User:Joshua Jonathan/Classifications of Buddhist teachings

Chinese Buddhism

Hua-yen

Buddhism was introduced into China in bits and pieces. When the knowledge of Buddhism grew larger, various schools attempted to get a grip on the Buddhist tradition by developing classifications of teachings, such as the Five Periods and Eight Teachings of the Tiantai-school.

The Hua-yen school developed a fivefold classification:

1. The Hinayana-teachings, especially the Sarvastivadins
2. The Mahayana-teachings, including Yogacara, Madhyamaka
3. The "Final Teachings", based on the Tathagatagarbha-teachings, especially the Awakening of Faith
4. The Sudden Teaching, "which 'revealed' (hsien) rather than verbalised the teaching"
5. The Complete, or Perfect, Teachings of the Avatamsaka-sutra and the Hua-yen school.

Huayan and Chán had doctrinal arguments regarding which would be the correct concept of sudden awakening. The teachings of the Chán-school were regarded as inferior by the Hua-yen teachers. The Chán-school polemitized against this classification, by devising its own rhetorics in defense.

Tientai

Tiantai classified the Buddha's teachings in Five Periods and Eight Teachings. This classification is usually attributed to Chih-i, but is probably a later development. The classification of teachings was also done by other schools, such as the Fivefold Classification of the Huayan school.

Five Periods

The Five Periods are five periods in the life of the Buddha in which he delivered different teachings, aimed at different audiences with a different level of understanding:

1. The Period of Avatamsaka. During twenty-one days after his Enlightenment, the buddha delivered the Avatamsaka Sutra.
2. The Period of Agamas. During twelve years, the Buddha preached the Agamas for the Nihayana, including the Four Noble Truths and dependent origination.
3. The Period of Vaipulya. During eight years, the Buddha delivered the Mahayana teachings, such as the Vimalakirti Sutra, the Śrīmālādevī Sūtra, the Suvarnaprabhasa Sutra and other Mahayana sutras.
4. The Period of Prajna. During twenty-two years, the Buddha explained emptiness in the Prajnaparamita-sutras.
5. The Period of Dharma-pundarik and Nirvana. In the last eight years, the Buddha preached the doctrine of the One Buddha Vehicle, and delivered the Lotus Sutra and the Nirvana Sutra just before his death.

Eight Teachings

The Eight Teachings consist of the Four Doctrines, and the Fourfold Methods.

Four Doctrines

1. Tripitaka Teaching: the Sutra, Vinaya and Abhidhamma, in which the basic teachings are explained
2. Shared Teaching: the teaching of emptiness
3. Distinctive Teaching: aimed at the Bodhisattva
4. Perfect Teaching - the Chinese teachings of the Lotus Sutra and the Avatamsaka Sutra

Fourfold Methods

1. Gradual Teaching, for those with medium or inferior abilities
2. Sudden Teaching, the Distinctive Teachings and the Complete Teaching for those with superior abilities
3. Secret Teaching, teachings which are transmitted without the recipient being aware of it
4. Variable Teaching, no fixed teaching, but various teachings for various persons and circumstances

Tibetan Buddhism

Nyingma - Nine Yanas

The doxography employed by the Nyingma tradition to categorize the whole of the Buddhist path is unique. Nyingmapas divide the Buddhist path into nine yanas, as follows:

The Sutra System

• Shravakayana (Hinayana) the Vehicle of the Listeners or disciples.
• Pratyekayana (Hinayana) the Vehicle of the Solitary Buddhas, the way of solitary meditation.
• Bodhisattvayāna (Mahayana) the Great or Causal Vehicle, the Vehicle of Enlightened Beings, is the way of those who seek or attain enlightenment for the sake or intention of liberating not just oneself, but all sentient beings from Saṃsāra.

