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Absolute Monism And Dualistic Relativism

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Tamura [Yoshirō], like Shimaji [Daitō], characterizes Tendai original enlightenment thought as “absolute affirmation of reality” and the “climax” of Buddhist philosophy, a synthesis of Tendai, Kegon, esoteric, and Zen elements that carried to the farthest possible point the denial of any separation between ordinary worldlings and the Buddha’s enlightened reality. Tamura himself terms original enlightenment thought a teaching of “absolute nonduality” (zettaifuni) or “absolute monism” (zettai ichtgen ron), a term now commonly used in Japanese scholarly writing in reference to Tendai hongaku thought. By “absolute monism,” Tamura means not a single entity or essence underlying all phenomena, but that the realm of the Buddha’s enlightenment (i.e., the realm of principle, or ri) and the conventional realm of changing phenomena (ji) are thoroughly conflated. This identification is on the one hand ontological, consistent with classic Madhyamaka teachings about the emptiness of the dharmas and the nonduality of ultimate and conventional truth, as expressed in the phrase “saṃsāra is nirvāṇa.” But in Tendai hongaku thought, the identification holds on the existential level as well: the deluded thoughts of ordinary beings as such are the Buddha’s enlightenment. In Tamura’s terms, both the “existential aspect” and “illusional aspect” of reality are “absolutely affirmed. ” Tamura writes:

Tendai original enlightenment thought … sought to go to the utmost heights, and also to the foundation, in breaking through every sort of relativistic conception. In having reached the ultimate of nondual absolutism, it may be said to encompass the highest level of philosophical principle. However, for the same reason, it gave rise to problems in the realm of ethics and practice. As we have seen, from the late Kamakura into the Nanbokuchō and Muromachi periods, in response to the secularization of society in general, the absolute monism of orig inal enlightenment thought became mere affirmation of reality. The secular realm and secular affairs, even the defilements, were regarded as true. …

While showing respect for the intellectual heights of Tendai original enlightenment thought, in order to revive the dynamism of practice and salvation in the real world, it may be said that the founders of the new Kamakura Buddhism descended from the peak of nondual absolutism to reassert in some way a dualistic relativism. (Page 85-86)

Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism


Profound

Chih-i’s Three Tracks

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Generally speaking, the Track of Real Nature embodies the True Reality that always exists and cannot be destroyed. The Track of the Illumination of Wisdom embodies wisdom that can penetrate truth. The Track of Accomplishment embodies the practice of pursuing liberation. (Vol. 2, Page 242)

The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of Buddhism


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Standing In Opposition To Hongaku Thought

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Before moving on to the third theory, we may note one further strand of scholarly argument that, while neither sectarian nor theological, has worked to reinforce the idea of the new Kamakura Buddhism as a reaction against original enlightenment thought. This is the scholarship of historians of the kenmitsu taisei, the system of exoteric doctrine and esoteric ritual that characterized the established schools of Buddhism in the medieval period and served ideologically to support the ruling parties. Kuroda Toshio, who originated this approach, wrote that “kenmitsu ideology in its most archetypical form is found in the Tendai doctrine known as hongaku shiso.” Sato Hiroo has argued that nondual hongaku ideas equating this world with the pure land were employed to legitimize established systems of rule. Taira Masayuki sees hongaku thought as contributing both to aristocratic monopolizing of high clerical offices and to a climate in which strict observance of monastic precepts was devalued:

Novices who were scions of the nobility, having received the secret transmission of arcane rites, were easily able to lord it over the most senior monks accomplished in difficult and austere practices. This was because of original enlightenment thought. The discourse of absolute affirmation found in original enlightenment thought readily translated into an immediate affirmation of personal desires, becoming an excuse for precept-breaking and the excesses of aristocratic monks. It was further employed to rationalize the attack and razing of rival temple shrine complexes and became the intellectual basis for the activities of warrior monks (akusō).

Being concerned primarily with the institutional and ideological aspects of medieval religion, kenmitsu taisei historians have not focused on the issue of what continuities and discontinuities obtain between Tendai hongaku thought and the teachings of the new Kamakura Buddhist leaders. However, in that they have treated hongaku thought as an ideology of the dominant kenmitsu Buddhism, and the itan-ha or marginal heterodoxies as resisting kenmitsu authority, their work has contributed to the picture of the two as standing in opposition. (Page 84-85)

Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism


Profound

Truth, Knowledge, and Practice

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One may inquire: in what sense does the Threefold Track represent all dharmas? This should be viewed with regard to the three Subtleties (Objects as Truth, Knowledge, and Practice). In Chih-i’s system of understanding Buddhism, these three categories of Subtlety are most significant in outlining the elements required to strive for liberation. These three Subtleties are inseparable: truth as an object has to be perceived in attaining liberation; knowledge is required in order to penetrate truth; and actual practice is the means to attaining knowledge in reaching truth. Chih-i considers truth as substance (T’i), knowledge as gist (Tsung), and practice as function (Yung). All three of these elements are prerequisite for reaching liberation, and the Three Tracks are the representation of these three elements, given that the three Subtleties already signify the characteristics of the Three Tracks respectively. The Track of Real Nature, which concerns the true reality, represents the Subtlety of Objects; the Track of the Illumination of Wisdom, which concerns the knowledge of penetrating the true reality, represents the Subtlety of Knowledge; and the Track of Accomplishment, which concerns the practice of striving to obtain knowledge in penetrating reality, represents the Subtlety of Practice. Therefore, the first three Subtleties are considered by Chih-i to be the cause of attaining Buddhahood, and the Three Tracks the effect of Buddhahood. Although the three Subtleties are the cause, and the Three Tracks are the effect, the cause and effect are contained in each other: cause leads to effect, and effect arises from cause. Fundamentally, the cause and effect are one entity, and both are delineated by the Threefold Track.

What, then, is the distinction between the cause and effect that are named and presented separately? First, Chih-i points out, the three Subtleties that are taken as the Three Tracks can depict the cause of attaining enlightenment, and the One Buddha-vehicle that is formed by the Threefold Track is the effect of Buddhahood. Second, the three Subtleties Objects, Knowledge, and Practice are presented individually in order to describe the process of reaching enlightenment. The Threefold Track is discussed together as one unity in order to portray the effect as the One Buddha-vehicle. Third, the three Subtleties and Threefold Track illustrate respectively the beginning and end of one’s practice of reaching liberation. The three Subtleties are the Threefold Track in terms of virtue of nature (Hsing-te San-kui), and the Threefold Track is the Threefold Track in terms of virtue of cultivation (Hsiu-te San-kui). (Vol. 2, Page 241-242)

The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of Buddhism


Lotus World

Protectors of the Lotus Sutra

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Nichiren taught that all the gods had promised to protect those who uphold the Lotus Sutra. He frequently invoked the Vedic deities and the Shinto kami as his protectors, as in the following passage from Persecutions of the Sage: “Even those who have a great demonic spirit [on their side] cannot harm Nichiren because he is protected by Brahma, Indra, the gods of the sun and moon, the four heavenly kings, Tensho Daijin, and Hachiman.”

Lotus World: An Illustrated Guide to the Gohonzon

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An “Experiential” Philosophy

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Hakamaya [Noriaki] sees original enlightenment thought as an “experiential” philosophy stressing the ineffability of suchness. Thus, in his view it makes light of faith, intellect, and the use of language, by which the truth of dependent origination is to be discerned and investigated. Hakamaya sees the critical use of intellect and language as inseparable from normative Buddhism: Śākyamuni’s hesitation to preach was not because his realization was ineffable, but because of the difficulty of communi cating a teaching that goes “against the current” of the reality-affirming ideas that most people hold, based on the notion of topos. Without words, error cannot be criticized, nor truth demonstrated. Moreover, without language, we would not only be unable to recall and reflect crit ically upon the past but would lose all sense of time itself, becoming locked in a timeless, eternal present—a loss of the very faculty that distinguishes us as humans. (Page 81)

Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism


Profound

Three Tracks In One Vehicle

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[T]he Threefold Track and the One Buddha-vehicle are two names of the same thing: the one is in the three, and the three are in the one. Chih-i illustrates this indefinite nature by quoting the formula of affirmation, negation and double negation (i.e., one, not one, neither one nor not one). (i) The formula of affirmation “one” expresses the concept “Supreme Truth” (Ti-i-i Ti) so that the absoluteness of the True Reality is denoted. Chih-i uses this term Supreme Truth to declare that all dharmas are converged into One Buddha-vehicle. (ii) The formula of negation “not one” expresses the concept tathāgatagarbha (Ju-lai-tsang), indicating the functional nature of the True Reality. This term is used by Chih-i to refer to the richness of the tathāgatagarbha in terms of its immeasurable dharma-doors for teaching sentient beings. To suite the different faculties of beings, the Buddha expounds upon various vehicles in his teaching. (iii) The formula of double negation “neither one nor not one” delineates the concept “Supreme Meaning of Emptiness” (Ti-i-i K’ung). This term refers to the function that rises from the nature of emptiness, and Chih-i associates it with the skillful and expedient means of True Reality: The Relative contains the Ultimate, and vice versa. The Buddha teaches the dharma according to these conditions. The teaching seems to be definite but not definite, since the Buddha expounds the Ultimate of the One Buddha-vehicle as well as the Relative of the Three Vehicles (śrāvaka, pratyekabuddha, and bodhisattva). Although there is Relative of the Three Vehicles in the teaching of the Buddha, in the end, all of them are converged into the Ultimate of the One Vehicle. (Vol. 2, Page 241)

The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of Buddhism


Summer Writings

Looking into the Future

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Nichiren Shonin said, “If you want to see your previous life look at your present situation, and if you want to see your future life look at your behavior in the present.” How much bad karma do we have now? Please think about it calmly. There may be some who feel that they have deep bad karma, and there may also be those who say, “I don’t care about any bad karma.” Whichever, it is actually impossible to measure the depth of bad karma exactly, but you can guess by looking at your life as a whole.

