[M]undane Knowledge (Shih-chih) … belongs to the mundane world and does not concern the attainment of the Path. Chih-i explains that the mundane knowledge is filled with deviant ideas and false attachments. People mistake the provisional existence to be real, with which their minds do not act in accordance with the principle or truth, and do not have faith to enter the correct path. Chih-i defines the characteristics of the mundane knowledge in China as different from those in India. While the Indians tend to allow their fancy to run wild, the Chinese aim at practical things, such as social behaviors, living skills, knowledge of nature, cultivation of supra-mundane powers, and so forth, for the purpose of gaining fame and fortune, and satisfying desires. These things generally belong to mundane knowledge and are conceived by the minds of ignorant beings. (Vol. 2, Page 134)
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of BuddhismQuotes
10 Kinds of Bad Karma
What kind of actions become bad karma? The answer is actions which go against the ethics and teachings of Buddhism. There are ten kinds of bad karma or action, and they are carried out by three elements, the “Body”, “Mouth” and “Mind.”
- Body: killing, stealing and adultery.
- Mouth: lying, flattery, having a double-edged tongue, and abuse.
- Mind: greed, ego and complaining.
These three elements influence each other and, when mixed together, cause even deeper karma.
Summer WritingsSaichō and Universal Suchness
From the perspective of this Hossō doctrine [Dharma Characteristics school], called “the distinction of five natures” (goshō kakubetsu), Tokuitsu argued that the division of the Dharma into three vehicles represented the Buddha’s true intent: some people really were destined to become arhats, pratyeka-buddhas, or bodhisattvas. On the other hand, the Lotus Sūtra’s teaching of the one vehicle was a provisional expedient set forth to encourage those of the undetermined group, some of whom might be capable of practicing the bodhisattva path and becoming Buddhas. For Saichō, however, it was just as the Lotus declared: the three vehicles were provisional and the one vehicle, true; Buddhahood was the final destiny of all. In support of his position, Saichō drew on a variety of sources. One was Fa-tsang’s commentary on the Awakening of Faith, specifically, its distinction between suchness that is unchanging (fuhen shinny) and suchness that accords with conditions (zuien shinny). Like Fa-tsang, Saichō argued that suchness has a dynamic as well as a quiescent aspect. In its dynamic aspect, it expresses itself as all phenomena and also has the nature of realizing and knowing (kakuchi shō). Thus there is no need to postulate seeds in the ālaya consciousness as the source of the phenomenal world or as the cause, in some individuals, for achieving Buddhahood. Saichō equated suchness in its dynamic aspect with gyō-bussō; since suchness is universal, he argued, everyone has the potential to realize Buddhahood. (Page 13-14)
Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese BuddhismKnowledge Points to the Place Where Truth Resides
The significance of knowledge lies in its relation to objects as truth. According to Chih-i, with knowledge, truth can be manifested, for knowledge points to the place where truth resides. With the manifestation of truth, knowledge is entitled to be subtle. In view of the fact that they are complementary to each other as one entity, any one of these two categories is indispensable. Chih-i asserts:
“The ultimate principle [truth] is abstruse and profound, and it cannot be manifested without knowledge. [Although] knowledge is capable of knowing the place [where truth resides], it would not be merging without objects [as truth]. Since objects [as truth] are merging and subtle, knowledge is also entitled to be merging and subtle.” (Vol. 2, Page 132-133)
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of BuddhismThe Reality of Cause and Effect
When people ask me about what it is like being a Buddha, or they ask me about some of the supernatural things in the sutras, I first have to remind them I am not a Buddha or enlightened, yet. But here is my understanding on this. If we take a look at the reality of cause and effect and if we know the true nature of causes and effects, then it is possible for a person to be able to discern many things in life. Science is based upon the principle of cause and effect, though those words are not used specifically. Because scientists know what will happen when a certain action is made they are able to predict the outcome. Now that may not sound too supernatural to us, but there are many things scientists do that seem like magic to me. Heck, my cell phone is magic, my computer certainly is magic, especially since it is simply a collection of ones and zeros.
Lecture on the Lotus SutraA Reconception of the Empirical World
Both T’ien-t’ai and Hua-yen [Flower Garland School, Kegon] can be seen as attempts to reconceive Indian Mahāyāna insights about the empty and dependent nature of the dharmas and express them in terms of Chinese intellectual categories such as principle (li) and phenomena (shih), essence (t’i) and function (Yung), or nature (hsing) and outward form (hsiang). This involved a significant shift away from the apophatic language of Indian Madhyamaka—which maintains, in its extreme wariness about the limitations of language, that truth can be verbally illuminated only by stating what it is not—to more kataphatic modes of expression. These new modes attempt neither to reimport into Buddhism notions of metaphysical essence nor to claim that there can be adequate verbal descriptions for truth, but to employ positive language in soteriologically effective ways. Moreover, since principle and phenomena are seen as nondual, and this nonduality is expressed in every particular form, the Huayen and T’ien-t’ai totalistic visions also entailed a reconception of the empirical world. No longer was it the product of delusion or a place of suffering to be escaped, but the very realm where truth is to be realized and liberation achieved. This reconception was critical to the sinification of Buddhism and exerted an immense impact on the subsequent development of Buddhism in East Asia. (Page 10)
Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese BuddhismChih-i’s Objects as Truth
In Chih-i’s discourse of Objects as truth, truth is elaborated in terms of various conceptions of truth. This means that Chih-i’s concern is not merely the issue of truth itself, but also how truth is conceived. This is because truth is objective reality, and the attainment of truth is associated with one’s subjective mind. Therefore, correctly presenting what truth is and addressing various conceptions of truth are equally vital.
