Yogachara
Yogachara is an influential tradition of Buddhist philosophy and psychology emphasizing the study of cognition and consciousness through the interior lens of meditative and yogic practices. It is variously termed Vijñānavāda, Vijñaptivāda or Vijñaptimātratā-vāda, the name given to its major epistemic theory. There are several interpretations of this main theory, some scholars see it as a kind of Idealism while others argue that it is closer to a kind of phenomenology or representationalism. According to Dan Lusthaus, this tradition developed "an elaborate psychological therapeutic system that mapped out the problems in cognition along with the antidotes to correct them, an earnest epistemological endeavor that led to some of the most sophisticated work on perception and logic engaged in by Buddhists or Indians." The 4th century Indian brothers, Asaṅga and Vasubandhu, are considered the classic philosophers and systematizers of this school. It was associated with Indian Mahayana Buddhism in about the fourth century, but included non-Mahayana practitioners of the Dārṣṭāntika school.
Yogācāra continues to be influential in East Asian Buddhism. However, the uniformity of an single assumed "Yogācāra school" has been put into question. Yogācāra philosophy is meant to aid in the practice of yoga and meditation and thus it sets forth a systematic analysis of the Mahayana spiritual path. Yogācārins made use of ideas from previous traditions, such as Prajñāpāramitā and the Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma, to develop a new schema for spiritual practice. According to Thomas Kochumuttom, Yogācāra is "meant to be an explanation of experience, rather than a system of ontology". For this reason, Yogācārins developed. In its analysis, Yogācāra works like the Saṅdhinirmocana Sūtra developed various core concepts such as vijñapti-mātra, the ālaya-vijñāna, the turning of the basis, the three natures, emptiness, they form a complex system, each can be taken as a point of departure for understanding Yogācāra. One of the main features of Yogācāra philosophy is the concept of vijñapti-mātra. According to Lambert Schmithausen, the earliest surviving appearance of this term is in chapter 8 of the Saṅdhinirmocana Sūtra, which has only survived in Tibetan and Chinese translations that differ in syntax and meaning.
The passage is depicted as a response by the Buddha to a question which asks "whether the images or replicas which are the object of meditative concentration, are different/separate from the contemplating mind or not." The Buddha says they are not different, "Because these images are vijñapti-mātra." The text goes on to affirm. Regarding existing Sanskrit sources, the term appears in the first verse of Vasubandhu's Vimśatikā, a locus classicus of the idea, it states: vijñaptimātram evaitad asad arthāvabhāsanāt yathā taimirikasyāsat keśa candrādi darśanam This is vijñaptimātra, since it manifests itself as an unreal object, Just like the case of those with cataracts seeing unreal hairs in the moon and the like." According to Mark Siderits, what Vasubandhu means here is that we are only aware of mental images or impressions which manifest themselves as external objects, but "there is no such thing outside the mind." The term appears in Asaṅga's classic Yogācāra work, the Mahāyānasaṃgraha:These representations are mere representations, because there is no thing/object...
Just as in a dream there appear without a thing/object, just in the mind alone, forms/images of all kinds of things/objects like visibles, smells, tangibles, forests and mountains, yet there are no things/objects at all in that. MSg 11.6The term is sometimes used as a synonym with citta-mātra, used a name for the school that suggests Idealism. Schmithausen writes that the first appearance of this term is in the Pratyupanna samadhi sutra, which states:This triple world is nothing but mind. Why? Because however I imagine things, how they appear; some modern scholars believe. David Kalupahana argues that citta-mātra signifies a metaphysical reification of mind into an absolute, while vijñapti-mātra refers to a certain epistemological approach. While the standard translations for these terms are "consciousness only" and "mind-only", several modern scholars object to these, as well as to Idealistic interpretation. According to Bruce Cameron Hall, the interpretation of this doctrine as a form of subjective or absolute idealism has been "the most common "outside" interpretation of Vijñānavāda, not only by modern writers, but by its ancient opponents, both Hindu and Buddhist."Different alternative translations for vijñapti-mātra have been proposed, such as representation-only, ideation-only, impressions-only and perception-only.
