摩訶止觀 釋名

Speak of “calming,” and it is easy to imagine pressing thoughts down. Speak of “contemplation,” and it is easy to imagine forceful analysis. Zhiyi first opens the two graphs. Calming has three meanings: cessation, staying, and calming spoken in relation to non-calming. Contemplation has three: penetrating, contemplative comprehension, and contemplation spoken in relation to non-contemplation. Evil thoughts coming to rest is cessation. Mind abiding in principle is staying. In relation to the non-calming of ignorance, Dharma-nature is called calming. Wisdom piercing through affliction is penetrating. Contemplative wisdom entering suchness is contemplative comprehension. In relation to the non-contemplation of ignorance, Dharma-nature is called contemplation. Each name first points toward a real transformation.

Yet as long as one asks whether calming comes from what is broken or from that which calms, the name still seeks roots among agent and object, self and other. Zhiyi therefore horizontally breaks the four propositions and vertically breaks every successive calming-and-contemplation that still depends upon something. He does not establish one highest calming to overpower the remaining calmings or one deepest contemplation to exclude the rest. Agent and object of dependence are quiescently extinguished together, and even calming and contemplation themselves cannot be attained. When fire burns wood, the fire has nowhere to lodge once the wood is exhausted. The absolute is absolute precisely because it leaves not even “absolute” behind for someone to grasp.

Names cannot be attained, yet they can still be taught through causes and conditions. To let sentient beings understand the language of different scriptures and treatises, different names are integrated. To enable practitioners to give rise to benefit, calming-and-contemplation is taught as communicating with the three virtues. To counteract affliction, the relative is taught. To disclose the ultimate truth, the absolute is taught. Detachment, non-abiding, quiescent extinction, meditative concentration, discarding, and relinquishing can all be different names for calming. Knowledge and vision, bright discernment, wisdom, illumination and comprehension, and reflecting and penetrating can all be different names for contemplation. Although modes of teaching are many, they do not create many mutually isolated Dharmas.

Nor are calming and contemplation two tools awkwardly joined into the three virtues only at the end. Calming can communicate with liberation, contemplation with prajñā, and their equality and relinquishing of the two extremes with Dharma body. Contemplation is already present in calming, and calming in contemplation. Calming-and-contemplation communicates together with the three virtues, and each of the three virtues communicates with calming-and-contemplation in turn. They are neither arranged before and after in a vertical line nor separated horizontally. Like the three dots of the true graph yi, the one itself is three and the three themselves are one, neither merged into one dot nor dispersed into three unrelated Dharmas.

Explaining the Name therefore does not add definitions to two graphs. It teaches how to use names without being trapped by them. Beginners need not abandon themselves because the absolute is a sage’s realm, nor may they pass off understanding “unattainable” as realization. Viewed through the six identities, the beginner is not excluded and sagehood is not falsely claimed. To cease one portion of evil thought and illuminate one portion of delusion today provides an entrance. Step by step, go deeper without grasping any step as ultimate. Here the name calming-and-contemplation completes its work: it brings a person to the gate, until the practitioner sees directly that neither gate nor traveler has anywhere to abide.

Why Is It Called Calming-and-Contemplation?

The third fascicle of the Mohe Zhiguan was taught by the Great Master Zhizhe of Tiantai in the Sui and recorded by his disciple Guanding.

The second chapter explains the name calming-and-contemplation. Its general outline has already been taught. The question now is: through what meaning is the name “calming-and-contemplation” ultimately established? In brief there are four aspects: first, relative; second, absolute; third, integrating differences; and fourth, communicating with the three virtues.

Relative: Three Meanings of Calming

First is the relative. Calming and contemplation each have three meanings. The three meanings of calming are cessation, staying, and calming spoken in relation to non-calming.

First, cessation. Every evil examination and consideration, delusive thought, and conceptual reflection quiescently ceases. The meaning of the Vimalakīrti is to ask: What is climbing and conditioning? It is climbing and conditioning on the three realms. What is ceasing that climbing and conditioning? It is the mind’s attaining nothing. This meaning is named according to the delusive thoughts that are broken and is therefore called cessation.

Second, staying. The mind that climbs and conditions rests in true principle, binding right mindfulness to what is present, staying without movement. The Benevolent Kings says that entering the prajñā of principle is called abiding. The Great Perfection of Wisdom further says to abide within prajñāpāramitā through the mode of not abiding in any Dharma. This meaning is named according to the wisdom that can bring about staying and is therefore called staying.

Third, calming spoken in relation to non-calming. On the surface this sentence may seem to apply to the preceding two meanings, but its actual meaning is very different. The first two calmings speak generally in terms of wisdom and the severing of delusion: cessation from the side of nirvāṇa in relation to the movement of birth and death, and staying from the side of prajñā in relation to mental activity racing beyond true principle. The third meaning speaks of the relative specifically according to the principle of truth.

Ignorance in its very essence does not depart from Dharma-nature, and Dharma-nature does not depart from ignorance. Ignorance originally cannot fixedly be called either calming or non-calming, yet in order to establish a name it is called non-calming. Dharma-nature originally likewise cannot fixedly be called calming or non-calming, yet it is called calming. Thus Dharma-nature is called calming in relation to the name non-calming assigned to ignorance. It resembles scriptural statements that Dharma-nature is originally neither arising nor ceasing yet is called quiescent extinction, and originally neither defiled nor pure yet is called pure. This is calming spoken in relation to non-calming.

Relative: Three Meanings of Contemplation

Contemplation also has three meanings: penetrating, contemplative comprehension, and contemplation spoken in relation to non-contemplation.

