Tendai Lotus School Teachings, p 11-12Question: What are the names of the Four Teachings?
Answer: (1) The Tripiṭaka Teaching, (2) the Shared Teaching,
(3) the Distinct Teaching, and (4) the Perfect Teaching.Q: Why are all four called “Teaching”?
A: “Teaching” contains the meaning of elucidating reality and transforming beings; therefore they are called teachings.
Q: We agree that teachings are used for elucidating reality, but what do you mean by “transforming beings”?
A: “Transforming beings” refers to transforming and converting the minds of beings.
Q: How many meanings are there to “transformation and conversion”?
A: There are three meanings.
Q: What are these three meanings?
A: The first is the conversion of evil to good. The second is the conversion of delusion to understanding. The third is the conversion of the ordinary to the noble. Therefore it is said that beings are transformed.
Q: Why are they established as four Teachings, and not three or five?
A: The noble Buddha, in his sermon on the four unexplainables, used four methods of instruction, and according to conditions used four explanations. Therefore the Four Teachings were established.
Category Archives: Tendai Lotus
The Meaning of the Four Teachings
Tendai Lotus School Teachings, p 11The ability to respond to the Buddha’s teaching is not the same for all sentient beings; it depends on their aspirations and desires. The teachings of the Noble One rely on these transformational conditions and thus are different for each person. A Sūtra says, “From the night the Buddha realized the Path until the night of his final Nirvāṇa, the doctrine that he preached was true and not vain wisdom.” In reverently examining the gist of the teachings, it is [seen to be] profound and worthy of reliance; therefore it is summarized as the Four Teachings and classified into the categories of tentative and real.
Tendai Scriptural Foundation
Tendai Lotus School Teachings, p 6-7During the great T’ang dynasty, the Dharma Master Chan-jan, following the standards of past sages and the thousand-year [tradition of Buddhism], was singularly astute. The restoration of the Path was truly due to this man. In his [Chih-kuan] i-li [Chan-jan] says, “The gist of the teachings of this Tendai school is to utilize the Lotus Sutra for its essential structure, the Ta Chih tu lun for its instruction, the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra for commentarial support, and the Pañcaviṃśati-sāhasrikā-prajn͂ā-pāramitā Sūtra for methods of contemplation; to quote all Sutras to increase faith; and to quote all treatises as aids to understanding. The contemplation of the mind is its warp and all doctrines its woof. The many texts are thus woven together, and not in the same way as others.” Thus from the beginning it was a fast boat [for crossing over] the waters of wisdom, and a diked road for the subtle vehicle [to cross to the other shore of enlightenment].
The Work of Two Masters
Tendai Lotus School Teachings, p 6The two masters, Hui-ssu of Mt. Nan-yo and Chih-i of Mt, T’ien-t’ai, appeared in the eras of the Ch’en and the Sui. They had been on the sacred Vulture Peak in the distant past and heard the subtle teachings of the Lotus Sutra directly. Reborn in China, they propagated the teaching of the One Vehicle, entered a quiet state of concentration and settled their thoughts, aroused pure wisdom and understood the various potentials [of sentient beings], and once again revealed the Buddhist doctrines and perfected the way of contemplation. All people respected them and accepted from them the pure ambrosia [of the Buddha-dharma]. The four types of Buddhists [monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen] paid them homage and thus partook of the quintessential taste of ghee. Thereafter the four major [delusions of sentient beings] were further reduced; and the three fields [of precepts, concentration, and wisdom] increasingly prospered.
Grasping the Nature of Reality
Tendai Lotus School Teachings, p p5-6I humbly submit that true reality is without marks and not something known through discrimination. The nature of reality is beyond words. How can it be adequately grasped through conceptualization? Nevertheless the Great Hero [the Buddha] transmitted the truth by relying on forms and images in accordance with [the capabilities of] sentient beings. The noble Buddha was spiritually proficient and assumed subtle language in order to foster the Path. At the beginning in the Deer Park, his first words were the teaching of the Four Noble Truths, and so on until the perfect culmination in the teaching of the three points [of the Dharma Body, the prajña-wisdom, and liberation before entering Nirvāṇa] at Kuśināgara. During this period his words flowed forth unceasingly, so that an elephant or horse could not carry [all the texts]. His various sermons were so abundant that the Dragon Palace could be filled without exhausting them. Surely a trap is used to catch rabbits, but after the rabbits are caught one forgets the trap. By means of a pointing finger one can find the moon; after one finds the moon the finger is ignored. The Dharma Body is established at sixteen feet tall for those who are attached to formal existence. The highest Path finds its ultimate expression in written texts for those who are caught up in verbal teachings. The one-sided emotional understanding of ordinary people is not the profound erudition of the Enlightened One.
