People/Saichō

Saichō(767 - 822) 

Born in:

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Ōmi province, east of Hieizan

最澄

In Japanese, “Most Pure”; the monk traditionally recognized as the founder of the Tendaishū in Japan; also known as Dengyō Daishi (Great Master Transmission of the Teachings). Although the exact dates and place of Saichō’s birth remain a matter of debate, he is said to have been born to an immigrant Chinese family in Ōmi province east of Hieizan in 767. At age eleven, Saichō entered the local Kokubunji and studied under the monk Gyōhyō (722-797), a disciple of the émigré Chinese monk Daoxuan (702—766). In 785, Saichō received the full monastic precepts at the monastery of Tōdaiji in Nara, after which he began a solitary retreat in a hermitage on Mt. Hiei. In 788, he built a permanent temple on the summit of Mt. Hiei. After Emperor Kanmu (r. 781-806) moved the capital to Kyōto in 794, the political significance of the Mt. Hiei community and thus Saichō seem to have attracted the attention of the emperor. In 797, Saichō was appointed a court priest (naigubu), and in 802 he was invited to the monastery of Takaosanji to participate in a lecture retreat, where he discussed the writings of the eminent Chinese monk Tiantai Zhiyi on the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra. Saichō and his disciple Gishin received permission to travel to China in order to acquire Tiantai texts. In 804, they went to the monastery of Guoqingsi on Mt. Tiantai and studied under Daosui (d.u.) and Xingman (d.u.), disciples of the eminent Chinese Tiantai monk Jingqi Zhanran. Later, they are also known to have received bodhisattva precepts (bosatsukai) from Daosui at Longxingsi. He is also said to have received tantric initiation into the kongōkai and taizōkai (ryōbu) maṇḍalas from Shunxiao (d.u.). After nine and a half months in China, Saichō returned to Japan the next year with numerous texts, which he catalogued in his Esshūroku. Emperor Kanmu, who had been ill, asked Saichō to perform the esoteric rituals that he had brought back from China as a therapeutic measure. Saichō received permission to establish the Tendai sect and successfully petitioned for two Tendai monks to be ordained each year, one for doctrinal study and one to perform esoteric rituals. After the death of Kanmu in 806, little is known of Saichō’s activities. In 810, he delivered a series of lectures at Mt. Hiei on the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra, the Suvarṇaprabhāsottamasūtra, and the Renwang jing ("Scripture for Humane Kings"). In 812, Saichō also constructed a meditation hall known as the Hokkezanmaidō. Later, Saichō is also said to have received kongōkai initiation from Kūkai at the latter’s temple Takaosanji, but their relations soured after a close disciple of Saichō’s left Saichō for Kūkai. Their already tenuous relationship was sundered completely when Saichō requested a tantric initiation from Kūkai, who replied that Saichō would need to study for three years with Kūkai first. Saichō then engaged the eminent Hossōshū (Faxlang zong) monk Tokuitsu (d.u.) in a prolonged debate concerning the buddha-nature and Tendai doctrines, such as original enlightenment. In response to Tokuitsu’s treatises Busshōshō and Chūhengikyō, Saichō composed his Shōgonjikkyō, Hokke kowaku, and Shugo kokkaishō. Also at this time, Saichō began a prolonged campaign to have an independent Mahāyāna ordination platform established at Mt. Hiei. He argued that the bodhisattva precepts as set forth in the Fanwang jing, traditionally seen as complementary to monastic ordination, should instead replace them. He argued that the Japanese were spiritually mature and therefore could dispense entirely with the hīnayāna monastic precepts and only take the Mahāyāna bodhisattva precepts. His petitions were repeatedly denied, but permission to establish the Mahāyāna ordination platform at Mt. Hiei was granted a week after his death. Before his death Saichō also composed the Hokke shūku and appointed Gishin as his successor. (Source: "Saichō." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 737. Princeton University Press, 2014.)

Mentioned in

Article

Outline of Western Scholarship on Buddha-Nature

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Scholars of Buddhism writing in European languages have celebrated, derided, and frequently misinterpreted the doctrine of tathāgatagarbha for well over a hundred years. While some have seen it as a crucial theoretical step to explain how deluded, impure sentient beings can become buddhas, others have dismissed the entire idea as non-Buddhist. Following Chinese and Tibetan scholiasts, Western scholars have labeled tathāgatagarbha as either Yogācāra or Madhyamaka, although most now understand that the doctrine arose independently of either of these main Mahāyāna schools. The philosophical question of whether ultimate reality can or should be described in positive terms, and the ethical matters of faith and practice all come to the fore in discussions of tathāgatagarbha, and scholars have for the most part spent the last century explicating the scripture and commentary that have sought to make sense of it all. To the degree that academics have assumed the role of interpreting Buddhist doctrine to Western audiences, tathāgatagarbha—“buddha-nature” to the popular reader—seems now to be the foremost shared interest of the academic and the practitioner. This essay attempts to be exhaustive, referencing all books, articles, and chapters that take buddha-nature as the primary focus. It discusses only scholarship published in European languages.

