Ryōbu Shintō may be understood as a vision in which Shintō kami and Buddhist deities are interpreted as two faces of a single sacred reality. At its heart stands the doctrine often expressed through the honji suijaku paradigm: Buddhist deities function as the original ground, while the kami are their local manifestations or avatars. Within this framework, the cosmic Buddha Dainichi Nyorai (Mahāvairocana) occupies a central place, and the sun kami Amaterasu is identified with this universal Buddha, allowing the Shintō imperial mythos to be read through an esoteric Buddhist lens. The result is a unified pantheon in which the boundaries between kami and Buddhas become permeable, yet not erased, preserving local cults while situating them within a broader cosmological order.

This cosmology is structured symbolically by the “two realms” or dual mandala system drawn from esoteric Buddhism: the Womb Realm (Taizōkai) and the Diamond Realm (Kongōkai). These two mandalas are taken to represent complementary aspects of spiritual reality—generative, nurturing potential on the one hand and indestructible wisdom or principle on the other. Ryōbu Shintō reads the world of the kami, shrines, and sacred landscapes through these mandalas, so that mountains, shrines, and temples become interlinked expressions of the same twofold cosmic pattern. In this way, the visible world of nature and the invisible world of enlightenment are seen as mutually reflecting realms rather than separate domains.

On the level of practice, Ryōbu Shintō weaves together Shintō ritual forms with esoteric Buddhist disciplines. Mantras, mudras, mandalas, and meditative visualizations associated with Shingon and related traditions are extended to the veneration of kami, while Shintō purification and shrine rites are coordinated with Buddhist liturgy. This ritual synthesis allows practitioners to seek both worldly benefits and spiritual awakening through a single, integrated field of devotion. Kami are honored as protectors and local presences, while Buddhas and bodhisattvas are approached as the ultimate sources of liberation, yet both are understood as expressions of the same cosmic principle embodied by Dainichi Nyorai.

Taken together, these beliefs yield a religious worldview in which Shintō and Buddhism are not rival systems but interdependent paths. The myths preserved in Shintō texts, the layout of shrines and temples, and the esoteric symbolism of the mandalas all come to illuminate one another. Through this syncretic lens, the natural world, the political order, and the inner quest for enlightenment are bound into a single sacred tapestry, in which every kami and every Buddha participates in the unfolding of one encompassing reality.