Alex Wayman notes that one's interpretation of Yogācāra will depend on how the qualifier mātra is to be understood in this context, he objects to interpretations which claim that Yogācāra rejects the external world altogether, preferring translations such as "amounting to mind" or "mirroring mind" for citta-mātra. Fo
Mazu Daoyi
Baso redirects here. For the island, see Baso. Mazu Daoyi was an influential abbot of Chan Buddhism during the Tang dynasty; the earliest recorded use of the term "Chan school" is from his Extensive Records. Master Ma's teaching style of "strange words and extraordinary actions" became paradigmatic Zen lore, his family name was Ma -- Mazu meaning Master Ma. He was born in 709 northwest of Chengdu in Sichuan. During his years as master, Mazu lived in Jiangxi, from which he took the name "Jiangxi Daoyi". In the Transmission of the Lamp, compiled in 1004, Mazu is described as follows: His appearance was remarkable, he glared about him like a tiger. If he stretched out his tongue, it reached up over his nose. According to the Transmission of the Lamp, Mazu was a student of Nanyue Huairang at Mount Heng in HunanA story in the entry on Nanyue Huairang in the Transmission of the Lamp is regarded as Mazu's enlightenment-account, though the text does not claim it as such. An earlier and more primitive version of this story appears in the Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall, transcribed in 952: Reverend Ma was sitting in a spot, Reverend Rang took a tile and sat on the rock facing him, rubbing it.
Master Ma asked, "What are you doing?" Master said, "I'm rubbing the tile to make it a mirror." Master Ma said, "How can you make a mirror by rubbing a tile?" Master said, "If I can't make a mirror by rubbing a tile, how can you achieve buddhahood by sitting in meditation?" This story echoes the Vimalakirti Sutra and the Platform Sutra in downgrading purificative and gradualist practices instead of direct insight into the Buddha-nature. Mazu became Nanyue Huairang's dharma–successor. Mazu settled at Kung-kung Mountain by Nankang, southern Kiangsi province, where he founded a monastery and gathered scores of disciples. Traditionally, Mazu Daoyi is depicted as a successor in the lineage of Huineng, since his teacher Nanyue Huairang is regarded as a student and successor of Huineng; this connection between Huineng and Nanyue Huairang is doubtful, being the product of rewritings of Chan history to place Mazu Daoyi in the traditional lineages. Mazu Daoyi is the most influential teaching master in the formation of Chan Buddhism.
While Chan became the dominant school of Buddhism during the Song dynasty, the earlier Tang dynasty and Mazu Daoyi's Hongzhou school became regarded as the "golden age" of Chan. The An Lushan Rebellion led to a loss of control by the Tang dynasty, metropolitan Chan began to lose its status while "other schools were arising in outlying areas controlled by warlords; these are the forerunners of the Chan. Their origins are obscure; this school developed "shock techniques such as shouting and using irrational retorts to startle their students into realization". These shock techniques became part of the traditional and still popular image of Chan masters displaying irrational and strange behaviour to aid their students. Part of this image was due to misinterpretations and translation errors, such as the loud belly shout known as katsu. In Chinese "katsu" means "to shout", which has traditionally been translated as "yelled'katsu'" – which should mean "yelled a yell"During 845-846 staunchly Taoist Emperor Wuzong of Tang persecuted Buddhist schools in China alongside with other dissidents, such as Christians: It was a desperate attempt on the part of the hard-pressed central government, in disarray since the An Lu-shan rebellion of 756, to gain some measure of political and military relief by preying on the Buddhist temples with their immense wealth and extensive lands.
