Tiantai

[1] Tiantai Buddhism emphasizes the "One Vehicle" (Ekayāna) doctrine derived from the Lotus Sūtra as well as Mādhyamaka philosophy, particularly as articulated in the works of the 4th patriarch Zhiyi (538–597 CE).

[2][3] Brook Ziporyn, professor of ancient and medieval Chinese religion and philosophy, states that Tiantai Buddhism is "the earliest attempt at a thoroughgoing Sinitic reworking of the Indian Buddhist tradition.

[11] The schools of Buddhism that had existed in China prior to the emergence of the Tiantai are generally believed to represent direct transplantations from India, with little modification to their basic doctrines and methods.

These teachers took an approach called "classification of teachings" (panjiao 判教) in an attempt to harmonize the numerous and often contradictory Buddhist texts that had come into China.

[15] Huisi then transmitted his teachings to Zhiyi (Chinese: 智顗, 538-597), traditionally figured as the fourth patriarch of Tiantai, who is said to have practiced the Lotus Samādhi and to have become enlightened quickly.

For example, many elementary doctrines and bridging concepts had been taught early in the Buddha's advent when the vast majority of the people during his time were not yet ready to grasp the 'ultimate truth'.

This rationale indicates that external tangible objects like water, buildings, and flora, formless sounds and smells, and internal thoughts or ideas all possess Buddha-nature.

Zhanran's disciple and seventh patriarch Daosui, and syncretic figures such as Zhi Yuan (768–844) and Daochang Ningfen all combined Tiantai with Chan ideas (particularly of the Heze school).

[26] Over time, Zhili's "home mountain" view turned out to be victorious, and his works became part of the orthodox Tiantai canon during the Song dynasty.

[39] Baojing's dharma heir, Jueguang, helped establish the Guanzong Temple in Hong Kong and transmitted the lineage to numerous monks from Korea, Indonesia, Singapore, Taiwan and mainland China.

[41] Furthermore, other monks from this lineage have helped to reintroduce the Tiantai tradition from Hong Kong back to the rest of mainland China, aiding in the reconstruction of Chinese Buddhism after the reform and opening up period.

Not only is there no evidence that one particular scripture was consistently promoted over others, but [Tang]-period sources indicate that the spiritual descendants of [Zhiyi] realigned [Taintai] doctrine freely in order to accommodate whatever sūtra caught their fancy.

Of the Tiantai meditation treatises, Zhiyi's Concise Śamatha-vipaśyanā (小止観), Mahā-śamatha-vipaśyanā (摩訶止観), and Six Subtle Dharma Gates (六妙法門) are the most widely read in China.

[51] Brook Ziporyn writes that Tiantai's "rigorous theoretical edifice" uses "modes of argumentation and praxis that are derived squarely from Indian Buddhism" but applies these "in the service of ideals and metaphysical conclusions that are rooted deeply in the indigenous philosophical traditions.

"[52] The Tiantai school's main philosophical principle is The Threefold Truth (emptiness, existence, and the middle; 空假中 kong, jia, zhong).

[61] According to Paul Swanson, this doctrine arose from the need to make explicit the relationship between the first and second truths of classical Indian Mahayana (an issue which also may have led to the development of Yogacara's "three natures").

According to Jacqueline Stone, Zhiyi's view of the One Vehicle of the Lotus Sutra is that conventionally, it is "subtle" and "wonderful" in comparison with lesser teachings which are coarse.

From this absolute perspective, the Lotus Sutra's One Vehicle is "open and integrated" according to Zhiyi, and includes all other Buddhist teachings and skillful means.

But from the relative standpoint, a clear distinction is preserved between the "true" and the "provisional"; this is a hierarchical, potentially even exclusive reading, which emphasizes the superiority of the Lotus Sutra over other teachings.

"[75] According to Stone, this concept also:[75]represents a totalistic view of interdependent reality: the Buddha and ordinary worldlings, body and mind, cause and effect, subject and object, sentient and non-sentient are mutually encompassed in every moment of thought.Even though reality is a unified whole, the Dharmadhatu (法界), it can be explained in different ways according to Zhiyi (such as the two truths, and the threefold truth, and the ten realms).

Two other schemas which Zhiyi employs are the Three Subtle Dharmas (sentient beings, Buddha and mind) and the Ten Suchnesses (which is drawn from the second chapter of the Lotus Sutra) to explain the various realms and how they have the same nature of the threefold truth.

Tiantai sees all the various Buddhist teachings, scriptures and practices as being part of a single holistic vehicle (yana) leading to Buddhahood.

[54] The discrepancies and seeming contradictions are only due to the fact that these various teachings are all "expedient means" (upāya) that are taught according to the different needs and capacities of sentient beings.

The first three are conditioned and finite, whereas the last is inconceivable and ineffable.According to Chappell, the main idea of the Tiantai understanding of the Buddha's method of teaching is the "receptivity-and-response appropriate to a person's capacities", or "communication based on receptivity-and response".

According to Chappell this means that "not only the form of the teaching, but also the quest for enlightenment (bodhicitta) arises during an interaction involving a response to the capacities and needs of a person.

[99] William R. LaFleur summarizes Zhiyi's understanding of zhǐ-guān (Japanese: shikan) as follows:[100]These are recognized as two distinct phases or modes that are also united into one process.

Śamatha, the first aspect of shikan, could be rendered as "standstill", the philosophical/meditational act through which the random and confused perceptions and cognitions of ordinary experience are brought to a stop and remain in a tranquil state.

The contemplator, in accord with the fundamental impermanence of all things (himself included), regards them without obstruction, that is, without the sort of discriminating mind that would seek to arrange phenomena into hierarchies of relative importance and select out some–primarily himself or some part of himself–as deserving of exemption from the rule of impartial impermanence.Zhiyi's magnum opus, the "Great Samatha-Vipasyana" (Móhē Zhǐguān), outlines his meditation system as consisting of 25 preparatory practices, four kinds of samadhi and ten modes of contemplation.

The Ta-[chih-tu]lun ("Great [Perfection of Wisdom] Treatise") says, "Skillfully to fix the mind on one spot and abide there without shifting-that is called samadhi.""

He attributes this failure of expansion to the school having "narrowed its practice to a small number of rituals" and because it has "neglected the intellectual breadth and subtlety of its founder".