Tendai
[4] David W. Chappell sees Tendai as "the most comprehensive and diversified" Buddhist tradition which provides a religious framework that is "suited to adapt to other cultures, to evolve new practices, and to universalize Buddhism.
[7] After receiving teachings and initiations on Chan, Precepts and Chinese Esoteric Buddhism, Saichō devoted much of his time to making accurate copies of Tiantai texts and studying under Dàosuì.
Saichō's choice of establishing his community at Mount Hiei also proved fortuitous because it was located at the northeast of the new capital of Kyoto and thus was auspicious in terms of Chinese geomancy as the city's protector.
[1] Saichō's efforts were also devoted to developing a Mahāyāna ordination platform that required the Bodhisattva Precepts of the Brahmajala Sutra only, and not the pratimokṣa code of the Dharmaguptaka vinaya, which was traditionally used in East Asian Buddhist monasticism.
By the time that Saichō died in 822, his yearly petition was finally granted and the traditional "Four Part Vinaya" (Chinese: 四分律) was replaced by the Tendai Bodhisattva Precepts.
After Gishin, the next zasu of the Tendai school were: Enchō (円澄), Ennin 慈覺大師圓仁 (794–864), An'e (安慧), Enchin 智證大師圓珍 (814–891), Yuishu (惟首), Yūken (猷憲) and Kōsai (康済).
However, Saichō had also transmitted numerous teachings from China was not exclusively Tiantai, but also included Zen (禪), Pure Land, the esoteric Mikkyō (密教), and Vinaya School (戒律) elements.
[15] According to Lucia Dolce, Annen "systematized earlier and contemporary doctrines elaborated in both streams of Japanese esoteric Buddhism, Tōmitsu (i.e., Shingon) and Taimitsu (Tendai)," "critically reinterpreted Kūkai's thought, offering new understandings of crucial esoteric concepts and rituals," and he also "elaborated theories that were to become emblematic of Japanese Buddhism, such as the realization of buddhahood by grasses and trees (sōmoku jōbutsu)" as well as hongaku shisō thought.
[19] Although the Tendai sect flourished under the patronage of the Imperial House of Japan and the noble classes, by the end of the Heian period, it experienced an increasing breakdown in monastic discipline, plus political entanglements with rival factions of the Genpei War, namely the Taira and Minamoto clans.
Due to its patronage and growing popularity among the upper classes, the Tendai sect became not only respected, but also politically and even militarily powerful, with major temples having vast landholdings and fielding their own monastic armies of sōhei (warrior-monks).
The major figures of "New Kamakura Buddhism" like Nichiren, Hōnen, Shinran, Eisai and Dōgen—all famous thinkers in non-Tendai schools of Japanese Buddhism—were all initially trained as Tendai monks.
Nobunaga regarded the Mount Hiei monks as a potential threat or rival, as they could employ religious claims to attempt to rally the populace to their side.
[citation needed] Kamakura period Tendai also produced a number of important figures of its own, including Jien 慈圓 (1155–1225), known as a historian and a poet, who wrote the Gukanshō (a religious history of Japan) and numerous devotional poems.
[citation needed] Hōjibō Shōshin 寶地房證眞 (active 1153–1214) was a major Buddhist intellectual in medieval Japanese Buddhism and the head of the Tendai curriculum at Mount Hiei.
In Saichō's writings, he frequently used the terminology hokke engyō "Perfect Teaching of the Lotus Sutra" (法華円教) to imply it was the culmination of the previous sermons given by Gautama Buddha.
"[4] Saichō believed that by consolidating all Buddhist ideas and practices and including all the varieties of Buddhism, his new school would allow all to "enter the great sea of Thusness which has a single flavor" (真如一味の大海) by following the path of goodness and that this would protect the nation.
[26] This teaching in particular was a major point of contention with the Japanese Hossō (Yogacara) school in Japan who espoused the Five Natures Doctrine (五姓各別, goshō kakubetsu) which argues that not all being can become Buddhas, since some do not have the seeds for Buddhahood.
[29] Saichō saw the story of the Dragon king's daughter in the Lotus Sutra's Devadatta chapter as evidence for this direct path (jikidō) to Buddhahood which did not require three incalculable eons (as was taught in some forms of Mahayana Buddhism), but could be achieved in three lives or even one lifetime.
pen-chileh) is first found in the Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana "where it refers to true suchness considered under the aspect of conventional deluded consciousness and thus denotes the potential for enlightenment in unenlightened beings.
Stone writes that the medieval Tendai doctrine regards "enlightenment or the ideal state as inherent from the outset and as accessible in the present, rather than as the fruit of a long process of cultivation.
"[30] According to Stone, as these teachings developed, they grew to include the idea that:Not only human beings, but ants and crickets, mountains and rivers, grasses and trees are all innately Buddhas.
At the core of these doctrinal systems was the Tendai practice of the "threefold contemplation in a single thought" (isshin sangan 一心 三観) which is taught in Zhiyi's Mohezhiguan.
[28] However, other more conservative figures like Hōjibō Shōshin rejected the idea that esoteric Buddhism is higher or superior to Tendai Mahayana practice, since both of these traditions are ultimately founded on the middle way and both teach the contemplation of the emptiness of dharmas.
In addition to the five-tone nembutsu brought back from China, Ennin also integrated a special monastic training program called the jōgyō zanmai (常行三昧, "Constantly Walking samadhi") originally promulgated by Zhiyi.
Pure Land Buddhist thought was further developed by a Tendai monk named Genshin (源信, 942–1017) who was a disciple of Ryōgen, the 18th chief abbot or zasu (座主) of Mount Hiei.
[16] Taimitsu claims that through the chanting of mantras, maintaining mudras, and performing certain meditations using mandalas (known as "the three mysteries"), one is able to see that the sense experiences are the teachings of Buddha, have faith that they are inherently an enlightened being, and can attain Buddhahood within this very body.
Rather than following continental understandings of ritual forms as skillful means to achieve enlightenment (usō hōben 有相方便), they gave them ontological weight by deeming them to be the embodiment of the ultimate truth.
The third category refers not only to the effort to help and save all sentient beings through the perfection of the six Mahayana virtues (paramita, charity, morality, patience, diligence, meditation, and wisdom), but also includes such mundane activity as raising one's children with loving care, living for the sake of others, and dedicating oneself to the good of society.The Tendai school made extensive use of the Lotus Sutra in its interpretation of the bodhisattva precepts, even though the sutra does not itself contains a specific list of precepts.
[42][43][44] The classic Buddhist understanding of the Four Noble Truths posits that craving for pleasure, worldly desire and attachment must be cut off to put an end to suffering (dukkha).
In early Buddhism, the emphasis, especially for monastics, was on avoiding activities that might arouse worldly desires, including many artistic endeavors like music and performance arts.