This persecution was devastating for metropolitan Chan, but the school of Mazu and his likes survived, took a leading role in the Chan of the Tang. Mazu Daoyi's teachings and dialogues were collected and published in his Jiangxi Daoyi Chanshi Yulu "Oral Records of Chan Master Daoyi from Jiangxi". Though regarded as an unconventional teacher, Mazu's teachings emphasise Buddha-nature: et each of you see into his own mind.... However eloquently I may talk about all kinds of things as innumerable as the sands of the Ganges, the Mind shows no increase.... You may talk so much about it, it is still your Mind. Mazu Daoyi, in order to shake his students out of routine consciousness, employed novel and unconventional teaching methods. Mazu is credited with the innovations of using katsu and unexpectedly calling to a person by name as that person is leaving; this last is said to summon original consciousness, from. Mazu employed silent gestures, non-responsive answers to questions, was known to grab and twist the nose of a disciple.
Utilizing this variety of unexpected shocks, his teaching methods challenged both habit and vanity, a push that might inspire sudden kensho. A well-known story depicts Mazu practicing zazen but being rebuked by his teacher, Nanyue Huairang, comparing seated meditation with polishing a tile. According to Faure, the criticism is not about dhyana as such, but "the idea of "becoming a Buddha" by means of any practice, lowered to the standing of a "means" to achieve an "end""; the criticism of seated dhyana reflects a change in the role and position of monks in Tang society, who "undertook only pious works, reciting sacred texts and remaining seated in dhyana". Seated dhy
Vietnamese Thiền
Thiền Buddhism is the Vietnamese name for the Zen school of Buddhism. Thiền is derived from Chinese Chán, in turn derived from the Pali term jhāna. Chan was introduced to Vietnam during the early Chinese occupation periods, which accommodated local animism and Cham influences. According to traditional accounts, in 580, an Indian monk named Vinītaruci, considered the founder of Thiền, traveled to Vietnam after completing his studies with Sengcan, the third patriarch of Chinese Chán. However, Chan was present in the country before his arrival; the sect that Vinītaruci and his lone Vietnamese disciple founded would become known as the oldest branch of Thiền. After a period of obscurity, the Vinītaruci School became one of the most influential Buddhist groups in Vietnam by the 10th century so under the patriarch Vạn-Hạnh. Other Thiền schools were founded during this time, such as the Pháp Vân temple lineage. Other early Vietnamese Thiền schools included that of the Chinese monk Wu Yantong, called Vô Ngôn Thông in Vietnamese, associated with the teaching of Mazu Daoyi.
Information about these schools can be gleaned from a Chinese language Vietnamese Thiền hagiographical work entitled Thiền uyển tập anh. A careful study of the primary sources by Cuong Tu Nguyen however concludes that the legend of Vinītaruci and the accounts of Vô Ngôn Thông are fabrications, a version of Vietnamese Buddhist history that "was self-consciously constructed with the composition of the Thiền uyển in medieval Vietnam." Cuong Tu Nguyen notes that the kind of Buddhism, practiced in Vietnam during the Chinese occupation period and before the writing of the TUTA was "a mixture of thaumaturgy and ritualism", "very worldly engaged."Whatever the case, Buddhist culture, literature and architecture thrived during the period of peace and stability of the four Vietnamese dynasties of the Earlier Lê, Lý, Trần and the Later Lê. During the early Lê and Lý periods, Buddhism became an influential force in court politics and the dynastic elites saw Buddhist clergy as useful assistants in their political agenda which they provided in return for patronage.
