Uicheon, the founder of the Korean Tiantai school
Cheontae is the
Korea
Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...
n descendant of the
Chinese Buddhist school
Tiantai. Tiantai was introduced to Korea a couple of times during earlier periods, but was not firmly established until the time of
Uicheon (1055-1101) who established Cheontae in
Goryeo
Goryeo (; ) was a Korean state founded in 918, during a time of national division called the Later Three Kingdoms period, that unified and ruled the Korea, Korean Peninsula until the establishment of Joseon in 1392. Goryeo achieved what has b ...
as an independent school.
Due to Uicheon's influence, it came to be a major force in the world of
Goryeo Buddhism. After he returned from
Song China in 1086, Uicheon sought to ease conflict between the doctrinal Gyo () schools and
Seon () schools, believing that the Cheontae doctrine would be effective to this end. Cheontae doctrine holds the
Lotus Sutra as the peak of the
Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),*
*
*
was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist legends, he was ...
's teachings, and postulates the following:
* All things are empty and without essential
reality
Reality is the sum or aggregate of everything in existence; everything that is not imagination, imaginary. Different Culture, cultures and Academic discipline, academic disciplines conceptualize it in various ways.
Philosophical questions abo ...
.
* All things have a
provisional reality.
* All things are both absolutely unreal and provisionally real at once.
In accordance with the Cheontae doctrine, all experiences in the sensory world are in fact expressions of Buddhist law (
Dharma
Dharma (; , ) is a key concept in various Indian religions. The term ''dharma'' does not have a single, clear Untranslatability, translation and conveys a multifaceted idea. Etymologically, it comes from the Sanskrit ''dhr-'', meaning ''to hold ...
), and therefore contain the key to
enlightenment. This explains the extravagant altars and the
colorful dynamism found at Seon temples using
Dancheong coloring, differing from the austere and monochromatic aesthetic of the
Zen
Zen (; from Chinese: ''Chán''; in Korean: ''Sŏn'', and Vietnamese: ''Thiền'') is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty by blending Indian Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Yogacara and Madhyamaka phil ...
school, intellectually predominant in Japan from the
Kamakura period
The is a period of History of Japan, Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the G ...
onwards.
Cheontae as a school has been largely absorbed into the
Jogye Seon tradition, but an independent Cheontae school has been revived and has an estimated 2 million adherents.
The school's headquarters are at
Guinsa in
Chungcheongbuk-do, near
Danyang. The school also funds and operates the Buddhist university,
Geumgang University.
See also
*
Zhiyi
*
Uicheon
*
Tiantai Buddhism
*
Korean Buddhism
Korean Buddhism is distinguished from other forms of Buddhism by its attempt to resolve what its early practitioners saw as inconsistencies within the Mahayana Buddhist traditions that they received from foreign countries. To address this, they ...
*
Guinsa
*
Ryongtongsa
*
Geumgang University
References
External links
Cheontae(in Korean)
*A. Charles Muller (trans)
Buddhism in Korea
{{Korea-hist-stub