First, penetrating. The function of wisdom is sharp and can pierce through and extinguish afflictions. The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra uses the simile of a sharp mattock digging into the earth, passing through bedrock, sand, and gravel until it reaches vajra. The Lotus further says that when digging into a high plateau, one initially sees only dry earth, but by continuing to apply effort without cease one gradually sees mud. This meaning is named according to the afflictions that are broken and therefore establishes the contemplation of penetrating.

Second, contemplative comprehension. The wisdom of contemplation penetrates true principle and accords with suchness. The Auspicious Response says that one ceases the mind that climbs and conditions and penetrates the source, and is therefore called a śramaṇa. The Dazhidu Lun says that when the pure mind is constantly one, one can see prajñā. This meaning is named according to the wisdom that can contemplate and therefore establishes the contemplation of contemplative comprehension.

Third, contemplation spoken in relation to non-contemplation. On the surface this statement likewise applies to the preceding two meanings, but its intent remains distinct. The first two contemplations may generally speak of penetrating in relation to the dense covering of the afflictions of birth and death, and of contemplative comprehension in relation to delusion and darkness. This is speaking of the relative generally according to wisdom and the severing of delusion. The third meaning explains it specifically according to the principle of truth.

Ignorance in its very essence does not depart from Dharma-nature, and Dharma-nature does not depart from ignorance. Ignorance originally cannot fixedly be called contemplation or non-contemplation, yet it is called non-contemplation. Dharma-nature originally likewise cannot fixedly be called contemplation or non-contemplation, yet it is called contemplation. It resembles scriptural statements that Dharma-nature is originally neither bright nor dark yet is called bright, and that emptiness of the ultimate truth is originally neither wise nor foolish yet is called wisdom. This is contemplation spoken in relation to non-contemplation.

Thus calming and contemplation are each named from three meanings.

Absolute: First Breaking the Four Horizontal Propositions

Second, calming-and-contemplation is explained through the absolute—that is, by breaking the three preceding kinds of calming-and-contemplation, all of which still depend upon something. First the four horizontal propositions are broken; then the four vertical propositions.

Suppose the calming of cessation is said to be named from the afflictions it breaks. Illuminating the object of true principle is primary, while removing affliction is only incidental. Yet if it is now named from the affliction left behind, its name arises from another and falls into the nature of other.

Suppose the calming of staying is said to be named from the wisdom that breaks. Illuminating the object is primary, while removing delusion is only incidental. Yet if a wisdom that can illuminate is now asserted, its name arises from its own wisdom and falls into self-nature.

Suppose calming is established neither through the cessation of delusive thought nor through abiding in true principle, but only through the combination of the conditions wisdom and severing delusion. Its name then arises jointly from self and other and falls into shared nature.

Suppose it is established neither from what is broken nor from that which breaks, but calming is asserted without any cause. It then falls into the nature of no cause.

Nāgārjuna therefore says that dharmas do not arise from themselves, from another, from both self and other, or from no cause; hence all dharmas are non-arising. How could non-arising calming-and-contemplation be named through the four propositions self, other, both, and no cause? A name established from the four propositions arises through dependent causes and conditions and can still be thought and spoken. Because it also arises from the afflictions that bind, it can still be broken and destroyed. Since it remains an arising that originates, ceases, and moves, how could it be called staying? Since it remains an arising of delusion and inversion, how could it be called contemplative comprehension?

Absolute: Next Breaking the Four Vertical Propositions

Next they are broken vertically. If calming-and-contemplation arises from the four propositions, this is the “arising-arising” in which arising gives rise again, not absolute calming-and-contemplation.

If it can cease the delusions of views and thought and stay in the ultimate truth, this merely stands in relation to the preceding level of arising-arising and speaks of the calming-and-contemplation of “arising-non-arising.”

If the mind that contemplates emptiness enters provisional existence, ceases the delusions as numerous as dust and sand, and stays in the principle of conventional truth, this merely stands in relation to the preceding level of arising-non-arising and speaks of the calming-and-contemplation of “non-arising-arising.”

If ignorance is ceased and mind rests in the principle of the Middle, this still discusses calming-and-contemplation by standing in relation to the non-calming of the two extremes, birth and death and nirvāṇa. It is the last level in a succession of dependencies.

All four levels still depend upon something and can be conceptually understood. All give rise to binding afflictions and can therefore be destroyed. They are not yet true calming, so how much less could one speak of a non-calming opposed to them? They are not yet true contemplation, so how much less could one speak of a non-contemplation opposed to them? The reason is that grasping has not yet been completely dismissed, the path of words has not yet been severed, and neither karma born from delusion nor the result brought forth by karma has ended.

Absolute: Retaining Neither What Is Depended Upon nor That Which Ends It

The absolute calming-and-contemplation taught now ends every horizontal and vertical dependence, every conceptual construction, all affliction, karma, and result, and also teaching, contemplation, realization, and the other things grasped as successive dependencies. Because none of them arises, it is called calming; yet even this calming cannot be attained.

The wisdom that contemplates interpenetrates with the object contemplated. Once the object is quiescently extinguished, even the name purity cannot be attained. Where could an independent contemplation remain? If neither calming nor contemplation possesses an attainable essence, how could calming-and-contemplation be asserted in relation to non-calming and non-contemplation; non-calming and non-contemplation asserted in relation to calming-and-contemplation; or neither calming nor non-calming asserted in relation to calming and non-calming?

Therefore know that neither calming nor non-calming can be attained, and neither calming nor non-calming likewise cannot be attained. Once dependence has ended, this is not a conditioned Dharma. It cannot be conceived through the four propositions, so it does not belong to the path of discourse and is not an object of discriminating consciousness. Because there is no name or mark that can be grasped, binding afflictions do not arise. When affliction does not arise, there is no birth and death produced from it and no thing that can be destroyed.

