"Dengyō also proposed to set up an ordination platform for administering the great precepts of perfect and immediate enlightenment, such as had never existed in India, China, or Japan in the eighteen hundred years since the Buddha’s passing. Indeed he went farther than this, declaring that the ordination platform at Kannon-ji temple in the western region [of Tsukushi], the ordination platform at Ono-dera temple in the eastern province of Shimotsuke, and the ordination platform at Tōdai-ji temple in the central province of Yamato124 all stank with the foul odor of the Hinayana precepts and were as worthless as broken tile and rubble. And the priests who upheld such precepts, he said, were no better than foxes and monkeys.
In reply, his critics exclaimed: “Ah, how amazing! This thing that looks like a priest must in fact be a great swarm of locusts that has appeared in Japan and is about to gobble up the tender shoots of Buddhism in one swoop. Or perhaps Chou of the Yin dynasty or Chieh of the Hsia has been reborn in Japan in the shape of this priest. Perchance Emperor Wu of the Northern Chou and Emperor Wu-tsung of the T’ang have reappeared in the world. At any moment now, Buddhism may be wiped out and the nation overthrown.”
As for the ordinary people, they clapped their hands in alarm and waggled their tongues, saying, “Whenever the priests of these two types of Buddhism, Mahayana and Hinayana, appear together, they fight like the lord Shakra and the asuras, or like Hsiang Yü and Kao-tsu disputing possession of the kingdom.”
Dengyō’s opponents continued to revile him, saying: “In the time of the Buddha, there were two ordination platforms, one belonging to the Buddha and the other to Devadatta, and a number of people were killed in the dispute over them. This man may well defy the other schools, but he declares that he must set up an ordination platform for administering the precepts of perfect and immediate enlightenment such as even his master, the Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai, was unable to establish. How strange! And how frightening, how frightening!”
But Dengyō had his passages of scripture to support him, and as you know, the Mahayana ordination platform was eventually set up and has been in existence for some time now on Mount Hiei." On Repaying Debts of Gratitude
Look around you. In small towns. In any town or city, in the usa. What do you see
ReplyDeletedon't know where you live, but where I am there are signs of progress --- blue state-- cosmopolitan city= educated people who embrace humanity!
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