Saichō

Teaching

Integration of the Perfect and Esoteric teachings

Saichō played a pivotal role in shaping the doctrinal and institutional framework of Japanese Buddhism, especially through his synthesis of the teachings of the Chinese Tiantai school and Chinese Esoteric Buddhism. This integration led to the establishment of a distinct form of Japanese Tendai that incorporated Esoteric practices (Taimitsu) while maintaining the central focus on the Lotus Sutra and the teachings of Zhiyi.

Chinese Tiantai in the sixth century during the Sui dynasty, was characterized by its comprehensive approach to Buddhist teachings, which integrated both exoteric (public) and esoteric (secret) elements. When Saichō encountered this tradition in China during his studies from 804 to 805, he inherited its syncretic nature, which emphasized the unity of various Buddhist teachings. Saichō’s synthesis was influenced not only by the teachings of Tiantai but also by Esoteric Buddhism, which was gaining prominence in China at the time. Saichō's synthetic teaching came to be called "enmitsuzenkai": the union of the Perfect (En, i.e. Tiantai teachings), Esoteric (Mitsu), Meditation (Zen), and Precepts (Kai).

In Japan, Saichō’s teachings diverged from the approaches of earlier Nara Buddhism, which largely adhered to exoteric doctrines. Saichō’s core innovation was his belief in the unity of the Lotus Sutra and Esoteric Buddhism, encapsulated in the term enmitsu itchi (円密一致), or "the identity of the meaning of Perfect and Esoteric teachings."

This system integrates the study and practice of key Mahayana practices based on Zhiyi's Mohe Zhiguan (Jp: Makashikan), including shikan (śamatha-vipaśyanā) meditation, Lotus Repentance rites, the Four Samadhis and the Threefold Contemplation along with a parallel study track focusing on Mikkyō (esoteric practices like mantra and deity yoga). It is for this reason that the formal Tendai educational curriculum came to include two tracks which were studied by ordinands:

• Shikan-gō (止觀業): Focuses on Mahayana practices taught in Zhiyi's Mohezhiguan, and related texts.
• Shana-gō (遮那業): Focuses on esoteric practices based on the Mahāvairocana-sūtra, and other esoteric scriptures.

Saichō, in his Kanjō Tendai-shū Nenbun Gakushō-shiki (Regulations for Tendai School Annual Ordinands), emphasized the practice of the Four Samādhis (四種三昧, shishu zanmai), as described in Zhiyi's Mohe Zhiguan. He sought to establish a Four Samādhis Hall as a place for this practice.

Saichō argued that both the Lotus Sutra, which emphasizes universal salvation, and Esoteric Buddhism, with its focus on secret practices for enlightenment, ultimately pointed to the same spiritual truth. This stance distinguished Saichō from other Buddhist schools of the time, including the Shingon school, which prioritized Esoteric practice as superior to exoteric sutras.

Saichō, in a letter to Kukai, wrote:

But the Vairocana school (shanashu 遮那宗) and Tendai interfuse with one another. They also share the same commentary.... There should be no such thing as preferring one to the other. The Lotus and the Golden Light are those texts to which the previous emperor [Kanmu] devoted himself, and there exists no difference between the One Unifying Vehicle [of Tendai] and Shingon.

For Saichō, the practices of Esoteric Buddhism did not replace the teachings of the Lotus Sutra but complemented them, providing a direct means (jikidō) to attain Buddhahood in this very life (sokushin-jōbutsu). This direct path contrasted with the more gradual approaches found in the Nara Buddhist schools, which Saichō believed took eons to lead to enlightenment.

In the early years of the 9th century, Saichō returned to Japan and began to establish the Tendai school on Mount Hiei. He founded a new ordination system that allowed for the reception of the Bodhisattva precepts, which permitted one to become a bhikkhu, or monk, within the framework of the Mahāyāna tradition. This marked the formation of the Japanese "Mahāyāna ordination platform" (dai jō kaidan), which was distinct from the Vinaya traditions of the Nara schools.

