Talk:Ten suchnesses

I believe this article may be somewhat skewed and possibly biased in its presentation of the doctrine of the "Ten Suchnesses." The problem appears already in the first sentence, which reads: "The Ten suchnesses . . . are a Mahayana doctrine which is important, as well as unique, to that of the Tiantai (Tendai) and Nichiren Buddhist schools of thought." My concern is that no mention is made here of the Huayan School's doctrine of the mutual interpenetration of principles and phenomena, which I believe is closely parallel.

Although not a Buddhologist myself, it seems to me that Zhiyi's thought bears striking affinities to Fazang's Huayan philosophy. Specifically, I find Zhiyi's doctrine of "three thousand worlds in one thought" remarkably echoed in Fazang's principle of "comprehending the infinitely long period in a single instant." See Wing-tsit Chan's comment in A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, in the chapter on Huayan: "One cannot help recalling," he writes, "the T'ien-t'ai doctrine of three thousand worlds immanent in one single instant of thought. In fact, the ideas of the two schools are so close that they have formed a common foundation for Chinese Buddhist teachings. As the saying goes, 'The Hua-yen and T'ien-t'ai Schools for doctrines, and the Zen and Pure Land Schools for practice.'" (Princeton Univ. Press, 1963), 422.

Unfortunately, there is not a hint of this connection between Tiantai and Huayan in the Wikipedia article on "The Ten Suchnesses." Now let's take a look at this article's sources and annotations. Of the five sources cited as references, three have publishers directly affiliated with Nichiren Buddhism: the Kōsei Publishing Company and the Soka Gakkai publishing company. (See more on these publishers below.) A fourth source, by Gene Reeves, was printed by Wisdom Publications (Somerville), which produces works from a wider array of Buddhist traditions. And the article by Jean-Noel Robert appears scholarly enough, though his sources are, again, heavily influenced by Soka Gakkai.

But now look at the "Ten Suchnesses" article's endnotes. Reeves is referenced only once, in the first note broadly introducing the topic of the "ten suchnesses." Beyond that, one hears nothing from him. Robert's article is not cited in any note. The other seven notes in this Wikipedia article cite sources under the banner of the Nichiren school, five of those to Nikkyo Niwano's book published by the Kōsei Publishing Co.

All told, I find myself somewhat skepticle of this Wikipedia article's objectivity as well as its depth of learning. While keeping an open mind, I'd like to see more sources about Tiantai thought coming from a variety of scholarly orientations, not just Nichiren.

• * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Here's more on those Nichiren publishing houses that so heavily influenced the writer of this Wikipedia article:

The Kōsei Publishing Company is supported by the the Risshō Kōsei Kai Buddhist denomination. On checking into Risshō Kōsei Kai, one learns that this movement is essentially an offshoot of Nichiren Buddhism. See the Wikipedia article on "Risshō Kōsei Kai" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rissh%C5%8D_K%C5%8Dsei_Kai) Note that this article, too, has alrfeady been flagged with questions about its objectivity. "This article may rely excessively on sources too closely associated with the subject, potentially preventing the article from being verifiable and neutral. (February 2014)" The body of the article contains this telling statement: "Even though being regarded as a decedent [sic] of Reiyukai and Nichiren Buddhism it has developed distinct features in terms of doctrine and objects of worship to the extent, that some regard Rissho Kosei-kai as a separate Buddhist denomination outside of Nichiren Buddhism, thus it has a number of features in common with other Nichiren sects."

The Wikipedia article on Soka Gakkai (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soka_Gakkai) is also flagged with questions about its objectivity: "The neutrality of this article is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on Talk:Soka Gakkai. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (September 2015)" The body of this article states in its opening sentence that Soka Gakkai is "a Japanese new religious movement based on Nichiren Buddhism . . ."

Edward A. Beach (talk) 19:28, 5 October 2015 (UTC)

External links modified

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