Trying new things is usually a good idea. Change is good.
You have a 10 year old computer?
Time to get a new one.
Been indoors for a month?
Time to go outside.
Been married for 20 years?
Time for a new husband.
In Kamakura Period Japan, a few Buddhist monks had similar thoughts.
And they decided to create what would become the most popular schools of Buddhism in Japanese history.
[Get-Off-My-Lawn Buddhism]
At the time, the Buddhist cinematic universe was dominated by Tendai Buddhism,
and to a lesser extent Shingon Buddhism.
These branches of Buddhism had been around for centuries.
Like your grandparents, they had accumulated years of wisdom and experience.
And like you, the public ignored all that crap.
The problem with the traditional Buddhist schools was they were like the pants of that
girl who sits next to you in class.
They were hard to get into.
Masters passed down teachings to their students one-on-one, bit by bit, in secret, over decades.
It was trickle-down religion.
Students eagerly awaited the occasional droplets of truth trickling down from their masters,
who only released each drop when they deemed their students ready.
Buddhist doctrines were so profound that opening the pipes fully would drown people
in a golden shower of wisdom too vast for them to handle.
It would only cause confusion and misunderstanding.
That’s why Buddhism was a religion of the elites and priests.
Regular people didn’t have the time or education or schmeducation.
Now not all monks were okay with this.
Buddhism was the path to salvation, an escape from the endless cycle of death and rebirth.
It annoyed them that salvation was only open to a few at the top.
That’s why near the end of their careers, government officials and emperors stopped
being people who dabbled in worldly affairs and retired to the monastery,
where they became monks who dabbled in worldly affairs.
Unhappy monks complained that temples were too involved in politics,
they gave too much power to a few elites, they had old ideas, and they didn’t appeal to the masses.
If you want something done right, you have to create a religion yourself.
A few monks split off from mainstream Buddhism and created their own schools.
Three schools won the Squid Game and became major branches of Buddhism themselves.
[Rise of New Buddhism]
The Kamakura Period was a time of great change.
The aristocracy was declining and the warrior class was gaining power.
It was a good time to question authority.
The winds of change swept through Japan, blowing the skirts of the old Buddhist schools up,
revealing their dirty laundry.
The 3 major schools of New Buddhism offered an escape from the BS of the traditional schools.
They were Pure Land, Nichiren, and Zen.
Pure Land had a major branch called True Pure Land,
and the two main branches of Zen were Sōtō and Rinzai.
These schools tried something the Old Buddhist ones didn’t.
Remember, the old path to salvation was narrow, only open to the elites.
The new schools widened the path, trying to convert as many people as possible.
How do you appeal to the masses?
By teaching them the core essence of Buddhism without the superfluous distractions of nonessential doctrines,
which means dumbing things down for these dummies.
They welcomed everyone, and preached that salvation was open to all.
They gave followers simple rituals to attain enlightenment.
Pure Land followers only had to repeat this one line to be saved.
Wait, I don’t need a master to transfer me secret teachings over decades?
Sign me up, Buddhist daddy.
Preachers told tales and showed paintings.
Stories and pictures kept people’s attention better than reading old historical writings,
evidenced by you watching this video right now.
Old Buddhism was all about reading and analyzing scripture.
New Buddhism was all about religious experiences and rituals.
The Pure Land school won support from aristocrats and commoners in Kyoto and surrounding areas.
True Pure Land gained followers from the peasants of the Kantō region.
Nichiren grabbed the samurai of the Kantō coast.
Rinzai Zen won the patronage of aristocrats and upper-class samurai.
And Sōtō Zen snatched up the mid and lower-class samurai.
The new schools grew and became true religions of the masses.
This was a big change.
In each school, for the first time, people of all different classes mingled,
connected by a single religious bond.
Rich and poor, nobility and commoner, Nichiren and Pure Land--
wait, what are those guys doing here, get em get those Pure Land sons of bi--
[Old Buddhism Mad]
Change is good, unless you’re winning.
The traditional Buddhist schools like Tendai saw these new kids step into their playground
just asking to be bullied.
Tendai monks accused Pure Land monks of ignoring the Buddhist precepts and teaching heretical beliefs,
then gave them wedgies.
Once, they got the shogunate to kick out all Pure Land priests from Kamakura.
Another time, some important Pure Land priests were executed,
and the founders Hōnen and Shinran were banished from the capital.
They harassed Zen monks too.
Tendai Buddhism had the backing of the Imperial Court.
They had the power to fight any school that threatened their desire to teach people
to let go of desires.
They convinced the court to ban Zen teachings.
Zen at the time had two main branches, both confusing.
They were Rinzai and Sōtō.
The Rinzai leader was a monk named Eisai.
Eisai was a fan of the Black Eyed Peas.
He didn’t want no drama. No no no no drama.
He claimed that he didn’t want to fight the Tendai school.
Instead, his teachings would improve Tendai.
Lucky for him, news spread that Zen was the main school of Buddhism in China at the time.
And if we know anything about the Japanese, we know they love China.
...
People were like, “Hold up, China’s into Zen?
Well, I’m sold.
Or not, it doesn’t matter.
I don’t exist.
And I do exist at the same time.”
And so the elites tolerated Rinzai Zen, and it won the support of the shogunate.
It was a big blow to the Tendai school.
Oh well, you win some, you persecute some.
It was a different story for Sōtō Zen.
Sōtō’s founder, Dōgen, did not care for the old Tendai teachings.
He denounced the other schools and tossed everything out except for Zen meditation.
They harassed and pushed him to the outskirts of Kyoto.
After a short time, he had to run to the remote Echizen Province.
The Nichiren followers suffered the most.
They endured oppression and executions.
Nichiren, the founder himself, escaped multiple assassination attempts and was exiled twice
to live in poverty.
And monks hated living in poverty.
[New Buddhism Grows Up]
The religious establishment tried harassment and persecution, but it couldn’t stop New Buddhism.
And what doesn’t kill you makes you religious.
After their founders died, these new schools grew into massive institutions,
which wasn’t exactly what the founders wanted.
Most of them were trying to move away from a religion ruled by a few at the top,
especially the Pure Land founders.
They believed everyone was equal.
Teacher and student were the same in the eyes of the Amida Buddha.
Pure Land gatherings started out with this ideal, but like with any group,
over time leaders emerged.
The founders said, “Don’t worship us,” and after they died,
their followers were like, “It’s worshipping time.”
Followers wrote biographies of their founders,
full of more exaggerations than your college admissions essay.
The founders came out looking like gods.
Religious leaders encouraged it.
God-founders are useful tools to unite and control followers.
The leaders of True Pure Land were descendants of Shinran,
giving them legitimacy through blood ties.
Leaders exploited any relationship to their founder.
They’d be like, “Hey I received this piece of writing from Hōnen,”
or “Eisai gave me this painting, so follow me.”
These special objects became religious artifacts, symbols of authority,
granting privilege and status to those who held them.
The gap between the powerful and the regular Joe Schmoe-bunaga follower widened.
Temple administrators and donors became influential figures in the schools.
These people placed their family members in key positions.
The New Buddhist schools started to look more like the old ones,
where a small group of elites controlled everything.
It was then that people understood that Harvey Dent was right.
The new schools lived long enough to see themselves become the villain.
The Kamakura schools grew to become the most popular branches of Buddhism in Japan,
and they’re still going strong today.
For more Buddhism talk, check these out.
We have some new patrons on Patreon this week:
Ross Webster I love your dictionary,
Jacq Patterson, Jerri Lou Lugo,
and donwurryboutit I think that’s how you say it.
Alright I love you, and spread the knowledge!