History of Chinese Tiantai School

Author: Pan Guiming et al. / Country of Origin:
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2001-12-01
Features: Three, twenty-five convenient According to the "Gate of Zen Practice" said, "Ten Vehicle Contemplation Methods" correspond to the "internal convenience" of Samatha-Vipassanā practice, while "Twenty-five Convenience Methods" correspond to the "external convenience," which is the preparatory stage before practicing the Ten Vehicle Contemplation Methods. The "Skillful Means" chapter of the "Lotus Sutra" states, "In the past, future, and present, all Buddhas have skillfully used innumerable means, various causes and conditions, and words to teach all living beings the Dharma. All these Dharma are of the One Vehicle of Enlightenment." Zhiyi elaborated on the concept of "skillful means" in the sutra, opening up numerous means for those practicing Samatha-Vipassanā. In the "Commentary on the Skillful Means" of the "Lotus Sutra" (Volume 3, Part 1), it is said: "Skillful means are merely expedients, all leading to the door of truth. When truth is revealed, the merit is due to skillful means. From truth comes the name, hence skillful means are explained as doors. Like opening a skillful means door, showing the true nature." Taking skillful means as the means to connect to truth, guiding living beings to the truth; skillful means are expedient, revealing the true nature is the purpose. The "Great Samatha-Vipassanā" (Volume 4, Part 1) also says: "Skillful means are skillful. Practicing skillfully, with a small amount of good roots, can lead countless practices to awaken and attain the path of the Bodhisattva." The twenty-five skillful means are also known as "distant convenience," while the ten states are known as "near convenience." Because the main function of the twenty-five skillful means is "observing according to the matter, refining the coarse into the fine, and calming the scattered," preparing for the further practice of the Ten Vehicle Contemplation Methods and the Ten States. The so-called "twenty-five skillful means" are formed by practicing five categories of skillful means in five divisions, which are: possessing five conditions, criticizing five desires, abandoning five coverings, adjusting five matters, and practicing five methods. The interrelationships between the five categories have a progressive meaning, from possessing five conditions to practicing five methods. Zhiyi believed that these twenty-five skillful means were the urgent necessity for beginners to practice Samatha-Vipassanā, the ladder to the correct path, and the stages to enter Nirvana (see "Essentials of Practicing Samatha-Vipassanā Seated Meditation"). The so-called "beginners" refer to "those who are just starting to learn," who can only practice Samatha-Vipassanā step by step. Possessing five conditions refers to: observing precepts cleanly, having enough food and clothing, living in a quiet and secluded place, ceasing all worldly engagements, and associating with a good teacher. These five conditions are the foundation for receiving the Dharma. Among them, observing precepts cleanly can give rise to Samatha and wisdom to eliminate suffering. It includes two aspects of practical content: "not doing evil" and "being able to repent after doing evil." Not doing evil refers to the three refuges and five precepts observed by general believers, as well as the ten precepts observed by novice monks, and the full precepts observed by bhikkhus or bhikkhunis. Being able to repent after doing evil refers to being able to repent according to the law even if light precepts are violated, or being able to make offerings and repentance even if heavy precepts are broken. In the "observing precepts cleanly" skillful means, Zhiyi emphasized the importance of repentance. He believed that through repentance, "sins can be eliminated, and obstacles to Samatha-Vipassanā can be removed." The "Essentials of Practicing Samatha-Vipassanā Seated Meditation" also lists ten methods specifically for those who have broken precepts and need to repent, to "assist in their repentance." He even believed that repentance was a prerequisite for entering Samatha; once heavy sins were eliminated, the three Samatha-meditations would naturally arise. "Having enough food and clothing" refers to ensuring the basic conditions for practicing Samatha-Vipassanā. The "Great Samatha-Vipassanā" (Volume 4, Part 1) points out, "Both body and Dharma rely on food and clothing," "naked and hungry, how can the Dharma be found?" Zhiyi regarded material conditions such as clothing and food as the foundation for settling in the human realm, pointing out the connection between material conditions and the Dharma, thus affirming the significance of basic material living conditions in the practice of the Dharma. However, he also emphasized that practitioners should take Samatha-Vipassanā as the purpose and the Dharma as the root, so material living conditions must be kept