Four teachings of doctrine
four teachings of doctrine
化法の四教 (Jpn keho-no-shikyo )
Also, four teachings. A Template:Wiki by T'ient'ai (538-597) of Shakyamuni Buddha's teachings according to their content. Together with the four teachings of method, a Template:Wiki by method of preaching, it constitutes the system of Template:Wiki called the eight teachings. The four teachings of doctrine are:
(1) The Tripitaka teaching, which consists of the three divisions of the Buddhist canon—sutras, vinaya, or Template:Wiki of monastic discipline, and abhidharma, or doctrinal treatises and commentaries and corresponds to the Hinayana, or pre-Mahayana, teachings. Teachings of this category aim to awaken people to the sufferings of birth and death in the threefold world and urge practitioners to rid themselves of earthly desires in order to escape the cycle of rebirth.
(2) The connecting teaching, or introductory Mahayana, which forms a link between the Tripitaka teachings and the later, more sophisticated, Mahayana teachings. Teachings of this category stress the perception of the nonsubstantiality of all things, or that nothing has an Template:Wiki existence of its own, in order to eliminate illusions. While the Tripitaka teaching is addressed to voice-hearers and cause-awakened ones and the specific teaching to bodhisattvas, the connecting teaching is addressed to all of them.
(3) The specific teaching, a higher level of Mahayana addressed specifically to bodhisattvas, which enumerates the fifty-two stages of bodhisattva practice spanning Template:Wiki kalpas. The teachings of this category reveal the three truths of nonsubstantiality, temporary existence, and the Middle Way, but show them as separate from and Template:Wiki of one another.
(4) The Template:Wiki teaching, which expounds the mutually inclusive relationship of the ultimate truth and all phenomena, as well as the unification of the three truths. It reveals that all people have the potential for Buddhahood, and that they can attain enlightenment through the perception of the unification of the three truths. The Template:Wiki teaching is further subdivided into two: the Template:Wiki teaching of the sutras expounded before the Lotus Sutra, and the Template:Wiki teaching of the Lotus Sutra, or the sutra itself. Both teach that one can attain Buddhahood as an ordinary person, but the former, unlike the Lotus Sutra, does not show the way to achieve it. The full expression of the Template:Wiki teaching is found only in the Lotus Sutra.In The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra, T'ient'ai defined the relationship between the four teachings of doctrine and the first four of the five periods with the terms "combining, excluding, corresponding, and including." These terms also describe the characteristics of the various sutras that came before the Lotus Sutra, and differentiate between them and the Lotus Sutra. The Flower Garland period combines the specific teaching with the Template:Wiki teaching ("combining"). The Agama period consists of the Tripitaka teaching only and excludes the connecting, specific, and Template:Wiki teachings ("excluding"). In the Correct and Template:Wiki period, all four teachings were taught in a manner corresponding to the people's capacity ("corresponding"). The Wisdom period consists of the Template:Wiki teaching, but includes the connecting and specific teachings ("including"). The Template:Wiki of clarifying these relationships is to show that the Lotus Sutra alone is the pure and Template:Wiki teaching, or the Template:Wiki teaching in the true sense of the term.