Chih-i transmitted Hui-ssu's three kinds of calming and contemplation is perhaps the best explication of the perfect and sudden (direct) contemplation which is presented together with the gradual and sequential and the variable:
(1) the gradual and sequential,
(2) the variable,
(3) the perfect and sudden.
The gradual [calming and contemplation] is shallow at the beginning but later becomes deep, like [climbing] a ladder or stairs.
In the variable [calming and contemplation], the earlier and later [stages] mutually shift around, just as the color of a diamond thrust into the sunlight varies depending on its position.
In the perfect and sudden [calming and contemplation], beginning and end are not two [different things], so that the practice is comparable to someone with supernatural powers mounting into space. It is for the sake of three basic types of [spiritual] capacity that we teach these three approaches to Dharma and cite these three similes.
In the section we are interested in the perfect and sudden contemplations.
Gradual and Sequential Calming and Contemplation
Even at the beginning of gradual one is conscious of ultimate reality. This reality is difficult to understand, but the gradual and sequential method is easy to practice.
One begins by taking refuge in the monastic code (kuei-chieh), thereby turning away from depravity and approaching the good.
Fire, blood, and the knife are brought to a halt, and one reaches the three wholesome destinies. At the next stage one takes up the practice of meditative concentration, through which one restrains the far-ranging net of desire and achieves the concentrations of the realms of form and formlessness.
Next one cultivates (vipassana) freedom from outflows (wu-lou), thereby terminating one's imprisonment in the three realms and (increments the possibility) reaching the path to nirvana.
After that, one cultivates loving kindness and compassion, disregarding one's own progress toward enlightenment and reaching the bodhisattva path. Finally, one cultivates [the vision] of reality (supramundane vipassana), thereby arresting in oneself the biases of the two extreme views and achieving the eternally abiding way. These are the features of the gradual and sequential calming and contemplation, which is shallow at the start but profound at the end.
Variable Calming and Contemplation
There is no particular sequence of stages in the variable calming and contemplation. At times it may employ the gradual method, which we have outlined above, and at times it may employ the sudden method, which we discuss below, alternating between these two, now shallow and now deep.
Sometimes [it focuses on] phenomenal distinctions (shih), at other times on principle (li). In some cases it points to the worldly [siddhanta] as the [siddhanta of] ultimate truth, or treats the [siddhanta of] ultimate truth as the individualized and therapeutic [siddhantas]. It may involve the pacification (hsi) of contemplation (kuan) in order to achieve calming (chih); or it may involve the illumination (chao) of calming (chih) to achieve contemplation (kuan). That is why it is called the "variable" calming and contemplation.
A skeptic might say, "[These three types of calming and contemplation] belong to the same teaching, have the same [reality] as their object, and have the same name. But in terms of the features [of their practice] they are still utterly different."
Perfect and Sudden Calming and Contemplation
The perfect and sudden calming and contemplation from the very beginning takes ultimate reality (shih-hsiang) as its object. No matter what the object of contemplation might be, it is seen to be identical to the middle. There is here nothing that is not true reality (chen-shih). When one fixes [the mind] on the dharmadhatu [as object] and unifies one's mindfulness with the dharmadhatu [as it is], then there is not a single sight nor smell that is not the middle way. The same goes for the realm of self, the realm of Buddha, and the realm of living beings. Since all aggregates (skandha) and sense-acceses (ýyatana) [of body and mind] are thusness, there is no suffering to be cast away.
Since nescience and the afflictions are themselves identical with enlightenment (bodhi), there is no origin of suffering to be eradicated. Since the two extreme views are the middle way and false views are the right view, there is no path to be cultivated. Since samsara is identical with nirvana, there is no cessation to be achieved. Because of the [intrinsic] inexistence of suffering and its origin, the mundane does not exist; because of the inexistence of the path and cessation, the supramundane does not exist. A single, unalloyed reality (shih-hsiang) is all there is; no entities whatever exist outside of it. That all entities are by nature quiescent (chi) is called "calming" (chih); that, though quiescent, this nature is ever luminous (chao), is called "contemplation" (kuan).
