Six Identities of Chih-i

[Nicholas Weeks]

Buswell's Encyclopedia has:

The six identities were propounded by Zhiyi originally to maintain a balance to the claims of identity between sentient beings and buddhahood. All beings are identical to the Buddha (1) in principle; (2) in name, once they hear of this teaching and accept it intellectually; (3) in cultivation; (4) in partial attainment; (5) in approximation to final identity; and finally (6) when Buddhist practice is completed and one becomes explicitly a buddha.

The latest Vajra Bodhi Sea has Master Hua on these six, but I was looking for an English version of Zhiyi's original. I think it is somewhere in that huge Meditation manual of his.

Anyone seen such an English passage?

[Queequeg]

From Swanson's translation of the Mo-ho chih-kuan:

2. The Six Identities [10b7–11a14 (Taisho reference)]
[Next,] manifesting the positive in terms of [the levels of attainment of] the Six Identities]: are these “positive” ¡ with regard to the beginner, or are they “positive” with regard to one at a later [advanced stage of attainment]?
Answer: As [it says in] the Ta chih tu lun concerning a burning torch, “It is neither at the beginning nor separate from the beginning; neither at the end nor separate from the end.” If one is endowed with both wisdom and faith, then upon hearing that a single thought-moment is identical with the positive [aspects that are conducive to bodhicitta], faith will keep one from denigrating [what one does not understand], and wisdom will keep one from being apprehensive [about one’s inability to attain enlightenment]. [In this case,] both the beginning and later [stages] are positive. If one does not have faith, then [one despairs that] the exalted levels of the sage are not part of one’s own wisdom, and if one does not have wisdom, one becomes arrogant and thinks that one is already equal to a Buddha. [In this case,] both the beginning and the later are negative [and not conducive to attaining bodhicitta].
For these reasons one should know the Six Identities:
1. Identity in principle (of reality)
2. Verbal identity
3. Identity in contemplative practice
4. Identity in resemblance
5. Identity in partial realization
6. Ultimate identity
These six [levels of] identity begin with [the stages of] the ordinary ignorant person and end with [the stage of] the Noble One [=Buddha]. Since one begins at [the stage of] the ordinary person, one can purge doubt and fear, and since one
ends at [the stage of] the Noble One, one can purge arrogance.
1. Identity in Principle (of Reality) [10b15]
Identity in principle means that one single thought-moment is identical with the principle of the tathagata-garbha. It is identical with emptiness because of its suchness (tatha), identical with conventional existence because of its function as
a treasure-house (garbha) [in appearing in the world in various forms], and identical with the Middle because of its [participation in the] principle [of reality]. The three wisdoms are included in a single thought, though this is beyond conceptual understanding. As explained above, threefold truth is one truth, though neither three nor one; each and every color and scent is endowed with all of reality (sarvadharma). Every single thought is also like this. This is called “identity in principle” which is positive [and conducive to right] bodhicitta.
Also, this “identity in principle” is indivisible with calming-and-contemplation. [That each moment of thought is] indivisible with quiescence is called “calming,” and [that each moment of thought is] indivisible with luminosity is called “contemplation.”
2. Verbal Identity [10b20]
Even though there is already identity in principle, this may not be known in your daily life. If you have not heard of the threefold truth and are completely unaware of the Buddha Dharma, you are like cattle or sheep whose eyes do not comprehend the [eight] directions. When you hear of the one true bodhi-wisdom as explained above—whether from a teacher or from [reading] the scripture scrolls)—attain penetrating understanding within [the limits of] words, and know that all dharmas are the Buddha Dharma, this is bodhi[citta] as indivisible with words.
This is also called “verbal cessation-and-contemplation.” If you rush from place to place in search of [the truth] when you have not yet heard [these teachings], and then hear them, and the mind striving upward finally finds rest—this is called
“cessation” [at the verbal level]. To have faith in [a verbal and conceptual understanding of] Dharma-nature and not [yet] have faith in the variety [of wider implications] is called contemplation or insight [at the verbal level].
3. Identity in Contemplative Practice [10b26]
Identity in contemplative practice means that if you merely hear the verbal and oral explanation [of the Buddha Dharma], you are like an insect chewing on wood and accidentally making letters. That insect does not know whether [the marks it is making] are letters or not letters. If you do not have penetrating understanding, how can you have bodhi-wisdom? It is imperative that your mental insight is clear and full, so that there is a correspondence between the principle [of reality] and your wisdom, that your actions are in accordance with your words, and that your words are in accordance with your actions.
