The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2030 page)

(Jap., ‘dual Shinto’). The pattern of
Shinto
-Buddhist coexistence which developed in Japan. As a general term, it refers to the various forms Shinto took in the course of Shinto-Buddhist syncretism. More specifically, Ry
bu Shint
refers to the Shingon Shinto tradition under the influence of
Shingon
Buddhism. The
Tendai
Buddhist amalgamation with Shinto is called Sann
Ichijitsu (‘Mountain-king one-truth’). In the early period of Buddhist influence on Shinto, the
kami
were considered to be protectors of the Buddha's law and were enshrined in Buddhist temples. Later, the kami were felt to be in need of salvation through the help of the Buddha, and Buddhist scriptures were chanted before altars of the kami. After the middle of the Heian period, the idea developed that the kami's original nature was really the Buddha essence, and thus the kami were regarded as worthy objects of worship and adoration as manifestations of the Buddhas. The Tendai Buddhist theory that all Buddhas are really only ‘one reality’ (
ichi-jitsu
) was used to support the view of Tendai Shinto that the various kami are Japanese historical appearances that correspond to Buddhas—all subsumed in the ‘one reality’.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

Ry
kan Daigu
(1758–1831).

Monk of the
S
t
school, and one of the greatest Zen poets. He sought simplicity, rejecting ‘poems by poets, calligraphy by calligraphers and cooking by cooks’, and preferring to play with children—the highest form of Zen was playing ball with children. Much influenced by the works of
D
gen
, he eventually settled in Gog
-an, where he lived as a hermit. It was here that most of his poetry was written, with about 1,400 poems surviving. Many express his way of acceptance which obliterates anxiety or distress. Everything is of the same nature (
nyat
), so every occurrence is an intriguing exploration into that nature. In his last years, Teishin became his pupil, and they communicated in poems written to and for each other. When he died, she collected his poems in an anthology,
Dew-drops on a Lotus Leaf
. Koji Nakano,
Philosophy of Honest Poverty
, made Ry
kan a cult hero in Japan in the early 1990s.