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Hoshin Tendai Mikkyo? No.

Posted: Tue Aug 24, 2010 3:48 pm
by DGA
I keep finding links to items such as this one...

http://www.hoshin.us/tendai_mikkyo_buddhism.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...that claim some connection to Tendai but in reality have nothing to do with Tendai or in this instance Buddhism of any stripe. This is but one example. If you want to learn Tendai Buddhism, avoid this.

I don't particularly care what creative people do with their time on the internet. Just stop calling it Tendai or Mikkyo and you'll have no disagreement with me.

I'm bringing this up here because I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to help people unlearn the stuff they pick up on teh interwebz when they decide to move on. (they inevitably move on.)

Re: Hoshin Tendai Mikkyo? No.

Posted: Tue Aug 24, 2010 4:42 pm
by Astus
Is there already a Tendai group called Hoshin Tendai Mikkyo? Just because then it can indeed be confusing. Otherwise, it is not a trademark or something like that. And if one feels like it, why not create a martial arts group with some extras called Tendai Mikkyo? In China there was not just one Tiantai group but at least two that I know of, and they didn't like each other for sure. People can call so many things Zen, Tantra and what not. Why Tendai is an exception? And Mikkyo, well, that is just "secret teaching", not even something restricted to a sect.

Re: Hoshin Tendai Mikkyo? No.

Posted: Tue Aug 24, 2010 6:00 pm
by DGA
Why? Because it's not Tendai (institutionally, practically, or doctrinally) and it's not Mikkyo without the proper transmission. What this group is calling "mikkyo" really has more to do with a redacted form of Shaktism (kundalini, shaktipat). I'm not saying that's bad (it's not for me but who cares about me?), merely that it's neither Mikkyo nor Tendai.

Really, the only way to learn Mikkyo in Tendai outside of the traditional Japanese system is through the Tendai Buddhist Institute (see link below), which involves very specific training and certain commitments.

http://www.tendai.org/index.php?id=46" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I can't speak for Shingon-shu on this question of how mikkyo is taught. My understanding is that your learning would involve a trip to Koya-san and a lot of language lessons. Someone else is going to have to explain how that system works.

If this group removed the words "Tendai" and "Mikkyo" from their promotional materials and other writings, and explained in one way or another how their teaching is Buddhist if they want to be understood as a Buddhist group, then I'd have no objections to their business at all.