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Shakyamuni’s Lifetime Teachings
The Five Periods and Eight Teachings
Shakyamuni’s teachings spread from India to China before their doctrinal
content could be consolidated or systematized. Scriptural materials
were therefore compared and categorized in China to determine relative
merit. During the Northern and Southern Dynasties Period, which spanned
the fifth and sixth centuries, ten teachers founded Buddhist centers
along the Yangtze River; three in the south and seven in the north.
These schools came to be known as the Three Southern Schools and Seven
Northern Schools, respectively. Teachers of the ‘single sound’
persuasion established schools on the belief that all sutras are equal
in content, while others, including the teachers who divided the
Buddha’s teachings into three or four periods, established schools that
categorized the Buddha’s teachings according to doctrinal superiority.
However, when the Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai later examined
the interpretations of these schools during the Sui Dynasty, i.e.,
the latter half of the sixth century, he was dissatisfied with their
conclusions. He therefore devised classification systems known as the
Five Periods and Eight Teachings, which provided a clear overview of the
relative superiority and depth of Shakyamuni’s doctrines by categorizing
the sutras that the Buddha expounded over a fifty-year period according
to such criteria as chronology, content and teaching methodology.
The Five Periods is a division of Shakyamuni’s lifetime
teachings according to chronology. These periods are named Flower
Garland (Kegon), Agama (Agon), Expansion (Hodo),
Wisdom (Hannya), and Lotus-Nirvana (Hokke-Nehan),
respectively.
The Eight Teachings can further be divided into two
sub-groups, the four teachings of doctrine and four teachings of
method. The four teachings of doctrine categorize Shakyamuni’s
teachings on the basis of content, and are called: the Tripitaka
teaching (zokyo), the Connecting teaching (tsugyo), the
Specific teaching (bekkyo) and the Perfect teaching (engyo).
The four teachings of doctrine classify the Buddha’s teachings according
to the method by which they lead people towards Buddhahood, and are
named: the sudden teaching (tonkyo), the gradual teaching (zenkyo),
the secret teaching (himitsukyo) and the indeterminate teaching (fujokyo).
The Five Periods
The Flower
Garland
Period
After Shakyamuni attained Buddhahood at the age of thirty
under the bodhi tree near Gaya in the kingdom of Magadha, he
entered a state of meditation known as the “ocean-imprint meditation.”
While in this realm of consciousness, he expounded the Flower Garland
Sutra (Jp. Kegon; Skt. Avatamsaka) over a twenty-one day
period, addressing it to four great bodhisattvas who had come to him
from worlds in the ten directions, as well as to ordinary mortals who
possessed the capacity to understand Mahayana doctrine. The four great
bodhisattvas were named Wisdom of the Law, Grove of Blessings, Diamond
Banner and Diamond Storehouse. The Flower Garland Period is so named
after the sutra that the Buddha delivered at this time.
Shakyamuni expounded the Flower Garland Sutra, a
comparatively advanced teaching, as a test by which he could gauge the
aptitudes of his listeners. From the perspective of the Buddha’s
approach to teaching, these lectures allowed him to fathom the minds of
his listeners and formulate the best way to lead them to enlightenment.
People with inadequately cultivated minds were therefore unable to grasp
the Flower Garland Sutra’s intent, and derived no benefit from the
Flower Garland lectures as a result.
The Flower Garland Sutra falls into the category of
provisional Mahayana teachings, and with respect to depth, is more
profound than the Wisdom (Hannya) Sutras, but less so than the
Lotus Sutra. The Flower Garland Sutra is termed ‘provisional’ because
it is a precursory teaching meant to prepare Shakyamuni’s disciples for
the truth about his original attainment of enlightenment, which he would
only reveal in the Lotus Sutra during the last eight years of his life.
The Kegon sect, whose head temple is Todai-ji in Nara,
bases its religious beliefs on the tenets of the Flower Garland Sutra.
The Agama Period (The Deer Park Period)
After concluding his exposition of the Flower Garland
Sutra, Shakyamuni arose from under the bodhi tree and headed for Deer
Park in the kingdom of Varanasi, where he expounded the Law for Ajnata
Kaundinya and the other four ascetics who had originally accompanied the
prince from Kapilavastu. Thereafter, the Buddha taught extensively
throughout the sixteen kingdoms of India for the next twelve years.
During this period, Shakyamuni attempted to gently broaden the
perspectives of his uncultivated listeners by giving them instruction in
the most rudimentary aspects of his vast wisdom through the four Agama
Sutras: the Long Discourses (Jo-agon), the Middle Length
Discourses (Chu-agon), The Connected Discourses (Zo-agon)
and The Gradual Discourses (Zoichi-agon). This twelve-year
interval is therefore known either as the Agama Period, or, because
Shakyamuni began this segment of his ministry in
Deer Park,
the Deer Park Period.