Extinguishing what is depended upon is called “extinguishing the absolute.” Not retaining even that which extinguishes is called “absolutely extinguished.” It is therefore called absolute calming. Because inverted delusive thought is severed, it is called absolute contemplation. It can also be called calming-and-contemplation absolute from the conditioned, through to calming-and-contemplation absolute from birth and death.

The Absolute Can Still Be Taught through the Four Siddhāntas

Absolute calming-and-contemplation cannot itself be fixedly expressed. Yet when the causes and conditions of the four siddhāntas are present, it can be taught for sentient beings. With the causes and conditions of the worldly siddhānta, it is taught by integrating differences. With those of the individually adapted siddhānta, it is taught by communicating with the three virtues. With those of the counteractive siddhānta, it is taught through the relative. With those of the siddhānta of the ultimate truth, it is taught through the absolute. All four modes of teaching can be called calming-and-contemplation.

This name is not within, without, or in between within and without; nor does it naturally and constantly exist. This name does not abide, yet neither can it fixedly be said not to abide. It does not abide in the four horizontal or four vertical propositions and is therefore called non-abiding. Nor does it abide in a realm without horizontal or vertical, and therefore it is again said not to be fixed as non-abiding.

Ultimately this name cannot be attained. It is therefore called absolute calming-and-contemplation, and also inconceivable calming-and-contemplation, non-arising calming-and-contemplation, and calming-and-contemplation of one great work.

This great work is not called great in relation to some small work. Space is not called great space because there is some other small space. Calming-and-contemplation is the same: it is not called calming-and-contemplation because there is some other foolish confusion. It has nothing upon which it depends and is the singular Dharma realm; it is therefore called absolute calming-and-contemplation.

Worldly people use many kinds of language to explain the absolute, yet ultimately cannot truly end dependence. Why? Ordinary feeling and cognition rush through delusive thought, making all kinds of inferences, depictions, and discriminations. Awakening and non-awakening, mind and non-mind, ordinary and sage are made into opposites. The absolute thereby remains relative to the non-absolute, and the inconceivable remains relative to the conceivable. In repeatedly falling into the relative, there is nowhere to establish “absolute.”

If one truly attains the intent and forgets the words, inner fabrication also ceases. Subtly entering in accord with wisdom and no longer discriminating, one no longer insistently speaks of awakening or non-awakening, sage or non-sage, mind or non-mind, conceivable or inconceivable. Every discrimination produced when delusive thought climbs toward principle is called dependence.

When true wisdom develops, it ends these dependencies. Once dependence has ended, the absolute that was established is itself ended again. It resembles the earlier fire burning wood: when the wood is exhausted, the fire naturally goes out as well. This is why it is called absolute. The Vimalakīrti says that dharmas do not depend upon one another and not even a single thought abides. This is precisely its meaning.

Someone asks: If so, the absolute is a sage’s realm. Do beginners have no share in it at all? The answer is that viewed through the six identities, beginners do not lose the principle they intrinsically possess, while a sage’s realm is not usurped by the beginner.

Integrating Differences: Different Names Enter Calming-and-Contemplation

Third is integrating differences. The preceding absolute calming-and-contemplation is also called inconceivable and is also called great. The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra says that great means inconceivable.

Other scriptures and treatises sometimes call it detachment; sometimes non-abiding, non-attachment, unconditioned, quiescent extinction, non-discrimination, meditative concentration, discarding, removing, or relinquishing. All are different names for calming. Since calming is absolute, vast, and inconceivable, the ultimate meaning indicated by detachment and the other names is likewise absolute, vast, and inconceivable.

Elsewhere it is called knowledge and vision, bright discernment, eye and awakening, wisdom, illumination and comprehension, reflecting and penetrating, and so forth. All are different names for contemplation. Since contemplation is absolute, vast, and inconceivable, the ultimate meaning indicated by knowledge and vision and the other names is likewise absolute, vast, and inconceivable.

The reason is that prajñā is originally one Dharma for which the Buddha teaches many names according to sentient beings. Liberation is likewise so and has many names. Space too can be called without possession, unmoving, or unobstructed. One should know that the three virtues—Dharma body, prajñā, and liberation—are only one Dharma, with different names established according to different kinds of sentient beings.

Therefore, do not be frightened when hearing “absolute,” and do not doubt and injure yourself when hearing “integrating differences.”

Calming and contemplation can also be mutually integrated. Calming can be called contemplation and can also be called non-calming. Contemplation can be called calming and can also be called non-contemplation. This agrees with the meaning of the preceding explanation of the name.

Communicating with the Three Virtues: The Two Graphs Calming and Contemplation Communicate Jointly

Fourth is communicating with the three virtues. If the many names in the scriptures can all be integrated as calming-and-contemplation, then names are immeasurable and meanings likewise immeasurable. Why is calming-and-contemplation explained through only three meanings? Because these three meanings are established to correspond to the three virtues. Dharmas are originally immeasurable, so why in turn are the three virtues selected?

The Dazhidu Lun says that from first arousing the mind, a bodhisattva constantly contemplates nirvāṇa and practices the path. The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra further says to place both buddhas and sentient beings within the secret treasury. The secret treasury is nirvāṇa; nirvāṇa is the three virtues; and the three virtues are calming-and-contemplation. Self and other, beginning and end, can all cultivate and enter through this. The three virtues are therefore used to correspond to the three meanings of calming-and-contemplation.

When the two graphs calming and contemplation jointly communicate with the three virtues, calming means severing delusion, which communicates with liberation. Contemplation means wisdom, which communicates with prajñā. Calming and contemplation equally relinquish the two extremes and are called the mark of relinquishing, which communicates with Dharma body.

