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Tiantai (天台宗, Wade-Giles: T'ien T'ai) is one of the thirteen schools of Buddhism in China and Japan, also called the Lotus Sutra School because of its emphasis on the supremacy of that scripture. It was founded by Zhiyi (智顗, Wade-Giles: Chih-I) (538-597) during the Sui dynasty in China. Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... A replica of an ancient statue found among the ruins of a temple at Sarnath Buddhism is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of the Buddha, Siddhārtha Gautama, who lived between approximately 566 and 486 BCE in India. ... The cultural elements of Buddhism vary by region and include: Buddhist cuisine Buddhist art Buddharupa Art and architecture of Japan Greco-Buddhism Tibetan Buddhist sacred art Buddhist music Buddhist chant Shomyo Categories: Buddhism-related stubs ... The history of Buddhism spans from the 6th century BCE to the present, starting with the birth of the Buddha Siddharta Gautama. ... Contents: Top - A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z The following is a List of Buddhist topics: A Abhidharma Ahimsa Ajahn Ajahn Chah Ajanta Aksobhya Alexandra David-Néel Amara Sinha B... Buddhist beliefs and practices vary according to region. ... The percentage of Buddhist population of each country was taken from the US State Departments International Religious Freedom Report 2004 [1]. Other sources used were CIA Factbook [2] and adherents. ... An image of Gautama Buddha with a swastika, traditionally a Buddhist symbol of good luck, on his chest. ... The Buddhist temple Wat Chiang Man, in Chiang Mai, Thailand, which dates from the late 13th century Buddhist temples and monasteries, sorted by location. ... Several Buddhist terms and concepts lack direct translations into English that cover the breadth of the original term. ... There is great variety in Buddhist texts. ... // Before Common Era Trad. ... Wade-Giles, sometimes abbreviated Wade, is a Romanization (phonetic notation and transliteration) system for the Chinese language based on Mandarin. ... A replica of an ancient statue found among the ruins of a temple at Sarnath Buddhism is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of the Buddha, Siddhārtha Gautama, who lived between approximately 566 and 486 BCE in India. ... The Lotus Sutra or Sutra on the White Lotus of the Sublime Dharma (Sanskrit: Saddharmapundarīka-sūtra; 妙法蓮華經 Cn: Miàofǎ Liánhuā Jīng; Jp: Myōhō Renge Kyō) is one of the most popular and influential Mahāyāna sutras in East Asia and the basis on which the Tiantai and Nichiren sects of Buddhism... Zhiyi (智顗 Wade-Giles: Chih-i) (538 - 597) is traditionally listed as the fourth patriarch, but actually is the founder of the Tiantai sect of Buddhism in China. ... Events End of the Kofun and beginning of the Asuka period, the second part of the Yamato period in Japan. ... Events Saint Augustine is created Archbishop of Canterbury. ... The Sui Dynasty (隋朝 Hanyu Pinyin: suí cháo, 581-618) followed the Southern and Northern Dynasties and preceded the Tang Dynasty in China. ...

Tiantai is a Mahāyāna school established at Tiantai mountain. The official line of transmission lists the Indian scholar Nagarjuna and Chinese monks Huiwen and Huisi as Zhiyi's predecessors, although modern scholars believe that Zhiyi was in fact the sect's founder. The sixth patriarch, Jingqi helped popularized the sect through his commentaries on the writings of these three figures. Mah is an ancient Persian god of the moon, one of the Yazatas. ... A statue depicting Nagarjuna Nāgārjuna (నాగార్జునా in Telugu, 龍樹佛 in Chinese) (c. ...

The development of the Tiantai school reflected a response to a growing challenge among Chinese Buddhists. Chinese pilgrims and translators had gathered and translated a huge body of Buddhist scruptures from India. Due to the vagaries of ancient travel and communications, these texts were often collected in a very eclectic- or even haphazard- manner. Collections of texts were often gathered from multiple schools of Buddhist philosophy. Incomplete collections were imported, without awareness that significant texts were missing. Texts separated by generations of philosophical development were lumped together as contemporaries. As more and more scriptures were made available, it became increasingly clear that many of these texts could not possibly be reconciled with one another. Chinese scholars wondered how the Buddha could have possibly taught all of these seemingly contradictory ideas- and more importantly, which practice or belief the Buddha had intended them to follow.