to the minimum (see "Essentials of Practicing Samatha-Vipassanā Seated Meditation"). "Living in a quiet and secluded place" refers to the appropriate environment for individual practice of Samatha. Zhiyi said there are three places where one can practice Samatha: deep mountains far from people, the hermitage of the headless, and the pure monastery. Deep mountains and valleys, with difficult paths and no trace of people, free from disturbances, allow for unrestrained Samatha and contemplation, with every thought on the path and no rise or fall in reputation, making it the best place for practicing Samatha. The hermitage of the headless, away from the village, with no sound of herding, free from all disturbances, is the second best place. The pure monastery, away from secular dwellings, sitting alone in a room, closing the door and sitting quietly, thinking deeply and truthfully, is also a good place for practicing Samatha. "Ceasing all worldly engagements" refers to severing the connection between the Samatha practitioner and secular life, social affairs, and human relationships. It includes four aspects: ceasing worldly engagements, ceasing human affairs, ceasing craft skills, and ceasing academic pursuits. Worldly engagements refer to worldly undertakings, human affairs refer to social interactions, craft skills refer to various worldly skills, and academic pursuits refer to reading and reciting scriptures. In Zhiyi's view, those practicing Samatha-Vipassanā must first cultivate the wisdom of Praj?ā, but various worldly wisdoms hinder the attainment of Buddha-nature, and various engagements leave little time for practicing Samatha-Vipassanā. "Associating with a good teacher" aims to let the Samatha-Vipassanā practitioner associate with a good teacher, through the guidance of the teacher, to attain enlightenment early. Good teachers can be divided into three types: external protectors, co-practitioners, and instructors. External protectors refer to those who "manage offerings and protect the practitioners well, without causing disturbances." Co-practitioners refer to those who "practice the same path together, mutually encouraging and not disturbing each other." Instructors refer to those who "can teach Praj?ā, show the right and wrong paths," and "resolve all obstacles and blockages" (Volume 4, Part 2 of the "Great Samatha-Vipassanā"). Criticizing five desires refers to: criticizing the desire for form, sound, scent, taste, and touch. Zhiyi believed that the five desires in the world often deceive all ordinary people, causing attachment, so all those who sit in meditation and practice Samatha-Vipassanā must criticize them. Criticizing desires means, based on a deep understanding of the harm of the five desires, not associating with them and keeping them far away. The first among the five desires is the desire for form, as it is the most harmful, it can "make people drunk" and "the root of birth and death comes from this." The desire for form refers to "the beauty of male and female forms, long and fine eyebrows, red lips and white teeth, as well as the treasures of the world, the colors of blue, yellow, red, white, red, purple, green, and blue, all kinds of wonderful colors, which can make ignorant people fall in love and commit evil deeds" (see "Essentials of Practicing Samatha-Vipassanā Seated Meditation"). Because of the desire for form, King Prabhavārāma entered an enemy country and was cut off by King Udayana in the room of the courtesan Avānandā. Zhiyi pointed out that although living beings are often troubled by the five desires, they are foolish and deluded, yet they still seek them endlessly, refusing to let go until death. For those practicing Samatha, the five desires are "great thieves," and must be avoided, hence the establishment of "criticizing the five desires" skillful means. Abandoning five coverings refers to: abandoning the covering of desire, the covering of anger, the covering of sleep, the covering of distraction, and the covering of doubt. The meaning of "covering" is to cover, "covering and lingering, the mind and spirit become dim, Samatha and Vipassanā do not arise, hence it is called covering" (Volume 4, Part 2 of the "Great Samatha-Vipassanā"). Because the five methods can cover the nature and not give birth to good Dharma, they are named the five coverings. The five coverings are different from the five desires: the five desires are the five roots arising from the five sense objects, which are attachments to external things, with specific objects of attention; the five coverings are the five consciousnesses turning into the intention ground, arising from the intention root, giving rise to obstacles, tracing the past, and anticipating the future, belonging to thought activities and psychological states that obscure Samatha, hence they are "internal great obstacles." "Abandoning the covering of desire" refers to abandoning the desire for the five desires. The desire for the five desires must cover the good