They were integrated into the structure of the imperial state. During the Lý and Trần dynasties, a "new" court Buddhism arose among the elites, aligned with Chinese Chan and influenced by Chan literature; some of the Trần rulers were quite involved in the development of Thiền Buddhism. Trần Thái Tông was known as "Great Monk King" and wrote various important Buddhist works including Lessons in the Void, A Guide to Zen Buddhism and a Commentary on The Diamond Sutra, as well as poetry; the first Vietnamese Thiền school was founded by the religious emperor Trần Nhân Tông, who became a monk. This was the Trúc Lâm school, which evinced a deep influence from Taoist philosophy, it seems to have been an elite religion for aristocrats and was promoted by Chinese monks who traveled to Vietnam to teach. Trúc Lâm's prestige waned over the following centuries after the Ming conquest which led to a period of Confucian dominance. In the 17th century, a group of Chinese monks led by Nguyên Thiều established a vigorous new school, the Lâm Tế based on the Chan school of Linji, which mixed Chan and Pure land.
A more domesticated offshoot of Lâm Tế, the Liễu Quán school, was founded in the 18th century by a monk by the name of Liễu Quán. Lâm Tế remains the largest monastic order in the country today. Vietnamese Buddhism suffered from political oppression during the colonial period, both by pro-Confucian mandarins and French colonial policies. Modern Vietnamese Thiền was influenced by the Buddhist modernism of figures like Taixu and D. T. Suzuki, who saw Buddhism in terms of social and personal transformation, rather than in supernatural terms. During the 1930s, a Buddhist reform movement led by intellectual clergy of "engaged Buddhism" focused on issues such as welfare activities and modernization; the modernization movement argued against popular devotion, arguing that Buddhism should be "purified from superstition". In 1963, in response to a hostile government, Vietnamese Mahayana and Theravada Buddhists formed the Unified Buddhist Church. Thích Trí Quang led South Vietnamese Buddhists in acts of civil resistance in protest of the South Vietnamese government's repression of Buddhists during the "Buddhist crisis" of'63.
Thiền master Thích Thanh Từ is credited for renovating Trúc Lâm in Vietnam. He is one of the most prominent and influential Thiền masters alive, he was a disciple of Master Thích Thiện Hoa. The most famous practitioner of modern Thiền Buddhism in the West is Thích Nhất Hạnh who has authored dozens of books and founded the Plum Village Monastery in France together with his colleague, Thiền Master bhikkhuni Chân Không. Another influential teacher in the West was Thích Thiên-Ân, who taught philosophy at University of California, Los Angeles and founded a meditation center in L. A. In recent years, the modernization of Thiền has taken a new global dimension, as Vietnamese Zen is becoming influenced by the teachings of influential overseas Vietnamese Buddhist leaders such as Thích Nhất Hạnh who have adopted Thiền to Western needs; as a result, Vietnamese Buddhists have now begun to practice these modernized forms of Thiền. This modernist form of Thiền has become quite popular at home and abroad, in spite of the fact that there is still no complete freedom of religion in contemporary Vietnam.
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White Plum Asanga
White Plum Asanga, sometimes termed White Plum Sangha, is a Zen school in the Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi lineage, created by Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi. It consists of subsequent successors and students. A diverse organization spread across the United States and with a small presence in Europe, the White Plum Asanga ncludes teachers who represent the spectrum of styles to be found to American Zen—socially engaged Buddhism, family practice and the arts, secularized Zen, progressive traditionalism." Conceived of informally in 1979 by Maezumi and Tetsugen Bernard Glassman, the White Plum Asanga was named after Maezumi's father Baian Hakujun Dai-osho and later incorporated in 1995 following Maezumi's death. Tetsugen Bernard Glassman was the White Plum Asanga's first President and his successor was Dennis Genpo Merzel. Following Merzel's term, in May 2007, Gerry Shishin Wick served as elected President of White Plum, until 2013 when Anne Seisen Saunders became the current president. Anne Seisen Saunders Jan Chozen Bays Merle Kodo Boyd Charles Tenshin Fletcher Tetsugen Bernard Glassman Joan Jiko Halifax Robert Jinsen Kennedy John Daido Loori Peter Muryo Matthiessen Wendy Egyoku Nakao Pat Enkyo O'Hara John Tesshin Sanderson Gerry Shishin Wick Michael Mugaku Zimmerman Daniel Doen Silberberg Ezra Bayda Susan Myoyu Andersen Still Mind Zendo Yokoji Zen Mountain Center Upaya Institute and Zen Center Kanzeon Zen Center Zen Center of Los Angeles Zen Mountain Monastery Village Zendo Great Vow Zen Monastery Sweetwater Zen Center Zen River Brevard Zen Center New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care Soji Zen Center Great Plains Zen Center Buddhism in the United States Timeline of Zen Buddhism in the United States Maezumi, Taizan.
