The present study has approached hongaku thought as representative of a new paradigm or “reimagining” of liberation that emerged and became influential in the early medieval period. This paradigm was characterized by nonlinearity, that is, by the conviction that enlightenment is directly accessible in the present moment, and that practice represents the expression of enlightenment, not merely the means to achieve it. This way of thinking about Buddhist liberation also stressed dependence upon a single factor, whether faith, insight, or a specific practice; access ibility, at least in theory, to all persons, even (or especially) those of limited capacity; and a deemphasis on moral cultivation as a causal factor necessary to salvation. This paradigm was shared by both Tendai and the new Kamakura schools. Given the difficulties of chronology, and the fact that the doctrines of medieval Tendai and of the new schools continued to undergo elaboration throughout the Kamakura and Muromachi periods, it is difficult to say that this paradigm simply and unproblematically “emerged” from Tendai. It developed within both Tendai and the new schools and was influenced by their interaction. By the latter medieval period, it had become an orthodoxy. (Page 362)