Tendai stands out within the Buddhist landscape through its deliberate synthesis of diverse teachings and practices into a single, integrated vision. Rather than championing one exclusive method, it gathers Lotus Sūtra devotion, esoteric ritual, meditation, Pure Land recitation, and precept study into a comprehensive curriculum. This methodological pluralism is not eclecticism for its own sake, but an attempt to honor the many capacities of sentient beings while affirming that all authentic paths can be oriented toward the same awakening. The school’s hierarchical classification of teachings, in which various sūtras and doctrines are arranged and interpreted in relation to the Lotus Sūtra, reflects this integrative spirit while still recognizing gradations of profundity.

At the doctrinal level, Tendai is marked by a strong affirmation of universal Buddha‑nature and original enlightenment. All beings are regarded as inherently endowed with the potential for Buddhahood, and enlightenment is seen as something that can be realized in this very existence rather than a distant ideal. This perspective is closely related to the teaching of ichinen sanzen, the “three thousand realms in a single thought‑moment,” which portrays each instant of consciousness as containing the full range of realms and conditions. Delusion and awakening, samsara and nirvana, are thereby understood as mutually implicating rather than absolutely separate, so that the ordinary world becomes the very arena of liberation rather than an obstacle to it.

Tendai’s embrace of both exoteric and esoteric dimensions further differentiates it from many other schools. Alongside scriptural study and meditation grounded in earlier Tiantai teachings, it incorporates mantras, mandalas, and ritual consecrations associated with esoteric Buddhism, treating these not as a rival system but as another facet of the one Dharma. Within this broad framework, Zen‑like contemplative practices, Pure Land nembutsu, and rigorous ethical discipline can coexist and mutually support one another. The result is an institutional and spiritual culture sometimes likened to a “department store” of Buddhism, where practitioners may specialize in different modes of practice while remaining rooted in a shared doctrinal core centered on the Lotus Sūtra and the vision of universal enlightenment.