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The Lotus Blooming:

Tracing the Tendai Pretension of Understanding
With a Universalist Approach

By
Sean McBride
RELS 379
Dr. Grant Hardy
21 April 2010
The whole world spoke the same languageThen [men] said, Come, let us build ourselves a city and a
tower with its top in the sky, and so make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered all over
the earth.
Then the LORD said: If nowthey have started to do this, nothing will later stop them from doing what
they presume to do. Let us then go down and there confuse their language, so that one will not

understand what another says. Thus the LORD scattered them from there all over the earth, and they
stopped building the city.
(Genesis 11:1-8)

Buddhism was, in many ways, born from that common religious problem of evil and
those things which cause us humans to miss the mark of the divine. Instead of proposing
theological reasoning for our separation from truth, or giving character traits to the divine, the
Buddha offered a path out of this conflicted world through the example of his own
enlightenment. Unfortunately, he also shares in common with many prophets an ensuing virtual
tree of scattered semantic interpretations and controversy over the proper way to perceive and
implement such profound teachings. Many philosophers and monks over the centuries have tried
to end this universal problem for the sake of reconciling such differences and orienting them all
in a commonly ideal direction. Within Buddhism, the Tendai School of Japan is most notable for
establishing this perspective. However, despite the responsibility of the monastic community to
spread truth, the claim of knowing the single essence of truth is often characterized as
dangerously arrogant. Tracing the stem of the Lotus Stra through Saich and Nichiren, one can
see how religious virtuosity often betrays the institutions which are built upon cataloguing and
rationalizing teachings of such revolutionary characters.
The Tendai tradition began in China with Zhiyi (Chih-i, 531-597), who built his primary
monastery on Mt. Tientai roughly a millennium after the death of the Buddha (Bowring, 119). In
response to widespread confusion over the translations of Indian Buddhist texts in China, the
Tiantai School presented a theory that contradictory teachings are the product of the Buddhas
own evolution as a teacher. When he came down from the mental mountain-top after achieving
enlightenment, the Buddha was faced with an almost insurmountable gap in understanding
between himself and his followers. Four stages of heuristics were proposed to follow, where he
first began to accommodate with the basic Four Noble Truths, and then later moved into more

esoteric and subtle expressions of his perspective. At the fifth and final stage is where the Lotus
Stra was supposedly introduced, signifying the ultimate ability to communicate and attain
profound understanding directly and universally. Stemming from this are three aspects of Tientai
wisdom: being devoid of subjective faith or attachments, being able to bridge or sympathize with
other limited perspectives, and most importantly being able to synthesize all perspectives into a
middle way (Stevens, 10-3). Saich would later explain the stra himself:
In the lotus-flower is implicit its emergence from the water. If it does not emerge, its
blossoms will not open; in the emergence is implicit the blossomingIt will rise above
the mire and foul water of [other schools] and then through the stage of the
bodhisattvas to open, leaves and blossoms together, in full glory. (Bary, 129)
Surprisingly secular and humanist as it is ideal, it may be fair to say such ideas were far ahead of
their time, if not representative of the Buddha himself.
The introduction of this perspective shifted Chinese Buddhist thought toward more
practical applications within the existing culture, and further away from concerns with exact
translation of the foreign religious texts. This was not, however, an immediate changeover as the
shift began with investigation of the texts that dealt with the Lotus (Bowring, 119, 128-9). Two
centuries later, Saich (AD 767-822) found himself in a similar situation to Zhiyi in the sense that
the Japanese Nara period was ending with the state religion of Buddhism becoming entangled in
aristocracy; which obviously preferred the benefits of upper-class power and wealth to his sense
of earnestness in revealing and applying profound truths. Symbolically, soon after passing
examinations and becoming ordained as a monk, he left the temples for Mt. Hiei. There he chose
to cleanse himself of the decadent lifestyle, and lived off the land while pondering all the
teachings he had read and periodically perusing new ones. Some of the material he discovered
included the Garland Sutra and The Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana, both of which relate
to the Lotus Stra and introduced him to Tientai through the commentaries (Stevens, 4-9).

