Tendai

Tendai (天台宗, Tendai-shū) is a Japanese school of Mahayana Buddhism, a descendant of the Chinese Tiantai or Lotus Sutra school. Chappell (1987: p.247) frames the relevance of Tendai for a universal Buddhism: The Tiantai teaching was first brought to Japan by the Chinese monk Jianzhen (鑑眞 Jp: Ganjin) in the middle of the 8th century, in what became the short-lived Ritsu school, but it was not widely accepted. In 805, the Japanese monk Saichō (最澄; a... more

Tendai (天台宗, Tendai-shū) is a Japanese school of Mahayana Buddhism, a descendant of the Chinese Tiantai or Lotus Sutra school. Chappell (1987: p.247) frames the relevance of Tendai for a universal Buddhism: The Tiantai teaching was first brought to Japan by the Chinese monk Jianzhen (鑑眞 Jp: Ganjin) in the middle of the 8th century, in what became the short-lived Ritsu school, but it was not widely accepted. In 805, the Japanese monk Saichō (最澄; also called Dengyō Daishi 伝教大師) returned from China with new Tiantai texts and made the temple that he had built on Mt. Hiei (比叡山), Enryakuji (延暦寺), a center for the study and practice of what became Japanese Tendai. Philosophically, the Tendai school did not deviate substantially from the beliefs that had been created by the Tiantai school in China. However, what Saichō transmitted from China was not exclusively Tiantai, but also included Zen (禅, trad. 禪), esoteric Mikkyō (密教), and Vinaya School (戒律) elements. The tendency to include a range... less