Kegon-shu

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Kegon-shū ( Japanese華 厳 宗; dt. About "School of the flowers glorifying Buddha") is a school of Buddhism in Japan . It originated as a Japanese counterpart to the Chinese Huayan zong . As for these, the basic text of the Kegon-shū is the Daihōkōbutsu Kegongyō ( Skt. Buddhāvataṃsakamahāvaipulya-sūtra ), in short: Kegon-kyō ( Avatamsaka-Sutra ).

history

According to their own tradition, the founder of Kegon-shū is considered to be the Korean monk Sim-sang (? –740 or 742; Chinese  審 祥 , Pinyin Shěnxiáng , W.-G. Shen-hsiang , Japanese Shinjō ), a student of Fa Cang or . Fazang (643-712; Chinese  法藏 , Pinyin Fǎzàng , W.-G. Fa Tsang , Jap. HOZO or Kenju Daishi ); himself a student of Zhi Yan (602–668; Chinese  智 儼 , Pinyin zhìyǎn , W.-G. chih-yen , Japanese Chigon ); who in turn was a student of the Huayan founder Du Shun (557–640; Chinese  杜 順 , Pinyin Dùshùn , W.-G. Tu-shun , Japanese Tojun ).

Sim-sang died in the year of his arrival in Japan, and before that, Dao Xuan (702-760; Japanese dōsen ) had already brought Kegon teachings to Nara in 736 . Parts of the Kegon-kyō were also known in Japan in 722. The year 743 is still the official date of foundation, when the Shōmu -tennō described the Kegon-kyō in an imperial edict as the country's principal sutra.

The Kegon-shū received special support from the Shōmu-tennō, who had the huge temple complex Tōdai-ji built and made it one of the most powerful temples in Nara. The construction work lasted from 741 to 752. The costs involved were so enormous that they brought the state budget to collapse. Ten thousand monks and nuns attended the dedication ceremony, including guests from India. First head of Tōdai-ji was robes (689-773), confidant of Shōmu moved and students of Gien (644-728; representatives of the East Asian Yogācāra ).

At the end of the 8th century, however, the importance of the school was only marginal, especially since its teachings hardly differed from those of the Sanron-shū and could not compete with those of the Hossō-shū. In the Heian period she was then completely dominated by the teachings of the Tendai-shu .

From the 12th to the 14th centuries, the Kegon-shū experienced three smaller revivals. This happened for the first time under Myōe (1173-1232; 明 恵; also Kōben (高 弁)), who set up a Kegon study center in Kōzan-ji on Mount Toganoo, polemicized against the amidist teachings of Hōnens and made such prominent followers as the Go -Toba -tennō and the Shikken Hōjō Yasutoki found. The second restoration had the Tōdai-ji as the center, where Sōshō (1202-1292; also Shūshō ; 聖 守), who devoted himself to intensive studies of Maitreya (Japanese Miroku), as well as voluminous biographies of numerous, honorable monks and their deeds wrote . Sōshō's pupil Gyōnen (1240-1321; 凝 然), as well as his master from the Fujiwara family , initiated the last revival of the Kegon faith for the time being. Under the auspices of Go-Uda- tennō he studied at the Kaidan-in des Tōdai-ji. He wrote writings on almost every school direction in Buddhism, as well as historical treatises. His work amounts to around 1,200 writings, one of the most important of which is the Hasshū kōyō (八 宗 綱要), completed in 1286 and consisting of two fascicles, which tells the story of the six schools of Nara Buddhism and the two schools of Heian Buddhism is told.

After this short period of individual revivals, the Kegon-shū sank again into the greatest possible insignificance up to the present. However, like all Nara schools, their theoretical foundations should always have an influence on Buddhism in Japan . B. for the Yūzū Nembutsu-shū (融通 念 仏 宗), which originated in the 12th century .

Teaching

Central teachings of the Kegon-shū concern the concept of the totality of all beings. So everything is intertwined with everything (事 々 無礙, jiji muge ): Every part of the world changes the entire rest of the world when it changes itself. This corresponds to a four-fold division of the hokkai ( Chinese  法界 , Pinyin fǎjiè , W.-G. fa-chieh  - "worlds of Dharma "):

  1. Ji hokkai (Dharma world of phenomena): the usual point of view, all individual appearances are presented as being substantial.
  2. Ri hokkai (Dharma World of Universal Truth): the intuitive point of view, the basis of all being is presented as empty .
  3. Riji muge hokkai (Dharma world of the unity of phenomena with the Universal Truth): the enlightened point of view, the voidness is presented as identical with the individual appearances.
  4. Jiji muge hokkai (Dharma world of the unity of phenomenon and phenomenon): the profound Kegon standpoint, all individual appearances are not only identical with emptiness (and thus with the totality of the tathatā ), but also with all other individual appearances.

The extent to which the primacy of the totality of all beings is to be understood ontologically, epistemologically or merely aesthetically has remained controversial in reception up to the present day.

Another states also from the Huayan doctrine assumed that the Buddha nature TO ISSUE all beings, enlightenment was therefore in principle possible at any time and any place, according to the eighth Relations type of Kegon doctrine of the ten mysterious additions ( jūgemmon the) or Conditional emergence of the mysterious ten ( jūgen-engi ), in which the relationships between the individual phenomena are presented, which in turn corresponds to the doctrine of the six properties of the Dharma, all of which harmonize completely with the whole ( rokusō-ennyū ).

literature

  • Thomas Cleary (trans.): The Flower Ornament Scripture: A Translation of the Avatamsaka Sūtra (1993). ISBN 0-87773-940-4
  • Daigan Lee Matsunaga and Alicia Orloff Matsunaga: Foundation of Japanese Buddhism; Vol. I; The aristocratic age . Buddhist Books International, Los Angeles and Tokyo 1974. ISBN 0-914910-25-6 .
  • Daigan Lee Matsunaga and Alicia Orloff Matsunaga: Foundation of Japanese Buddhism; Vol. II; The mass movement (Kamakura & Muromachi periods) . Buddhist Books International, Los Angeles and Tokyo 1976. ISBN 0-914910-27-2 .
  • Bunyiu Nanjio: A Short History of the Twelve Japanese Buddhist Sects, Bukkyo-sho-ei-yaku -shuppan-sha, Tokyo 1886. Internet Archive (PDF 9.3 MB)
  • Gregor Paul: Philosophy in Japan: from the beginning to the Heian period; a critical investigation . Iudicium, Munich 1993. ISBN 3-89129-426-3 .
  • Torakazu Doi: Kegon Sutra. The Flower Garland Sutra. Volume I. Angkor Verlag, Frankfurt 2008. ISBN 978-3-936018-32-5 .
  • Torakazu Doi: Kegon Sutra. The Flower Garland Sutra. Volume II. Angkor Verlag, Frankfurt 2008. ISBN 978-3-936018-33-2 .