The Kusalamula says, “[There are those] who speak much but do not practice; I do not rely on words, but practice bodhi solely in the mind.” When mind and mouth are in correspondence with each other, this is the bodhi[citta] of contemplative practice.
Four verses of the Ta chih tu lun evaluate being endowed with wisdom through hearing [the Dharma]. This [endowment of wisdom] is comparable to when the eye gains [illumination from] the sun, things are illumined fully and without distortion. Contemplative practice is also like this. You do not stop your mental contemplation even though you have not yet fathomed the principle [of reality]. This [practice] is like the simile in the Surangama Samadhi Sutra of shooting arrows at a target. This is called the bodhi[citta] of contemplative practice.
This is also called the “cessation-and-contemplation of contemplative practice.” To constantly produce these thoughts is called “contemplation” [at the level of contemplative practice], and to suspend other thoughts is called “cessation” [at the level of contemplative practice].
4. Identity in Resemblance [10c6]
Positive bodhi[citta] [at the level] of identity in resemblance means that your contemplation becomes increasingly clear and your cessation becomes increasingly quiescent, as one learns archery and hits the target more accurately. This [improvement] is called contemplative wisdom that [increasingly] resembles [that of the Buddha]. [As it says in the Lotus Sutra, at this level of your understanding,] all the worldly occupations that sustain life are in no way contradictory [to the
practice of the Buddha Dharma], and your thoughts and conceptions are all what have already been expounded in the sutras by previous Buddhas. It is as explained [in the Lotus Sutra] concerning the purification of the six senses. [At this level] “cessation” is the perfect overcoming of ignorance, and “contemplation” resembles the meaning of the Middle Path.
5. Identity in Partial Realization [10c11]
Identity in partial realization means that by the power of the contemplation [achieved at the previous level] of resemblance, you enter the stage of the copper wheel. [At this level] first you destroy ignorance and perceive Buddha-nature, opening the storehouse of treasures and manifesting true thusness. This is called the bodhi[citta] [of the stages] of abodes. Eventually you reach [the stage of] “(almost) equivalent to awakening” as ignorance becomes minute and weak, and wisdom in turn grows prominent. This [progress] is like [the lunar cycle where] from the first day to the fourteenth day the disk of the moon [gradually] becomes round and perfect as the dark area [gradually] disappears. If you wish to attain enlightenment with the body of a Buddha, then you pass through the eight highlights for attaining the path if you are to attain the path with the body of one of the other nine destinies, you appear in various incarnations [as a bodhisattva, such as Avalokitešvara] in the “Gateway to Everywhere” chapter [of the Lotus Sutra], as explained extensively in the sutras.
This is called bodhi[citta] [at the level] of Partial Realization. It is also called “partial realization of cessation-and-contemplation,” and “partial realization of wisdom and severence [of passions].”
6. Ultimate Identity [10c17]
Bodhi[citta] [at the level of] ultimate identity means [advancing] one more step from [the level of] “[almost] equivalent to awakening” to enter subtle (sub-lime) awakening, where the light of wisdom is perfect and complete and does not need to increase any more. This is called the fruit which is bodhi-wisdom. Nothing more is severed at the time of mahaparinirvana. This is called the fruit of fruits. A person [at the stage of] “equivalent to awakening” does not pass [to this fruit]; only a Buddha is able to pass. There is no path to expound beyond [the last letter in the Siddham alphabet]. Therefore this is called “ultimate bodhi,” and is also called “ultimate cessation and contemplation.”
7. Summary [10c21]
To use a simile to illustrate all [Six Identities]:
1. a poor person has a house with a store of [buried] treasure, but does not know about it.
2. A friend points this out, and they come to know about it.
3. They clear away the weeds and dig,
4. until gradually they come near to getting [the treasure].
5. They approach and open the treasure, and
6. they exhaustively take it out and use it.
By putting together these six similes, one can understand [the Six Identities].

[Nicholas Weeks]

Wonderful Queequeg, thankful prostrations to you

Has Swanson finished his translation, is it in book form now? Or was this from some journal?

[Queequeg]

No Problem! Happy to share!

I recently read an essay by Swanson commemorating the completion of the translation - I'm not sure where - it might have been up on his Nanzan U. site. As far as I know, the competed work is not available yet. I think its being edited in preparation for publication. I got this passage from the MHCK disc that was available through Rissho Kosei Kai publishing. I don't know if its still available - but it was only parts 1-6. If you can still get it, it is wonderful. The footnotes and appendices are really, really great.

