Chapter III opens with one of my favorite descriptions of how I think we should approach our practice and life in general. When we can face life with great joy, when we can feel like dancing, then I think we have completed most of the objective of our practice. Chapter II ends with the Buddha saying that when you have great joy this is when you will be a Buddha. Right away we are told Shariputra has this feeling of joy so much that he felt like dancing.
Lecture on the Lotus SutraQuotes
Perceiving the Mundane World
The all-embracing nature reflects Chih-i’s positive view towards the empirical world in the sense that the Ultimate Truth is embedded in all entities, underlining its unlimited pervasiveness. In the context that the Ultimate Truth pervades everything in the world, an entirely positive and unique view of perceiving the mundane world is presented. The mundane world as a place of birth and death is identified with the eternal realm of enlightenment. With this view, a negative outlook of the mundane world is transformed into a positive affirmation. Instead of the traditional view of negating the mundane world as something harmful that hinders one’s path to liberation, Chih-i’s all-embracing approach towards the world is rather revolutionary, and is epistemological and soteriological. (Page 39)
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of BuddhismFaith and Deliberate Intention.
The Eye of the Law is an intellectual understanding of the Truth arrived at through an intellectual process. But, by nature, some people are stronger in terms of emotions and willpower than they are intellectually. Such people are said to be able to attain enlightenment by means of emotion and will. In short, there are two ways to become enlightened: intellectually through the truth of the Law—and obviously the attainment of the Eye of the Law—and through faith and deliberate intention.
Enlightenment by means of faith involves complete trust in the Buddha, the Law, and the Order—the Three Treasures—and observation of the holy precepts. Of course, fundamentally, a person cannot be a Buddhist at all without this trust. But it is especially important that such trust be unshakable in persons who strive to attain enlightenment by faith alone. Those who came into direct contact with Shakyamuni were no doubt easily moved to unconditional faith by his greatness. Others, who had been instructed by members of the Order, had probably been moved to trust as a consequence of the greatness of the Buddha and the wonderful nature of the Law.
A person who has openly expressed his reverence for the Buddha, the Law, and the Order is bound to abide by the five precepts: not to take life, not to take what is not given, not to indulge in wrong sexual activity, not to tell lies, and not to drink intoxicants. When faith has been firmly established, observance of these precepts becomes absolute. Such faith is said to be as fixed and indestructible as adamant and to represent initial enlightenment on the way to the highest enlightenment by means of the path of faith. It is a state of nonretrogression comparable to that of the person who has attained the Eye of the Law.
The Beginnings of BuddhismVerses of Eternity
The core of the Essential Section is the sixteenth chapter, “The Lifespan of the Tathagata.” In this chapter, the Buddha finally reveals the birthless and deathless nature of Buddhahood. The verse portion of the sixteenth chapter is especially revered because it is a simple and powerful summary of this teaching. These verses are known as the “Verses of Eternity.” When these verse are recited we are reminded of the compassionate presence of the Buddha, whose only concern is to enable us to attain Buddhahood just as he did.
Lotus SeedsPerfect and Harmonizing
How can Chih-i’s philosophy assume “perfect and harmonizing” (Yüan-jung)? Based on our study of the work Hsüan-i (Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra), we would like to propose that it is due to several characteristics of the Ultimate Truth demonstrated by Chih-i that corresponds to his own philosophy that his philosophy as perfect harmonization is established.
First, Chih-i associates the Ultimate Truth with the One Buddha-vehicle (that is advocated in the Lotus Sūtra). This is because the One Buddha vehicle stands out to be supreme in position with which one can attain Buddhahood. Its superiority legitimatizes itself to be the unifying force that embraces all different doctrines in Buddhism and converges all the other Three Vehicles (śrāvaka, pratyekabuddha, and bodhisattva). Apparently, speaking in terms of the Buddha-vehicle, the Ultimate Truth bears all-embracing nature, and functions to reconcile differences.
Second, the Ultimate Truth is linked to the state of subtlety, seeing that it consists of three aspects (substance, position, and function), and the relationship between one and three is inconceivable. Chih-i defines this subtle state of inconceivability as neither the same nor different, with which the nature of flexibility of the Ultimate Truth is emphasized: “The one aspect that is discussed contains the three aspects; the three aspects that are discussed are actually one aspect. These aspects are not different from each other, neither are they besides one another nor are they the same. Therefore, they are called ‘subtle’.”
Third, considering that the Ultimate Truth is represented by the Buddha-vehicle, Chih-i regards the realization of the Ultimate Truth as the state of Buddhahood. This ultimate state is vehemently emphasized by Chih-i to be quiescent and illuminating. For instance, in his definition of the Subtlety of the Original Empathy and Response, Chih-i states that the Buddha abides at the state of quiescence and is able to illuminate sentient beings by responding to them in order to activate their inherent wisdom. Chih-i’s focus on the aspect of illumination unravels dynamic and functional nature of the Ultimate Truth.
