IX Coach

Zhiguan: Tiantai Buddhism’s Calming and Contemplation Meditation

Calming and contemplation as the Tiantai school lays them out, from preparation to the four samādhis

What is Tiantai zhiguan (calming and contemplation) meditation?

Zhiguan (止觀) is the meditation method of the Chinese Tiantai school, whose principal founder Zhiyi (538–597) wrote on the Lotus Sūtra, the sutra the school prizes most. It pairs zhǐ, calming or stopping the mind, with guān, contemplating it. Tiantai presents the method as a sequence: prepare body, breath and mind, stop the mind on a point, contemplate a single moment of mind as empty, provisional and middle, and then practise four kinds of samādhi.

Tiantai (Japanese: Tendai) is a Chinese Buddhist school whose principal founder was Zhiyi, who lived from 538 to 597. Zhiyi wrote commentaries on the Lotus Sūtra, which the school holds in highest regard, and a large treatise on practice, the Mo-ho chih-kuan, “the great calming-and-contemplation.” Zhiguan is the Chinese pair zhǐ and guān, which the Sanskrit tradition names śamatha and vipaśyanā. The Mo-ho chih-kuan treats the two together as a single method, and its title pairs them. This page follows the school’s own sequence. Zhiyi also wrote a shorter manual that sets out the preparation in five parts, and the page draws on it throughout. Where a form is intensive, the texts say it is to be learned from a teacher, and the page says so too.

Prácticas

Cómo se conectan estas prácticas

Every practice on this page trains the same pair: zhǐ, stopping the mind on an object until it is calm, and guān, looking at what the calm mind shows. The preparation makes the body and breath fit to be stopped; the anchors stop the scattering; the contemplation of a single moment looks into what the stopping has revealed; the four samādhis carry the pair into posture, routine and ordinary life; and the Lotus repentance clears the sense-doors through which the mind receives the world. Zhiyi’s texts place them within one system of practice.

How do the body, breath and mind adjustments in Tiantai practice fit together?

Zhiyi’s shorter manual says the body, breath and mind adjustments should be used together and not taught separately. A rough posture brings a rough breath, and a rough breath scatters the mind, so the three are adjusted in turn until they fit. The breath is judged by four marks, and the manual says attending to the settled breath is what leads to concentration.

When should you anchor the mind at the nose tip, and when at the navel?

In the Tiantai method, the nose tip is for sinking, when the mind is dull, drowsy and drooping. The navel is for floating, when the mind is scattered and restless, because attention there lowers and steadies it. The shorter manual gives both as remedies for these two faults.

What does contemplating one moment of mind as empty, provisional and middle involve?

It means taking a single thought as the object and seeing it as empty of a fixed nature, provisional in its working, and middle in holding both at once. The Mo-ho chih-kuan presents the three truths as one practice in one mind, and says that three thousand kinds of world are found in “this one thought-mind.” It is the most demanding practice on this page.

Can Tiantai meditation be done in ordinary daily life, or only in retreat?

Zhiyi lists a fourth samādhi, neither walking nor sitting, which the text says includes walking, sitting and all activity. The practice is to follow the intention as it arises in daily life. It is a practice without a posture, though the text places it among the four formal kinds of samādhi.

Are the intensive walking and sitting samadhis something people do alone?

The text asks for an accomplished teacher for the ninety-day walking form, and for a teacher who knows the inner and outer precepts for the seven-day half-walking form. The ninety-day sitting form is described as a fixed period in a quiet room.

What is the Lotus repentance in Tiantai Buddhism, and where does confession fit in?

The Lotus samādhi is a ritual that the Mo-ho chih-kuan describes in ten steps: a purified space, purification of the body, offerings of body, speech and mind, invitation of the Buddhas, bows, confession of the six sense-doors, circumambulation, recitation, sitting, and watching for signs of attainment. The fetched passage gives no separate justification for the confession step; it sits between the bows and the circumambulation, and it names each sense-door in turn.

¿Cómo elegir entre ellas?

If you are new to this method, start with adjusting body, breath and mind, and the nose-tip or navel anchor for whichever fault you notice. If the mind is mostly sinking, use the nose tip; if it is mostly floating, use the navel. If you want to carry practice into the day, take up the neither-walking-nor-sitting practice. The contemplation of one moment of mind is for when you have a steady stopping practice and want to study what it shows, ideally with a teacher. The intensive forms and the Lotus repentance are for a setting with a teacher or community. If confession is what you are reaching for, begin with the grounding step and the meditation-related-challenges page, not with the ritual.

Lo que estos enfoques no resuelven

The sources establish what the Tiantai school teaches and how its texts describe the practices. They do not establish that any of the practices works as the school says, and no study on this page tests the Tiantai sequence, its anchors, or its contemplation of three truths. The Mo-ho chih-kuan is one of the most demanding texts in Chinese Buddhism; Donner and Stevenson translated only its first chapter, and the contents of the twenty-five expedients, which the Mo-ho chih-kuan refers back to as an earlier section, are not set out on this page. The three-thousand-kinds claim is the school’s doctrine. The intensive forms and the Lotus repentance are traditionally taught in settings with a teacher, and the page does not present them as home practices.

Practica esto con IX Coach

Practica esto con IX Coach

Preguntas frecuentes

What is Tiantai zhiguan (calming and contemplation) meditation?

Zhiguan (止觀) is the meditation method of the Chinese Tiantai school, whose principal founder Zhiyi (538–597) wrote on the Lotus Sūtra, the sutra the school prizes most. It pairs zhǐ, calming or stopping the mind, with guān, contemplating it. Tiantai presents the method as a sequence: prepare body, breath and mind, stop the mind on a point, contemplate a single moment of mind as empty, provisional and middle, and then practise four kinds of samādhi.