Through the Agama sutras, people whose minds were geared
to Hinayana ideology were able to abandon non-Buddhist schools of
thought that espoused erroneous ideas on the relationship between cause
and effect. However, such people often became attached exclusively to
the idea of non-substantiality (ku), or became totally
self-absorbed, aspiring for their own enlightenment alone. The Agama
sutras were therefore likened to a small vehicle that could carry only
the few to the Buddha’s realm. This is the derivation of the term
Hinayana, which means, “lesser vehicle.”
Buddhist denominations in Nara founded on the tenets of
the Agama sutras include the Kusha sect, the Jojitsu sect and the Ritsu
sect, among others.
The Expansion Period
The Expansion Period is the name given to the
sixteen-year interval that followed Shakyamuni’s exposition of the Agama
sutras. (Another theory asserts that this period lasted only eight
years.) In any event, the Buddha expounded a great many sutras during
this period, including the Sutra of the Revelation of the Profound and
Secret Teaching (Gejimmitsu), the Lankavatara Sutra (Ryoga),
the Shrimala Sutra (Shoman), the Amida Sutra, the Sutra of the
Buddha of Infinite Life, the Sutra of Meditation on the Buddha of
Infinite Life, the Mahavairochana Sutra (Dainichi), the Daimond
Pinacle Sutra (Kongocho), the Sutra on the Accomplishment of
Perfection, (Soshitsuji), the Vimalakirti Sutra (Yuima),
the Sutra of Resolute Meditation (Shuryogon), and the Sutra of
Golden Light (Konkomyo).
Many of Shakyamuni’s disciples had become overly attached
to the Hinayana teachings of the Agama sutras. Through his Expansion
Period lectures, Shakyamuni provided a means of comparison which showed
them that Mahayana doctrines are superior to those of Hinayana
Buddhism. The Buddha thereby induced these disciples to challenge and
reject the theory of non-substantiality, and in the process, transfer
their allegiance from Hinayana doctrine to Mahayana. For that reason,
the teachings of the Expansion Period are considered to be a form of
reprimand.
Japanese Buddhist denominations that base their religious
tenets on Expansion Period sutras include the Pure Land sect and the New
Pure Land sect, as well as the Shingon, Hosso and Zen sects.
The Wisdom Period
The Wisdom Period followed the Expansion Period, and
differing sources contend that it spanned either fourteen or twenty-two
years. The Perfection of Wisdom sutras (Jp. Hannya haramitsu;
Skt. Prajnaparamita) are said to have been expounded at Eagle
Peak and at White Heron Lake, and include the Great Sutra on the
Perfection of Wisdom, the Smaller Sutra on the Perfection of Wisdom, the
Diamond Wisdom Sutra, and the Sutra of the Benevolent King.
Shakyamuni used the Wisdom Period to explain to his
disciples who had rejected the Hinayana teachings in favor of the
Mahayana teachings during the Expansion Period that, according to the
original Buddhist teachings, there is no distinction between Hinayana
and Mahayana, and that, in fact, all of Buddhism belongs to the Mahayana
category. In this way, the Buddha urged his disciples to discard the
idea that the Hinayana doctrines were somehow inferior, thus unifying
all of Buddhism under the banner of the Mahayana. The Wisdom teachings
were meant to eliminate any remaining impurities or excesses from the
minds of the Buddha’s disciples, and at the same time, opened the way to
their perfection of wisdom in the Law.
Even so, the teachings expounded during this period still
did not reveal the truth, but represented a provisional Mahayana
doctrine meant to prepare the Buddha’s disciples for the Lotus Sutra.
During the Former Day of the Law after Shakyamuni’s
passing, the Indian scholar Nagarjuna composed a work entitled The
Middle Treatise (Chu-ron). This thesis was a further
systemization of the principles contained in the Wisdom sutras, based on
a commentary he wrote on the Great Sutra on the Perfection of Wisdom.
This famous commentary is called the Treatise on the Great Sutra on
the Perfection of Wisdom (Daichido-ron). Based on The
Middle Treatise and other such works, the Sanron sect of Buddhism
was established in Nara.
The Heart Wisdom Sutra (Hannya shin), which is
often used today by calligraphers who copy Buddhist sutras, was also
expounded during the Wisdom Period.
The Lotus-Nirvana Period
At the age of seventy-two, Shakyamuni spent the last
eight years of his life expounding the Lotus Sutra, both at Eagle Peak
in the kingdom of Magadha and at the Ceremony in the Air. Then, just
before he entered nirvana, the Buddha expounded the Nirvana Sutra under
a grove of sal trees in a single twenty-four-hour period. These last
eight years of his life are referred to as the Lotus Nirvana (Hokke-Nehan)
Period.
