Contemplate one moment of mind as empty, provisional and middle
Take one thought as the object and see it as empty of fixed nature, provisional in its working, and middle in holding both at once.
Why it works
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.
How to do it
- Learn this contemplation from a qualified teacher before trying the steps below.
- Begin with the body and breath settled, and a stopping practice steady enough that the mind is not scattered.
- Bring up one thought or feeling, and look at it as a single moment rather than as a story.
- Ask whether it has a fixed nature that stays the same, and see how it changes as you look at it: this is the emptiness of the moment.
- Notice that it nonetheless arises, is felt, and does something in the world: this is its provisional existence.
- Hold both observations at once without choosing one, and let the mind rest in that balance: this is the middle.
- If the thought begins to feel unreal or unsteady, stop the contemplation, return to the feet, the breath and the room, and rest before going further.
Evidence
The three truths are stated in Mo-ho chih-kuan vol. 1, the one-mind three contemplations and the three wisdoms in vol. 3, and the three thousand kinds of world in one thought-mind in vol. 5. Donner and Stevenson translated the first chapter in 1993, and Swanson has published the first complete translation (University of Hawaiʻi Press). Brook Ziporyn’s 2013 chapter on the Tiantai three truths is listed for further reading on the subject. (mechanistic)
This is the most demanding practice on the page, and the Mo-ho chih-kuan itself is dense. It is taught through a teacher and a long study of the text, and the textual method has not been tested in any study. Emptiness taken as nothing being real can be destabilising; see the madhyamaka-emptiness page for why the tradition insists on the middle.
Sources
- Zhiyi. Mo-ho chih-kuan (摩訶止觀, T1911), vol. 1, Chinese text on Chinese Wikisource. Vol. 2 gives the four samādhis and the ninety-day forms; vol. 1 gives the three truths in the “perfect” teaching.
- Zhiyi. Mo-ho chih-kuan (摩訶止觀, T1911), vol. 3, Chinese text on Chinese Wikisource. The passage on the one-mind three contemplations (一心三觀) and the three wisdoms obtained in one mind.
- Zhiyi. Mo-ho chih-kuan (摩訶止觀, T1911), vol. 5, Chinese text on Chinese Wikisource. The passage that places the three thousand kinds of world in “this one thought-mind” (此三千在一念心).
- Donner, N., & Stevenson, D. B. (trans.). The Great Calming and Contemplation: A Study and Annotated Translation of the First Chapter of Chih-i’s Mo-ho chih-kuan. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 1993.
- Swanson, P. L. (trans.). Clear Serenity, Quiet Insight: T’ien-t’ai Chih-i’s Mo-ho chih-kuan (3 vols.). Nanzan Library of Asian Religion and Culture. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2018.
- Ziporyn, B. (2013). The Three Truths in Tiantai Buddhism. In A Companion to Buddhist Philosophy (pp. 256–269). Wiley.
Common mistake
Taking “empty” to mean nothing exists, so that the thought is dismissed rather than examined. The three truths are three ways of seeing one moment, and the middle is what keeps the emptiness from becoming nihilism.
Practice this with IX Coach
More practices for Zhiguan: Tiantai Buddhism’s Calming and Contemplation Meditation
- Adjust the body, breath and mind before sitting
Before settling into stillness, bring the posture, the breath and the mind into balance as three adjustments used together.
- Stop the mind by tying it to the nose-tip or the navel
Fix attention on one point: the tip of the nose when the mind sinks into dullness, the navel when it floats off into restlessness.
- Neither walking nor sitting: keep the mind in ordinary activity
Carry the practice into everything you do, following the mind as it arises in walking, working and talking.
- The ninety-day and seven-day forms: walking, sitting and half-and-half
Zhiyi’s intensive samādhis of constant sitting, constant walking and half walking, half sitting: traditionally undertaken under a teacher.
- The Lotus repentance: a ritual of confession for the six senses
The Tiantai Lotus samādhi: a ritual in a prepared space, with offerings, prostrations, and confession of the six sense-doors.
Related concepts
- Shamatha: The Buddhist Practice of Calm Abiding
Training the mind to rest: the nine stages and their modern neurological parallels
- Śūnyatā: Emptiness and the Two Truths in Madhyamaka
Nāgārjuna’s Middle Way: why nothing has a fixed essence, and why that is not the same as nothing
- Nichiren Buddhism and the Daimoku: Chanting the Title of the Lotus Sūtra
A devotional path built on one sūtra and one phrase, described across the schools that practise it
- Vipassana Meditation, Made Practical
Insight, equanimity, and the body-scan approach to liberation from reactivity
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