--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Richard J. Williams" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Jason Spock wrote: > > Tell us something about Tien Tai. > > > Tian Tai is Buddhist Madyamika, which postulates > that all things are void of true nature and that > they are without an essential reality; that all > things are real and unreal at the same time, > according to Nagarjuna's Middle Way, similar to > Shankaracharys's notion that Maya is unreal yet > real - an appearance only.
The Patriarch Chih-I (538-597) founded the T'ien T'ai school during the Sui dynasty in China. Like all other Buddhist lineages, the school maintained that enlightenment is achieved by realizing or seeing one's inherent Buddha nature. The school has a history closely tied to the Pure Land school and upholds the Lotus Sutra as its principle scripture. Chih-I founded this school in order to explain the various teachings of the Buddha. The Buddha taught different teachings in order to suit the different mental dispositions of sentient beings. Therefore, Chih-I clearly made the distinction between the absolute and relative truths in the Buddha's teachings. The school has three commentaries which include: The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra, The Commentary of the Lotus Sutra and the Great Samatha/Vipasyana Commentary which describes the techniques to be used to recognize the Dharmakaya. Three views in which existence can described are: 1) All of existence depends on the existence of other factors, causes and conditions and therefore everything is insubstantial 2) Although phenomena and existence are merely temporary, it does have a real immediate existence that cannot be ignored 3) Middle Way: One must not fall into the extreme views of nihilism and eternalism. Therefore a Buddha recognizes the ultimate and relative truth simultaneously.