The Lotus Period
In the Sutra of Infinite Meanings (Muryogi), which
serves as a prologue to the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha explains: “In these
more than forty years that I have used expedient means to expound
various teachings, I still have not revealed the truth.” (Kaiketsu,
p. 23) In other words, all of the doctrines that Shakyamuni had
expounded during the previous forty-two years were merely expedients,
i.e., provisional teachings that would not, in and of
themselves, lead his disciples to Buddhahood. This was, in fact, a
proclamation that the Lotus Sutra, which was to follow directly after
his exposition of the Sutra of Infinite Meanings, is the only teaching
through which ordinary human beings can attain Buddhahood.
Shakyamuni had employed expedient means in his teachings
until that time because his disciples had not been adequately prepared
to grasp the Buddha’s enlightenment contained in the Lotus Sutra. The
Buddha had therefore spent forty-two years making his disciples’ minds
compatible with the Lotus Sutra’s message. Toward that end, he had
sequentially given his disciples the Tripitaka teaching, the Connecting
teaching and the Specific teaching, employing the methods of the sudden
teaching, the gradual teaching, the secret teaching and the
indeterminate teaching. In this way, the Buddha was able to formulate
the best way in which to present his ideas, gently broaden his
disciples’ perspectives, reprimand them for their attachments to lesser
doctrines and eliminate any remaining impurities or excesses from their
minds.
Therefore, the Buddha’s disciples in the realms of the
Three Vehicles of Learning, Realization and Bodhisattva no longer
required expedient teachings, and for their sake, Shakyamuni expounded
the single pure and perfect teaching of the Lotus Sutra. The teachings
that the Buddha expounded during the Lotus Period provided an overview
that revealed the place and purpose of each of the teachings that he had
presented thus far and consolidated them all into a perfect and unified
whole. By providing this overview, the Lotus Sutra served as the
Buddha’s true and supreme vehicle, and as such, was the crowning
achievement of the Buddha’s ministry.
In the Lotus Sutra, Shakyamuni expounded the supreme Law
to which he had become enlightened in accordance with his own mind.
This contrasted dramatically with the way he had explained the
pre-Lotus Sutra teachings, which he had taken the care to present in a
way that was compatible with his disciples’ limited aptitudes. For that
reason, the provisional sutras do not represent the Buddha’s true mind.
Buddhist denominations based on the Lotus Sutra include
the Tendai sect, the Nichiren sect and others.
The Nirvana Period
After preaching the Lotus Sutra, his greatest teaching,
Shakyamuni knew that his life was coming to an end and imparted his
final message to his disciples in the form of the Nirvana Sutra. This
sutra was expounded specifically for people who had slipped through the
cracks during the Buddha’s lifetime ministry and had been unable to
attain Buddhahood through the Lotus Sutra, which included five thousand
arrogant people who had got up and left as Shakyamuni was about to
preach the Lotus Sutra. Therefore, if the Lotus Sutra, which can lead
all people to enlightenment, were compared to a fall harvest, the
Nirvana Sutra could be compared to the gleaning of the leftovers that
the harvesters had missed.
The Nirvana Sutra explains such ideas as the eternity of
the Buddha’s life and the fact that there are no discrepancies in the
Buddha’s various teachings. It also reaffirms that all living beings
equally possess the potential for Buddhahood. It is for this reason
that the Great Teacher T‘ien-t’ai equated the teachings of the Nirvana
Sutra with the doctrine in the Lotus Sutra that states “all living
beings will attain the Buddha Path,” and therefore grouped the two
sutras together in his formulation of the five periods.
However, because the Nirvana Sutra also reiterates some
of the ideas contained in the pre-Lotus Sutra teachings, it is
subordinate to the Lotus Sutra, which is pure, perfect and without
blemish.
There are a number of sects in China that base their
doctrine on the Nirvana Sutra, including the Nirvana sect, but no such
denominations exist in Japan.
The Nirvana Sutra also compares the fact that the
Buddha’s teachings grow sequentially more profound with the five stages
by which milk is processed into the finest clarified butter (ghee), i.e.,
milk, cream, curdled milk, butter and ghee. Based on the sequence of
Shakyamuni’s expositions in the five periods, T’ien-t’ai compares the
Flower Garland, Agama, Expansion and Wisdom periods to the flavors of
the first four stages in the processing of milk, and he compares the
Buddha’s greatest teachings in the Lotus and Nirvana sutras to the
finest flavor of ghee. The Spread of
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