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Sōtō School
Sōtō Zen or is the largest of the three traditional sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism (the others being Rinzai school, Rinzai and Ōbaku). It is the Japanese line of the Chinese Caodong school, Cáodòng school, which was founded during the Tang dynasty by Dongshan Liangjie, Dòngshān Liángjiè. It emphasizes Shikantaza, meditation with no objects, anchors, or content. The meditator strives to be aware of the stream of thoughts, allowing them to arise and pass away without interference. The Japanese brand of the sect was imported in the 13th century by Dōgen Zenji, who studied Caodong, Cáodòng Buddhism () abroad in China. Dōgen is remembered today as the ancestor of Sōtō Zen in Japan along with Keizan, Keizan Jōkin. With about 14,000 temples, Sōtō is one of the largest Japanese Buddhist organizations. Sōtō Zen is now also popular in the West, and in 1996 priests of the Sōtō Zen tradition formed the Soto Zen Buddhist Association based in North America. Histor ...
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Japanese Buddhism
Buddhism was first established in Japan in the 6th century CE. Most of the Japanese Buddhists belong to new schools of Buddhism which were established in the Kamakura period (1185-1333). During the Edo period (1603–1868), Buddhism was controlled by the feudal Shogunate. The Meiji period (1868–1912) saw a strong response against Buddhism, with persecution and a forced separation between Buddhism and Shinto ('' Shinbutsu bunri''). The largest sects of Japanese Buddhism are Pure Land Buddhism with 22 million believers, followed by Nichiren Buddhism with 10 million believers, Shingon Buddhism with 5.4 million, Zen Buddhism with 5.3 million, Tendai Buddhism with 2.8 million, and only about 700,000 for the six old schools established in the Nara period (710-794). History Early Buddhism (5th-13th century) Arrival and initial spread of Buddhism Originating in India, Buddhism arrived in Japan by first making its way to China and Korea through the Silk Road and then tr ...
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Song Of The Precious Mirror Samadhi
The ''Song of the Precious Mirror Samadhi'' (; ; also translated as ''Song of the Jeweled Mirror Samadhi'' and ''Sacred Mirror Samadhi'') is a Zen poem in Classical Chinese that appeared during the Song dynasty. The work is often attributed to Dongshan Liangjie (Japanese: Tōzan Ryōkai), the co-founder of the Caodong/Sōtō branch of Zen Buddhism, although modern research suggests this is unlikely. Dating and attribution The poem is first mentioned in Juefan Huihong's biographical compilation of 1119, the ''Chanlin sengbao zhuan'' (''Chronicle of the Sangha Sangha or saṃgha () is a term meaning "association", "assembly", "company" or "community". In a political context, it was historically used to denote a governing assembly in a republic or a kingdom, and for a long time, it has been used b ... Treasure in the Groves of Chan''), written over 200 years after Dongshan Liangjie's death. Huihong, however, does not attribute the poem to Dongshan. He writes instead that t ...
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Kyoto
Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it the List of cities in Japan, ninth-most populous city in Japan. More than half (56.8%) of Kyoto Prefecture's population resides in the city. The city is the cultural anchor of the substantially larger Greater Kyoto, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) home to a census-estimated 3.8 million people. It is also part of the even larger Keihanshin, Keihanshin metropolitan area, along with Osaka and Kobe. Kyoto is one of the oldest municipalities in Japan, having been chosen in 794 as the new seat of Japan's imperial court by Emperor Kanmu. The original city, named Heian-kyō, was arranged in accordance with traditional Chinese feng shui following the model of the ancient Chinese capitals of Chang'an and Luoyang. The emperors of Japan ruled fro ...
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Kennin-ji
is a historic Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan, and head temple of its associated branch of Rinzai Buddhism. It is considered to be one of the so-called Kyoto ''Gozan'' or "five most important Zen temples of Kyoto". History Kennin-ji was founded in 1202 CE and claims to be the oldest Zen temple in Kyoto. The temple was a replica of public Chinese monasteries found Zhejiang Province, which Japanese monks often frequented during the thirteenth century. The monk Eisai, credited with introducing Zen to Japan, served as Kennin-ji's founding abbot and is buried on the temple grounds. For its first years the temple combined Zen, Tendai, and Shingon practices, but it became a purely Zen institution under the eleventh abbot, (1213–1278). However, the various elements that Eisai is said to have adopted from Japanese Tendai were actually elements associated with Chan Buddhism from the public monasteries of the Song dynasty. Ground plans from the Song dynasty still exist for thr ...
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Ch'an
Chan (; of ), from Sanskrit '' dhyāna'' (meaning "meditation" or "meditative state"), is a Chinese school of Mahāyāna Buddhism. It developed in China from the 6th century CE onwards, becoming especially popular during the Tang and Song dynasties. Chan is the originating tradition of Zen Buddhism (the Japanese pronunciation of the same character, which is the most commonly used English name for the school). Chan Buddhism spread from China south to Vietnam as Thiền and north to Korea as Seon, and, in the 13th century, east to Japan as Japanese Zen. History The historical records required for a complete, accurate account of early Chan history no longer exist. Periodisation The history of Chan in China can be divided into several periods. Zen, as we know it today, is the result of a long history, with many changes and contingent factors. Each period had different types of Zen, some of which remained influential, while others vanished. Andy Ferguson distinguishes thre ...