Calming is also śamatha and contemplation is vipaśyanā; the equality of calming and contemplation is upekṣā. Their joint communication with the three virtues has the same meaning as above.

Someone asks: Calming and contemplation are plainly two Dharmas. How can they communicate with the inconceivable three virtues? The answer is: precisely because what is taught is inconceivable calming-and-contemplation, it can communicate with them.

The Great Perfection of Wisdom explains prajñā through the eighteen emptinesses, while the Dazhidu Lun explains meditative concentration through the 108 samādhis. Although they are explained separately in earlier and later places, how could one say there is no prajñā within concentration or no concentration within prajñā? What was originally nondual is provisionally divided into two; although divided into two, it remains nondual. The nondual is Dharma body, while the two are concentration and wisdom. Dharma body, concentration, and wisdom have never been separate from one another.

The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra therefore says that buddha-nature has five names and may be called Śūraṅgama or prajñā. What is now neither calming nor contemplation can also be called calming and can also be called contemplation. This is inconceivable calming-and-contemplation communicating with the inconceivable three virtues.

Calming and Contemplation Each Communicate with the Three Virtues

Calming and contemplation next each communicate with the three virtues because contemplation is present within calming and calming within contemplation.

The calming of cessation is calming-goodness and belongs to the gate of concentration; it therefore communicates with liberation. The calming of staying is practice-goodness and belongs to the gate of contemplation; it therefore communicates with prajñā. Calming as non-calming belongs to principle and therefore communicates with Dharma body.

The contemplation of penetrating is calming-goodness and belongs to the gate of concentration; it therefore communicates with liberation. The contemplation of contemplative comprehension is practice-goodness and belongs to the gate of contemplation; it therefore communicates with prajñā. Contemplation as non-contemplation belongs to principle and therefore communicates with Dharma body. Each assignment can be understood from the preceding meanings.

Calming and Contemplation Paired to Communicate Together with the Three Virtues

Calming and contemplation next communicate together with the three virtues. The calming of cessation and contemplation of penetrating are both named from the afflictions left behind and are therefore paired to communicate with liberation. The calming of staying and contemplation of contemplative comprehension are both named from the wisdom that can condition true principle and are therefore paired to communicate with prajñā. Calming as non-calming and contemplation as non-contemplation are both named through Dharma-nature and are therefore paired to communicate with Dharma body.

The Three Virtues Communicate Back to Calming-and-Contemplation

Now the direction is reversed: the three virtues also communicate with calming-and-contemplation. First the three virtues jointly communicate with the two graphs, then each of the three virtues communicates with the two graphs.

When they communicate jointly, liberation communicates with calming, prajñā with contemplation, and Dharma body with neither calming nor contemplation.

When they communicate individually, liberation originally possesses three liberations. Liberation through purity of skillful means communicates with the calming of cessation; liberation through perfect purity communicates with the calming of staying; and liberation through purity of nature communicates with calming as non-calming.

Prajñā likewise possesses three kinds. Prajñā as path wisdom communicates with the contemplation of penetrating; prajñā as wisdom of the varieties of the path communicates with the contemplation of contemplative comprehension; and prajñā as omniscience of all aspects communicates with contemplation as non-contemplation.

Dharma body likewise possesses three kinds. Form body communicates with one kind of calming and one kind of contemplation; Dharma-gate body communicates with one kind of calming and one kind of contemplation; and true-mark body also communicates with one kind of calming and one kind of contemplation. Their respective meanings can be understood through the preceding three sets of relations.

The Three Calmings and Three Contemplations Are All the Secret Treasury

If one believes that the three virtues are absolute, vast, and inconceivable, one should also believe that they communicate mutually with calming-and-contemplation. If one believes that the three Dharmas of nirvāṇa are complete and are called the secret treasury, one should also believe that the three calmings are complete and are called the great quiescent concentration and secret treasury; that the three contemplations are complete and are called great wisdom and secret treasury; and that the three Dharmas of neither calming nor contemplation are complete and are likewise called the secret treasury.

If one believes that the three virtues are neither arrayed vertically nor laid out horizontally, neither combined nor separate, like the three dots of the graph yi and the three eyes on a face, one should also believe that the three calmings and three contemplations are likewise neither vertical nor horizontal, neither combined nor distinct.

To accord with different causes and conditions, the scriptures often present one Dharma partially in order to disclose one aspect of the meaning. The Śūraṅgama Samādhi Sūtra partially presents the calming side, yet calming possesses all Dharmas without diminution and is therefore also called the secret treasury. The Dazhidu Lun and Lotus partially present the contemplation side, yet contemplation likewise possesses all Dharmas without diminution. The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra presents all three Dharmas together, yet no Dharma is thereby increased; it is likewise called the secret treasury.

Calming-and-contemplation is the same: it can be opened out or taught in combination. Opening it out adds nothing, and combining it diminishes nothing. Each single Dharma is the Dharma realm and embraces all Dharmas; all are called the secret treasury. If this is true even when one Dharma is presented partially, how much more so when calming and contemplation are presented together in full?

Just as calming-and-contemplation can communicate with the three virtues in this way, it can likewise communicate with all different names such as detachment and knowledge and vision. It can further communicate with every Dharma gate having three names, such as the three bodhis, three buddha-natures, and Three Jewels. Every threefold Dharma can be understood in the same way.

Why Are the Three Dots Neither Vertical nor Horizontal?

Someone asks: How do names and meanings fall into the vertical and horizontal? And what is it to be neither vertical nor horizontal?

Some Hīnayāna treatise masters say that prajñā’s omniscience of all aspects is already complete, but the bonds of retribution still remain. Liberation is not yet complete, the body must still be sustained by mixed food, and it remains impermanent. Among the three Dharmas, one is superior and two inferior, like fire running across a horizontal river. This is horizontal.