Though a verbal distinction is made between earlier and later stages of practice, there is ultimately no duality, no distinction between them. This is what is called the "perfect and sudden calming and contemplation."
translated by Neal Donner and Daniel B. Stevenson
1. Chan-jan says: "'Perfect' means perfectly interfusing or perfectly full. 'Sudden' means reaching its furthest limit 'all-at-once,' or 'instantaneously' becoming fullfilled. Furthermore, 'perfect' means complete. . . . Because its essence (t'i) is not established gradually, it thus is 'sudden or instantaneous.' But although in essence it [is already] fulfilled or at its limit, one still must use the twenty-five techinques as preliminary expedients and rely on the ten modes of discernment for cultivation [of contemplation] proper."
2. Chan-jan (T46.150b6-8) says: "These three approaches to calming and contemplation apply to spiritual capacity differently. Although from the phenomenal perspective (shih) there are differences [among them], they take the same sudden principle (li) as their object. Beyond [this principle of] the perfect teaching there is really no other capacity to speak of. Thus one should be aware that the three [approaches to calming and contemplation] all orient themselves to the perfect principle and that their distinguishing of three courses of practice [on this basis] is referred to as 'three types of spiritual capacity.'"
3. Chan-jan says: "Five stages are enumerated here, but in concept they actually include thirteen distinctions. The five are: (1) submitting to the precepts, (2) meditative concentration, (3) [cultivating insight or wisdom] devoid of outflows, (4) kindness and compassion, and (5) ultimate reality. As for the thirteen subsidiary points, the first stage contains six, which are the three evil [destinies] and three good [destinies]. The third stage contains four, which are the two [tripiÒaka and shared] teachings and the two vehicles. Together with the previous six they make ten. Add in the remaining three, without any changes to their number, and the total comes to thirteen. Throughout the thirteen, ultimate reality remains the object of focus. But taking into consideration the fact that [this reality] is the same as for the sudden, it should not be counted as a point of difference [among the three calmings and contemplations]. It is for this reason that later in the questions and answers [the text] speaks of 'twelve points of dissimilarity or difference.'"
4. Chan-jan (T46.150b29-c1) says: "The term 'variable' is devised in reference to the two previous [approaches of] the gradual and sudden. Sometimes it is gradual; sometimes it is sudden; it does not focus exclusively on any one approach. Thus it is 'variable.'"
5. Originally an indigenous philosophical concept developed by early medieval Confucian and Hs¸an-hs¸eh thinkers, the distinction between "principle" (li) and "phenomena" (shih) was adapted to classic Indian Buddhist polarities of emptiness (—Ânyatý) and existence, or "ultimate truth" (paramýrtha-satya) and "conventional truth" (sa¸vÁti-satya). In Hua-yen and later T'ien-t'ai the nuances surrounding these terms become quite complex. Chih-i himself frequently uses shih to refer to concrete features of religious practice, ritual activity, and cultic lore. Li, on the other hand, represents an interior insight whereby one sees these very distinctions as devoid of any absolute status in and of themselves (i.e., empty) and experiences them as intrinsically identical to the transcendent "middle truth." Hence li (as "principle") may be taken loosely to mean "essential principle of truth or reality"; and shih, "phenomenal appearance." Chan-jan (T46.150c4-6) says: "As for 'principle' and 'phenomena,' sometimes the mundane realms [of sa¸sýra] are considered 'the phenomenal'; and the supramundane, 'principle.' Or [the pairs of] conventional truth (sa¸vÁti-satya) and ultimate truth (paramýrtha-satya), the three siddhýntas and the one siddhýnta [are identified with the phenomenal and principle, respectively]. [Here in the variable calming and contemplation] they also mutually shift around."