On Zen Practice: Body, Mind. Wisdom Publications. ISBN 0-86171-315-X. Prebish, Charles S.. Westward Dharma: Buddhism Beyond Asia. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-22625-9. Prebish, Charles S. Luminous Passage: The Practice and Study of Buddhism in America. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-21697-0. Tucker, Mary Evelyn. Buddhism and Ecology: The Interconnection of Dharma and Deeds. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-945454-13-9. White Plum website
D. T. Suzuki
Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki was a Japanese author of books and essays on Buddhism and Shin that were instrumental in spreading interest in both Zen and Shin to the West. Suzuki was a prolific translator of Chinese and Sanskrit literature. Suzuki spent several lengthy stretches teaching or lecturing at Western universities, devoted many years to a professorship at Ōtani University, a Japanese Buddhist school, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1963. D. T. Suzuki was born Teitarō Suzuki in Honda-machi, Ishikawa Prefecture, the fourth son of physician Ryojun Suzuki; the Buddhist name Daisetsu, meaning "Great Humility", the kanji of which can mean "Greatly Clumsy", was given to him by his Zen master Soen Shaku. Although his birthplace no longer exists, a humble monument marks its location; the samurai class into which Suzuki was born declined with the fall of feudalism, which forced Suzuki's mother, a Jōdo Shinshū Buddhist, to raise him in impoverished circumstances after his father died. When he became old enough to reflect on his fate in being born into this situation, he began to look for answers in various forms of religion.
His sharp and philosophical intellect found difficulty in accepting some of the cosmologies to which he was exposed. Suzuki studied at the University of Tokyo. Suzuki set about acquiring knowledge of Chinese, Sanskrit and several European languages. During his student years at Tokyo University, Suzuki took up Zen practice at Engaku-ji in Kamakura. Suzuki studied several years with the scholar Paul Carus. Suzuki was introduced to Carus by Soyen Shaku, who met him at the World Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893. Carus, who had set up residence in LaSalle, approached Soyen Shaku to request his help in translating and preparing Eastern spiritual literature for publication in the West. Soyen Shaku instead recommended his student Suzuki for the job. Suzuki lived at Dr. Carus's home, the Hegeler Carus Mansion, worked with him in translating the classic Tao Te Ching from ancient Chinese. In Illinois, Suzuki began his early work Outlines of Mahayana Buddhism. Carus himself had written a book offering an insight into, overview of, titled The Gospel of Buddha.
Soyen Shaku wrote an introduction for it, Suzuki translated the book into Japanese. At this time, around the turn of the century, quite a number of Westerners and Asians were involved in the worldwide Buddhist revival that had begun in the 1880s. In 1911, Suzuki married Beatrice Erskine Lane, a Radcliffe graduate and Theosophist with multiple contacts with the Bahá'í Faith both in America and in Japan. Suzuki himself joined the Theosophical Society Adyar and was an active Theosophist. Besides living in the United States, Suzuki traveled through Europe before taking up a professorship back in Japan. Suzuki and his wife dedicated themselves to spreading an understanding of Mahayana Buddhism; until 1919 they lived in a cottage on the Engaku-ji grounds moved to Kyoto, where Suzuki began professorship at Ōtani University in 1921. While he was in Kyoto, he visited Dr. Hoseki Shin'ichi Hisamatsu, a famous Zen Buddhist scholar, they discussed Zen Buddhism together at Shunkō-in temple in the Myōshin-ji temple complex.
