Kegon

The Kegon - Shuu (Japanese华 厳 宗; German about "school of Buddha glorifying of flowers " ) is a school of Buddhism in Japan. It originated as a Japanese equivalent of the Chinese Huayan. As for this is considered to be basic text of the Kegon shū the Daihōkōbutsu Kegongyō ( Skt. Buddhāvataṃsakamahāvaipulya - sūtra ), in short: Kegon - kyō ( Avatamsaka Sutra ).

History

As the founder of Kegon shū applies its own according to tradition, the Korean monk Sim -sang ( -740 or 742; ?审 祥Chinese, Pinyin Shenxiang, W.-G. Shen -hsiang, Japanese Shinjō ), a disciple of Fa Cang or. Fazang ( 643-712; chinese法 藏, Pinyin Fǎzàng, W.-G. Fa - tsang, Japanese HOZO oderKenju Daishi ); himself a disciple of Zhi Yan ( 602-668 ;智 俨Chinese, Pinyin zhìyǎn, W.-G. chih -yen, Japanese Chigon ); in turn, students of the Huayan - founder of You Shun ( 557-640 ;杜 顺Chinese, Pinyin Dùshùn, W.-G. Tu -shun, Japanese Tojun ) was.

However, Sim -sang died the year of his arrival in Japan, and previously Dao Xuan ( 702-760; jap doses) had brought in 736 Kegon teachings to Nara. Parts of the Kegon - kyō were also already 722 known in Japan. However, the official date is still the year 743, in which the Shōmu moved - tennō described the Kegon - kyō in an imperial edict as the principal Sutra of the country.

Special support was given the Kegon shū by the Shōmu moved - tennō that made her the huge temple complex built Todai -ji and this made ​​it one of the most powerful temples in Nara. The construction work lasted from 741 to 752 The costs incurred were so enormous that they brought the state budget to collapse. The inauguration ceremony was attended by tens of thousands of monks and nuns, including even guests from India. First Head of the Todai -ji was robes ( 689-773 ), confidant of Shōmu moved and students from Gien ( 644-728; representatives of Hosso Shuu ).

End of the 8th century, the importance of school, however, was already only marginally, especially since their teachings hardly be distinguished from those of the Sanron shū and with those of the Hosso shū could not measure. In the Heian period it was then completely dominated by the teachings of the Tendai shū.

From the 12th to the 14th century, the Kegon shū then experienced three smaller Auflebungen. This happened for the first time under Myoe (1173-1232 ;明 恵, also koben (高 弁) ), who established a Kegon study center in Kozan -ji on Mount Toganoo, polemic against the teachings amidistischen honing and so prominent supporters such as the Go - Toba tennō and Shikken Hōjō Yasutoki found. The second restoration was the Todai -ji to the center, where sōsho (1202-1292; well shusho ;圣 守), the intensely devoted to studies of Maitreya (Jap. Miroku ), as well as voluminous biographies of numerous honorable monks and their deeds written. Sōshōs students Gyōnen (1240-1321 ;凝 然), as well as his Master of the family of the Fujiwara, began the time being last revival of the Kegon faith. Under the auspices of the Go -Uda tennō he studied at Kaidan in the Todai -ji. He wrote pamphlets to almost any school of thought in Buddhism, as well as historical treatises. His work is approximately 1,200 letters to the most important of which include the 1286 completed and consisting of two fascicles Hasshū Koyo (八 宗 纲要), in which the story of the six schools of Nara Buddhism and the two schools of Heian Buddhism is told.

After this short period of individual Revives the Kegon shū sank to the present day back to as far as possible irrelevance. Their theoretical foundations should, however, like the always continue to have influence on Buddhism in Japan by all the Nara schools, such as for the resulting in the 12th century Yuzu Nembutsu- Shuu (融通 念 仏 宗).

Teaching

Central teachings of the Kegon shū relate to the concept of the totality of all that exists. So everything is entangled with everything (事 々 无碍, jiji muge ): Each part of the world thus changes the entire rest of the world if he changes himself. This corresponds to a four-fold division of hokkai (Chinese法界, Pinyin fǎjiè, W.-G. fa -chieh, worlds of Dharma '):

To what extent is the primacy of the totality of all that exists ontologically, epistemologically, or merely to be understood aesthetically, remained in the reception up to the present controversy ..

Another, also adopted by the Huayan doctrine states that the Buddha nature all being zukomme, enlightenment, therefore, at any time and at any place is possible in principle, according to the eighth Relations type of Kegon doctrine of the ten mysterious additions ( jūgemmon ) or the Conditional creation of the mysterious Ten ( Jugen - engi ), in which the relations of the individual phenomena are presented together, which in turn corresponds to the doctrine of the six characteristics of the Dharma, all fully harmonize with the whole ( rokusō - ennyū ).