Japanese monk Kukai achieved enlightenment by staring relentlessly at a single glowing Sanskrit letter

A closer look

Mastering the universe might be as simple as staring at the letter "A" until you hallucinate reality's core code. Brought to Japan by the 9th-century monk Kukai, "Ajikan" is the foundational meditation of Shingon esoteric Buddhism. Monks sit in front of a scroll displaying the Sanskrit seed syllable resting on a lotus inside a moon disc. Through intense visualization, the practitioner imagines the letter expanding to swallow the entire universe, and then shrinking back into their own heart, proving that their physical body and the cosmic Buddha are exactly the same thing.