Gardner, Alex. "Outline of Western Scholarship on Buddha-Nature." Buddha-Nature: A Tsadra Foundation Initiative, July 16, 2019. https://buddhanature.tsadra.org/index.php/Articles/Outline_of_Western_Scholarship_on_Buddha-Nature.

Gardner, Alex. "Outline of Western Scholarship on Buddha-Nature." Buddha-Nature: A Tsadra Foundation Initiative, July 16, 2019. https://buddhanature.tsadra.org/index.php/Articles/Outline_of_Western_Scholarship_on_Buddha-Nature.;Outline of Western Scholarship on Buddha-Nature;History;Alex Gardner;&nbsp

Person

Kūkai

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In Japanese, “Sea of Emptiness”; monk who is considered the founder of the tradition, often referred to as the Shingonshū, Tōmitsu, or simply mikkyō. He is often known by his posthumous title Kōbō Daishi, or "Great Master Who Spread the Dharma," which was granted to him by Emperor Daigo in 921. A native of Sanuki province on the island of Shikoku, Kūkai came from a prominent local family. At the age of fifteen, he was sent to Nara, where he studied the Chinese classics and was preparing to become a government official. However, he seems to have grown disillusioned with this life. At the age of twenty, Kūkai was ordained, perhaps by the priest Gonsō, and the following year he took the full precepts at Tōdaiji. He is claimed to have experienced an awakening while performing the Kokūzō gumonjihō, a ritual dedicated to the mantra of the bodhisattva Ākāśagarbha. While studying Buddhist texts on his own, Kūkai is said to have encountered the Mahāvairocanābhisaṃbodhiūtra and, unable to find a master who could teach him to read its mantras, decided to travel to China to learn from masters there. In 804, he was selected as a member of a delegation to China that set sail in four ships; Saichō was aboard another of the ships. Kūkai eventually traveled to the Tang capital of Chang’an, where he studied tantric mijiao Buddhist rituals and theory under Huiguo and Sanskrit under the Indian monk Prajña. Under the direction of his Chinese master, Kūkai was initiated into the two realm (ryōbu) maṇḍala lineages of Yixing, Śubhakarasiṃha, Vajrabodhi, and Amoghavajra. In 806, Kūkai returned to Japan; records of the texts and implements he brought with him are preserved in the Shōrai mokuroku. Little is known about his activities until 809, when he moved to Mt. Takao by imperial request. Kūkai described his new teachings as mikkyō, or "secret teachings," vajrayāna ( J . kongōjō), and mantrayāna (J. shingonjō). At the core of Kūkai’s doctrinal and ritual program was the belief that all acts of body, speech, and mind are rooted in, and expressions of, the cosmic buddha Mahāvairocana, as the dharmakāya. Kūkai argued that the dharmakāya itself teaches through the artistic and ritual forms that he brought to Japan. Once his teachings gained some renown, Kūkai conducted several abhiṣeka ceremonies, including one for the Tendai patriarch Saichō and his disciples. However, Kūkai and Saichō’s relationship soured when Kūkai refused to transmit the highest level of initiation to Saichō. In 816, Emperor Saga granted Kūkai rights to Kōyasan, to serve as a training center for his Shingon mikkyō tradition. In early 823, Kūkai was granted the temple of Tōji in Kyōto, which became a second center for the Shingon tradition. In the summer of 825, Kūkai built a lecture hall at Tōji, and in 827 he was promoted to senior assistant high priest in the Bureau of Clergy. In 829, he built an abhiṣeka platform at Tōdaiji. In early 834, he received permission to establish a Shingon chapel within the imperial palace, where he constructed a maṇḍala altar. Kūkai passed into eternal samādhi (J. nyūjō) in 835 on Mt. Kōya, and it is said that he remains in his mausoleum in meditation waiting for the bodhisattva Maitreya to appear. Kūkai authored a number of important texts, including the Benkenmitsu nikyōron, a treatise outlining the inherent differences of kengyō (revealed) and mikkyō (inner) teachings; Sokushin jōbutsugi, a treatise on the doctrine of attainment of buddhahood in "this very body" (J. sokushin jōbutsu); Unjigi, a text describing the contemplation of Sanskrit syllables (S. bīja , J. shuji); Shōjijissōgi, a text outlining Kūkai's theory of language in which all sounds and letters are themselves full embodiments of the dharmakāya’s teachings; and his magnum opus, the Himitsu mandara jūjūshinron, in which Kūkai makes his case for recognizing Shingon mikkyō as the pinnacle of Buddhist wisdom. Kūkai was an accomplished calligrapher, poet, engineer, and sculptor and is also said to have invented kana, the Japanese syllabary (Source: "Kūkai." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 450. Princeton University Press, 2014.)

Kūkai;Kūkai

Other names

• Dengyō Daishi · other names

Affiliations & relations

• Tendai · religious affiliation
• Gyōhyō · teacher
• Daosui · teacher
• Xingman · teacher
• Shunxiao · teacher
• Gishin · student