Both Tâien-tâai and Hua-yen [Flower Garland School, Kegon] can be seen as attempts to reconceive Indian MahaÌyaÌna insights about the empty and dependent nature of the dharmas and express them in terms of Chinese intellectual categories such as principle (li) and phenomena (shih), essence (tâi) and function (Yung), or nature (hsing) and outward form (hsiang). This involved a significant shift away from the apophatic language of Indian Madhyamakaâwhich maintains, in its extreme wariness about the limitations of language, that truth can be verbally illuminated only by stating what it is notâto more kataphatic modes of expression. These new modes attempt neither to reimport into Buddhism notions of metaphysical essence nor to claim that there can be adequate verbal descriptions for truth, but to employ positive language in soteriologically effective ways. Moreover, since principle and phenomena are seen as nondual, and this nonduality is expressed in every particular form, the Huayen and Tâien-tâai totalistic visions also entailed a reconception of the empirical world. No longer was it the product of delusion or a place of suffering to be escaped, but the very realm where truth is to be realized and liberation achieved. This reconception was critical to the sinification of Buddhism and exerted an immense impact on the subsequent development of Buddhism in East Asia. (Page 10)
Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese BuddhismCategory Archives: original
The Culmination of the Buddhaâs Teachings
The Lotus SuÌtra is central to the Tâien-tâai/Tendai tradition, which regards it as the culmination of the Buddhaâs teachings, preached during the last eight years of his life. Some MahaÌyaÌna suÌtras deny the validity of the two âlesser vehiclesâ (HinayaÌna)âthe vehicle of the ĆrÄvaka or voicehearer, culminating in the state of the arhat and, at lifeâs end, in final nirvĂ€qa, and the vehicle of the Pratyeka-buddha or independently enlightened âprivate Buddha,â also culminating at death in final nirvÄáčaâand supplant both with the bodhisattva vehicle, which leads to supreme Buddhahood. The Lotus, however, while maintaining the superiority of the bodhisattva vehicle, subsumes all three within the âone Buddha vehicle.â âWithin the Buddha lands of the ten directions,â it says, âthere is the Dharma of only One Vehicle. There are not two, nor are there yet three. â The sĆ«tra acknowledges that the Buddha did indeed teach three paths or vehicles, yet this threefold division of the Dharma was apparent, not real; it represents the Buddhaâs skillful means (upaÌya, hoÌben) set forth in response to the varying capacities of his followers. His true intention was to lead all beings to the supreme enlightenment represented by the one Buddha vehicle. (Page 12)
Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese BuddhismOriginal Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism
From AmazonOriginal enlightenment thought (hongaku shiso) dominated Buddhist intellectual circles throughout Japanâs medieval period. Enlightenment, this discourse claims, is neither a goal to be achieved nor a potential to be realized but the true status of all things. Every animate and inanimate object manifests the primordially enlightened Buddha just as it is. Seen in its true aspect, every activity of daily lifeâeating, sleeping, even oneâs deluded thinkingâis the Buddhaâs conduct. Emerging from within the powerful Tendai School, ideas of original enlightenment were appropriated by a number of Buddhist traditions and influenced nascent theories about the kami (local deities) as well as medieval aesthetics and the literary and performing arts.
Scholars and commentators have long recognized the historical importance of original enlightenment thought but differ heatedly over how it is to be understood. Some tout it as the pinnacle of the Buddhist philosophy of absolute non-dualism. Others claim to find in it the paradigmatic expression of a timeless Japanese spirituality. According other readings, it represents a dangerous anti-nomianism that undermined observance of moral precepts, precipitated a decline in Buddhist scholarship, and denied the need for religious discipline. Still others denounce it as an authoritarian ideology that, by sacralizing the given order, has in effect legitimized hierarchy and discriminative social practices. Often the acceptance or rejection of original enlightenment thought is seen as the fault line along which traditional Buddhist institutions are to be differentiated from the new Buddhist movements (Zen, Pure Land, and Nichiren) that arose during Japanâs medieval period.
Jacqueline Stoneâs groundbreaking study moves beyond the treatment of the original enlightenment doctrine as abstract philosophy to explore its historical dimension. Drawing on a wealth of medieval primary sources and modern Japanese scholarship, it places this discourse in its ritual, institutional, and social contexts, illuminating its importance to the maintenance of traditions of lineage and the secret transmission of knowledge that characterized several medieval Japanese elite culture. It sheds new light on interpretive strategies employed in pre-modern Japanese Buddhist texts, an area that hitherto has received a little attention. Through these and other lines of investigation, Stone problematizes entrenched notions of âcorruptionâ in the medieval Buddhist establishment. Using the examples of Tendai and Nichiren Buddhism and their interactions throughout the medieval period, she calls into question both overly facile distinctions between âoldâ and ânewâ Buddhism and the long-standing scholarly assumptions that have perpetuated them. This study marks a significant contribution to ongoing debates over definitions of Buddhism in the Kamakura era (1185â1333), long regarded as a formative period in Japanese religion and culture. Stone argues that âoriginal enlightenment thoughtâ represents a substantial rethinking of Buddhist enlightenment that cuts across the distinction between âoldâ and ânewâ institutions and was particularly characteristic of the medieval period.
Book Quotes
For a discussion of Nichirenâs writings and the question of authenticity, see this Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 1999 article by Sueki Fumihiko, Nichirenâs Problematic Works.