Summer Writings

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Nichiren, Dōgen And Their ‘Radical Break’

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Several structural similarities can be identified between the “radical break” arguments of both Nichiren Shū and Sōtō Shū scholars. In both cases, the founder—whether Nichiren or Dōgen—is seen as a critic of medieval Tendai hongaku thought. Specifically, he is seen as restoring a normative emphasis on practice that medieval Tendai is said to have lost sight of in a one-sided emphasis on original enlightenment. This move is then more broadly ascribed to all the founders of the new Kamakura Buddhist movements. The sources of the founder’s inspiration are located not in the “corrupt” religious milieu of his own time and place, which he is said to have rejected, but in an “orthodox” tradition rooted in China, which he reformulates in a distinctive way. Lastly, his later medieval successors who bring hongaku discourse to bear on their interpretation of his work—and whose readings become normative for the premodern period and beyond—are seen not as developing possibilities latent in his thought, but as betraying his original critical stance. These parallels suggest that similar concerns have informed the scholarship on both sides. (Page 77)

Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism


Profound

The Threefold Track In Buddhism

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In Chih-i’s view, track is dharma and dharma is track: “What is called the dharma can be named as the track, which is tracked by all Buddhas in attaining Buddhahood.”

To be specific, the Threefold Dharma, also called Threefold Track (San-kui), refers to the Track of Real Nature (Chen-hsing Kui), the Track of the Illumination of Wisdom (Kuan-chao Kui), and the Track of Accomplishment (Tzu-ch ‘eng Kui). These Three Tracks are Chih-i’s theoretical delineation of the phenomenal world: there are three dharmas that can be tracked and all things in the Ten Dharma-realms contain these three dharmas. In other words, the whole universe is constituted by these Three Tracks. Horizontally, the Three Tracks cover the width of the ten directions; vertically they penetrate the three periods of time, including the beginning as the cause and the end as the effect. According to Chih-i’s definitions, the Track of Real Nature refers to the never-changing true reality of sentient beings that is characterized by non-illusion and non-differentiation; the Track of the Illumination of Wisdom refers to the wisdom that destroys delusions and reveals the real nature of beings; and the Track of Accomplishment concerns the wholesome performance of deeds that is required in realizing this wisdom of penetrating the true reality. The Threefold Track is related to the Buddha-nature as the Triple Cause of Buddhahood. The Track of Real Nature corresponds to the Fundamental Cause (Chen-yin), which refers to the fact that all beings are inherently endowed with the true nature of reality. The Track of the Illumination of Wisdom corresponds to the Understanding Cause (Liao-yin), that is, the inherent potential for wisdom in all sentient beings which allows them to eventually uncover their true nature from within. The Track of Accomplishment corresponds to the Conditional Cause (Yüan-yin), or the inherent potential and propensity for Buddhahood within all sentient beings, which allows them to perform meritorious deeds in order to attain wisdom. According to this definition, Chih-i believes that the Threefold Buddha-nature is an invisible state of Buddhahood that causes the attainment of Buddhahood, and sheds light on the universal salvation of all sentient beings. The Threefold Track, on the other hand, is the visible state as the effect of Buddhahood the ultimate fruition of enlightenment. Chih-i names the Triple Buddha-nature as the “Threefold Track of the Virtue of Nature” (Hsing-te San-kui).

Furthermore, Chih-i’s theory of the Threefold Track attempts to illustrate the One Buddha-vehicle as the core of the teaching of the Lotus Sūtra. Chih-i points out that this One Buddha-vehicle consists of the Threefold Track. Only if the practitioner rides on the vehicle that is formed by the Threefold Track, can he directly arrive at the bodhimaṇḍa and attain perfect enlightenment. This indicates that the Threefold Track is the “Threefold Track of the Virtue of Cultivation” (Hsiu-te San-kui). To Chih-i, the Threefold Track in Buddhism is extremely significant as it reflects all the causes and effects of attaining Buddhahood. Considering that the Threefold Track contains all dharmas from beginning to end, the noumenon and the phenomenon of the universe can all be concluded and delineated by the Threefold Dharma. The Threefold Track that forms the great vehicle can be taken as noumenon, and the Threefold Track that contains all things can be taken as phenomenon. (Vol. 2, Page 239-240)

The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of Buddhism