Outer/Lower Tantra

• Kriya (Wylie: bya ba'i rgyud) Tantra of Action
• Carya or Ubhaya (Wylie: u pa'i rgyud or spyod pa'i rgyud) Tantra of Conduct
• Yogatantra (Wylie: rnal 'byor gyi rgyud) Tantra of Union

Inner/Higher Tantra

• Mahayoga (Wylie: chen po'i rnal 'byor) Great Yoga
• Anuyoga (Wylie: rjes su rnal 'byor) Subsequent Yoga
• Atiyoga/Dzogchen (Wylie: lhag pa'i rnal 'byor or rdzogs chen) Ultimate Yoga; The Great Perfection

In the later schools the inner tantric teachings are known as Anuttarayogatantra, which corresponds to Mahayoga in the Nyingma system, while the Mahamudra teachings of the later schools are said to lead to similar results as the Dzogchen teachings.

Kagyu tradition - Mahamudra

Three types of teaching

The Kagyu lineage divides the mahāmudrā teachings into three types, "sutra mahāmudrā," "tantra mahāmudrā," and "essence mahāmudrā," in a formulation that appears to originate with Jamgon Kongtrul.

• Sutra mahāmudrā, as the name suggests, draws its philosophical view and meditation techniques from the sutrayana tradition.
• Tantric mahāmudrā employs such tantric techniques as tummo, dream yoga, and clear light yoga, three of the six yogas of Naropa.
• Essence mahāmudrā is based on the direct instruction of a qualified lama, known as pointing-out instruction.

(Gelugpa?) Emptiness - Study of tenet systems

Monks debating in Drepung Monastery

Tibetan Buddhists practice one or more understandings of the true nature of reality, the emptiness of inherent existence of all things. Emptiness is propounded according to four classical Indian schools of philosophical tenets.

Two belong to the older path of the Foundation Vehicle:

• Vaibhaṣika (Tib. bye-brag smra-ba)
• Sautrāntika (Tib. mdo-sde-pa)

The primary source for the former is the Abhidharma-kośa by Vasubandhu and its commentaries. The Abhidharmakośa is also an important source for the Sautrāntikas. Dignāga and Dharmakīrti are the most prominent exponents.

The other two are Mahayana (Skt. Greater Vehicle) (Tib. theg-chen):

• Yogācāra, also called Cittamātra (Tib. sems-tsam-pa), Mind-Only
• Madhyamaka (Tib. dbu-ma-pa)

Yogacārins base their views on texts from Maitreya, Asaṅga and Vasubandhu, Madhyamakas on Nāgārjuna and Āryadeva. There is a further classification of Madhyamaka into Svatantrika-Madhyamaka and Prasaṅgika-Madhyamaka. The former stems from Bhavaviveka, Śāntarakṣita and Kamalaśīla, and the latter from Buddhapālita and Candrakīrti.

The tenet system is used in the monasteries and colleges to teach Buddhist philosophy in a systematic and progressive fashion, each philosophical view being more subtle than its predecessor. Therefore the four schools can be seen as a gradual path from a rather easy-to-grasp, "realistic" philosophical point of view, to more and more complex and subtle views on the ultimate nature of reality, that is on emptiness and dependent arising, culminating in the philosophy of the Mādhyamikas, which is widely believed to present the most sophisticated point of view.

See also

• Buddhist Paths to liberation

Sources

Printed sources

• Buswell, Robert E. (1991), The "Short-cut" Approach of K'an-hua Meditation: The Evolution of a Practical Subitism in Chinese Ch'an Buddhism. In: Peter N. Gregory (editor)(1991), Sudden and Gradual. Approaches to Enlightenment in Chinese Thought, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited
• Donner, Neal (1991), Sudden and Gradual Intimately Conjoined: Chih-i's Tíen-t'ai View. In: Peter N. Gregory (editor)(1991), Sudden and Gradual. Approaches to Enlightenment in Chinese Thought, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited
• Hua, Hsuan (1977), The Shurangama Sutra, Volume 1, Dharma Realm Buddhist Association