Chih-i’s endeavor to judge the coarse or the subtle is seen in every part of his discussion of the Four Teachings. However, one ought not to mistake the means as the end. The distinction of the coarse and the subtle is the means for Chih-i to confirm various types of the teaching of the Buddha as legitimate and coherent. This is because, Chih-i repeatedly claims that regardless of whether it is coarse or subtle teaching, all of the teachings of the Buddha are suitable to the circumstances and to the capabilities of listeners with the real intention of the Buddha to enlighten all sentient beings. Given that Chih-i never dwells on any fixed view (which reflects the flexible and comprehensive nature of his perfect and harmonizing philosophy) while confirming the existence of all types of the teaching of the Buddha, Chih-i also vehemently stresses the superiority of the subtle teaching of the Perfect in relation to the other coarse teachings, so that the Ultimate Truth can be eventually realized through the Perfect Teaching. (Page 65)
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of BuddhismQuotes
Three Types of Learning
These three types of learning are precepts, concentration, and wisdom. Precepts (or morality) are for the sake of correctly training mind and body and establishing correct physical and mental habits. Concentration, or meditation, is for the sake of spiritual unification after the mind and body have been properly trained. It produces a state in which the mind is as clear as a mirror and as still as the surface of an undisturbed body of water. Correct wisdom, reached when this kind of spiritual unification has been attained, makes possible correct judgments and suitable actions. In the light of this progression, the order for training and attainment in the three types of learning is this: precepts, concentration, and wisdom.
But, since the three types of learning correspond to three aspects of the human spirit—intellect (wisdom), emotion (concentration), and volition (precepts)—and since all three of these exist simultaneously as parts of the human spirit, the three kinds of learning, too, are not independent of each other but form a unity. From this viewpoint, there is no question of precedence among them. Nonetheless, for the sake of attainment of the states toward which the three kinds of learning are directed, the order precepts, concentration, and wisdom is reasonable.
The Beginnings of BuddhismThe Ideal Aim of Buddhist Perfection
Thus the whole realm of existence is nothing but a stage of “mutual participation” of beings and their conditions, a grand harmony of all possible instruments glorifying in unison the fundamental oneness of existence.
In the light of this world-view, the ideal aim of Buddhist perfection consists in the full realization, on the part of every one, of the Buddha-nature, or in the participation of our life in Buddha’s purpose and work. For Buddha-nature is universally and primordially inherent even in existences of the utmost viciousness, and all of them can be elevated to Buddhahood. Indeed, mankind stands midway between Buddha, the Supreme Enlightened, and the most degraded infernal being, and, therefore, has the possibility of advancing further on the way to Buddhahood or of descending to the beasts or to the nethermost purgatories or hells. Hence the task of man consists in comprehending the truth of the all-pervading Buddha-nature and of mutual participation working throughout the realms of existence, especially the truth of the interaction and interdependence of different beings and their qualities, functions, and so on.
History of Japanese ReligionCoarseness and Subtlety (Ts’u-miao)
This polar notion is established to judge various teachings of the Buddha in terms of whether or not they contain expedient means. Chih-i demonstrates the coarseness or subtlety by comparing the Lotus Sūtra with other sūtras. The teaching of the Buddha that contains expedience in other sūtras is considered to be Relative Truth, for it complies with various capabilities and inclinations of audiences. Relative Truth is coarse, given that it is only the means to reach the final goal of the Ultimate Truth. In the ultimate teaching of the Lotus Sūtra, the Buddha directly reveals that all past teachings are expedient means in leading beings to open the Buddha’s knowledge and insight. The Lotus teaching that contains no expedient means is regarded by Chih-i to be the ultimate, and renders subtlety. However, the distinction of the coarseness and the subtlety are only Chih-i’s strategy of projecting the superiority of the Lotus teaching in his system of classification so that the ultimate goal of attaining Buddhahood as the spirit of Mahāyāna Buddhism can be asserted. In Chih-i’s view, with the Ultimate Truth as an absolute reality, there is no more distinction between these two. From the viewpoint of the coarse teaching as the preparatory means for listeners to be intellectually matured for the subtle teaching, and from the viewpoint of the Buddha’s real intention being always for the purpose of expounding the subtle teaching even when he was implementing the coarse teaching, the significance of the coarse teaching would never be overly emphasized. Hence, Chih-i insists that the coarseness contains the subtlety, and it is no longer coarse when the universal salvation for all beings is declared by the Buddha in the Lotus Sūtra. (Page 64)
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of BuddhismThe Perfection of Character
In treating illness, in addition to therapy directed immediately against the symptoms, doctors sometimes prescribe regimens related to diet, sleep, and exercise designed to create a generally healthy body capable of resisting illness. Something similar applies to treating spiritual disorders. Of course, it is essential to remove ignorance and cravings that directly bring about the lusts causing suffering. But it is also necessary to eliminate all other conditions that make it easy for suffering to develop and to produce spiritual good health and resistance against the further occurrence of suffering.