In 1921, the year he joined he and his wife founded the Eastern Buddhist Society. The Society is focused on Mahayana Buddhism and offers lectures and seminars, publishes a scholarly journal, The Eastern Buddhist. Suzuki maintained connections in the West and, for instance, delivered a paper at the World Congress of Faiths in 1936, at the University of London. Besides teaching about Zen practice and the history of Zen Buddhism, Suzuki was an expert scholar on the related philosophy called, in Japanese, which he thought of as the intellectual explication of Zen experience. Suzuki received numerous honors, including Japan's National Medal of Culture. Still a professor of Buddhist philosophy in the middle decades of the 20th century, Suzuki wrote some of the most celebrated introductions and overall examinations of Buddhism, of the Zen school, he went on a lecture tour of American universities in 1951, taught at Columbia University from 1952 to 1957. Suzuki was interested in the formative centuries of this Buddhist tradition, in China.
A lot of Suzuki's writings in English concern themselves with translations and discussions of bits of the Chan texts the Biyan Lu and the Wumenguan, which record the teaching styles and words of the classical Chinese masters. He was interested in how this tradition, once imported into Japan, had influenced Japanese character and history, wrote about it in English in Zen and Japanese Culture. Suzuki's reputation was secured in England prior to the U. S. In addition to his popularly oriented works, Suzuki wrote a translation of the Lankavatara Sutra and a commentary on its Sanskrit terminology. In his life he was a visiting professor at Columbia University, he looked in on the efforts of Saburō Hasegawa, Judith Tyberg, Alan Watts and the others who worked in the California Academy of Asian Studies, in San Francisco in the 1950s. In his years, he began to explore the Jōdo Shinshū faith of his mother's upbringing, gave guest lectures on Jōdo Shinshū Buddhism at the Buddhist Churches of America. D.
T. S
Hakuun Yasutani
Hakuun Yasutani was a Sōtō rōshi, the founder of the Sanbo Kyodan organization of Japanese Zen. Ryōkō Yasutani was born in Japan in Shizuoka Prefecture, his family was poor, therefore he was adopted by another family. When he was five he was sent to Fukuji-in, a small Rinzai-temple under the guidance of Tsuyama Genpo. Yasutani saw himself becoming a Zen-priest as destined: There is a miraculous story about his birth: His mother had decided that her next son would be a priest when she was given a bead off a rosary by a nun who instructed her to swallow it for a safe childbirth; when he was born his left hand was clasped around that same bead. By his own reckoning, "your life... flows out of time much earlier than what begins at your own conception. Your life seeks your parents, yet his chances to become a Zen-priest were small. When he was eleven he moved to Daichuji a Rinzai-temple. At the age of thirteen he was given the name Hakuun; when he was sixteen he moved again, under the guidance of Bokusan Nishiari.
Thereafter he studied with several other priests, but was educated as a schoolteacher and became an elementary school teacher and principal. When he was thirty he married, his wife and he had five children, he began training in 1925, when he was forty, under Harada Daiun Sogaku, a Sōtō Rōshi who had studied Zen under both Sōtō and Rinzai masters. Two years he attained kensho, as recognized by his teacher, he finished his koan study when he was in his early fifties, received Dharma transmission in the Soto-tradition from Harada in 1943, at age fifty-eight. He gave this up, preferring instead to train lay-practitioners. To Yasutani's opinion Sōtō Zen practice in Japan had become rather ritualistic. Yasutani felt that realization were lacking, he left the Sōtō-sect, in 1954, when he was 69, established Sanbō Kyōdan, his own organization as an independent school of Zen. After that his efforts were directed toward the training of lay practitioners. Yasutani first traveled to United States in 1962 when he was in his seventies.
