Precepts, Ordinations, and Practice in Medieval Japanese Tendai / / Paul Groner; ed. by Robert E. Buswell.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter EBOOK PACKAGE COMPLETE 2022 English
• VerfasserIn: Groner, Paul,
• HerausgeberIn: Buswell, Robert E.,
• MitwirkendeR: Jones, Charles B.,; Stone, Jacqueline,
• Place / Publishing House: Honolulu : : University of Hawaii Press, , [2022]; ©2022
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Series: Kuroda Studies in East Asian Buddhism ; 47
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (480 p.) :; 2 b&w illustrations

Modern Japanese Buddhist monks of all denominations differ from those in other Asian countries because they frequently marry, drink alcohol, and eat meat. This has caused Buddhist scholars and practitioners generally to assume that early Japanese monastics had little interest in precepts and ordinations. Some medieval Japanese exegetes, however, were obsessively concerned with these topics as they strove to understand what it meant to be a Buddhist. This landmark collection of essays by Paul Groner, one of the leading authorities on Tendai Buddhism, examines the medieval Tendai School, which dominated Japanese Buddhism at that time, to uncover the differences in understanding and interpreting monastic precepts and ordinations. Rather than provide an unbroken narrative account—made virtually impossible due to the number of undated apocryphal texts and those lost in the numerous fires and warfare that beset Tendai temples as well as the difficulties of tracing how texts were used—Groner employs a multifaceted approach, focusing on individual monks, texts, ceremonies, exegetical problems, and institutional issues. Early chapters look at a major source of Tendai precepts, the apocryphal Brahma’s Net Sutra; the Tendai scholar Annen’s (b. 841) interpretations of the universal bodhisattva precept ordination and the historical background of his commentary on the subject; Tendai perfect-sudden precepts and the Vinaya; and the role of confession in the bodhisattva ordination. Groner goes on to discuss the Lotus Sutra, another key text for Tendai precepts, and the monk Koen (1262–1317) and his role in developing the consecrated ordination, which is still performed today. Later essays introduce Jitsudo Ninku’s (1307–1388) system of training by doctrinal debate and his commentary on ordinations; doctrinal discussions of killing; and Tendai discussions among several lineages on whether the precepts can be lost or violated. Many of the issues discussed in the volume—particularly how to distinguish various types of Buddhist practitioners and how to conduct ordinations—continue to preoccupy Tendai monks centuries later. The book concludes with an examination of the effects of early Tendai precepts on modern practice.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Conventions and Abbreviations -- 1. Introducing the Precepts and Outlining the Chapters of This Book -- 2. The Brahma’s Net Sutra Precepts -- 3. Annen’s Interpretation of the Tendai Ordination: Its Background and Later Influence -- 4. Annen, Tankei, Henjō, and Monastic Discipline in the Tendai School: The Background of Annen’s Futsūju Bosatsukai Kōshaku (Extensive commentary on the universal bodhisattva precept ordination) -- 5. Japanese Tendai Perfect-Sudden Precepts and the Vinaya -- 6. The Role of Confession in Chinese and Japanese Tiantai/Tendai Bodhisattva Ordinations -- 7. The Lotus Sutra and the Perfect-Sudden Precepts -- 8. Kōen and the Consecrated Ordination -- 9. Ritually Embodying the Lotus Sutra: An Interpretation of the Consecrated Ordination in the Kurodani Lineage -- 10. Training through Debates in Medieval Tendai and Seizan-ha Temples -- 11. Jitsudō Ninkū on Ordinations -- 12. Doctrinal Discussions of Killing in Medieval Tendai Texts -- 13. Can the Precepts Be Lost? Can the Precepts Be Violated? The Role of the Record of the Meaning of the Bodhisattva Precepts in Medieval Tendai Discourse -- 14. Summing Up the Medieval Tendai Precepts and Tracing Those Themes to the Modern Period -- Afterword -- Glossary -- Bibliography -- Index -- About the Author