Others say that first there is a body complete with its marks, next one attains the prajñā of omniscience of all aspects, and finally body and wisdom are extinguished so that liberation becomes complete. This has upper and lower, before and after, like stacking the three dots of the water radical vertically. This is vertical.

Still others say that when one enters the concentration of cessation, there is body but no manifest wisdom; when an arhat is born in the formless realm, there is wisdom but no form body; and when one enters nirvāṇa without remainder, only isolated liberation remains. The three are unrelated: arranged simultaneously, they are horizontal; stacked before and after, they are vertical; separated, they become mutually different.

Some Mahāyāna treatise masters say that Dharma body is the primary essence. Whether or not a buddha is present, it intrinsically exists and does not arise only now. Prajñā as the discerning cause and liberation as freedom from bonds will exist only in the future, spanning this and future lives, defiled and pure lands. This reading of the graphs is still vertical.

Others say that the three virtues have no before or after and are originally complete as one essence. Only because meanings are distinguished on the basis of the essence are there three differences. This still makes the essence horizontal and the meanings vertical.

Still others say that essence and meaning are entirely without difference, with only the distinction between concealment and disclosure. Saying that essence and meaning are wholly undifferentiated still cannot escape the horizontal; saying concealment and disclosure differ cannot escape the vertical. How could these explanations accord with the scripture’s meaning?

The present explanation says that all three virtues are inconceivable, so how could they suddenly become vertical? All are inconceivable, so how could they suddenly become horizontal? All are inconceivable, so how could they fixedly be called one? All are inconceivable, so how could they fixedly be called different?

Explained through the treasury of principle, Dharma body constantly abides, wisdom is complete, and severing delusion is fulfilled. All are Buddha-Dharma and none is superior or inferior; hence they are not vertical. The three virtues interpenetrate as the same single Dharma realm. Where could there be another Dharma outside the Dharma realm? Hence they are not horizontal.

Explained through the causes of practice, the three virtues can establish many things and therefore are not fixedly one; they all return to the ultimate truth and therefore are not mutually different.

Explained through the function of the graph, the one itself is three and is therefore not horizontal; the three themselves are one and are therefore not vertical. They are not fixedly three yet can be spoken of as three, and therefore are not one. They are not fixedly one yet can be spoken of as one, and therefore are not different. The three dots of the true graph yi disclose precisely this meaning.

How Does Each of the Three Virtues Possess Permanence, Bliss, Self, and Purity?

Someone asks: What is the relation between the three virtues and the four virtues permanence, bliss, self, and purity?

When the three virtues are explained generally, each possesses permanence, bliss, self, and purity. The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra says that what the buddhas honor as teacher is the Dharma, and because the Dharma constantly abides, the buddhas constantly abide as well. The Dharma is Dharma body, while the Buddha’s wisdom and liberation are prajñā and liberation. Since Dharma body constantly abides, it can be inferred that the other two virtues likewise possess permanence, bliss, self, and purity.

The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra further says that by extinguishing form one obtains constant form; feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness are likewise so. This means that the five aggregates within Dharma body all possess permanence, bliss, self, and purity, and that the virtues prajñā and liberation likewise possess them in full.

According to one distinct assignment, transforming form becomes Dharma body, and Dharma body is assigned permanence and bliss. Transforming consciousness and perception becomes prajñā, and prajñā is assigned purity. Transforming feeling and formations becomes liberation, and liberation is assigned self.

According to another assignment through the four establishments of mindfulness, transforming consciousness becomes permanence, transforming feeling becomes bliss, transforming perception and formations becomes self, and transforming form becomes purity.

Thus there are two general explanations and two distinct assignments. Understood according to the Perfect Teaching, this is the sudden meaning; understood according to the Distinct Teaching, it is the gradual meaning.

The Three Obstructions, Three Paths, and Four Inversions Can Also Be Unfolded to the Utmost

Someone asks: The three obstructions and three paths can both obstruct the three virtues. Since the three obstructions can be opened all the way through the ultimate, can the three paths and four inversions likewise be opened all the way through the ultimate?

The answer is that they can be unfolded according to the same pattern. Karma has three kinds: outflow karma, non-outflow karma, and neither-outflow-nor-non-outflow karma. The three kinds of karma bring forth three kinds of retribution: delimited retribution, expedient retribution, and true retribution. The treatise then says that the three retributions arise from three kinds of affliction: the delusion of grasping marks, delusions as numerous as dust and sand, and the delusion of ignorance.

Next, three paths are opened within each of the three kinds of retribution, and four inversions within each of the three afflictions—grasping marks, dust-and-sand, and ignorance. Explaining the Name thereby does not stop at lexical meaning but communicates the name calming-and-contemplation all the way to the three virtues and every level of sentient beings’ delusion and awakening.

Does calming mean pressing the mind down until it does not move? Does contemplation mean seeing more things and seeing them more clearly? Understood only through everyday usage, calming easily becomes suppression and contemplation easily becomes pursuit—one contracts while the other reaches outward, as though they oppose one another.

Zhiyi begins elsewhere. He does not hurry to give calming-and-contemplation a fixed definition but asks: On what are these two names established? If names are established through dependence, can dependence itself be exhausted? What relation do the many scriptural and treatise names—detachment, quiescent extinction, wisdom, knowledge and vision—have to calming-and-contemplation? Finally, why can calming-and-contemplation communicate with the three virtues of Dharma body, prajñā, and liberation?

Explaining the Name is therefore not a dictionary gloss. It makes the name itself travel an entire road: first using the relative to give people an entrance, then using the absolute to break fixation upon the name; after breaking that fixation, integrating the different names one by one; and after integrating them, disclosing that what the two graphs express is not one partial exercise but the complete structure of the three virtues in the secret treasury.