Furthermore, when the sun is wrapped up in shadows, the moon succeeds it in giving forth light. Thus Śākyamuni Buddha “unleashed [the horse from] the carriage” [i.e., passed away into Nirvāṇa] and the Bodhisattvas propagated the Path. Thereafter Aśvaghoṣa and Nāgārjuna revived the declining Law [of the Buddha in India], and then Mo-t’eng and Fa-lang passed on the secret key [in China]. Thenceforth pure men of wisdom appeared one after the other, and men of eminent spiritual talents followed, so that they could not all be counted.
Tendai Lotus Teachings and Nichiren
Beginning today and running through April 28, I’ll be publishing quotes taken from “The Collected Teachings of the Tendai Lotus School,” which was written by Gishin in 830 CE and translated from the Japanese by Paul L. Swanson. The book was published as part of the BDK English Tripiṭaka (97-II) in 1995. (PDF)
Having read Swanson’s Foundations of T’ien-T’ai Philosophy and Haiyan Shen’s The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of Buddhism and Paul Groner’s Saicho : The Establishment of the Japanese Tendai School, I have a dilettante’s understanding of the basics of the teachings of Chih-i, a Chinese monk who lived in the 6th century CE and wrote extensively on the structure and ideas of the Lotus Sūtra. And having had that introduction I found Gishin’s explanation of the Tendai teachings an excellent summary.
Nichiren’s teachings draw extensively from Tendai and Chih-i, but I’m not confident in my understanding of where Nichiren’s teachings diverge. That has led me to wonder whether there is a reason why Nichiren Shu appears to have ignored Gishin’s text and instead embraced the work of Korean monk Chegwan, who wrote “A Guide to the Tiantai Fourfold Teachings” in the late 10th century. (See History and Teachings of Nichiren Buddhism, p 99.)
I asked Rev. Ryuei McCormick whether there is a specific issue with Gishin’s work that troubles Nichiren Shu, and he replied:
This is a question I have also asked and not received a satisfactory answer from anyone. I can’t remember who replied to me but the answer from a Nichiren Shu priest was basically that Chegwan’s book wasn’t tainted by the Tendai esoteric associations. But as Paul Swanson points out, neither is the book by Gishin. So I can only shrug. I have certainly found nothing in Gishin’s book that would go against Nichiren’s teachings. Frankly, I think Chegwan and Gishin’s books are very complimentary.
I will return to the question of how Nichiren’s teaching departs from Tendai and Chih-i on April 29 after I’ve finished publishing the selected quotes from Gishin’s “The Collected Teachings of the Tendai Lotus School.”
The Collected Teachings of the Tendai Lotus School
The Collected Teachings of the Tendai Lotus School by Gishin was translated from the Japanese by Paul L. Swanson and published in 1995 as part of the BDK English Tripiṭaka (97-II).
From the Translator’s Introduction
Tendai Lotus School Teachings, p 1-2The Collected Teachings of the Tendai Lotus School (Tendai Hokkeshū Gishū) is an introduction to the doctrine and practice of the Japanese Tendai school. It was compiled by Gishin (781-833), the monk who accompanied Saichō (767-822) to T’ang China as his interpreter, so that he might help to transmit the Chinese T’ien-t’ai tradition to Japan. He later succeeded Saichō as head of the Tendai establishment on Mt. Hiei. The content of this work consists, for the most part, of extracts from the writings of Chih-i (538-97), the founder of Chinese T’ien-t’ai Buddhism; and it concisely outlines the basic tenets of Tendai doctrine and practice. Except for the introduction and colophon, it takes the form of a catechism. It is divided into two major sections, on doctrine and on practice. The section on doctrine contains a discussion of the Four Teachings, the Five Flavors, the One Vehicle, the Ten Suchlikes, Twelvefold Conditioned Co-arising, and the Two Truths. The section on practice discusses the Four Samādhis and the Three Categories of Delusions.
