The influence of hongaku thought has been detected in virtually every medieval departure from the monastic ideal, from the sexual license of ranking clerics to the predations of warrior monks. How, one begins to wonder, did so decadent an intellectual tradition manage to survive and flourish for nearly six hundred years?

In fact, the characterization outlined above is a two-dimensional picture of the incredibly rich tradition of medieval Tendai, in effect reducing it to a cardboard backdrop against which to depict the more fully embodied personae of the new Buddhist founders. The doctrine of original enlightenment may indeed have served at times to rationalize misconduct or have been used ideologically to support the authority of ruling elites. Charges that this discourse undermined traditional scholarship, denied the necessity of practice, and contributed to moral corruption are not altogether groundless. But they need to be reexamined and seriously qualified in the light of both primary documents and the historical context. This will be the task of subsequent chapters. (Page 93)

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