He became known through the book The Three Pillars of Zen, published in 1965. It was compiled by Philip Kapleau, who started to study with Yasutani in 1956, it contains his Introductory Lectures on Zen Training. The lectures were among the first instructions on how to do zazen published in English; the book has Yasutani's Commentary on the Koan Mu and somewhat unorthodox reports of his dokusan interviews with Western students. In 1970 upon his retirement Yasutani was succeeded as Kanchõ of the Sanbokyodan sect by Yamada Kõun. Hakuun Yasutani died on 8 March 1973; the Sanbō Kyōdan incorporates Rinzai Kōan study as well as much of Soto tradition, a style Yasutani had learned from his teacher Harada Daiun Sogaku. Yasutani placed great emphasis on kensho, initial insight into one's true nature, as a start of real practice: Yasutani was so outspoken because he felt that the Soto sect in which he trained emphasized the intrinsic, or original aspect of enlightenment — that everything is nothing but Buddha-nature itself — to the exclusion of the experiential aspect of awakening to this original enlightenment.
To attain kensho, most students are assigned the mu-koan. After breaking through, the student first studies twenty-two "in-house" koans, which are "unpublished and not for the general public". There-after, the students goes through the Gateless Gate, the Blue Cliff Record, the Book of Equanimity, the Record of Transmitting the Light, the Five Ranks and more than 100 Precept Koans. According to Ichikawa Hakugen, Yasutani was "a fanatical militarist and anti-communist". Brian Victoria, in his book Zen at War, places this remark in the larger context of the Meiji Restoration, which began in 1868. Japan left its mediaeval feudal system, opening up to foreign influences and modern western technology and culture. In the wake of this process a fierce nationalism developed, it marked the constitution of the Empire of Japan, rapid industrial growth, but the onset of offensive militarism, the persecution of Buddhism. In reaction to these developments, Japanese Buddhism developed Buddhist modernism, but support for the autocratic regime, as a means to survive.
Victoria suggests that Yasutani was influenced by Nazi propaganda he heard from Karlfried Graf Dürckheim during the 1940s. Victoria has followed up his Zen at War with more research, he has directed attention to Yasutani's Zen Master Dogen and the Shushogi, published in 1943. This book is "a rallying cry for the unity of Asia under Japanese hegemony": Annihilating the treachery of the United States and Britain and establishing the Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere is the only way to save the one billion people of Asia so that they can, with peace of mind, proceed on their respective paths. Furthermore, it is only natural that this will contribute to the construction of a new world order, exorcising evil spirits from the world and leading to the realization of eternal peace and happiness for all humanity. I believe this is the critically important mission to be accomplished by our great Japanese empire. In fact, it must be said that in accomplishing this important national mission the most important and fundamental factor is the power of spiritual culture.
Victoria's treatment of the subject has stirred strong reactions and approval: Few books in recent years have so influenced the thinking of Buddhists in Japan and elsewhere as Br
Tiantai
Tiantai is a school of Buddhism in China, Japan and Vietnam that reveres the Lotus Sutra as the highest teaching in Buddhism. In Japan the school is known as Tendai, in Korea as Cheontae, in Vietnam as Thiên thai; the name is derived from the fact that the fourth patriarch, lived on Tiantai Mountain. Zhiyi is regarded as the first major figure to make a significant break from the Indian tradition, to form an indigenous Chinese system. Tiantai is sometimes called "The Lotus School", after the central role of the Lotus Sutra in its teachings. During the Sui dynasty, the Tiantai school became one of the leading schools of Chinese Buddhism, with numerous large temples supported by emperors and wealthy patrons; the school's influence waned and was revived again through the Tang dynasty and rose again during the Song dynasty. Its doctrine and practices had an influence on Pure land Buddhism. Unlike earlier schools of Chinese Buddhism, the Tiantai school was of Chinese origin; the schools of Buddhism that had existed in China prior to the emergence of the Tiantai are believed to represent direct transplantations from India, with little modification to their basic doctrines and methods.