Why Must One “Calming” Be Explained Three Times?

Calming first has three meanings: cessation, staying, and calming spoken in relation to non-calming.

Cessation is named from the side of what is broken. Evil examinations, delusive thoughts, and conceptual reflection originally climb and condition without stopping. When mind attains nothing, that climbing and conditioning quiescently ceases. What is seen is the ending of delusive thought, and it is therefore called cessation.

Staying is named from the side that can calm. Mind no longer flows outside true principle but binds right mindfulness to what is present and rests in principle. What is seen is wisdom’s capacity to make mind stay, and it is therefore called staying.

The third meaning drives the question deeper. Dharma-nature originally cannot fixedly be called calming, and ignorance cannot fixedly be called non-calming. Only so that people can speak and understand are the name non-calming established in relation to ignorance and the name calming in relation to Dharma-nature. It resembles Dharma-nature being beyond purity and defilement yet still provisionally called pure, and beyond arising and ceasing yet still called quiescently extinct. Calming at this level does not merely describe the disappearance of delusive thought or mind’s resting in principle. On the same Dharma-nature, the two names delusion and awakening mutually disclose one another.

The three meanings are therefore not three unrelated calmings. The first two let one see calming through function: one says what is ceased, the other what can cause staying. The third returns to the principle of truth and shows that agent and object of breaking are not two real things each possessing self-nature.

Contemplation Is Not Spectating but Penetrating and Arriving

Contemplation likewise has three meanings: penetrating, contemplative comprehension, and contemplation spoken in relation to non-contemplation.

Penetrating is named from what is broken. Wisdom resembles a sharp mattock cutting down through earth and stone, or digging a well on a high plateau, applying effort from dry earth until damp earth appears and finally mud. Affliction does not disappear by being avoided; wisdom must penetrate its covering. Penetrating names this power to break delusion.

Contemplative comprehension is named from that which contemplates. Mind ceases climbing and conditioning and penetrates the source; pure and single, it sees prajñā. Contemplation does not merely place an object before oneself for inspection. Wisdom accords with suchness and actually arrives at the principle toward which it tends.

The third meaning says in turn that ignorance originally cannot fixedly be called non-contemplation and Dharma-nature cannot fixedly be called contemplation. Only in relation to delusion and darkness is ignorance called non-contemplation and Dharma-nature called contemplation. Dharma-nature is beyond brightness and darkness yet can be called bright; emptiness of the ultimate truth is beyond wisdom and foolishness yet can be called wisdom. Contemplation thereby also moves from function into the principle of truth. Penetrating and comprehending still involve agent and object; contemplation established in relation to non-contemplation shows that although delusion and awakening differ in name, neither possesses an essence apart from Dharma-nature.

The three meanings of calming and three meanings of contemplation run in parallel. Cessation and penetrating are named from what is left behind; staying and contemplative comprehension from the wisdom that can condition; calming in relation to non-calming and contemplation in relation to non-contemplation according to the principle of truth. These six meanings first set every name in its place, while preparing the next question: since all are named through the relative, can a separate absolute be seized somewhere beyond the relative?

If the Relative Is Useful, Why Must It Be Broken?

The relative enables understanding, but can also make one imagine that each name has a fixed source. If cessation arises entirely from the affliction broken, the name depends on another. If staying arises entirely from illuminating wisdom, the name depends on self. If it arises jointly from wisdom and severing delusion, it falls into joint arising. If it arises without relying on either agent or object, it falls into causeless arising.

The problem is not which of the four propositions is best. All four first presume a calming that can arise from somewhere. As long as calming-and-contemplation is treated as an entity arising from self, other, both, or no cause, it remains within the range of what can be thought, spoken, broken, and destroyed.

After horizontally breaking the four theories of nature, the treatise vertically breaks successively established calmings and contemplations. Ceasing the delusions of views and thought and abiding in the ultimate truth still establishes non-arising in relation to birth and death. Entering the provisional from emptiness, ceasing dust-and-sand delusions, and abiding in conventional truth still opens a new arising from the preceding level of non-arising. Ceasing ignorance and abiding in the principle of the Middle still establishes itself in relation to the two extremes of birth and death and nirvāṇa. The stations may grow progressively deeper, but if each proves itself through before and after, it has not truly left dependence.

The absolute is therefore not a highest level added above the relative Dharmas. What it ends is the fixation that “this name must rely on an opposite in order to stand.” Horizontal breaking prevents the name from arising through the four natures. Vertical breaking prevents successively established levels from being grasped as a final entity. Only when both sides are exhausted does the absolute begin to become clear.

Does the Absolute Turn into Nothing at All?

The absolute first ends every horizontal and vertical dependence and all conceptual construction, affliction, karma, and result arising from them; even teaching, contemplation, and realization are included among what is ended. Yet so far only what is depended upon has ended. If at the end one retains a calming that declares, “I have ended everything,” that which ends becomes a new object of grasping.

Therefore, because nothing arises, it is called calming, yet calming itself cannot be attained. Contemplation interpenetrates with its object; once the object contemplated is quiescent, the contemplator is not independently established outside it. Calming cannot be attained; contemplation cannot be attained; calming and non-calming, contemplation and non-contemplation, through to neither calming nor non-calming, cannot be attained. This does not erase everything into a blank. It prevents every fixed position that stands only through opposition from finding a place to abide.

The fire-and-wood simile illuminates this level most clearly. Fire burns fuel; when the wood is exhausted, the fire does not announce that its burning is complete and remain forever. Once what is ended is exhausted, that which ends it naturally does not remain. The treatise presents both “extinguishing the absolute” and “absolutely extinguished” to name absolute calming. If the absolute is preserved as a final thing, it must again be named in dependence upon the non-absolute and falls back into the relative.