Having felt a sense of conclusion to his personal re-orientation, he wrote a Letter of Resolve,
wherein he articulates his religious purpose:
The lowly and insignificant Saichvows never to turn his back on the Buddhas, the
nation, or his parentsI will be unbending in my resolveThus I vow not to savor the
taste of liberation aloneThrough the strength of these vows I hope to achieve
sufficient awakening and if I develop spiritual powers I will not use them for selfish
purposes, nor will I become attached to enlightenment. I vow always to pursue the
unbounded and unlimited four great works [saving all sentient beings, cutting off all
evil passions, learning all the principles of the Dharma, and mastering the Buddhist
Way] throughout my entire life. (8-9)
This renouncement of distractions would include the successful life of scholarship he likely
renounced, and thus he began a mission that would consume his life. What he had read about
Tientai gave him a direction to express his mission, and he set to gathering relevant texts and
developing understanding for himself and his disciples through meditation on the One Vehicle
of the Lotus. In 788, he founded his own monastery on Mt. Hiei (17).
The development of Saichs school luckily coincided with a decision by emperor
Kanmu to move the capital into the vicinity of the mountain. His earnest devotion to the public,
and the traditional symbolism of the area being a guard post for invading evil, impressed the
emperor enough to support the monastery (Bowring, 116). By the turn of the ninth century, it
was granted the title Chief Seat of the Buddhist Religion for Ensuring the Security of the
Country, and in 804 Saich was ordered to refine his knowledge by travelling with other
distinguished scholars to China (Anesaki, 112). The favoritism given to Saich infuriated the
ecclesiastical and political aristocracy which had maintained power in the Nara Period, before his
rebellious flight to the mountain. His defiance, renunciation, and ironic success inspired what is
now known as the Hieian Period, but such immediate success and displacement of the upper
class and his colleagues disposed them to oppose him (107-9). The situation strangely resembles
the tale of the downfall of Lucifer, where the pride of the brightest angel turns to jealousy of

Adam, an utterly human, yet glorified pet of Yahweh. The battle between the incumbent child
and the new baby manifests itself in myriad ways. [Hardy was probably a little confused by this,
Im referring to Joseph Campbells favorite legend of Lucifer, the Persian interpretation of him
as Gods most intimate and devoted admirer/lover who in jealousy was given the worst
punishment: imprisonment in a realm of his own, separation from God who he loved most].
Nine months later, Saich returned from studying with leading authorities of Tientai in
China, and briefly with others, carrying a rich collection of copied texts and recognized
proficiency in the three other pillars of Buddhist thought: Bodhisattva precepts, Zen meditation,
and esoteric teachings. As he continued to read and contemplate the texts in the way that
resembled his original retreat to Mt. Hiei, he turned to a fellow teacher who had taken the same
trip to China, but had focused on esotericism (Stevens, 21). Kkai (774-835), despite not
receiving the same initial accolades as Saich, proved to be a rival who is credited with having a
counteractive balance of influence on the ensuing Hieian Period. It began as a friendship, an
informal exchange of Kkais expertise for the recognition Saich was able to give him by
testifying to the emperor. Unfortunately, a split inevitably ensued because the nature of this
popularization was intrinsically a part of the Tendai goal of synthesis [Rortyan redescription and
solidarity?], which both meant being ultimately included under the Tendai name and the very
idea of compromising esoteric truth by meeting the lay community halfway. While Kkai did
offer to teach Saich and his students, over the years it turned into an ultimatum to abandon
Tendai and undertake direct training in the Shingon monastery instead of borrowing more texts,
which he considered to be in a very Taoist sense, superficial [Which is more shallow, the
immediate experience of the ego or the manageable artifacts, the dried remains of egoic struggle
encoded onto paper? At least the latter is amenable to conversation!]. Obviously, there was an
unfortunate impasse that marked a serious impediment to Tendai integration (Ab, 104,107-37).

