Monks in Japan
Saicho (AKA Dengyo) petitioned for a Mahayana Ordination Platform to be built in Japan. Permission was granted seven days after Dengyo died. The platform was completed in 827 CE by Dengyo's disciple, Gishin. Dengyo believed the 250 precepts were Hinayana, and that people should be ordained with the Mahayana Precepts of the Brahma Net Sutra.
During the Meiji Restoration, monastics in Japan were permitted to marry and eat meat to secularise them and promote the new imperial Shinto as a state religion, Buddhism having been the administrative assistant of choice of the previous regime.
Read more about this topic: Bhikkhu
Famous quotes containing the words monks and/or japan:
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—François Rabelais (1494–1553)
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—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)