To this end, training in eight aspects of human behavior is provided in the Eightfold Noble Path. The system inherent in this path is intended not only to eliminate temporary suffering but also to create a perfectly healthy character in which suffering will not arise under any circumstances. Buddhist training and enlightenment employ present suffering as the occasion to institute a course leading ultimately to the perfection of the character.
The Beginnings of BuddhismArising and Abandoning
Arising and abandoning are the two aspects of evaluating various levels of religious attainment as positions that belong to the Four Teachings respectively. According to Chih-i, the positions that belong to the three teachings (Tripiṭaka, Common, and Separate) are coarse, seeing that the doors of these teachings are expedient means or contain expediency. This proposes that truth expounded by the Buddha in these teachings is relative, which functions to guide beings to eventually reach the Ultimate Truth. The positions of the Perfect Teaching are considered to be subtle, for the door of the Perfect Teaching directly reveals the Ultimate Truth without having to employ expedient means as the Relative Truth. Therefore, “arising of positions” (Wei-hsing) is to confirm the legitimacy of various positions regardless of whether they are coarse or subtle, from the viewpoint that all of them are beneficial in terms of suiting different abilities of sentient beings. On the other hand, the abandonment of these tentative positions (Wei-fei) is necessary for the arising of new positions. Attainment arises according to conditions. Along with the arising of new conditions, new positions are produced, with which old positions must be abandoned. With regard to the Four Teachings, Chih-i argues that the positions of the Tripiṭaka, the Common, and the Separate Teachings must be abandoned. This is because, once they have fulfilled their roles as tentative positions, i.e., after one has progressed from these three teachings to the Perfect Teaching, and attained the ultimate position of the Perfect Teaching, these tentative positions are no longer needed. Moreover, at the moment when these tentative positions hinder one’s attainment of the ultimate position on the path of religious practice, they must be abolished too.
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of BuddhismFive Aggregates and Suffering
The last of the eight sufferings — the five aggregates — means attachment to form (physical things), perception (operation of the perception of pleasure and pain), mental conceptions and ideas (the operation of conceptions and symbols), volition (the operation of various mental processes including that of volition), and consciousness (the operation of conscious judgment and of consciousness itself). This set of aggregates refers to all phenomena, both internal to the sentient being and external in the form of environment. Since clinging to them binds the sentient being to the world of transmigration with its inherent miseries, the suffering of the five aggregates can be said to correspond to that of the world of transmigration.
The Beginnings of BuddhismMany Treasures Tathagata and the Stupa of Treasures
Many Treasures Tathagata represents many things. On one level, he represents all the Buddhas of the past, and his testimony shows that Shakyamuni Buddha’s teachings are in accord with the universal truth, valid in all ages and in all worlds. On another level, Shakyamuni Buddha personifies subjective wisdom while Many Treasures Tathagata personifies objective reality. When they share the seat within the Stupa of Treasures they are actually demonstrating the unity of wisdom and reality, subject and object. The emergence of the Stupa of Treasures itself and the testimony of the Many Treasures Tathagata from within it could also indicate the emergence of Buddhahood from within our lives and our own inner recognition of and response to the truth when we hear it.
Lotus World: An Illustrated Guide to the GohonzonThe Door of the Traces and the Door of the Origin
Chih-i’s further analysis of the relationship between the door of the Traces and the door of the Origin is also his endeavor to demonstrate the polar concept of the substance and the function. In Chih-i’s interpretation of the Lotus Sūtra that is divided by him into two major part, the Traces and the Origin, the Traces highlights the recent event of the Buddha’s self-practice and transformation of others, and the Origin the original enlightenment of the Buddha: the former denotes the function and the latter the substance. In a sense that function is derived from substance, Chih-i confirms that it is due to the original enlightenment of the Buddha in the Origin from which the Buddha’s activities in the Traces are derived. While emphasizing the key role of the Origin as the substance contrary to the Traces as the function, Chih-i does not hesitate to clarify the fact that the function is already contained in the substance as the enlightenment of the Buddha simultaneously arouses the function of saving sentient beings. (Page 63)
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of BuddhismThe First Noble Truth
The first Noble Truth sets forth three kinds of suffering: physically perceived suffering, psychological suffering resulting from the failure to fulfill desires or expectations, and the suffering of being bound to the series of transmigrations (samsara) in a world where total absence of pain and complete tranquility do not exist. (Page 47-48)
The Beginnings of Buddhism