[Queequeg]

Just to add -

Zhiyi was amazing. Not only was he a great scholar and teacher, (maybe more important than anything else) you can feel his deep care and compassion shining throughout his works.

[Nicholas Weeks]

Just to add -

Zhiyi was amazing. Not only was he a great scholar and teacher, (maybe more important than anything else) you can feel his deep care and compassion shining throughout his works.

Yes indeed, he is one of my favorites. Kalavinka Press has Bhikshu Dharmamitra's two texts of his.

I just wrote Swanson via his Nanzan site and pestered him about when his book will be out.

[DGA]

Zhiyi was amazing. Not only was he a great scholar and teacher, (maybe more important than anything else) you can feel his deep care and compassion shining throughout his works.

^^^True story!^^^

The compassion and care our resident harpooneer mentions is a function of the spiritual attainment Tendai Daishi (Zhiyi) was famous for. This same attainment also made it possible for him to articulate the truth of the Dharma--to get the real essence across--in new idioms. This is creativity in the best sense of the word.

Three cheers for Swanson, an excellent scholar, for undertaking such an important translation and bringing it to fruition for all our benefit. So often it seems there are few reasons to rejoice these days. This translation should be a cause for rejoicing. Gratitude!

[Queequeg]

Will, Let me know what you hear!

Hi Jikan - I'm reading Groner's study of Saicho (Dengyo Daishi) - and he seems to have had that deep care and compassion also. He was also a great man. I have to think that this trait in no small part comes from the example of the Buddha in the Lotus Sutra. There's an essay in the collection, "Buddhist Kaleidoscope" edited by Nichiko Niwano and Gene Reeves, maybe the article is by Reeves himself, commenting that the Buddha in the Lotus Sutra is constantly making efforts and trying to awaken beings, even when he is unsuccessful, he just tries something else. "At all times I think to myself, how do I quickly cause all beings to attain the Buddha body?" Its this concern for others that lies at the heart of the Buddha's decision to begin turning the wheel at Sarnath and to ultimately teach the Lotus Sutra. Too often, we forget the compassion.

[DGA]

Hi Jikan - I'm reading Groner's study of Saicho (Dengyo Daishi) - and he seems to have had that deep care and compassion also. He was also a great man. I have to think that this trait in no small part comes from the example of the Buddha in the Lotus Sutra. There's an essay in the collection, "Buddhist Kaleidoscope" edited by Nichiko Niwano and Gene Reeves, maybe the article is by Reeves himself, commenting that the Buddha in the Lotus Sutra is constantly making efforts and trying to awaken beings, even when he is unsuccessful, he just tries something else. "At all times I think to myself, how do I quickly cause all beings to attain the Buddha body?" Its this concern for others that lies at the heart of the Buddha's decision to begin turning the wheel at Sarnath and to ultimately teach the Lotus Sutra. Too often, we forget the compassion.

It's true that it's easy to forget wisdom in emphasizing compassion, and to forget compassion when emphasizing wisdom (I've seen both these happen, and neither end well). Both are needed. To my mind, in the Lotus Sutra, we see the Buddha trying with all his might to bring beings to wisdom, motivated by compassion. In Chapter 25, we get an extended praise of the virtues of compassionate action--the recognition of which is itself a kind of wisdom. It comes from both directions. For me at least, this is the thread common to Tendai Daishi, Dengyo Daishi, Jikaku Daishi... and Garab Dorje, Padmasambhava... Thankfully, no one Buddhist tradition has a monopoly on these! Nor has only one tradition a monopoly on realization.

It takes fortitude to make it through Groner's books; his prose is rough sledding, but his scholarship is precise and well-informed. He's also a kind and gracious human being with an authentic appreciation for the teachings as teachings, and not just some archive to translate and analyze as an academic project.

[Nicholas Weeks]

Paul Swanson wrote a little about his big Chih-i book.

As to when:

Wish I could say for sure. The manuscript is currently being evaluated and checked by two readers, and I’m working on updating and polishing the appendices. Although not official, we are planning to include the book in the Nanzan Library series that we put out from University of Hawaii Press.

As to size:

I have many notes, so the translation itself (with notes) is about 1500 pages, and I have at least 500-700 pages of appendices (including translations of supplementary texts, my Chinese glossaries, and so forth). I have already made the layout, for a regular-size book (the same size as, for example, Jim Heisig’s Japanese Philosophy Sourcebook), so I suppose it will have to be broken up into maybe 3 volumes. I think Hawaii will also agree to an e-book version.