6. This sentence refers to the second and third of the four siddhýntas (hsi-t'an) four strategies for expounding the teachings and guiding beings to perfection. They derive from . Chih-i, following his teacher Hui-ssu, understood the term hsi-t'an as a mixture of Chinese and Sanskrit, meaning "universally giving" (i.e., interpreting hsi in its ordinary Chinese meaning of "universal" and t'an as the Sanskrit dýna, "giving"). In fact the whole word, and not merely half of it, is a transcription of the Sanskrit word siddhýnta. The four siddhýntas are: (1) the "worldly siddhýnta," where one instructs beings in accordance with their existing (conventional) desires and motives; (2) the "individualized siddhýnta," which devises instruction in accordance with the capacities of beings to receive the teaching; (3) the "therapeutic siddhýnta," which takes the approach of preaching dharma in accordance with specific evil mental states and behavior that need to be counteracted; and (4 ) the "ultimate siddhýnta," or preaching in direct accordance with the true nature of reality.
7. Chan-jan says: "In some cases, by applying illumination to calming, calming [itself] becomes contemplation. By applying pacification to contemplation, contemplation becomes calming."
8. These distinctions are made only with respect to the gradual calming and contemplation. Cultivation of freedom from outflows is, as above, the third stage of the five. Each of the other three stages remains undivided, thus giving a total of twelve. The three aspects of freedom from outflows are not clearly explained by commentators, although Chan-jan (T46.150c26-151a1) suggests that the three are a condensation of four, possibly the four fruits of stream-winner, etc. The fact that this list differs from Chan-jan's previous analysis of the gradual path into twelve points (not including "reality," the thirteenth) (T46.150b) makes the passage even more confusing.
9. Chan-jan (T46.151a19-20) explains that the title for this section was used in earlier editions of the MHCK (i.e., the Y¸an-tun chih-kuan). Although the title has been dropped here, its name is retained in the text of the question and answer.
10. Sic. Ko\d\ba3()\s\up4(-)gi (1.93) informs us that this figure is arrived at by counting the first of the five stages as six, and each of the next three stages as one (the fifth stage is here omitted from the computation). Again the meaning of the computation is unclear.
11. Chan-jan, suggests that the four represent the two pairs of the worldly siddhýnta/ultimate siddhýnta and calming/contemplation, in which each member of a pair can be considered from the point of view of the other, making four permutations.
12. Chan-jan says: "[The passage from] 'from the [very] beginning takes [ultimate] reality as its object' to 'true reality' [in the line that follows] represents the object that calming and contemplation focuses on."
13. The line originates from the Wen-shu shuo-ching (T8.731a-b). Chan-jan (T46.151c18-20) says: "'Mindfulness' itself is the constant illumination that attends [the mind] in quiescence. "Affixing' is the constant quiescence that attends the illumination of [unified] mindfulness. Since subjective and objective [aspects] are one, how much the more so calming and contemplation."
13. Chan-jan (T46.151c20-23) says: "The middle way is itself the dharmadhýtu. The dharmadhýtu is itself calming and contemplation. Calming and contemplation are not two separate things; wisdom and the object it perceives are a mysterious unity. Subjective [contemplator] and object [contemplated] are spoken of together in order to clarify [the quality of] quiescent illumination." Chan-jan subsequently remarks (T46.151c): "There are two meanings to the term 'middle way.' The first, which simply means to depart from [the two extreme views of] annihilationism and eternalism, belongs to the two vehicles. The second, which is [the middle way of the] Buddha-nature, belongs to the two subsequent teachings [of the separate and perfect doctrines]. The latter together present two approaches to Buddha-nature: one provisional expedient, the other real. Thus there is the [concept of Buddha-nature as something] 'apart' [from phenomena and the afflictions] and the [concept of Buddha-nature as] 'identical' [to phenomena and the afflictions]. Here the text takes the perspective of the 'identical.' Therefore it says 'every sight, every smell is the middle way.' People today unanimously take these words 'sight' and 'smell,' etc. to signify the insentient. But while they admit that 'every sight, every smell can be the middle way,' they disclaim the notion of the intrinsic Buddha-nature of the insentient as deluded and excessive." Chan-jan, of course, is renowned for elaborating the theory that the Buddha-nature is also intrinsic to the insentient. In the lines that follow in the commentary he offers ten points in support of his position (T46.151c28-152a21). For a discussion of Chan-jan, his works and ideas, see Hib“, Tëdai tendai-gaku kenkyÂ.