. godai’in annen 771
of Taimitsu doctrines. Here Annen presented his conception of Bud-
dhism in the form of a novel doctrinal classification, known as the
“four ones” (shiichi kyōhan ). He analyzed Buddhist teach-
ings according to four similarly structured categories—buddha, time,
place, and teaching—and argued that Shingon asserts an all-encom-
passing reality consisting of one buddha (ichibutsu ), one time
(ichiji ), one place (issho ), and one teaching (ichigyō ).
The innumerable buddhas that have appeared in the word, all the peri-
ods and the buddha lands in which they have preached, and all Bud-
dhist teachings are subsumed in the category “esoteric Buddhism”:
The buddha who is without beginning and without end and constantly
abides from the origin is called “all buddhas” (issaibutsu); the nondis-
criminating time (byōdō no ji) without beginning and without end is
called “all times” (issaiji); the palace of the Dharma world without center
and without extremities is called “all places” (issaisho); the teaching that
permeates all vehicles [of the Dharma] and makes one’s mind attain
buddhahood is called “all teachings” (issaikyō). (T. 2396.75:374a)This is an ontological interpretation that sees reality from an absolute
perspective and affirms the suchness (shinnyo ) of all phenom-
ena. Because of its inclusiveness, it stands in contrast to the relative
evaluation of the Buddhist doctrines addressed elsewhere. While his
predecessors included the esoteric teachings in the last period of the
Buddha’s preaching, Annen conceived of an eternal time of the Bud-
dha that both went beyond and contained the five periods of Tiantai
classification. Indeed, the emphasis on an infinite temporal dimension
may be the most original aspect of Annen’s contribution. Ultimately,
the purpose of Annen’s system was the unification of the diverse forms
that Buddhist truth may take in a single Buddhism, rooted in the eso-
teric understanding of reality and informed by Taimitsu categories.
In this sense, the appellations “Shingon” or “Shingonshū” ,
which Annen uses also in the title of this work, indicates the entirety
of esoteric Buddhism and, by extension, the totality of the Buddhist
experience.
Annen’s hermeneutics drew evidence from two Taimitsu canonical
sources: the first chapter of the Commentary on the Darijing, which
asserted that Mahāvairocana was omnipresent, and therefore innumer-
able buddhas performed an innumerable number of the three secret
activities in innumerable lands and times; and Ennin’s Commentary
on the Jin’gangding jing, which first proposed the idea of a doctrine