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Eiheiji
250px is one of two main temples of the Sōtō school of Zen Buddhism, the largest single religious denomination in Japan (by number of temples in a single legal entity). The other is Sōji-ji in Yokohama. Eihei-ji is located about east of Fukui in Fukui Prefecture, Japan. In English, its name means "temple of eternal peace" (in Japanese, 'ei' means "eternal", 'hei' means "peaceful", and 'ji' means "Buddhist temple"). Its founder was Eihei Dōgen, who brought Sōtō Zen from China to Japan during the 13th century. The ashes of Dōgen and a memorial to him are in the ''Jōyōden'' (the Founder's Hall) at Eihei-ji. William Bodiford of UCLA writes that, "The rural monastery Eiheiji in particular aggrandized Dōgen to bolster its own authority ''vis-à-vis'' its institutional rivals within the Sōtō denomination." Eihei-ji is a training monastery with more than two hundred monks and nuns in residence. As of 2003, Eihei-ji had 800,000 visitors per year, less than half the number ...
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Meihō Sotetsu
(1277-1350) was a Japanese Sōtō Zen monk who lived during the late Kamakura period and early Muromachi period. He practiced with Keizan Jōkin, often considered the second most important figure in Sōtō Zen after Eihei Dōgen, for twenty-nine years and ultimately became his primary successor. Meihō began his time with Keizan in 1294 at the temple Daijōji in Kanazawa. Keizan's teacher, Tettsū Gikai, remained abbot of Daijōji until 1298, when the abbotship passed to Keizan. Though retired, Gikai remained at Daijōji until his death in 1309. Gikai had familial ties with the Togashi family that patronized Daijōji; when he died, frictions apparently ensued between the Togashi family and Keizan. About two years after Gikai's death, in the tenth month of 1311, Keizan gave the abbotship of Daijōji to Meihō, along with Dōgen's '' okesa'' that had been handed on to him from Gikai in 1295. He claimed that Meihō had been Gikai's true choice for the position. Keizan left to found ...
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Gasan Jōseki
Gasan Jōseki (峨山韶碩 1275–23 November 1366) was a Japanese people, Japanese Soto Zen monk. He was a disciple of Keizan Jokin, and his students included Bassui Tokushō, Taigen Sōshin, Tsūgen Jakurei, Mutan Sokan, Daisetsu Sōrei, and Jippō Ryōshū. Later, he was designated the 2nd head of Sojiji Temple. 1275 births 1366 deaths Zen Buddhist monks Japanese Buddhist clergy Soto Zen Buddhists Buddhist clergy of the Kamakura period {{zen-bio-stub ...
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Jakuen
Jìyuán (寂円, 1207 – 8 October 1299), better known to Buddhist scholars by his Japanese name Jakuen, was a Chinese Zen Buddhist monk and a disciple of Rujing. Most of his life is known to us only through medieval hagiography, legends, and sectarian works. It is generally agreed, though, that during his time at Tiāntóng Mountain he befriended Dōgen who was also studying under Rujing. After Rujing's death in 1228, Jakuen immigrated to Japan in order to join his friend's emerging Sōtō school, but did not receive dharma transmission from Dōgen directly, rather his disciple Koun Ejō. Jakuen outlived Dōgen and became embroiled in the '' sandai sōron'', a dispute over orthodoxy and succession. In 1261 he left Eihei-ji, leaving the other monks to resolve the power struggle amongst themselves, but allegedly taking with him many treasures of Eihei-ji entrusted to him by Dōgen. He arrived on a remote mountain in Fukui prefecture, where he became famous to the lo ...
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Tettsū Gikai
is the third spiritual leader of the Sōtō Zen school of Buddhism in Japan. He began his Buddhist life as a student of the Darumashū's Ekan, but later both became students of Eihei Dōgen's newly established Sōtō school. Gikai received dharma transmission from Koun Ejō, Dōgen's successor, and later became the third abbot of the school's head temple, Eihei-ji. Shortly thereafter, he became embroiled in a leadership crisis known as the ''sandai sōron''. Other monks contended that other students, namely Jakuen, Gien or Giin, had stronger claims to the abbacy. The controversy remained unresolved at the time of his death. His abbacy was unpopular with some monks because he introduced innovative practices aimed at making Sōtō more palatable with the Japanese laity, which some claimed Dōgen would have frowned upon. However, he also had many followers, and eventually his innovations became the standard form of Sōtō Zen. His leadership marked the first geographical expansion of ...
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Yōkō Senne
(fl. 13th century), more often known simply as Senne (詮慧), was a Japanese Sōtō Zen monk who lived during the Kamakura period and was an important disciple of his sect's founder, Eihei Dōgen. Initially a monk in the Tendai school, he later joined Dōgen at his first monastery, Kōshōhōrin-ji. He would go on to become Dōgen's attendant (''jisha'') there, and he later compiled the first and ninth volumes of Dōgen's collected works known as ''Eihei Kōroku''. He is one of a small number of students believed to have received dharma transmission from Dōgen, along with Koun Ejō and Sōkai. According to legend, Dōgen even gave Senne the kāṣāya, or dharma robe, of Furong Daokai, a famous 11th century Chinese Zen master, which had in turn been allegedly given to Dōgen by his teacher Tiantong Rujing. After Dōgen's death, Senne returned to Kyoto and founded his own temple called Yōkōji (永興寺; not to be confused with the Yōkōji founded by Keizan on the Noto Peni ...
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