DESCRIPTION

In the Mahayana Buddhist tradition there are sixteen ‘practice aspects’ to the Four Noble Truths, which is to say, four different ways of understanding each of them. (See below for all 16 aspects.)

妙 - ‘sublime’ - is the term Zhiyi uses for praṇīta the third practice aspect of the third Noble Truth, the cessation (nirodha) of suffering. In other words: the cessation of suffering is sublime.

This complex way of looking at the Four Noble Truths is then further complicated by Zhiyi’s introduction to the six ‘gates’ (paryāya). Quoting the Auspicious Origins of the Prince Sutra 太子瑞應本起經 (T02.185), he says:

“When Shākyamuni first arrived at the Bodhi Tree and sat down in lotus posture on the cushion of grass, ‘He directed his thought inwardly to ānāpāna: first, counting (gaṇanā); second, following (anugamaḥ); third, stabilization (sthānam), fourth, contemplation (upalakṣaṇā); fifth, turning (vivartanā); and sixth, purification (pariśuddhiḥ).” It was because of this that the myriad practices opened forth and took effect, resulting in the subduing of Māra and the realization of the Path.”

In his Preface, Zhiyi makes it clear that these six gates (’teachings’ or ‘practices’) are just one among many enumerations, just an upāya. There is also, he tells us, just one path, two paths, three, four, or five paths, up to an indescribably numerous amount of paths, “and not one of them is not mutually subsumed by all the others.”

The Six Gates and Dhyāna

In the First Chapter of his treatise, Zhiyi explains how each of the Six Gates relates to the various dhyāna absorptions. This chapter also demonstrates how each gates is, itself, a complete path to the sublime.

• Counting - Four dhyānas, four immeasurable minds, and the four formless absorptions
• Following - Sixteen superior phenomena of breath awareness, mind, and contemplation
• Stabilization - The five ‘wheel dhyānas’: Earth, Water, Space, Golden Sand, and Vajra
• Contemplation - The nine reflections, eight recollections, ten reflections, eight liberations, eight bases, ten bases, nine absorptions, the lion sport samadhi, the over-leaping samadhi, practice dhyānas, fourteen transformative minds, three clarities, six super-knowledges.
• Turning - Emptiness, Characteristiclessness, Wishlessness, thirty-seven aids, four Noble Truths, 12-link chain, the middle way.
• Purification - The Dhyāna of cognition of the fundamental nature 自性禪

Sequential Development

The second chapter presents the Six Gates as a sequential process, beginning with counting the breaths and ending in purification.

Zhiyi presents each gate as a sequence of steps, each giving rise to another. Each gate is explained in terms of its cultivation 修 and then in terms of its realization 證, which then leads to the next Gate.

• Counting
• Cultivation = focusing the mind on counting breaths one to ten, not allowing it to run off and become scattered.
• Realization = the mind abides in the objective conditions associated with the breath and no longer wishes to engage in the coarse activity of counting.
• Following
• Cultivation = focusing the mind, taking the breath as an object, one becomes aware of the coming in and going out of the breath, remaining free of any distraction or scattering.
• Realization = the mind and the breath carry on in a state of mutual interdependence, tranquil and fixed in a state of stillness, and one becomes averse to following.
• Stabilization
• Cultivation = one puts to rest all thought taking anything as an objective condition. One does not engage in either counting or following. One fixes the mind and makes it still.
• Realization = the body and mind seem to vanish entirely and one enters samādhi, without any inward or outward characteristics, free of any attachment to stabilization.
• Contemplation
• Cultivation = one contemplates the insubstantiality of all dharmas and is unable to ultimately apprehend the existence of anyone ‘being’ in samādhi.
• Realization = one becomes aware of the breath pervading the entire body, extending to all of the hair pores. The mind’s eye opens with clarity, thoroughly seeing throughout the body. One becomes both saddened and delighted in gaining realization and consequently becomes aware that the onward-flowing movement of thought does not amount to a reality-based path and then relinquishes contemplation.
• Turning
• Cultivation = one then turns back the direction of one’s contemplation so that one now contemplates that very mind that is engaged in contemplation. The perishing of both the objective sphere and the faculty of knowing is the essential factor in turning back to the source.
• Realization = the wisdom of the mind opens forth and develops in a way no longer requiring one to bring to bear additional skillful effort. It carries on in a way allowing one to naturally be able to invoke analyses, turn back towards the origin, and return to the source.
• Purification
• Cultivation = one does not ultimately apprehend any subjective entity which is able to cultivate, any objective sphere which is cultivated, or anything which qualifies as either “pure” or “impure.”
• Realization = the mind accords with wisdom, unimpeded skillful means continuously manifest and, abiding in the “direct experiencing” of samādhi, the mind remains free of any dependence on anything at all.

*The sixteen practice-aspects (ṣoḍaśākārāḥ) of the Four Noble Truths:

• Suffering
• impermanence (anitya)
• suffering (duḥkha)
• emptiness of inherent existence (śūnya)
• non-self (anātman);
• Origination
• causality (hetu)
• origination (samudaya)
• productivity (prabhava)
• conditionality (pratyaya);
• Cessation
• cessation (nirodha)
• tranquility (śānta)
• sublimity (praṇīta)
• abandonment (niḥsaraṇa)
• Path
• the path (mārga)
• its accordance with reality (nyāya)
• its progression (pratipad)
• the fact that it leads forth (nairyāṇika).