Zhiyi's response was to organize all existing Nikaya and Mahayana sutras into five periods and eight types of teachings, comprising his view of the various levels of teaching revealed by the Buddha. Certain texts had been taught early in the Buddha's career, when his followers were not ready to hear the 'ultimate' truth. These teachings (the Agamas) were an upaya, or skillful means, an example of the Buddha using his supernatural skill as a teacher to lead human beings towards the truth. Later teachings- which had been given to more advanced followers, or delivered to various divine beings (typically devas or Nagas)- represented a more complete and accuracte picture of the Buddha's true teachings, and did away with some of the philosophical 'crutches' introduced for the benefit of the ignorant in earlier periods. Zhiyi's schema culminated with the Lotus Sutra, which he held to be the supreme synthesis of Buddhist doctrine. The Lotus Sutra also suggested the classification system ultimately employed by Zhiyi- the Sutra held that followers of the Hinayana schools were actually just as much on the bodhisattva path as the followers of the Mahayana- they were just unable to rightly perceive their ultimate goal. Nikaya Buddhism is a general term for those schools of Buddhism that accept only the class of sutras collected in the Pāli Canon as authentic. ... Sutra (सूत्र) in Sanskrit is derived from the verb √siv, meaning to sew. ... Standing Buddha, ancient region of Gandhara, northern Pakistan, 1st century CE, Musée Guimet. ... Genera Many: see text Agamas or Agamids are the Agamidae family of lizards, containing more than 300 species in Africa, Asia, Australia, and a few in Southern Europe. ... Upaya is a term in Mahayana Buddhism which is often translated as means, though literally expedient would be more accurate, as upaya (from upa√i) refers to something which goes or brings you up to something (i. ... Deva, a Hindu deity Deva is also a term for heavenly beings in traditional Buddhist cosmology. ... In Hinduism, the nagas (snake) are an ancient race of snake-humans that brought fertility to their venerators; they were especially popular in southern India. ... The Lotus Sutra or Sutra on the White Lotus of the Sublime Dharma (Sanskrit: Saddharmapundarīka-sūtra; 妙法蓮華經 Cn: Miàofǎ Liánhuā Jīng; Jp: Myōhō Renge Kyō) is one of the most popular and influential Mahāyāna sutras in East Asia and the basis on which the Tiantai and Nichiren sects of Buddhism... Buddhist polemics revolve around the veracity and efficacy of doctrine and practice. ... Hinayana (Sanskrit: inferior vehicle; Chinese:小乘, Xiǎoshèng; Japanese: Shōjō) is a term coined by the Mahayana, which appeared publicly around the 1st century CE. There are differing views on the use and meaning of the term, both among scholars and within Buddhism. ... Prince Siddhartha Gautama as a bodhisattva, before becoming a Buddha. ... Relief image of the bodhisattva Guan Yin (Avalokitesvara) from Mt. ...

Tiantai thus became doctrinally broad, able to absorb and give rise to other movements within Buddhism. Zhiyi emphasized both scriptural study and practice, and taught the rapid attainment of Buddhahood through observing the mind. He also took up a principle of triple truth derived from Nagarjuna: A stone image of the Buddha. ...

• All things are void and without essential reality.
• All things have a provisional reality.
• All things are both absolutely unreal and provisionally real at once.

The transient world of phenomena is thus seen as one with the unchanging, undifferentiated ground of existence. This doctrine was elaborated in a complex cosmology of 3000 interpenetrating realms of existence. A phenomenon (plural: phenomena) is an observable event, especially something special (literally something that can be seen from the Greek word phainomenon = observable). ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Cosmology, from the Greek: κοσμολογία (cosmologia, κόσμος (cosmos) world + λογια (logia) discourse) is the study of the universe in its totality and by extension mans place in it. ...

Most scholars regard the Tiantai as the first truly Chinese school of Buddhist thought. The schools of Buddhism that had existed in China prior to the emergence of the Tiantai are generally believed to represent direct transplantations from India, with little modification to their basic doctrines and methods. The creation of the Tiantai school signified the maturation and integration of Buddhism in the Chinese context. No longer content to simply translate texts received from Indian sources, Chinese Buddhists began to apply new analyses to old texts, and even to produce new scriptures and commentaries that would attain significant status within the East Asian sphere. The Tiantai emphasis on the Lotus Sutra would be developed and expanded by the Japanese monk Nichiren, giving rise to Nichiren Buddhism- a school of Buddhism seen by some scholars as playing a similar role in Japan to that of the Tiantai school in China. Nichiren (日蓮) (February 16, 1222 - October 13, 1282), born Zennichimaro (善日麿), later Zeshō-bō Renchō (是生房蓮長), and finally Nichiren (日蓮), was a Buddhist monk of 13th century Japan. ... Nichiren Buddhism (日蓮系諸宗派 Nichiren-kei sho shūha) is a branch of Buddhism stemming from the teachings of the 13th century Japanese monk Nichiren (1222–1282). ...

See also

• Cheontae for Tiantai in Korea
• Tendai for Tiantai in Japan
• Chinese Buddhism

Cheontae Korean name Hangul: 천태 Hanja: 天台 Korean descendant of the Chinese Buddhist sect Tiantai. ... Korea (한국/韓國/Hanguk, used by South / ì¡°ì„ /朝鮮/Joseon, used by North) is a formerly unified country, situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia, bordering on China to the northwest and Russia to the north. ... Tendai (天台) is a Japanese school of Buddhism, a descendant of the Chinese Tiantai or Lotus Sutra school. ... This article explores how Buddhism, a Indian origin, has affected and been affected by Chinese culture, politics, literature and philosophy. ...

References

• Brook Ziporyn, Tiantai School in Encyclopedia of Buddhism, Robert E. Buswell, Ed., McMillan USA, New York, NY, 2004. ISBN 0028659104.

External link

• Digital Dictionary of Buddhism (log in with userID "guest")