The absolute cannot itself be fixedly expressed, yet it can still be taught according to sentient beings. In response to worldly conditions, it can be taught through integrating differences. To enable people to give rise to goodness, it can be taught through communicating with the three virtues. To counteract grasping, it can be taught through the relative. In the face of the ultimate truth, it can be taught through the absolute. Its teachability is not the failure of the absolute; the principle beyond fixed speech can open different entrances according to four kinds of conditions.

This also resolves the beginner’s doubt. If the absolute belonged only to sages, beginners would seem to have no share at all. If beginners already possessed the absolute, they could easily pass off their first understanding as the ultimate. The six identities let both sides stand together: beginners do not lose the principle of Dharma-nature, and the sage’s realm is not usurped by beginners. The absolute is not fragmented by stations, nor do stations disappear because of the absolute.

If Names Cannot Be Attained, Why Integrate Differences?

Breaking fixation upon names does not abolish every name. Precisely because no name can monopolize the true mark, scriptures and treatises establish many names according to sentient beings and according to function.

Detachment, non-abiding, non-attachment, unconditioned, quiescent extinction, non-discrimination, meditative concentration, discarding, removing, and relinquishing can all be understood from the calming side. Knowledge and vision, bright discernment, eye and awakening, wisdom, illumination and comprehension, and reflecting and penetrating can all be understood from the contemplation side. Prajñā is originally one Dharma for which the Buddha gives many names according to sentient beings. Liberation likewise has many names. Space can also be discussed as without possession, unmoving, and unobstructed.

Integrating differences does not press all words into synonyms. It lets one see that the quiescence and illumination indicated by different names can all be integrated into the same Dharma realm. Names enter through different gates, but do not arrive at many mutually isolated entities. Dharma body, prajñā, and liberation have three names without being three separate treasuries. Different words are established according to kinds of sentient beings, while what they disclose remains one Dharma.

Calming and contemplation can also be mutually integrated. Calming can be called contemplation and non-calming; contemplation can be called calming and non-contemplation. At this point integrating differences does more than gather names from other scriptures and treatises. It also opens the two names calming and contemplation into one another so they are no longer mutually sealed.

How Do Two Graphs Communicate with Three Virtues?

Why are three meanings established for each of calming and contemplation? Because what they disclose is the three virtues—Dharma body, prajñā, and liberation. The secret treasury is nirvāṇa; nirvāṇa does not depart from the three virtues; and the three virtues do not depart from calming-and-contemplation. From first arousing the mind to final entry through cultivation, from one’s own contemplative practice to transforming others, all unfold within this structure.

First take the two graphs together. Calming communicates with liberation by severing delusion; contemplation communicates with prajñā through wisdom; and the equality and nonduality of calming and contemplation communicates with Dharma body. Concentration and wisdom can be taught separately but have never been separate. The nondual is provisionally divided into two, while the two remain nondual throughout.

Next unfold calming and contemplation separately. Cessation is the goodness of the concentration gate and communicates with liberation. Staying has the function of contemplation and communicates with prajñā. Calming as non-calming is established according to principle and communicates with Dharma body. Penetrating can calm and break affliction and communicates with liberation. Contemplative comprehension is the practice of wisdom and communicates with prajñā. Contemplation as non-contemplation is established according to principle and communicates with Dharma body.

The third mode arranges calming and contemplation in pairs. Cessation and penetrating are both named from what is left behind and communicate together with liberation. Staying and contemplative comprehension are both named from the wisdom that can condition and communicate together with prajñā. Calming as non-calming and contemplation as non-contemplation are both named according to Dharma-nature and communicate together with Dharma body.

The fourth mode reverses the direction. The names calming and contemplation do not only summon the three virtues; the principle of the three virtues also responds to calming-and-contemplation. Liberation communicates with calming, prajñā with contemplation, and Dharma body with neither calming nor contemplation. Liberation itself further has the three aspects purity of skillful means, perfect purity, and purity of nature; prajñā has path wisdom, wisdom of the varieties of the path, and omniscience of all aspects; and Dharma body can be unfolded through form body, Dharma-gate body, and true-mark body.

These four modes are not repetitions of one correspondence chart. In sequence they show the two graphs communicating jointly, each graph communicating individually, the three meanings communicating in pairs, and the three virtues communicating back to the names. Name can disclose principle, and principle can fill out the name. Calming-and-contemplation is therefore not a tool outside the three virtues, nor are the three virtues a result acquired elsewhere only after calming-and-contemplation has been completed.

What Does Neither Vertical nor Horizontal Guard Against?

If one virtue is superior and two inferior, like three things arranged simultaneously, the three virtues become horizontal. If body comes first, wisdom is obtained later, and then body and wisdom are extinguished to obtain liberation, they are stacked before and after and become vertical. If in different states only body, wisdom, or liberation remains, the three become separated and unrelated.

Even to say Dharma body is intrinsic while prajñā and liberation will exist only in the future remains vertical. To say the three virtues are one essence but their three meanings separate may still make the essence horizontal and meanings vertical. To say essence and meaning are wholly the same with only concealment and disclosure different may grasp non-difference as horizontal and concealment and disclosure as vertical.

Zhiyi’s answer is not a more elaborate diagram but a return to the inconceivable. Dharma body is constant, wisdom complete, and the severing of delusion fulfilled. All are Buddha-Dharma, with none superior or inferior, and therefore they are not vertical. The three virtues interpenetrate as one Dharma realm, with no other Dharma outside that realm, and therefore they are not horizontal. They can establish many things and therefore are not fixedly one; they return together to the ultimate truth and therefore are not mutually different.

