see it as a dangerous antinomianism that undermines
both religious discipline and moral standards. Begin-
ning around the 1980s an intellectual movement
known as CRITICALBUDDHISM(HIHANBUKKYO) has
denounced original enlightenment thought as an au-
thoritarian ideology that, by sacralizing all things just
as they are, in effect bolsters the status quo and legit-
imates social injustice. Such sweeping polemical
claims, however, have tended to inflate the term orig-
inal enlightenmentbeyond its usefulness as an analytic
category and to ignore its specific historical context
within medieval Tendai.
Terms and texts
No scholarly consensus exists as to the best way to
translate the word hongaku.In addition to “original
enlightenment,” the expressions “original awakening,”
“innate awakening,” “primordial enlightenment,” and
others are also used (for the pros and cons of various
translations, see Jacqueline I. Stone, Original Enlight-
enment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese
Buddhism,p. 369, n. 1). The term original enlighten-
menthas its locus classicus in the AWAKENING OFFAITH
(DASHENG QIXIN LUN), attributed to the Indian master
AS ́VAGHOSA(ca. 100 C.E.), but was probably composed
in China around the sixth century. There, original en-
lightenment (Chinese, benjue; Japanese, hongaku)
refers to the potential for enlightenment even in de-
luded persons, and forms a triad with the terms
nonenlightenment(bujue, fukaku), the deluded state
of those ignorant of that potential, and acquired en-
lightenment(shijue, shikaku), the actualizing of that
potential through Buddhist practice. In medieval
Japanese Tendai literature, however, original enlight-
enmentno longer denotes merely a potential but in-
dicates the true status of all things just as they are.
Original enlightenment thought as a distinct Tendai
intellectual tradition appears to have had its inception
around the mid-eleventh century, when hongaku
teachings began to be passed down from master to dis-
ciple in the form of oral transmissions (kuden). Even-
tually, these transmissions were written down in a few
sentences on single sheets of paper called kirikami,
which were in turn compiled to form larger texts, at-
tributed retrospectively to great Tendai masters of the
past, such as SAICHO(767–822), ENNIN(794–864), or
GENSHIN(942–1017). Thus the precise dating of any
specific collection, or of the ideas contained in it, is ex-
tremely difficult. In the thirteenth through fourteenth
centuries, the doctrines of these oral transmission col-
lections began to be systematized; Tendai scholars also
began to produce commentaries on traditional Tiantai
texts and on the LOTUSSUTRA(SADDHARMAPUNDARIKA-
SUTRA) itself, reinterpreting them from a hongakuper-
spective. It is only from about the fourteenth to
fifteenth centuries that the dating and authorship of
some of this literature can be established with relative
certainty.Major ideas
Original enlightenment doctrine has been described as
a pinnacle in the development of MAHAYANAconcepts
of nonduality. In particular, it is indebted to the great
totalistic visions of the HUAYAN SCHOOL and the
TIANTAI SCHOOL, in which all things, being empty of
fixed substance, interpenetrate and encompass one an-
other. Another important influence on the develop-
ment of original enlightenment doctrine was tantric
Buddhism, particularly its claim that all phenomena—
forms, colors, sounds, and so on—are the activities of
a primordial or cosmic Buddha who pervades the uni-
verse. The noted scholar Tamura Yoshiro(1921–1989)
observed that, in original enlightenment thought, the
absolute realm of abstract truth or principle (ri) and
the conventional realm of concrete actualities (ji) are
conflated. In other words, there is no reality beneath,
behind, or prior to the phenomenal world; the
moment-to-moment arising and perishing of all things,
just as they are, are valorized absolutely as the expres-
sions of original enlightenment. This idea is commonly
expressed by such phrases as “all dharmas are the bud-
dhadharma,” “the defilements are none other than en-
lightenment,” and “SAMSARA is none other than
NIRVANA.”
From this perspective, the buddhas represented in
the sutras, radiating light and endowed with excellent
marks, are merely provisional signs to inspire the un-
enlightened. The “real” buddha is all ordinary beings.
Indeed, “he” is not a person at all, whether historical
or mythic, but the true aspect of all things. This bud-
dha is said to be “unproduced,” without beginning or
end; to “constantly abide,” being always present; and
to “transcend august attributes,” having no indepen-
dent form apart from all phenomena just as they are.
This view of the buddha is associated with the “origin
teaching” (honmon) of the Lotus Sutra,which describes
S ́akyamuni Buddha as having first achieved awakening
at some point in the unimaginably distant past. Rein-
terpreted from the standpoint of hongakuthought, this
initial attainment by S ́akyamuni in the remote past be-
comes a metaphor for the beginningless original en-
lightenment innate in all.ORIGINALENLIGHTENMENT(HONGAKU)