Exploring such a magnetic opposition, one is forced to take the Tendai approach of
integrating varied perspectives, and here we may turn to a similar cultural synthesizer: Max
Weber. In The Sociology of Religion, Weber separates religious authority into a dichotomy of the
prophet and priest, or similarly magic and religion. No separation is made between the
renewer and the original founder of a religion, crediting both with the sense of charismatic
revolution in respect to what ever forms of thought are commonly held at the time. Magic is the
specialty of virtuosos who deal in miracles as proof of their connection, control, and awareness
of the sacred reality, more or less. Examples of this opposition to religion abound across time,
between subject and object, bourgeoisie and proletariat, science and faiththe latter being more
specifically claimed by Emile Durkheim to be a symptom of theism as it relates to his conception
of society as God, explained in Defining Religion: The Sacred and the Profane (Pals, 256-60,
102-142). Weber even goes so far as to illustrate the formative opposition of Tendai toward
aristocratic religion by claiming, The priestdispenses salvation by virtue of his office[In
clear contrast] the typical prophet propagates ideas for their own sake and not for fees (257-8).
On the subject of payment for public roles, Weber further explores the fundamental
divides of perspective on meaning between the entrepreneur and working class. The former is
generally ascetic, on a teleological path of virtuosity which only ends when the individual is
satisfied. The latter attempts to answer the problem of esoteric traditions, which becomes
evident when the lay workers of society seek meaning in their mundane occupations. This is a
very personal root of the divergence in faiths branching from one radical figure, very
understandable in the claim that were we all to instead devote the time we spend farming,
teaching, or laying bricks to truth-seeking, we might all become a prophet. This is a problem as
Weber sees it, and it gives rise to the Protestant work ethic and later deontological world views
of Calvinism (240-55). However, for the more Lutheran Saich (and Nichiren after him), this is

the very goal of spreading the Lotus Stra: if everyone is enlightened, we [already] have the
makings of an ideal society.
This is not a unique view, not even to Eastern philosophy. In fact, it resembles views
expressed a millennia later by the ideals of the Western Enlightenment. Immanuel Kant, in
particular, wrote an essay entitled What is Enlightenment? (1784) where he combines his
ethical concept of categorical imperatives (moral laws defined by their implicit universality)
with an observance of current affairs to suggest that society will never be able to function
healthily until everyone does their part to be informed and engage debate or consent with their
peers on moral and objective truths (Katz, 61-66). Kkai and much of the opposition to Tendai
were reacting to this exotericism in a more Nietzchean or Cartesian light, doubting the value of
any self-effacing attitude (Stevens, 22). If the authority of understanding can only be attained by
subtle subjective perception, it is impossible to talk about enlightenment as a single universal.
[bold claim, an attack on panpsychism as anything real without being communicable. This is to
say that Platonists are cowards if they hold a belief to be true but cant explain it in any terms
relevant to reality, like a monkey with its hand in the fruit trap. Whos to say its not a synechistic
realm of God/truth? This is more the Tendai stance of indignation, and in this framing it
becomes necessary to see truth as collective mosaicnot limited to it, but best inferred from it.]
Does the Lotus exemplify Mahyna Buddhism? Though it was not nearly paid the same
attention in India and Tibet, it perhaps became the most influential sutra in Eastern China and
Japan because of a cultural need [?] to make a connection with the foreign religion (Bowring
125-6). In a way, the Middle Way grew from its origin to blossom in Japan. Furthermore, Bunce
writes:
The Lotus Sutra interprets the person of the Buddha as a manifestation of metaphysical
entity and synthesizes the two aspects of his being: his incarnation in human life and
his real ontological identity. (Bunce, 63)