Fourth, the Ultimate Truth is spoken of by Chih-i in terms of the Buddha-nature that is originally possessed by all sentient beings. The Buddha-nature as the Ultimate Truth indicates that Buddhahood can be universally attained by all beings, and that Buddhahood is the ultimate goal for religious salvation, whereas it does not exclude any being. On the other hand, the concept of Buddha-nature draws a complete scheme of religious path to liberation, for it includes the cause and effect of Buddhahood. The Buddha-nature that is embedded in all beings denotes the potentiality of beings as the cause for attaining Buddhahood. The manifestation of the Buddha-nature indicates the attainment of Buddhahood as the effect. Thus, by revealing universal liberation of all beings, the Buddha-nature as the Ultimate Truth is designated the feature of non-exclusiveness (i.e., comprehensiveness). The Buddha-nature as the Ultimate Truth that includes the cause for Buddhahood in the beginning and the effect of Buddhahood at the end of religious path formulates a feature of completeness and perfection. (Page 36-37)
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of BuddhismThe Eye of the Law
In the Buddhist scriptures, discussion of the Eye of the Law is invariably accompanied by mention of the doctrine that whatever is subject to the condition of origination is subject also to the condition of cessation. This is a simplified expression of the Law of Causation to the effect that suffering, for example, which must have a cause, can be eliminated by the removal of that cause. The Eye of the Law is the pure and spotless eye that perceives the veracity of the Law of Causation.
The Beginnings of BuddhismThe Six Perfections
The Six Perfections are considered the bodhisattva way of practice. They are generosity, the performance of service to others in both a spiritual and material sense; morality, living an ethical life by avoiding the taking of life, stealing, indulgence in harmful sexual activity, lying, or becoming intoxicated with alcohol or drugs; patience,showing patience in dealing with obstacles and opposition from others; endeavor, making the best effort one can; concentration, focusing the heart and mind on the task at hand; and wisdom, which is more than simple knowledge or understanding. The Buddha’s realization of the Truth was wisdom. With this wisdom, the Buddha’s person and the Truth are one: subjective character and objective truth merge and are unified.
Awakening to the LotusChih-i’s Talent
[Chih-i’s] talent lies in the fact that he not only absorbed and incorporated different views and theories, but also went beyond all of his predecessors and contemporaries by formulating his own system of thought. Since his system is based on a complete evaluation and critique of all other available views of his time, it is thus endowed with the features of syncretism, comprehensiveness, and completeness, and a sense of harmony, flexibility, and perfection.
The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of BuddhismPurifying The World
The many religions that existed in India both before and after Buddhism taught personal discipline and liberation alone. Almost none of them gave thought to instructing others or society in general or to the creation of an ideal realm in the actual world. Initially, Shakyamuni left his father’s home and undertook the life of religious discipline for the realization of his own personal ideal. But when he had developed a correct view of the world and of man through observations of the nature of human life and the universe, he saw that human beings do not live in isolation. The fate of each person, intimately connected with the flow from past to present and from present to future, is further intimately connected with the fates of the people around him, with society, and with the natural environment. For this reason, individual happiness cannot result from the improvement of the individual alone. Shakyamuni realized that, because of the Law of Causation, such happiness can only result from simultaneous improvement in society and the environment. From this standpoint, he naturally adopted the policy of saving and teaching others. This characteristic attitude sets Buddhism apart from other Indian religions and philosophies and explains its spread beyond India to the rest of the world. (Page 40-41)
The Beginnings of BuddhismThe Five False Views
The last of the six fundamental obstructions is false views, of which there are five kinds. Adding these to the previous five of the six fundamental obstructions gives us what are known in Buddhism as the ten fundamental obstructions. The five false views are (1) belief that the perceivable self, which is only a temporary aggregation of elements determined by cause and effect, is a true, persistent entity, (2) belief in either of the extreme views of eternal existence or the annihilation of existence, (3) rejection of the law of cause and effect, (4) belief in mistaken theories of cause and effect (such as those put forth by other teachers in Shakyamuni’s time, described in chapter two), and (5) belief that any of the previous four false views are the truth, that is, taking a mistaken ideal for a true ideal. The obstruction known as false views is ignorance of the truth taught by Buddhism and the adoption of false ideals in its stead. This is foolishness at its most stubborn and dangerous. Greed, anger, foolishness, pride, and doubt are known as the five dull obstructions, while the five false views are called the five sharp obstructions.
Basic Buddhist Concepts