Tendai Marathon Challenge

As part of their training, Tendai monks in Japan complete 100-day kaihogyos. This means they run or walk briskly 25 miles a day for 100 consecutive days, up and around the slopes of Mount Hiei. And I understand there are 200-day kaihogyos, and kaihogyos with longer daily runs. Did I mention the monks run in straw sandals?

In centuries past monks who were unable to finish the kaihogyo committed ritual suicide, and to this day it is traditional for monks to carry a dagger and a rope on Kaihogyo. However, these days monks who can't finish may try again next year.

Brian Ettkin writes in the Albany (New York) Times Union about the Tendai Buddhist Institute in East Chatham, NY, which offers the only ordination training for Tendai Buddhist priests outside Japan. Tendai has been a bit slower than some other schools of Buddhism to spread West, but it's a venerable school that has made invaluable contributions to the development of Mahayana Buddhism. It's good to see it here.

Tendai (in China, T'ien-t'ai or Tiantai) was founded in China by Zhiyi (also spelled Chih-i, 538-597). The main practice of Tendai is a form of meditation called zhiguan (also spelled chih-kuan; shikan in Japanese). "Zhiguan" is derived from the Chinese translation of "shamatha-vipashyana" and combines these two main elements of Buddhist meditation -- shamatha (peaceful dwelling) and vipahsyana (insight). Tendai also was the first school to elevate the Lotus Sutra to a place of special prominence.

Tendai was brought to Japan by the monk Saicho (767-822; also called Dengyo Daishi). Saicho founded a Buddhist monastery and educational center on Mount Hiei that for a time was the most influential center of Buddhism in Japan. Among those who began their training on Mount Hiei were Honen (1133-1212) and Shinran (1173-1263) of Pure Land Buddhism; Eisai (1141-1215) and Dogen (1200-1253) of Zen Buddhism, and Nichiren (1222-1282), founder of the Nichiren school.