The burden of doctrine is the unconditioned or realistic, pantheism.  Nature absolute, or Buddha-tathata, is the essence of all things.  Essence and form were in their origin combined and identical.  Fire and water, though phenomenally different, are from the point of view of Buddha-tathata absolutely identical.  Matter and thought are one—­that is Buddha-tathata.  In teaching, especially the young, it must be remembered that the mind resembles a fair page upon which the artist might trace a design, especial care being needed to prevent the impression of evil thoughts, in order to accomplish which one must completely and always direct the mind to Buddha.[16] One notable sentence in the text is, “when one first raises his thoughts toward the perfect knowledge, he at once becomes fully enlightened.”

In some parts of the metaphysical discussions of this sect we are reminded of European mediaeval scholasticism, especially of that discussion as to how many angels could dance on the point of a cambric needle without jostling each other.  It says, “Even at the point of one grain of dust, of immeasurable and unlimited worlds, there are innumerable Buddhas, who are constantly preaching the Ke-gon ki[=o] (sutra) throughout the three states of existence, past, present and future, so that the preaching is not at all to be collected.[17]

A New Chinese Sect.

In its formal organization the Ten-dai sect is of Chinese origin.  It is named after Tien Tai,[18] a mountain in China about fifty miles south of Ningpo, on which the book which forms the basis of its tenets was composed by Chi-sha, now canonized as a Dai Shi or Great teacher.  Its special doctrine of completion and suddenness was, however, transmitted directly from Shaka to Vairokana and thence to Maitreya, so that the apostolical succession of its orthodoxy cannot be questioned.

The metaphysics of this sect are thought to be the most profound of the Greater Vehicle, combining into a system the two opposite ideas of being and not being.  The teachers encourage all men, whether quick or slow in understanding, to exercise the principle of “completion” and “suddenness,” together with four doctrinal divisions, one or all of which are taught to men according to their ability.  The object of the doctrine is to make men get an excellent understanding, practise good discipline and attain to the great fruit of Enlightenment or Buddha-hood.

Out of compassion, Gautama appeared in the world and preached the truth in several forms, according to the circumstances of time and place.  There are four doctrinal divisions of “completion,” “secrecy,” “meditation,” and “moral precept,” which are the means of knowing the principle of “completion.”  From Gautama, Vairokana and Maitreya the doctrine passed through more than twenty Buddhas elect, and arrived in China on the twentieth day of the twelfth month, A.D. 401.  The delivery to disciples was secret, and the term used for this esoteric transmission means “handed over within the tower.”