T’IEN-T’AI SCHOOL Chin., lit. “School of the Celestial Platform”; school of Buddhism that received its definitive form from Chih-i (538-97). Its doctrine is based on the Lotus Sūtra, thus it is often called the Lotus school.
The T’ien-t’ai school sees Nāgārjuna as its first patriarch, because its doctrine of three truths is derived from Nāgārjuna’s thesis that everything that arises conditionally is empty (shūnyatā). The school takes as a premise that all phenomena are an expression of the absolute, of “suchness” (tathatā), and this is expressed in the teaching of the three truths, which distinguishes the truth of emptiness; of temporal limitation, i.e. of the phenomenal world; and of the middle.
The first truth says that dharmas possess no independent reality and thus are empty.
The second truth says that a dharma has the temporally limited apparent existence of phenomena and can be perceived by the senses.
The third truth is a synthesis of the first and second. It is the truth of the “middle,” which stands above the two others and includes them. This truth of the middle is equated with suchness, the true state that is not to be found elsewhere than in phenomena. According to this truth, phenomena and the absolute are one.
This view stresses the notions of totality and mutual interpenetration. The whole and its parts are one, all dharmas are merged with one another to such an extent that each also contains the others. Emptiness, phenomenality, and the middle are identical and are aspects of a single existence: “The whole world is contained in a mustard seed,” and “One thought is the 3,000 worlds,” as the masters of this school express it. By the latter saying is meant that one thought embodies the universality of all things.
The practice of the school consists of meditation based on the methods of chih-kuan. It contains esoteric elements such as mudrās and mandalas.
The T’ien-t’ai school is generally considered a syncretistic school, since it synthesizes all the extremes and one-sided views of other schools. This is seen in the school’s classification of the teaching of Buddha into “five periods and eight teachings.” It is considered universal because it advocates the notion of universal liberation, which is possible because all beings and things possess buddha-nature and because they all make use of available means for the realization of enlightenment. The most important works of the T’ien-t’ai school are Mahā-shamathavipashyanā (Chin., Mo-he chih-kuan), Six Wondrous Gates of Liberation (Chin., Liu-miao-famen), and various commentaries on the Lotus Sūtra, all by Chih-i.
The school was brought to Japan in the 9th century by Saichō, a student of the 1 0th patriarch of the school, Tao-sui. There it is known under the name Tendai and is one of the most important Buddhist schools.
The main practice of Chih-kuan has two aspects: chih is concentration or collectedness and brings us to recognize that all dharmas are empty. In this way the further arising of illusions is prevented. Kuan (insight, contemplation) causes us to recognize that though dharmas are empty, they have apparent, temporary existence and fulfill the function of conventionality. The classification of sūtras and the teachings of Buddha into five periods and eight teachings by Chih-i represents an attempt to systematize the teachings of Buddha and to explain through a division in terms of chronology and content the arising within Buddhism of different doctrines and ways of solving metaphysical problems. It shows that the T’ien-t’ai school, more than any other, is eager to unify all forms of Buddhism within itself. It provides a place for the most widely different sūtras and regards the Hīnayāna as well as the Mahāyāna as an authentic doctrinal expression of the Buddha.
The division into five periods is based on chronological criteria: the period (1) of the Buddhāvatamsaka-sūtra, (2) of the Āgamas, (3) of the Vaipulya-sūtras (the first stage of Mahāyāna), (4) of the Prajñāpāramitā-sūtra, (5) of the Lotus Sūtra and the Mahāparinirvāna-sūtra.
The first phase of the Buddha’s teaching, which lasted three weeks, is represented according to Chih-i by the Buddhāvatamsaka-sūtra, which the Buddha is supposed to have taught immediately following his enlightenment. His students, however, did not understand the principal idea of the sūtra, that the universe is the expression of the absolute. Thus the Buddha decided to teach the Āgamas (second period). In these, he did not teach the complete truth, but went only so far as the understanding of his students permitted. He presented the four noble truths, the eightfold path, and the teaching of conditioned arising (pratītya-samutpāda). This phase lasted twelve years.
In the third period, which spanned eight years, the Buddha taught the first level of the Mahāyāna. In it he stressed the superiority of a bodhisattva over an arhat and the unity of Buddha and sentient beings, of absolute and relative.
The fourth period, which lasted twenty-two years, contains the teachings of the Prajñāpāramitā-sūtra, i.e., of shūnyatā and the nonexistence of all opposites.
In the fifth and last period, which corresponds to the last eight years of Buddha’s life, he emphasized the absolute identity of all opposites. The three vehicles (triyāna) of the shrāvakas, pratyeka-buddhas, and bodhisattvas have only temporary or provisional validity and merge into a single vehicle (ekayāna). According to the T’ien-t’ai view, in this last period, that of the Lotus Sūtra, the Buddha expounded the complete and perfect teaching.
This represents a chronological division of the teaching. Yet the school holds the view that the Buddha also taught the teachings of the five periods simultaneously, and this leads to a systematization of the Buddha’s teaching into eight doctrines, four of which are to be considered from the point of view of method and four from the point of view of content.
The first group includes:
1. The sudden method, which is to be used with the most talented students who understand the truth directly. This is the method of the Buddhāvatamsaka-sūtra.
2. The gradual method, which progresses from elementary to more complex doctrines and includes the Āgama, Vaipulya-sūtra, and Prajñāpāramitā-sūtra periods. The Lotus Sūtra is not included here, since its approach is neither sudden nor gradual; rather it contains the ultimate truth taught by the Buddha.
3. The secret method, which was used by the Buddha only when addressing one person, in which case he was understood only by this person. Other people could have been present, but owing to the supernatural power of the Buddha, they would not have been aware of each other or of what he said to them individually.
4. The indeterminate method, in which, though the individual students were aware of each other, they heard and understood his words in different ways.
The last two methods were used by the Buddha when he wanted to instruct students of different capacities at the same time.
Then there are the four categories that are differentiated from the point of view of content:
1. The teachings of the Hīnayāna, meant for shrāvakas and pratyeka-buddhas.
2. The general teaching, which is common to Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna and is meant for shrāvakas, pratyeka-buddhas, and lower-level bodhisattvas.
3. The special teaching for bodhisattvas.
4. The complete, “round” teaching, that of the Middle Way of mutual identification.
The period of the Buddhāvatamsaka-sūtra includes special and “round” teachings, that of the Āgamas only the teachings of the Hīnayāna, the Vaipulya phase all four doctrines; the Prajñāpāramitā-sūtra contains “round” but also general and special teachings. Only the Lotus Sūtra can be regarded as really “round” and complete.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion: Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Zen. Shambhala Publications, Inc.
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External Links: Tiantai / Ekayāna / Lotus Sūtra / Mādhyamaka