Extended interpretation of the Dharma of Sentient Beings (Kuangming Chung-sheng-fa)

The Dharma of Sentient Beings is addressed in two aspects: Fa-shu (numerical categories of the Dharma of Sentient Beings), and Fa-hsiang (characteristics of the Dharma of Sentient Beings).

Numerical categories of the Dharma of Sentient Beings (Fa-shu)

This aspect introduces the Ten Suchnesses (Shihju-shih) and the Ten Dharma-realms (Shih-fa-chieh) as the numerical categories of the Dharma of Sentient Beings. According to Chih-i, the phrases of the Ten Suchnesses are derived from the Lotus Sūtra, and these Ten Suchnesses can describe the characteristics of reality. Chih-i terms the Ten Suchnesses as the “Ultimate Truth of all dharmas” (Chu-fa Shih-hsiang). They are: “suchness of appearance” (Ju-shih-hsiang), “suchness of nature” (Ju-shih-hsing), “suchness of substance” (Ju-shiht ‘i), “suchness of power” (Ju-shih-li), “suchness of function” (Ju-shihtso), “suchness of causes” (Ju-shih-yin), “suchness of conditions” (Jushih-yüan), “suchness of effects” (Ju-shih-kuo), “suchness of retributions” (Ju-shih-pao), and “beginning-and-end-ultimately-alike of its suchness” (Ju-shih Pen-mo Chiu-ching Teng). To sustain his argument that the Ten Suchnesses are the Ultimate Truth of all dharmas, Chih-i declares that the Ten Suchnesses contain three meanings in terms of the Threefold Truth (Emptiness, the Provisional Existence, and the Middle Way), when they are read in three different ways. Inasmuch as the Threefold Truth is the comprehensive view of reality and constitutes the Ultimate Truth of the Middle Way, the Ten Suchnesses that contain the meaning of the Threefold Truth can be certainly taken to characterize the Ultimate Truth. (Vol. 2, Page 71)