Discuss the five periods and Eight Doctrine of Tendai School

The Chinese Tendai School was founded by Chihi who lives in MT Tendai in the 6 century. He taught his disciple during three dynasties. Its major text is Saddharmapundarika Sutra.

Philosophical teaching of Tendai School is usually classified into 5 periods and 8 doctrines. This is the founder of Tendai School in China classifies the Buddhist teachings in order to disseminate philosophical position of Tendai School and classification make two categories, first one is 5 periods. The second one is 8 doctrines classified based on teaching method.

The five periods are as follow.

1, The time of Avatamsaka; If we divide the Buddha’s that is 45 years. He preached the doctrines into five periods, the time immediately after His enlightenment is first time. According to Tendai classification, Avatamsaka was preached immediately after His enlightenment.

2, The time of Deer Park; the Buddha realized that His teaching will not be accepted by the people and he had to formulate anew method of preaching. So, he started to preach Nikaya at the Deer Park. This is s3econd period.

3, The time of Vipulya; Vipulya is the term which is ususlly used to refer to Mahayana. So, after preaching Nikaya ato the people for higher attainment, he preacxhed about basic Mahayana text to the people so that Hinayanist can become Mhayanist during this time, the Buddha preached Vimalakirati nirdesa and lankavatara Sutra.

4, the time of Prajnaparamita; this period is dealing with Parajna. In the northern tradition, there are 6 paramitas namely Dana, Sila, Kahanti, Dyana, Viriya and Prajna, in practice, Prajnaparamita i8s the most important practice to realize prajna. Prajna here means the idea of Sunyata.

5, the time of Saddharmapundarika Sutra and Mahaparinirvana Sutra;

This last period is on Bodhisattayana, According to Saddharmapundarika and Mhaparinirvana Sutra everyone possesses the Buddha-nature. These are five periods.

Then, next one is 8 doctrines. In fact, it is divided into two groups consisting of 4 each. The first four is based on the method of preaching.

1, The first doctrine is sudden doctrine. This is the direct and penetrating method used when the Buddha preached. This is similar to the first period. Therefore, sudden doctrine id the doctrine which is preached by the Buddha as soon as he attained his enlightenment.

2, The second doctrine is gradual doctrine. This is similar to second period, the Buddha had to use various method of preaching so that people who listen to him can be induced into deeper thought or understanding of Buddha’s teaching. So, gradual doctrine can be regarded as Nikaya.

3, the third doctrine id mystic indeterminate doctrine. When the Buddha preaches to the audience, the people in the audience believe that the Buddha is preaching only to him although there are many people. That is called mystic indeterminate doctrine.

4, the fourth doctrine is indeterminate doctrine. This is a stage where, through the Buddha’s power, people believe that Buddha is preaching to all audience the same thing but they understand Buddha’s teaching differently. This is called indeterminate Doctrine.

The second groups are as follow.

1, Doctrine of the Tripitka, 2, Doctrine common to all.

3, Distinct doctrine and 4, Round doctrine. (534)

4. The last round doctrine is the doctrine which is complete, perfect, all-permeating. All the qualify words can be used to discuss Round Doctrine. It is very much perfect and complete in accordance with concepts called “one is all and all is one” in Mahayana Buddhism. It is related to Dhamakaya of Mhayana Buddhism.

Words (596) Ven.Vilasa 11. 11 .2007