Here is the Table of Contents: http://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/en/files/201 ... 7_2014.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Osho]

There's a very generous Foreword overview of Swanson's 'three truths' via 'Look Inside' at the bottom of this page...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Foundations-Tie ... ul+Swanson" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It's all good as per.....

"Chih-i is careful to point out that in any case there are no actions that we do or phenomena we can experience out- side of our thoughts, or the workings of our “mind,” and that there is no radical separation between a mind, thoughts, and the world that is experienced - ( “The mind that contemplates also does not remain or abide from thought to thought”). The important factor is what we do to contemplate, comprehend, interpret, and utilize the experience of these phenomena."

[Queequeg]

There's a very generous Foreword overview of Swanson's 'three truths' via 'Look Inside' at the bottom of this page...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Foundations-Tie ... ul+Swanson" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It's all good as per.....

"Chih-i is careful to point out that in any case there are no actions that we do or phenomena we can experience out- side of our thoughts, or the workings of our “mind,” and that there is no radical separation between a mind, thoughts, and the world that is experienced - ( “The mind that contemplates also does not remain or abide from thought to thought”). The important factor is what we do to contemplate, comprehend, interpret, and utilize the experience of these phenomena."

Hm. Swanson's interpretation of Zhiyi's teachings are not without controversy. Yu-Kwan Ng has criticized Swanson's interpretation of Zhiyi's teachings. Without getting into the nitty-gritty detail, it boils down to this: Zhiyi proclaimed that his lineage traced to Nagarjuna. Swanson's "Tientai Philosophy" is a study attempting to reconcile Nagarjuna's Two Truths with Zhiyi's Three Truths teachings. Swanson ultimately argues that the Three Truths is really just a matter of taking Nagarjuna's two truths and distinguishing the Middle as a third truth. For Swanson, Nagarjuna is the Nagarjuna who wrote the Mulamadhyamika-karika. Ng criticizes this, saying that the Middle for Zhiyi is a radical departure from the Mulamadhyamika-karika, and that the third truth for Zhiyi is what he characterizes as, iirc "Middle Way/Buddha Nature". Brook Ziporyn quietly endorses Ng in a footnote in Evil and/or/as the Good. They seem to argue that Zhiyi's Nagarjuna is the one who wrote the Ta Chi Tu Lun, with the Mulamadhyamika-karika interpreted through that lens. Swanson's sunyata is the negative, reductive analysis. Ng and Ziporyn's sunyata is one that is bursting with Dharmas and possibility - Immeasurable Meanings as opposed to austere quiescence.

So what does this all mean - I would be careful about Swanson's characterization of Zhiyi's teachings as some sort of "Mind Only" interpretation. For me, based on my very limited personal reading of Zhiyi and other Tientai commentaries, Ng and Ziporyn's interpretation seems more in line on a with what I understand Tientai teachings to be on a conceptual level, and in any event more compelling to me. This interpretation of Zhiyi is radical suggesting a much deeper integration between Mind and its objects.

Here is a passage written by Zhiyi, translated by Ziporyn, appearing in "Evil and/or/as the Good" criticizing Mind-Only teachings (whether Zhiyi's interpretation of Vasubandhu is correct or not, I don't know; I think its more remarkable for what Zhiyi is saying about his own teachings.):

“In Vasubandhu’s theory of consciousness-only, there is the one consciousness, but it is divided into the discriminating and the undiscriminating forms of consciousness; the discriminating consciousness is what we usually call consciousness, whereas the undiscriminating consciousness is “consciousness appearing to be an object”. All the physical objects in the universe – vases, clothing, carts, and carriages – are all this undiscriminating form of consciousness… But since they are all one nature, we can equally say that there are two forms of matter, the discriminating and the undiscriminating… It is in this sense that mind and matter are non-dual. Since he [Vasubandhu] is able to say there are these two different forms of consciousness, we can equally say they are two different forms of matter… In the Integrated Teaching, we can also say that all things are matter only, or sound only, or scent only, or flavor only, or tactile sensation only, or consciousness only. In sum, every dharma inherently includes all the dharmas throughout the dharma-realm.”

Evil and/or/as the Good, p. 164

Ziporyn goes on to expand on this explaining how it fits with Zhiyi's teaching Three Thousand in a Single Thought Moment, which he styles, "Omnicentric Holism". Each and every dharma is the defining standard of the entirety of reality. To say that everything is Mind is actually the expression of a heavy handed and arbitrary bias. The deeper implication here is the complete integration of mind and matter. This integration is lost in Swanson's interpretation of Zhiyi.

[Osho]

Thanks for that heads up Queequeg.
Swanson does give some alternative readings.
Two translators = Three opinions.