¿Cómo funciona «Adjust the body, breath and mind before sitting»?

Zhiyi’s shorter manual treats the body, the breath and the mind as three things to be adjusted together, and says they should not be taught separately. The body is the vessel: a rough posture produces a rough breath, and a rough breath scatters the mind. The breath is then read by its marks. The manual lists four: wind (a sound at the nostrils), panting (breath that catches), qi (breath that is not smooth and tires the practitioner), and breath proper (fine, continuous, settled). It says that fixing attention on wind scatters, on panting binds, on qi tires, and on breath proper brings concentration.

¿Cómo funciona «Stop the mind by tying it to the nose-tip or the navel»?

Zhiyi treats stopping (zhǐ) as the remedy for two opposite faults. Sinking is dullness: the mind is dark, forgetful, and the head droops. Floating is restlessness: the mind drifts to other objects and the body will not settle. The shorter manual prescribes a different anchor for each: tie mindfulness to the tip of the nose as the remedy for sinking, which it describes as a dark, forgetful mind, and tie the object to the navel for floating, after which the mind settles and grows calm. The point of the anchor is not the place itself but that the mind is held there until it stops scattering.

¿Cómo funciona «Contemplate one moment of mind as empty, provisional and middle»?

The Mo-ho chih-kuan sets its contemplation on the three truths: empty (kong), provisional (jia) and middle (zhong). The first volume describes the perfect faith as believing that all things are empty, provisional and middle, and says the text of this faith is “no one, two or three, yet one, two and three.” The third volume describes the one-mind three contemplations (一心三觀) and states that the three wisdoms are obtained in one mind. Zhiyi also says that the three thousand kinds of world are in “this one thought-mind.” The practice works by taking the mind itself, at a single moment, as the object of study.

¿Cómo funciona «Neither walking nor sitting: keep the mind in ordinary activity»?

Zhiyi lists four kinds of samādhi. The fourth, “neither walking nor sitting,” is not confined to a posture: the text says it in fact covers walking, sitting and all activities, and Nanyue called it “following one’s own mind.” Its principle is that whenever a thought or intention arises, the practice of samādhi is performed on it. The mind is trained not by leaving the day behind but by seeing each arising within it.

¿Cómo funciona «The ninety-day and seven-day forms: walking, sitting and half-and-half»?

Mo-ho chih-kuan vol. 2 describes the four samādhis as four ways of bringing the mind to rest: constant sitting, constant walking, half walking and half sitting, and neither walking nor sitting. The first two are set out over ninety days, with the walking form based on the Pratyutpanna Samādhi Sūtra and its “Buddha standing before you” vision. The half-and-half form is a seven-day practice of circumambulation with recitation and sitting. The text describes them as fixed, time-bounded periods, with set rules for posture, movement, speech and place.

¿Cómo funciona «The Lotus repentance: a ritual of confession for the six senses»?

Mo-ho chih-kuan vol. 2 gives the bodily part of the Lotus samādhi as ten steps: purify the ritual space and the body, make offerings of body, speech and mind, invite the Buddhas, bow, confess the six sense-doors (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind), circumambulate, recite the sūtra, sit, and watch for the signs of attainment. The text says the Lotus samādhi is also set out in a separate fascicle by a Tiantai master. The confession step names the sense-doors one by one within the formal sequence, and the ritual is named for the Lotus Sūtra.

How do the body, breath and mind adjustments in Tiantai practice fit together?

Zhiyi’s shorter manual says the body, breath and mind adjustments should be used together and not taught separately. A rough posture brings a rough breath, and a rough breath scatters the mind, so the three are adjusted in turn until they fit. The breath is judged by four marks, and the manual says attending to the settled breath is what leads to concentration.

When should you anchor the mind at the nose tip, and when at the navel?

In the Tiantai method, the nose tip is for sinking, when the mind is dull, drowsy and drooping. The navel is for floating, when the mind is scattered and restless, because attention there lowers and steadies it. The shorter manual gives both as remedies for these two faults.

What does contemplating one moment of mind as empty, provisional and middle involve?

It means taking a single thought as the object and seeing it as empty of a fixed nature, provisional in its working, and middle in holding both at once. The Mo-ho chih-kuan presents the three truths as one practice in one mind, and says that three thousand kinds of world are found in “this one thought-mind.” It is the most demanding practice on this page.

Can Tiantai meditation be done in ordinary daily life, or only in retreat?

Zhiyi lists a fourth samādhi, neither walking nor sitting, which the text says includes walking, sitting and all activity. The practice is to follow the intention as it arises in daily life. It is a practice without a posture, though the text places it among the four formal kinds of samādhi.

Are the intensive walking and sitting samadhis something people do alone?

The text asks for an accomplished teacher for the ninety-day walking form, and for a teacher who knows the inner and outer precepts for the seven-day half-walking form. The ninety-day sitting form is described as a fixed period in a quiet room.

What is the Lotus repentance in Tiantai Buddhism, and where does confession fit in?

The Lotus samādhi is a ritual that the Mo-ho chih-kuan describes in ten steps: a purified space, purification of the body, offerings of body, speech and mind, invitation of the Buddhas, bows, confession of the six sense-doors, circumambulation, recitation, sitting, and watching for signs of attainment. The fetched passage gives no separate justification for the confession step; it sits between the bows and the circumambulation, and it names each sense-door in turn.

Investigación

Conceptos relacionados