The middle path is the ultimate core and justification of Tendai discourse. While his
influence was largely unsurpassed in Japan, the last sixteen years of Saichs life were largely
spent trying to defend his right to ordain followers on his own terms and outside of the Nara,
after the death of Emperor Kammu. The ensuing squabbles distracted him from fully engaging
his efforts of synthesis and potentially contributed to the decline of his health. In 822, his
untimely passing moved the court to grant his wishes posthumously (Anesaki, 119-20). In the
ensuing centuries, most notably, Shinto gods were adopted into Tendai as identical to the
Buddhist pantheon of bodhisattvas. However, without the genius of Saich, the differences
between the conflicting doctrines he had tried to harmonize became more pronounced, untilthe
end of the twelfth century, many reformers appeared (Bunce, 63-4). By the sixteenth century,
monks had strayed so far from the concept of integration that they were resorting to violence
against the imperial court and competing institutions (64). Ultimately, its demise as a state
institution came in 1571 as Oda Nobunaga ordered the destruction of the massive monastic
community built on Mt. Hiei, ushering in a new period (Bary, 125). However, this notion of the
central importance of Saichs genius brings us back to the concept of the virtuoso, the prophet
in a middle way that combines both revolution and integration.
Nichiren (1222-1282) emerged in Japan as a more fully realized prophet, fulfilling the
combined ideals of Shinto and Japanese Buddhism in his total devotion to the message of the
Tendai (Anesaki 191). He even surpassed Saich in his evangelism, since the task of unifying
sects had largely been done before him. Instead, he dedicated himself to the duty of enlightening
those around him, and scourging the very idea of a passive attitude toward the discrepency
between public religious apathy and the profoundly liberating truths summed in the Lotus Stra
(Bary, 302, Asai, 250). Both thinkers were credited with small miracles, and though they are not
emphasized as heavily as in Western religions, the significance of these can be found in the very

idea of their status as prophetic figures. Would the Buddha himself approve? Whalen Lai
proposes that, Religious men had always sought out the historical Jesus, Buddha or whatnot
but the modern problem of such a search is largely of our own making (Lai, 81). He goes on
to claim that Nichiren established a doctrine of faith that was more potent than the impression
left by Sakyamuni (86). As Weber argued, the value of the prophet is not in primacy, but the fact
that he or she chooses to make an appearance, to take a stand for the truth, to take up the path of
the bodhisattva.
Saicho and Nichiren were both controversial in their own time because of this opposition
to the institutions that had entrenched much of the public perception of religion. This type of
religious fervor is characterized paradoxically both in conflict with all frozen customs and
instituting new religious views, comparable to the way Christ broke Old Testament laws in order
to institute newer, simpler, and redemptive ones. In fact, the overwhelming pessimism of
Nichirens age increased his personal conviction as a prophet (Bowring 116). While all of this
sounds hopelessly optimistic, the two were able to maintain their bold claims with excellent
debating skills that arguably earn them the title satyagraha, as Gandhi used the term. This
suggests that modern Indian philosophy in many ways came back around to embrace the lotus
while, at least to Japanese eyes, they had remained in the roots or stagnant water of traditional
teachings.
What differentiates these figures from all others is their virtuosity, not adherence to a
prophecy which was laid down by members of society. Their connection to the truth is not a gift
from preceding authority, but a matter of taking the sword from the stone based on their purity,
and it is their focus on the third noble truth that saves them almost as the faith of the apostles lets
them walk on water. This is not to discredit them because their faith is not dependent on a
transcendent reality, only transcendent understanding. By removing the emphasis from the

fourth noble truth, or freeing up interpretation of it, they highlighted the fact that understanding
and non-conflict, not discipline, is most essentially the end goal of Buddhism. Despite the
connotation, even bureaucracy is expedient in comparison with the approach of contemplation
which has no guarantee of meeting a deadlinethe point being that perhaps it should be a
controversial issue whether society should be built upon expedient measures.
The concept of the lotus is intended to preserve idealismnot in the sense of Pure Land
hope, which Nichiren said does more discredit to the Lotus than any other notion, but in the
sense of open pursuit of the truth (Asai, 248). Valera writes on the naivety of such an approach,
What is implicit in something which is common and habitual is at the same time the most
simple and the most profound (Valera, 46). Ideally, if everyone brings out, lets blossom, the
Buddha nature within themselves, society would become more stable because a case can be
made that social problems are the sole blame of interpretation and misunderstandings as a result
of varied interpretationthis is the tragedy of the Tower of Babel, and the solution that the Lotus
Stra proposed. It is not a tower to the heavens, as our two prophets tried to explain. In fact, the
ecclesiastic communities these prophets opposed were more like the man-made structures which
assume a role of transporting humans to the heavens. The sutra aims to bring seekers to the
heavens by realizing they are on par with the Buddha, as a humble man who simply was the first
to blaze the trail of enlightenment and tell the tale [sensei]. By reflecting on these intersections
of idealism within philosophy and religion, perhaps the 21st century global community may take
the final steps toward eliminating the samsara of misunderstanding one-anothers efforts toward
making sense of the human condition.