"In his Miao-fa lien-hua-ching wen-chu (Textual Commentary on the Lotus Sutra), Tientai states:

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illarraza
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"In his Miao-fa lien-hua-ching wen-chu (Textual Commentary on the Lotus Sutra), Tientai states:

Post by illarraza »

"1. The Buddha is one's focus of devotion in the true sense. He is the savior who delivers human beings from their sufferings and fulfills their desires and is also the figurative parent and lord of humankind. Thus one should offer prayer and reverence to him with an attitude of total dedication and of obedience to his teaching. (This is regarded as the "first step" view of the Buddha).
2. When considering the essence of the Buddha objectively, the discriminating person thinks of his Law (that is, of the universal, logical truth of the universe), of justice and benevolence as the basic ideal virtues of humankind, and of selfless compassion as the means of saving all sentient beings.
3. Since the second interpretation alone is not sufficient to sustain a living faith, it must be merged with the first. Thus the third interpretation unites the abstract theory of the first with the concrete practice of the second.
4. When one has at last arrived at a state of profound faith, one has attained unity with the Buddha and is always embraced by him even if one's awareness of the Buddha is not perfect (that is to say, not in complete accord with the union of theory and practice set forth above in the third interpretation). In this fourth interpretation one has already achieved Buddhahood and sees the buddha-nature in all objects and beings one encounters and venerates all those objects and beings as buddhas. It is at this point that the Buddha-land, or paradise, becomes a reality rather than an ideal or goal."

How does Nichiren's viewpoint agree or disagree with Tientai's?
narhwal90
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Re: "In his Miao-fa lien-hua-ching wen-chu (Textual Commentary on the Lotus Sutra), Tientai states:

Post by narhwal90 »

Thread locked because of quotation but no discussion as per Nichiren forum gudelines.
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