Cheontae is the

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

n descendant of the

Chinese Buddhist Chinese Buddhism or Han Buddhism ( zh, s=汉传佛教, t=漢傳佛教, p=Hànchuán Fójiào) is a Chinese form of Mahayana, Mahayana Buddhism which has shaped Chinese culture in a wide variety of areas including Chinese art, art, politics, Ch ...

school

Tiantai Tiantai or T'ien-t'ai () is an East Asian Buddhist school of Mahāyāna Buddhism that developed in 6th-century China. The school emphasizes the ''Lotus Sutra's'' doctrine of the "One Vehicle" (''Ekayāna'') as well as Mādhyamaka philosophy, ...

. Tiantai was introduced to Korea a couple of times during earlier periods, but was not firmly established until the time of

Uicheon Uicheon (28 September 1055 – 5 October 1101) was a Goryeo Royal Prince as the fourth son of King Munjong and Queen Inye from the Incheon Yi clan.https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Contents/Item/E0043423 He was the younger brother of Sunjong, Seon ...

(1055-1101) who established Cheontae in

Goryeo Goryeo (; ) was a Korean kingdom founded in 918, during a time of national division called the Later Three Kingdoms period, that unified and ruled the Korean Peninsula until 1392. Goryeo achieved what has been called a "true national unificati ...

as an independent school. Due to Uicheon's influence, it came to be a major force in the world of Goryeo Buddhism. After he returned from

Song China The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...

in 1086, Uicheon sought to ease conflict between the doctrinal Gyo () schools and Seon () schools, believing that the Cheontae doctrine would be effective to this end. Cheontae doctrine holds the

Lotus Sutra The ''Lotus Sūtra'' ( zh, 妙法蓮華經; sa, सद्धर्मपुण्डरीकसूत्रम्, translit=Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtram, lit=Sūtra on the White Lotus of the True Dharma, italic=) is one of the most influ ...

as the peak of the

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was ...

's teachings, and postulates the following: * All things are empty and without essential

reality Reality is the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent within a system, as opposed to that which is only imaginary. The term is also used to refer to the ontological status of things, indicating their existence. In physical terms, r ...

. * All things have a provisional reality. * All things are both absolutely unreal and provisionally real at once. In accordance with the Cheontae doctrine, all experiences in the sensory world are in fact expressions of Buddhist law (

Dharma Dharma (; sa, धर्म, dharma, ; pi, dhamma, italic=yes) is a key concept with multiple meanings in Indian religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and others. Although there is no direct single-word translation for '' ...

), and therefore contain the key to enlightenment. This explains the extravagant altars and the colorful dynamism found at Seon temples using

Dancheong ''Dancheong'' ( ko, 단청; 丹青) refers to Korean traditional decorative colouring on wooden buildings and artifacts for the purpose of style. It literally means "cinnabar and blue-green" in Korean, and is sometimes translated as "red and blue ...

coloring, differing from the austere and monochromatic aesthetic of the

Zen Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...

school, intellectually predominant in Japan from the

Kamakura period The is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the Genpei War, which saw the struggle bet ...

onwards. Cheontae as a school has been largely absorbed into the

Jogye The Jogye Order, officially the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism (대한불교조계종, 大韓佛敎曹溪宗), is the representative Religious order#Buddhist tradition, order of traditional Korean Buddhism with roots that date back 1200 years to ...

Seon tradition, but an independent Cheontae school has been revived and has an estimated 2 million adherents. The school's headquarters are at

Guinsa Guinsa (Temple of Salvation and Kindness), in the Yeonhwa area of the Sobaek Mountains located near Danyang in Chungcheongbuk-do, South Korea, is the headquarters of the Cheontae school of Korean Buddhism. Guinsa is the administrative center ...

Chungcheongbuk-do North Chungcheong Province ( ko, 충청북도, ''Chungcheongbuk-do''), also known as Chungbuk, is a province of South Korea. North Chungcheong has a population of 1,578,934 (2014) and has a geographic area of located in the Hoseo region in the ...

, near Danyang. The school also funds and operates the Buddhist university,

Geumgang University Geumgang University is a South Korean university with a residential college model, located in the countryside next to Gyeryong Mountain, between Nonsan and Daejeon. The campus is within the administrative boundaries of Nonsan's Sangwol-myeon di ...

References

External links

Cheontae
(in Korean) *A. Charles Muller (trans)

Buddhism in Korea {{Korea-hist-stub

See also

References

External links