However, Tiantai grew and flourished as a native Chinese Buddhist school under the 4th patriarch, who developed an original and extensive Chinese Buddhist system of doctrine and practice through his many treatises and commentaries. Over time, the Tiantai school became doctrinally broad, able to absorb and give rise to other movements within Buddhism, though without any formal structure; the tradition emphasized both scriptural study and meditative practice, taught the rapid attainment of Buddhahood through observing the mind. The school is based on the teachings of Zhiyi and Zhili, who lived between the 6th and 11th centuries in China; these teachers took an approach called "classification of teachings" in an attempt to harmonize the numerous and contradictory Buddhist texts that had come into China. This was achieved through a particular interpretation of the Lotus Sūtra. Due to the use of Nāgārjuna's philosophy of the Middle Way, he is traditionally taken to be the first patriarch of the Tiantai school.
The sixth century dhyāna master Huiwen is traditionally considered to be the second patriarch of the Tiantai school. Huiwen studied the works of Nāgārjuna, is said to have awakened to the profound meaning of Nāgārjuna's words: "All conditioned phenomena I speak of as empty, are but false names which indicate the mean."Huiwen transmitted his teachings to Chan master Nanyue Huisi, traditionally figured as the third patriarch. During meditation, he is said to have realized the "Lotus Samādhi", indicating enlightenment and Buddhahood, he authored the Mahāyāna-śamatha-vipaśyanā. Huisi transmitted his teachings to Zhiyi, traditionally figured as the fourth patriarch of Tiantai, said to have practiced the Lotus Samādhi and to have become enlightened quickly, he authored many treatises such as explanations of the Buddhist texts, systematic manuals of various lengths which explain and enumerate methods of Buddhist practice and meditation. The above lineage was proposed by Buddhists of times and do not reflect the popularity of the monks at that time.
Scholars such as Paul Loren Swanson consider Zhiyi to have been the major founder of the Tiantai school as well as one of the greatest Chinese Buddhist philosophers. He was the first to systematize and popularize the complex synthesis of Tiantai doctrine as an original Chinese tradition. Zhiyi analyzed and organized all the Āgamas and Mahayana sutras into a system of five periods and eight types of teachings. For example, many elementary doctrines and bridging concepts had been taught early in the Buddha's advent when the vast majority of the people during his time were not yet ready to grasp the'ultimate truth'; these Āgamas were an upaya, or skillful means - an example of the Buddha employing his boundless wisdom to lead those people towards the truth. Subsequent teachings delivered to more advanced followers thus represent a more complete and accurate picture of the Buddha's teachings, did away with some of the philosophical'crutches' introduced earlier. Zhiyi's classification culminated with the Lotus Sutra, which he held to be the supreme synthesis of Buddhist doctrine.
The difference on Zhiyi's explanation to the Golden Light Sutra caused a debate during the Song dynasty. Zhiyi's Tiantai school received much imperial support during the Sui dynasty, because of this, it was the largest Buddhist school at the beginning of the Tang and thus suffered because of its close relationship with the house of Sui. After Zhiyi, Tiantai was eclipsed for a time by newer schools such as the East Asian Yogācāra, Huayan schools, until the 6th patriarch Jingxi Zhanran revived the school and defended its doctrine against rival schools such as the Huayen and Faxiang; the debates between the Faxiang school and the Tiantai school concerning the notion of universal Buddhahood were heated, with the Faxiang school asserting that different beings had different natures and therefore would reach different states of enlightenment, while the Tiantai school argued in favor of the Lotus Sutra teaching of Buddhahood for all beings. Zhanran's view of Buddha nature was expanded in his Jingangpi or "Diamond Scalpel,", the'locus classicus' of the doctrine of "the Buddha-nature of Insentient Beings."
According to Shuman Chen, Zhanran: provides his rationale from the perspective of the all-