However, Saichō faced significant challenges. During his years of study, many of his early disciples left Mount Hiei, either defecting to the Hosso school or studying Esoteric Buddhism with Kūkai. Despite these challenges, Saichō continued to promote the integration of Esoteric practices within the Tendai system. He envisioned the practice of both exoteric (Lotus Sutra) and esoteric teachings as fundamental to the path of enlightenment. Yet, over time, Saichō began to realize that his vision of enmitsu itchi was not fully shared by Kūkai, particularly regarding the esoteric precepts and the nature of transmission.

The relationship between Saichō and Kūkai eventually began to deteriorate due to differing interpretations of Esoteric practice and the role of secret teachings. Saichō’s commitment to maintaining the open study of Esoteric texts and his disagreements with Kūkai's exclusive and secretive approach to Esoteric Buddhism led to a public split. The split between Saichō and Kūkai had a lasting impact on the development of both Tendai and Shingon Buddhism in Japan.

Buddha-nature

A central tenet of Saichō's Tendai teaching was the idea that "all sentient beings have Buddha-nature" (一切衆生悉有仏性, issai shujō shitsu u busshō), which expresses a key teaching of the Lotus and Nirvana Sutras which sees all beings as having the universal potential to become Buddhas. While previous Nara schools, including the Hossō school, acknowledged this to some extent, Saichō and the Hossō school engaged in intense debates over their interpretation of buddha-nature. This was most famously discussed in Saichō's debate with Yogacara scholar Tokuitsu.

Tokuitsu, while acknowledging universal Buddhahood, supported the theory of the five natures (or lineages), which posits that some beings (especially the icchantikas) lack the capacity to manifest buddha-nature through practice due to their "gotra" (lineage), a key theory found in Yogacara treatises. Saichō criticized this position as containing elements of Hinayana and asserted that all beings can attain Buddhahood as taught in the Lotus Sutra. He further rejected the common Buddhist view that only exceptional beings like Shakyamuni could attain Buddhahood through their heroic bodhisattva practices and instead emphasized that "those who believe in the Buddha-nature of all beings, engage in altruistic practices, and advance on the path to Buddhahood are true Bodhisattvas".

Saichō's view went further than this soteriological universalism, since he relied closely on Zhanran's view of Buddha nature as an all-pervasive reality that also includes insentient things (like mountains, rivers etc). Building on Zhanran's thought, Saichō incorporated the idea that insentient things inherently possess Buddha-nature. Zhanran's Tiantai doctrine proposed that the distinction between sentient and insentient beings is ultimately illusory, as all phenomena are included in ultimate reality, the realm of suchness (Tathātā). According to Zhanran, Buddha-nature pervades all things through the principle of mutual inclusion, in which each dharma realm contains all others. This perspective extends the nature of enlightenment to include inanimate objects by affirming that insentient things possess the threefold Buddha-nature. Saichō drew from this framework to reinforce his view that the dynamic expression of suchness actively manifests in the phenomenal world, further aligning his thought with the Tiantai doctrines of the middle and the One Vehicle.

Saichō's understanding of Buddha-nature also reflects influences from Huayan Buddhism, particularly the thought of Fazang and possibly Saichō's first Japanese teacher Gyōhyō 行表 (722–797). Huayan doctrine had begun to be influential on continental Tiantai during this time (as can be seen in Saichō's teacher Daosui). Saichō had also studied Huayan in Japan before his trip to China. Central to Saichō's view is the belief that suchness, as a universal reality, possesses both a static and a dynamic aspect (as taught in the Awakening of Faith and in Fazang's commentary). Saichō linked the dynamic expression of suchness, referred to as "active buddha-nature" (gyō-busshō), to the phenomenal world. This view emphasizes that all beings have the potential to realize Buddhahood, a perspective that integrates Tiantai notions of non-dual mutual inclusion with Huayan ideas of nature-origination (which sees buddha-nature as a basis for all reality). Saichō's emphasis on the universality of suchness allowed him to extend the concept of Buddha-nature beyond all sentient beings to include the entire phenomenal world.

This doctrine is also referred to as "Suchness according with conditions" (shinnyo zuien 真如随縁) and can also be found in Zhanran's Diamond Scalpel.