The Collected Teachings of the Tendai Lotus School was compiled in response to an imperial request that each Buddhist school prepare a description and defense of its own doctrine for submission to the court. The resulting texts are often referred to as “The Six Sectarian Texts Compiled by Imperial Request in the Tenchō. …
The exact date of compilation of this present work is uncertain. The Tendai zasu ki, an ecclesiastical history of the Tendai prelates, claims that Gishin compiled it in 823; but the closing verse in the Collected Teachings itself mentions the Tenchō era (824-34). It was probably submitted to the court in 830 along with the other five works.
The Collected Teachings of the Tendai Lotus School is the shortest of the works submitted to the court by the six Buddhist schools. … Its content is limited to Tendai proper and does not discuss esoteric Buddhism, Zen, or precepts, the other three of the so-called “four pillars of Japanese Tendai.” This was the cause of some controversy, since it ignored both esoteric Buddhism, which was in such great demand at the time, and the important issue of Hinayāna vs. Mahāyāna precepts. Perhaps Gishin felt that a straightforward presentation of the unique features of Tendai proper, as presented in the writings of Chih-i, was most important. Thus the final incorporation of esoteric Buddhism into Japanese Tendai was left to later monks such as Ennin (794-864), Enchin (814-89), and Annen (841-?).
At the conclusion of the Preface, Gishin writes:
Tendai Lotus School Teachings, p 7This compilation first presents the two main topics, Doctrine and Contemplation. Next, under these categories it lists all the essential points and outlines them. However, the doctrine is vast, so that shallow and ignorant people become lost. Mysterious reality is deep and profound, so that fools cannot measure it. It is like scooping up the ocean with a broken gourd or viewing the heavens with a tiny tube. Therefore I clumsily take up this great rope [of the vast Buddha-dharma] and feebly attempt to compose this work. At times the text is brief and the meaning hidden, at times [it is] short or long. If one tried to exhaust all the details, the result would be too complicated. As an incomplete presentation of the essentials of our school, it resembles a crude commentary. The attempts at summation often miss the mark, and the essential content is difficult to outline.
The reason that the Four Teachings and the Five Flavors stand at the beginning is that these are the fundamental doctrines of the original Buddha and the basis of this [Tendai] school’s profound teaching. The other doctrines are numerous, but they depend on and proceed from these first two. This work consists of one fascicle and is called The Collected Teachings of the Tendai Lotus School.
At the end, Gishin offers this verse:
In praise it is said:
After Kuśināgara [where the Buddha entered final Nirvāṇa] ,
In the midst of the era of the semblance Dharma,
The two sages of Mt. Nan-yo and Mt. T’ien-t’ai
And the two leaders Chan-jan and Saichō
Firmly established the Path for the myriad years,
And its doctrine crowned all schools.In the Tenchō period (824-834) Buddhism again flourished.
The Emperor mercifully requested
A presentation of the admirable [doctrines].
Therefore, of the luxuriant meanings
I have outlined just a few.
Tendai Lotus School Teachings, p 136
The text translated by Swanson was actually copied in the middle of the winter of 1649 by “an anonymous private monk”:
Colophon
Tendai Lotus School Teachings, p 137The Collected Teachings is a composition by Master [Gi]shin of Mt. Hiei. Whether on teachings or on the practice of contemplation, it is an outline of the 80,000 doctrines in the twelvefold scripture, a summary of the essentials concerning all the subjects of this [Tendai] school, rolled up in many pages. It should be recognized as a substantial vessel of scholarship. It is also a book that has reached the attention of the Emperor. It has already been officially presented to the court. How can it not be transmitted? In the past it was popular, but it became old with the years. Since there are not a few errata [in the text], I am now correcting and editing it, adding punctuation, having catalpa wood plates carved, and bringing it to print. It is hoped that this work by such a virtuous elder will not disappear for a thousand years.
See Tendai Lotus Teachings and Nichiren