Tiantai

Tiantai School refers to Mahayana , the name of the school comes from Tiantai Mountain in modern Zhejiang Province . The main line of the school’s transmission is from Nagarjuna and Chinese monks Huyven and Huiza — teachers of Chii , modern scholars hold an opinion. that the founder of the school was Zhiyi . The comments of the sixth patriarch Tiantai on the writings of Zhii have spread.

Tradition identifies eight patriarchs of the Tiantai school -

• ( Nagarjuna - Kit. 龍樹 ),

1. Huiwen ( Wh. 慧 文 ),
2. Huysses ( Wh . 慧思 , 515-577 ?),
3. Chiyi ( Kit. 智 顗 , 538 - 597 ),
4. Guangdin ( Kit. 灌頂 , 561-632 ),
5. Zhiwei ( Wh . 威 威 ,? - 680 ),
6. Huiway ( whale. 慧 威 ),
7. Xuanlan ( Kit. 玄 朗 , 673 - 754 ),
8. Zhanzhan ( Wh . 湛然 , 711 - 782 ),

At that time in China there were a lot of scattered Buddhist writings brought by Chinese pilgrims. The writings were not streamlined, many key books were lacking, and often contradictions arose between different books. The emergence of the Tiantai school led to the streamlining of Chinese Buddhism. In this school, the various views of Buddhists of that time are brought together and linked into a single system.

Chiyi classified the agamas and sutras of the Mahayana into five periods, highlighting eight types of teaching. He also operated on the concept of upaya - skillful techniques for explaining Buddhist truths to beginners. In his system, the Lotus Sutra occupied the highest position, linking everything into a single system.

The emergence of the Tiantai school led to the fact that Chinese Buddhism found a new support. Previously, Buddhism relied only on Indian teachers and Indian teachings. Now there is a Chinese analysis system, original Chinese authors and Chinese development directions.

Although the school was still quite active in the 9th century and prepared several Japanese monks (see Saitho , Ennin , Entin ), during the Yuan dynasty (dynasty) the school loses its value and disappears in China, moving to Korea and Japan.

The school’s philosophy is based on the Mahayana teaching about “ emptiness ”, combining the Indian philosophy of Madhyamaki with the Chinese teaching on tathagatagarbha . The doctrine combines the theory and practice of many schools.

Here is a brief description of the school teaching in accordance with the EA Torchinov Introduction to Buddhology :

Buddha Shakyamuni, after gaining awakening, was in the samadhi of the "sea reflection", where he saw the whole world as the absolute unity of the infinite Mind. The Buddha set forth his vision in the Avatamsaka Sutra , and then in the form of the Lotus Sutra . Before the final departure to nirvana, the Buddha also preached the Mahaparinirvana Sutra , which at the Tiantai school is considered to be the confirmation of the highest truth of the Lotus Sutra.

“ Avatamsaka-sutra ”, according to the Tiantai school, is accessible to people only with a developed intellect, whereas the “ Lotus Sutra ” is accessible and understandable both to educated and simple people.

The two most important Tiantai ideas are the doctrine “in one act of consciousness are three thousand worlds” and the concept of “one mind”.

In one mind, three thousand worlds

And the doctrine “in one act of consciousness is three thousand worlds,” and the doctrine of the one Mind is closely related to cosmological concepts of Buddhism , first of all with the view that every type of living beings and its “whereabouts” can be viewed in two ways: as a special level of consciousness deployment and as the world corresponding to it.

There are ten such worlds. First of all, these are the six worlds of Sansaric creatures: the worlds of hells , hungry spirits , animals , people , titans - asuras and deities . Four more worlds of “noble personalities” (arya pudgala ) are added to these worlds of samsara: the world of Shravak , Pratyekabudd , bodhisattvas and the world of Buddha .

Each of these worlds is present in any other world, the worlds seem to penetrate each other, the world of hells is present in the Buddha’s world (which means that not only good but evil is inherent in Buddha’s nature), but also Buddha’s world is present in hells; multiplying ten by ten gives a hundred worlds. Each world is considered in three more ways, each of which also receives the status of a special world:

1. The world of beings (consideration of each world in the aspect of the creatures inhabiting it);
2. The world of the five skandhas (viewing each world in a psychological aspect as the level of deployment of the consciousness of beings)
3. World-country (considering each world as a container of living beings).

Multiplying ten worlds into three gives thirty worlds. This is followed by the multiplication of the hundred worlds that already existed and the thirty received, which gives the number "three thousand."

The Unified Mind of the Eternal Buddha

All three thousand worlds not only exist objectively and contain the consciousnesses of living beings, but they rely on the absolute One Mind, the Buddha Mind. Every act of this Uma believes these worlds entirely. This is the basis of the Tiantai doctrine of the "Eternal Buddha."

In the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha says that only fools identify him with Siddhartha Gautama , who has gained revival under the Bodhi Tree : Buddha is eternally awakened, he is never born and never dies. Therefore, the Buddha is the true essence, the true reality of the universe as a whole, and of each individual being, everything is endowed with the initially enlightened nature of the Buddha. This thesis, although present in the doctrines of other Mahayana schools, nevertheless, occupies such a significant position only in Tian-tai. The school claims that Buddha’s nature is endowed with not only living things ( Santana , “mental continuums”), but also things, “inanimate nature” (asantana, “non-continuums”); other schools consider only living beings owners of the nature of the Buddha, whereas “inanimate nature” acts only as their correlate.

It should be noted that this peculiar Tiantai pantheism had a great influence on the art of the Far East, especially on the poetry and painting of China and Japan, permeated by experiencing images of nature as diverse phenomena of the single Absolute.

Three levels of truth

Another aspect of the Tiantai school is its theory of the threefold truth.

In form, this doctrine goes back to the theory of the two truths of Nagarjuna , however, in essence, it is radically different from the latter, although a certain continuity of ideas, of course, remains.

The first truth of the Tiantai school says that since any phenomenon is causally caused, it is devoid of identity and in fact insubstantial, being a kind of manifestation of the totality of causes and conditions that gave rise to it. This “truth of emptiness” is generally in line with the teachings of Nagarjuna .

The second truth is called the truth of false or conditional truth (jia di). It comes down to the fact that all phenomena are devoid of the true essence, the unchanging and permanent basis and therefore are like illusory images or creatures of fantasy.

The third truth is called the “truth of the middle path,” that is, the path between the two extreme points of view. It lies in the fact that in reality all phenomena are endowed with the same "dharma nature", are not born and do not die, being the eternal manifestations of the eternal Buddha.

Essentially, the Tiantai school considers only the third truth to be the truth in the strict sense of the word, whereas the first two are only a consequence of incomplete or inadequate knowledge of reality.

Practice Tiantai School

The practice of tiantai school is primarily revealed in the treatise "Maha Shamatha vipashyana." The text states that the contemplation methods were inherited by the Tiantai school through the secret oral transmission of two yoga methods: the golden oral instruction method, transmitted from Buddha Shakyamuni, and the current teacher method, transmitted from Nagarjuna .

• Tendai
• Buddhism in China
• Buddhism in Korea

• E. A. Torchinov Introduction to Buddhology ISBN 5-93597-019-8
• Brook Ziporyn, Tiantai School of Buddhism , Robert E. Buswell, Ed., McMillan USA, New York, NY, 2004. ISBN 0-02-865910-4 .
• Digital Dictionary of Buddhism (inaccessible link) (log in with userID "guest")