shield. Sukuna had long past discarded such attachments and lived for his selfishness, disregarding everything and that led him to truly master jujutsu - it shaped the calamity called Sukuna.
And this exact notion of Sukuna will be disproved by Gojo, who instead of abandoning everything, will ascend by embracing his attachments. His deep rooted problem in basing one's identity solely on their strength prevented him from realizing his own sense of self. He is liberated from his existential dread, by going down as a regular person. And that also explains Gojo's smile in his last panel. He'll head north to start anew.
Enmaten (whose mudra is associated with Sukuna) guards the southern direction and according to 236, if one wants to resign to their old self they should head south. I believe through his death by Sukuna, Gojo learnt the much needed lesson to prevent him from regressing to his old, flawed self.
The Strongest died to pave the way for the birth of Satoru Gojo (I'm speaking strictly in terms of personality)
In Esoteric Buddhism it is said, "Aspiring to attain enlightenment meant to make a wholehearted effort to uncover one's originally enlightened mind". It requires the development of the human consciousness and to ultimately unveil the 'true self', which is identified as the enlightened mind. The awakening experience is considered to be as powerful and shocking as a flash of lightning.
In the Mandala of the Two Realms of Esoteric Buddhism, Vairocana appears in the center of both the Diamond Realm and the Womb Realm. In the former, Vairocana appears as the Body of Wisdom, symbolized by vajra. The vajra stands for the power of illumination, for penetrating insight that breaks through the darkness of ignorance and actualization. It is a symbol of the indestructible and irresistible truth. In the latter, Vairocana appears as the Body of Principle and is represented by a lotus which stands for principle yet unrealized, compassion, potentiality, growth, and creativity. Both the aspects of Vairocana are inseparably related. All these sound pretty familiar.
Gojo will return and open his domain with the completed hand seal. According to Esoteric Buddhism, the left hand represents sentient beings and the right hand the Buddha, and thus symbolizes the two-way response of the Buddha and sentient beings. When you entwine both the hands you become one with Buddha. Gojo will attain enlightenment to fully realize his own sense of self, Sukuna being the driving force behind that.
Changing barrier conditions, shrinking barrier size, and 0.2s DE were all a precedent to show his potentiality. His DE with the completed hand seal will definitely get an upgrade, perhaps something akin to being divine.
Lastly, Vairocana is said to be the universal Buddha and consists of the six elements from where other Buddhas originated. He's the source of enlightenment and is referred to as a teacher who furthered Buddhism, without him there would be no Buddhism and no path to enlightenment. This also parallels Gojo's decision to become a teacher/mentor and guide the youth. After attaining Nirvana he'll guide his students to the same path.
Final thoughts:
Even if JJK heavily references Buddhism, I don't think it portrays enlightenment in a literal sense. The themes of Buddhism will always be tailored to fit the setting of the story, so enlightenment, detachment, Nirvana, they all can have different meanings - straying from the traditional sense.
Personally, I believe even if Gege does plan to bring back Gojo, the damage from 236 cannot be undone (partially due to the fact that he decided not to add a few extra pages in between chapters and flesh out the dialogues in the release of Volume 26). While it was hinted at, Gojo's existential crisis was never fully established, and the execution was just bad.
Additional references:
- Kukai: Major Works
- Shingon Buddhism: Theory and Practice
- The Buddhist Goddess Marishiten: A Study of the Evolution and Impact of Her Cult on the Japanese Warrior
- https://www.shenlun.org/lainnya/download/mudra/
- https://teahouse.buddhistdoor.net/marichi-goddess-of-the-dawn/
- https://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/kankiten-idaten-other-tenbu.html
- https://www.thezengateway.com/teachings/the-five-wisdom-buddhas-vairocana
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