Lopez and Stone describe Saichō's Huayan (J. Kegon) influenced view of Buddha-nature as follows:

Saichō, the Japanese Tendai founder, countered in part by drawing on Huayan (J. Kegon) thinkers to argue that suchness has not only a quiescent aspect as universal principle (fuhen shinnyo), but also a dynamic aspect that manifests itself as the concrete forms of the phenomenal world (zuien shinnyo). He also maintained that suchness has the nature of realizing and knowing. Thus, there was no need to postulate seeds in the store consciousness of only certain individuals as the cause of buddhahood. Saichō equated suchness in its dynamic aspect with active buddha nature, and because suchness is universal, everyone has the potential to realize buddhahood.

By integrating these insights, Saichō developed a unique perspective on Buddha-nature that elevated the empirical world as a vital sphere of enlightenment, in which, as the Huayan sutra states, “countless realms preach the dharma. The land preaches the dharma. And living beings preach the dharma.” Saichō teachings on buddha-nature contributed to the distinctive character of Japanese Tendai thought, becoming especially important in medieval Tendai original enlightenment theory. This current had a significant impact on later Japanese Buddhism.

Bodhisattva precepts and new ordination system

Saichō initiated a significant reform of Buddhist monastic ordination by advocating for the sole use of Mahāyāna bodhisattva precepts in place of the traditional Hīnayāna vinaya precepts. This reform was central to his vision of establishing a purely Mahāyāna tradition in Japan, distinct from the Nara schools that relied on the Dharmaguptaka vinaya. Saichō’s reforms were deeply influenced by the Brahma Net Sutra (Fanwang jing), and the *Lotus Sutra*, which became foundational to Tendai interpretations of the precepts.

The Brahma Net Sutra provided a set of ten major and forty-eight minor bodhisattva precepts, which Saichō adopted as the basis for ordination. However, the Lotus Sutra also played a crucial role in shaping Tendai views on the precepts. While the Lotus Sutra does not explicitly outline precepts in the form of rules, its teachings were interpreted by Tendai monks to support a wide range of positions on monastic discipline, from strict adherence to the vinaya to the complete transcendence of formal precepts.

Saichō’s choice to set aside the vinaya precepts was rooted in his interpretation of the Lotus Sutra as the ultimate expression of the Buddha's teachings. In his early biography, the Eizan Daishi den, Saichō is quoted as vowing to non longer follow the 250 Hīnayāna precepts, since they are mainly for śrāvakas. Instead, he emphasized the bodhisattva path as articulated in the Lotus Sutra, which he believed revealed the true intent of the Buddha's teachings. This perspective was further supported by passages in the Lotus Sutra, such as the “Comfortable Practices” (anrakugyō) chapter, which admonishes practitioners to avoid association with śrāvakas.

Saichō’s reforms laid the groundwork for the development of the “Perfect-Sudden Precepts” (endonkai), a concept that became central to Tendai monasticism. These precepts were understood as being rooted in the Lotus Sutra and were seen as encompassing both the form and spirit of Mahāyāna practice. The Perfect-Sudden Precepts were interpreted as expressions of the inherent Buddha-nature within all beings. This view allowed for a more flexible approach to monastic discipline, emphasizing the intention behind actions rather than strict adherence to formal precepts.

One of Saichō’s most significant achievements was his successful petition to establish a Mahāyāna precept platform (kaidan) on Mount Hiei. This platform was intended to serve as the site for conferring the bodhisattva precepts on Tendai monks, thereby creating a distinct ordination lineage. The establishment of the platform was a direct challenge to the Nara schools, which controlled the traditional vinaya ordination platforms. Despite strong opposition, Saichō’s efforts were posthumously approved by the imperial court in 822, and the platform was constructed in 827. The Mahāyāna precept platform allowed for the ordination of monks solely based on bodhisattva precepts. Later Japanese Buddhist schools, including Zen and Pure Land, eventually adopted similar ordination practices.

Saichō’s new model of monastic ordination became the standard for Buddhist ordination in many schools of Japanese Buddhism that developed out of Tendai, including Jōdo-shū, Rinzai and Sōtō Zen. Over time, the bodhisattva precepts were adapted and reinterpreted, leading to a more flexible approach to monastic discipline that allowed for the integration of lay practitioners and the eventual acceptance of married clergy. Even the schools which promoted the keeping of Vinaya precepts, like the Risshū school, or the schools which did not make use of bodhisattva precepts at all, like Jōdo Shinshū, cited Saichō's writings on the precepts, if only to defend themselves and explain why they did not agree with it.