While Zongmi was clearly aware of the perfection of the Contemplations upon FUNCTION of Huineng, which caused a striking change of allegiances and the formation of false lineages, he was nonetheless not a meditator of that lineage if one considers his detailed description of method.
The base of his meditation teachings was "ONE-WORD AWARENESS", which is often translated as "ONE-WORD KNOWLEDGE", which shows a lack of understanding of contemplative methodology.
The AWARENESS referred to is not the TOTAL AWARENESS of LIFE, but the SENSORY AWARENESS which is the prelude to Attention. However, the Contemplations of Zongmi are not directed at ATTENTION, but at the operation which we call ESSENCE of the right hemisphere, where the sensory signals are generated with the simple task of confirming the operation of the senses in general and in particular.
It must be noted here that the sixth sense, that of "THINKING", is a sense that detects the passing of what we term thoughts to CONSCIOUSNESS from COGNITION. It must be remembered that the sense of THINKING in and of itself carries no data regarding the nature of the thoughts.
Zongmi's contemplation method is directing contemplation towards the Arousal of the SENSORY AWARENESS that ALL THE SIX SENSES are receiving as nature developed them.
The details of the technique are taught in the seminary and it is not appropriate to describe the important details, in order to avoid the flood of COGNITIVE ERRORS which arise when someone decides to be his or her own master.