The Real Intention of Grand Master T’ien-t’ai’s Buddha Dharma

[R]ecent scholars of the Tendai School have lost the secret teaching inherited from Grand Master T’ien-t’ai and stored in the stone tower. And, based on their own ideas, they forged such writings as the transmission of the threefold contemplation in a single thought, put them in bags of brocade, hung them around their necks, and put them at the bottom of a box, claiming them to be invaluable. As a result, false teachings have spread throughout the nation and the real intention of Grand Master T’ien-t’ai’s Buddha Dharma has been lost, and the Wonderful Dharma of Śākyamuni Buddha has been neglected. This is solely due to Bodhidharma’s dogma of “special transmission without scriptures and preachings” and Śubhākarasimha’s assertion that the Lotus Sūtra is inferior to the Great Sun Buddha Sūtra. Therefore, they do not know anything about doctrines of the threefold contemplation in a single thought, the triple truth in a single thought and 3,000 existences contained in one thought, not to speak of the Great Concentration and Insight. Moreover, they know nothing of (such fundamental issues of the T’ien-t’ai teaching as) the essential and theoretical sections; relative subtleties and absolute subtleties; subtle contemplation of the Lotus Sūtra; three kinds of doctrinal study; provisional and true teachings; four doctrinal teachings (piṭaka, common, distinct and perfect teachings); eight teachings (four methods of teaching and four doctrinal teachings); five periods in the Buddha’s lifetime preaching; and five flavors (of milk, cream, curds, butter and ghee). Needless to say, they do not know that they should propagate the Buddhist teaching in consideration of the content of teaching, capacity of people, time and nation (and that they should propagate the Lotus Sūtra in the Latter Age of Degeneration). It is natural that (owing to distant disciples, the teaching of the Tendai School) has become inconsistent, looking like neither the true teaching, nor the provisional teachings.

Risshō Kanjō, A Treatise on Establishing the Right Way of Meditation, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 231-232