mind, making the mind outwardly chasing and scattering, restless. A person with desire cannot enter Samatha, let alone attain enlightenment. "Abandoning the covering of anger" refers to anger, which means hatred and fury. Anger is also strongly opposed by Buddhism. It is "the root of the Dharma, the cause of falling into evil paths, the enemy of the joy of the Dharma, the great thief of the good mind, and the repository of various evil mouths" (see "Essentials of Practicing Samatha-Vipassanā Seated Meditation"). Because of the grievances of the three worlds and the nine sufferings, and the hatred of the past, it is difficult to achieve Samatha. "Abandoning the covering of sleep" refers to the covering of laziness and sleep, which makes the mind and spirit dim and unclear, not achieving what has not been achieved, and losing what has been achieved. As the scriptures say, the sleeping person "lives with a venomous snake in the same room, like lying between two sharp swords." "Abandoning the covering of distraction" refers to distraction, which means scattered and undetermined. "Abandoning the covering of doubt" refers to doubt in the "doubt that obstructs the understanding of the truth," not the doubt that obstructs Samatha. According to Zhiyi, this doubt is divided into three types: doubt about oneself, doubt about the teacher, and doubt about the Dharma. "Doubt" and "faith" are opposites. Traditional Buddhism emphasizes "faith" and views "doubt" as the great enemy of the Dharma. Zhiyi paid great attention to the inheritance of tradition in the field of specific practice methods, which can be seen from this. Zhiyi also gave a brief summary of "abandoning the five coverings." He believed that if a person has a heavy covering of desire, they can use the impure view to abandon it; if they have a heavy covering of anger, they should think of compassion to extinguish the anger; if they have a heavy covering of sleep, they should be diligent and strive to motivate the body and mind; if they are distracted, they should use the method of counting breaths to treat it; if they have a heavy covering of doubt, they should, according to the scriptures, respect and believe in the Dharma (see Volume 4, Part 2 of the "Great Samatha-Vipassanā"). Adjusting five matters refers to: adjusting food, adjusting sleep, adjusting the body, adjusting breath, and adjusting the mind. Zhiyi believed that those practicing Samatha-Vipassanā should, through adjusting the five matters, make the tight and loose appropriate, making Samatha easier to arise and good roots easier to develop. "Adjusting food" refers to the practitioner paying attention to the quantity of food, not hungry and not full. "Adjusting sleep" mainly refers to not being greedy for sleep, reducing sleep time, making the spirit and energy clear and harmonious, the mind clear and pure, and Samatha arising. Adjusting the body, adjusting breath, and adjusting the mind refer to adjusting the posture, breath, and psychological state during Samatha. In principle, the three are interdependent and cannot be separated, so they must be adjusted together. "Adjusting the body" mainly refers to the posture during Samatha. Zhiyi summarized the key points as "not tight and not loose." "Adjusting breath" refers to adjusting the breath, which is the foundation of adjusting the mind, and the key is "not sticky and not slippery." "Adjusting the mind" the entire Samatha practice and is the main rule for practicing Samatha-Vipassanā. The key is "not sinking and not floating." Zhiyi's discussions on adjusting the body, adjusting the breath, and adjusting the mind became the entry guidance for beginners practicing Samatha-Vipassanā in later generations. His principles and specific methods have adapted from Indian traditional Samatha, with the characteristics of the Tiantai school. Because his reasoning is clear and the steps are clear, it is very popular among general Samatha practitioners. Soon, in works such as "Explanation of the Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra," there were already the "Five Times and Eight Teachings." The "Explanation of the Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra" (Volume 1) says: "Various Dharma are the two teachings according to the people, the separate teaching teaches the Dharma. Five times and eight teachings, so it is said that various Dharma." Later, Goryeo Teigu wrote "The Four Teachings of Tiantai," in which he paired the five times with the five flavors one by one, and believed that "this is the five times, also known as the five flavors." At the same time, he paired the five times with the four teachings of the means of transformation, claiming that the core of Zhiyi's judgment of the Dharma is "five times and eight teachings," saying: "Tiantai Master Zhiyi, with the five times and eight teachings, explained the Dharma of one generation of sages in the East, without leaving anything out." Thus, the five times and eight teachings became the basic content for