The issue of truth itself is laid out by Chih-i in his elaboration of Objects as the Ten Suchnesses, as the Threefold Truth, and as the One Truth. The Ten Suchnesses describe concretely the characteristics of the Ultimate Truth. The Threefold Truth describes the three aspects that constitute the Ultimate Truth. The One Truth is synonymous with the Ultimate Truth, i.e., the One Truth is the Ultimate Truth and Ultimate Truth is the One Truth, which conveys that true reality underlies all dharmas, and can include all categories of Objects as truth. (Vol. 2, Page 131)
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of BuddhismThe Culmination of the Buddha’s Teachings
The Lotus Sūtra is central to the T’ien-t’ai/Tendai tradition, which regards it as the culmination of the Buddha’s teachings, preached during the last eight years of his life. Some Mahāyāna sūtras deny the validity of the two “lesser vehicles” (Hinayāna)—the vehicle of the Śrāvaka or voicehearer, culminating in the state of the arhat and, at life’s end, in final nirväqa, and the vehicle of the Pratyeka-buddha or independently enlightened “private Buddha,” also culminating at death in final nirvāṇa—and supplant both with the bodhisattva vehicle, which leads to supreme Buddhahood. The Lotus, however, while maintaining the superiority of the bodhisattva vehicle, subsumes all three within the “one Buddha vehicle.” “Within the Buddha lands of the ten directions,” it says, “there is the Dharma of only One Vehicle. There are not two, nor are there yet three. ” The sūtra acknowledges that the Buddha did indeed teach three paths or vehicles, yet this threefold division of the Dharma was apparent, not real; it represents the Buddha’s skillful means (upāya, hōben) set forth in response to the varying capacities of his followers. His true intention was to lead all beings to the supreme enlightenment represented by the one Buddha vehicle. (Page 12)
Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese BuddhismChih-i’s Understanding of Truth
The last category of Objects as the One Truth concludes various categories of Objects as truth, stressing that there is only one Ultimate Truth. In Chih-i’s understanding of truth, truth itself is abstract, it does not have a fixed term, and it cannot be understood conceptually. Therefore, truth can only be presented in relation to the understandings of beings. Only with the supreme ability of understanding, can one fully conceive truth. With this assumption, Chih-i not only systematically presented various categories of Objects as truth, but also offered us a system of classifying various levels of attainment that are associated with these truths. This indicates that it is one’s ability of understanding truth that determines one’s level of attainment.
Furthermore, by classifying various levels of understanding truth into coarse or subtle, Chih-i tells us that although truth is always the same, living beings do have different faculties, and as a result, their achievements are also different. Hence, the coarseness or the subtlety does not concern truth itself but is the consequence of various abilities of beings. However, if one strives to attain Buddhahood, the understanding of truth that belongs to the Perfect Teaching is superior to others. With such an understanding, one is able to realize truth perfectly.
By opening the coarse and displaying the subtle, Chih-i goes a step further to remind us that one should not dwell on differences, for all levels of understanding of truth are valid as all beings can eventually attain Buddhahood. This is to emphasize the message of universal salvation of all living beings delivered in the Lotus Sūtra. (Vol. 2, Page 118)
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of BuddhismThe Spinning Perception of a Deluded Drunk
From the perspective of one reality (that entails non-duality), Chih-i considers the Two Truths to still be the expedient means for the purpose of revealing the One Truth. This situation is compared with a metaphor quoted from the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra:
“What is called the two truths is in fact one truth. It is called two as expedient means. It is like a drunk person who has not yet vomited [and regained his sobriety], who sees the sun and the moon spinning around and says that there is a sun which is spinning around and a sun which is not spinning around. A sober person sees only that which is not spinning around and does not see the spinning.”
Applying this simile to the case of various teachings of the Buddha, Chih-i comments:
“Those of the Tripiṭaka [Teaching] belong to the duality of spinning, like that drunk person. All the Mahāyāna sūtras express the One [Truth] of non-spinning in the form of the two [modes of] spinning. The present Lotus Sūtra directly abandons expedient means and only expounds the unsurpassed Path. The non-spinning is the one Ultimate [Truth], and therefore, it is subtle.
According to Chih-i, the perception of reality is related to the state the person is in. A deluded and drunk state causes mistaken views to arise, from which reality is wrongly perceived. This is the state of the śrāvaka. Mahāyānists are in a sober state and can correctly perceive reality as an integrated unity. Nevertheless, truth that is verbalized is still relative due to inadequacy of language. Ultimately, truth cannot be explained and is beyond language, since any attempt to verbalize it would only result in distorting it. Hence, No Truth (Wu-ti) conveys most adequately what real truth is, which is characterized as quiescent. (Vol. 2, Page 115-116)
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of Buddhism