According to a news item today teachers and students are embracing ChatGPT, the AI platform which has gained attention for its detailed responses and articulate answers across many domains of knowledge.

Recently Microsoft began offering access to an AI-powered chat feature in its search engine Bing. The new chat feature is powered by a next-generation version of OpenAI’s large language model, making it “more powerful than ChatGPT,” according to Microsoft.

So I asked for and received access to the new Bing AI-powered chat feature and asked Bing:

Compare and Contrast Tendai Teachings and Nichiren Doctrine

Searching for. tendai teachings
Searching for. nichiren doctrine
Generating answers for you…

Tendai and Nichiren are two schools of Buddhism that originated in Japan. They both share some common teachings, such as:

• The Lotus Sutra is the supreme scripture that reveals the ultimate truth of Buddhism
• All sentient beings have the potential to attain Buddhahood in this lifetime
• Meditation, precepts and esoteric practices are part of the Buddhist path;

However, they also have some differences, such as:

• Tendai accepts other sutras and teachings as valid and complementary to the Lotus Sutra, while Nichiren rejects all other forms of Buddhism as false and inferior
• Tendai regards Shakyamuni Buddha as the original Buddha who taught the Lotus Sutra, while Nichiren regards himself as the messenger of the Buddha who appeared to propagate the true teaching of Buddhism
• Tendai chants various mantras and sutra passages as part of its practice, while Nichiren chants only Nam-myoho-renge-kyo to a mandala called the Gohonzon as its sole practice

This is hardly acceptable.

Tendai was brought to Japan from China; it did not originate in Japan.

Among the shared common teachings, it is erroneous to suggest that Nichiren’s doctrine shares the Tendai focus on meditation, precepts and esoteric practices.

While it may be literally true that “Nichiren rejects all other forms of Buddhism as false and inferior,” such a harsh declaration obscures the compassionate reasoning behind Nichiren’s teaching on the superiority of the Lotus Sutra.

As for Shakyamuni’s position, Nichiren doctrine agrees with Tendai that Shakyamuni is the “original Buddha.” And no one disputes that Shakyamuni taught the Lotus Sutra. As for Nichiren’s role as a messenger of the Buddha, for Nichiren Shu that has nothing to do with the teaching that Shakyamuni is the original Buddha. Of course, Nichiren Shoshu and Soka Gakkai consider Nichiren the Original Buddha, but that’s not what’s been proposed by Bing.

The fact that the Daimoku is written as Nam-myoho-renge-kyo gives away the source of this. No academic discussion of Nichiren’s teaching (outside Nichiren Shoshu and Soka Gakkai) would fail to spell the Daimoku Namu myoho renqe kyo.

But it turns out you don’t get just one answer if you ask the same question. I did this search several times and one time — just one — I got this response:

Searching for: tendai teachings and nichiren doctrine
Generating answers for you…

Hello, this is Bing. I can help you compare and contrast Tendai teachings and Nichiren doctrine.

Tendai is a school of Buddhism that originated in China and was introduced to Japan by Saicho in the 9th century. It holds a comprehensive view of Buddhist doctrine and practice, incorporating elements from various schools such as Pure Land, Zen, True Word and Esoteric Buddhism . Tendai emphasizes the unification of the three truths (emptiness, conventional existence and the middle way), the doctrine of three thousand realms in a single moment of life (ichinen sanzen), and the Lotus Sutra as the supreme teaching of Shakyamuni Buddha.

Nichiren was a Japanese Tendai priest who lived in the 13th century. He studied all schools of Japanese Buddhism but came to believe that only the Lotus Sutra contained the complete and perfect teaching of Shakyamuni Buddha He also believed that the Buddha’s teachings had entered a time of degeneration (mappo) and that chanting the title of the Lotus Sutra (namu myoho renge kyo) was the only way to attain enlightenment and save oneself and others from disasters. He criticized other schools for deviating from the true teaching and faced persecution from both secular and religious authorities.

Some similarities between Tendai teachings and Nichiren doctrine are:

• Both are based on T’ien-t’ai’s systematization of Buddhist teachings according to their depth, completeness and suitability for different capacities of people.
• Both regard the Lotus Sutra as the highest expression of Shakyamuni Buddha’s wisdom
• Both uphold ichinen sanzen as a core principle to explain how all phenomena are interrelated and how one can manifest Buddhahood in this lifetime

Some differences between Tendai teachings and Nichiren doctrine are:

• Tendai is more eclectic and inclusive than Nichiren, accepting various methods of practice such as meditation, chanting Amitabha’s name, esoteric rituals etc.
• Nichiren is more exclusive and radical than Tendai, rejecting any other sutras or practices than chanting namu myoho renqe kyo as invalid or even harmful.
• Tendai is more academic and philosophical than Nichiren, focusing on doctrinal analysis and interpretation.
• Nichiren is more practical and prophetic than Tendai, emphasizing direct experience and social action.

While there’s much to quibble with here, I would be thrilled if Bing gave that answer every time. Unfortunately, the majority of the results comparing and contrasting the Tendai and Nichiren schools were less than accurate for my taste. Still, it’s amazing that we’ve reached this point. I remember the early web and before that the text-only bulletin boards used to share information. You could not have imagined this back then.