later Tiantai masters to judge the Dharma. The "five times" in the "five times and eight teachings" originated from the "five flavors," which were a transformation of the "five flavors" root ground theory, emphasizing the division of various scriptures according to the chronological order of the Buddha's teachings, thereby judging the superiority and inferiority of the scriptures. The "eight teachings" are divided into "four teachings of the means of transformation" and "four teachings of the Dharma of transformation." The four teachings of the means of transformation are an extension of the "three teachings of the appearance" of the Dharma, which, in the original "unfixed" teaching, divided the secret and the unfixed, combining the sudden and gradual teachings into four teachings. The four teachings of the Dharma of transformation are equivalent to the original "four teachings of the meaning" of the store, the common, the separate, and the complete. Later scholars, based on the above new teachings, made many complicated and cumbersome explanations of the relationship between the five times and the four teachings of the means of transformation, the four teachings of the Dharma of transformation. But if the "five times and eight teachings" are regarded as Zhiyi's original thought on judging the Dharma, then it is obviously a misunderstanding. Zhiyi's judgment of the Dharma emphasized the "three teachings of the appearance" as the "general outline of judging the Dharma": "First, the root ground is integrated or not; second, the guidance is from beginning to end or not; third, the distance between teachers and disciples is near or far." (Volume 1, Part 1 of the "Explanation of the Lotus Sutra") This is his position from the standpoint of the "Lotus Sutra" to distinguish the "Lotus Sutra" from other scriptures. He explained the superiority of the "Lotus Sutra" from three angles: the root ground, the Buddha's intention, and the original and trace. Among them, "the guidance is from beginning to end" (the Buddha's intention) is an important part, because it reflects the true intention of the Buddha and is a summary of the entire form of the Buddha's Dharma. Based on this summary, the sudden, gradual, and unfixed three teachings of the appearance were proposed. Zhiyi's "unfixed teaching" is relative to the sudden and gradual teachings, and its characteristic is "the Buddha-nature can be seen everywhere." Its theoretical basis is the Buddha's "one voice teaching," and its practical principle is the "five flavors" root ground. The "five flavors" are toxic, meaning that all living beings, regardless of their root ground, have the wisdom of the true nature, and it can arise at any time and become a Buddha everywhere. Therefore, the "unfixed" is neither sudden nor gradual; it is both sudden and gradual; it is both outside and inside the sudden and gradual. Although Zhiyi once divided the unfixed teaching into "manifest unfixed" and "secret unfixed," he never made "secret" a separate judgment of the Dharma. By the time of Pu Yi Zhiyu, he publicly opposed the "five times and eight teachings" of the Tiantai school passed down from generation to generation, trying to restore the original form of Zhiyi's judgment of the Dharma. His "Essentials of Teaching and Samatha-Vipassanā" expressed the following main viewpoints. First, adhering to the basic principle of the unity of teaching and Samatha-Vipassanā. The title of the book itself indicates this viewpoint. In his view, the "five times and eight teachings" are biased towards the teaching and neglect the Samatha-Vipassanā, deviating from the original thought principles of Zhiyi. The "Essentials of Teaching and Samatha-Vipassanā" clearly states at the beginning: "The essence of the Buddha and the ancestors is teaching and Samatha-Vipassanā. Samatha-Vipassanā is not correct without teaching, and teaching is not transmitted without Samatha-Vipassanā. There is teaching without Samatha-Vipassanā, and there is Samatha-Vipassanā without teaching." Second, emphasizing the "five flavors" root ground theory. He believed that the "five times" theory lists the chronological order of the Buddha's teachings, such as the twelve years of the three vehicles, the eight years of the "Equal Vehicle," and the thirty years of the empty school "Praj?ā," all of which are legends and very harmful. Because the Buddha's one generation "teaches according to the convenience of the hearers," it does not distinguish between the beginning and the end, nor does it consider the time, only because of the difference in the root ground of the living beings that the enlightenment is different. "The Buddha's teaching, with the power of the gods, one voice with different interpretations, how can it be thought? There are also those with slightly sharp roots who do not need to go through the five flavors." Therefore, the "five flavors" should be used to judge, and the "five times" should be opposed. Third,，。，“，，。”、、：“，，。，、、。”(《》，《》)，。《》、《》，，《》、《》。