The three dots of the graph yi disclose this structure. They are neither arrayed horizontally nor stacked vertically and cannot be separated, yet no dot can be omitted. The one itself is three and therefore not horizontal; the three themselves are one and therefore not vertical. Not fixed as three yet establishing three, they are not one. Not fixed as one yet returning to one, they are not different.

Why Does Explaining the Name End with the Three Obstructions, Three Paths, and Four Inversions?

If Explaining the Name dealt only with lexical meaning, it might seem able to end with neither vertical nor horizontal. Zhiyi instead asks further about the relation of the three virtues to permanence, bliss, self, and purity, then opens the three obstructions, three paths, and four inversions through different forms of karma, retribution, and affliction.

The three virtues do not each receive only one of the four virtues. Explained generally, Dharma body, prajñā, and liberation each possess permanence, bliss, self, and purity. Explained distinctly, the five aggregates can be transformed into the three virtues; or through the four establishments of mindfulness, consciousness can correspond to permanence, feeling to bliss, perception and formations to self, and form to purity. General and distinct each have two modes of opening; the Perfect meaning is sudden, the Distinct meaning gradual.

Likewise, karma can be opened into the three kinds outflow, non-outflow, and neither outflow nor non-outflow, bringing forth the three retributions delimited, expedient, and true. Three paths can be opened within every retribution, and four inversions within every kind of affliction. Because the three virtues are pervasive, the knots of delusion obstructing them must also be distinguished level by level according to what they obstruct.

The chapter thereby returns to its first question: Why do calming and contemplation each have three meanings? Because the names must bear more than a temporarily quiet mind or the understanding of one principle. They bear the road from the delusion of affliction, karma, and result to the awakening of liberation, prajñā, and Dharma body; from the skillful means of the relative to the unattainability of the absolute; and again, from within unattainability, the opening of every practicable gate according to sentient beings.

Through the Eye of the Fuxing

The preceding reading followed Zhiyi’s own questions, answers, and similes across the four divisions. Zhanran’s Fuxing further separates, one by one, several hinges easily conflated into a single level.

First, although the four divisions have four names, their meanings are gathered into only the two levels relative and absolute, and the intent returns to the absolute. The first three directly explain the name that expresses; communicating with the three virtues uses the principle expressed to disclose the name in return. Integrating differences is therefore not a third ultimate Dharma established outside the relative and absolute. It integrates the different names as absolute calming-and-contemplation. The opening simile of forgetting the snare after obtaining the rabbit likewise teaches that a name is an instrument for grasping principle and is no longer clung to after the intent has been attained.

Second, at the point of explaining the name, the three calmings and three contemplations remain general names. They include the three truths but do not yet determine depth or shallowness. Cessation and staying immediately rely on wisdom and severance; the third calming relies specifically on the principle of truth, and the three contemplations run in parallel. The two groups introduced as scriptural statements do not refer precisely to one scripture. Their function is to use the opposed names brightness and darkness, wisdom and foolishness, purity and defilement to disclose that principle has no difference, not to establish a single source text.

Third, the absolute clearly has three steps: breaking the horizontal, breaking the vertical, and properly clarifying the absolute. The four horizontal propositions face one another without depth or shallowness; the four vertical propositions unfold successively with depth and shallowness, but both deep and shallow remain dependent. After properly clarifying the absolute, dependence ends and is named calming, while calming itself then disappears; contemplation likewise is not independently established outside its object. “Extinguishing the absolute” means extinguishing what is depended upon; “absolutely extinguished” means that which extinguishes is also absent. Each order indicates something distinct.

Fourth, self-realization of the absolute has only one flavor; only in transforming others does it open according to the four capacities into the worldly, individually adapted, counteractive, and ultimate-truth teachings. “Neither abiding nor non-abiding” is further judged to comprise the two levels nature emptiness and mark emptiness: it does not abide in the horizontal and vertical propositions, nor does it abide in a state without horizontal and vertical. The answer through the six identities simultaneously preserves that the beginner is identical in principle and loses nothing, while the sage is at the ultimate station and the beginning cannot be confused with it.

Fifth, the three groups in integrating differences have explicit assignments. Names for prajñā belong to contemplation and the virtue of prajñā; names for liberation belong to calming and the virtue of liberation; the four names of space belong to the nonduality of calming and contemplation and the virtue of Dharma body. Communicating with the three virtues also has four directions: the two graphs communicating jointly, calming and contemplation each communicating, the three meanings communicating in pairs, and the three virtues communicating back. If the four directions are compressed into a static table, the movement between names summoning principle and principle responding to names disappears.

Sixth, the scriptures’ partial presentation of one Dharma is only a partial name; the meaning included remains perfect. None of the six Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna vertical and horizontal explanations enters the three dots of the graph yi. This tradition therefore gives its proper explanation through the three levels treasury of principle, causes of practice, and function of the graph. At the end, the treatise’s original text reads “retribution arises from three kinds of affliction,” while Zhanran raises the textual doubt that it should be “karma arises from three kinds of affliction.” This is a doubt concerning text and meaning left by an ancient master; the original graphs and the doubt must both remain visible.

This mirror does not establish another system of calming-and-contemplation in place of the four divisions. It gives name and principle, skillful means and ultimate, one’s own practice and transforming others, and original wording and textual doubt their respective places. Zhiyi makes the name move from relative to absolute, then opens outward again from the absolute into different names and the three virtues. What Zhanran illuminates is the level at which each opening and gathering actually occurs. Read this way, the name calming-and-contemplation is neither fixedly grasped nor deprived by unattainability of its power to guide people into the path. A name is a skillful means for entering principle and must be released when its intent is attained: do not lose the skillful means, and do not mistake it for what is realized.