Shramana Zhiyi - The Six Dharma Gates to the Sublime

The publication of this book has been enabled by a generous donation from Upsaka Guo Ke.

A Note on the Proper Care of Dharma Materials

Traditional Buddhist cultures treat books on Dharma as sacred. Hence it is considered disrespectful to place them in a low position, to read them when lying down, or to place them where they might be damaged by food or drink.

THE SIX DHARMA GATES

TO THE SUBLIME

A Classic Meditation Manual

On Traditional Indian Buddhist Meditation

By the Great Tiantai Meditation Master & Exegete

ramaa Zhiyi (Chih-i)

(538597 CE)

Translation by Bhikshu Dharmamitra

Kalavinka Press

Seattle, Washington

www.kalavinkapress.org

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Edition: SGS-SA-0808-1.0

20012008 Bhikshu Dharmamitra. All Rights Reserved.

ISBN: Paperback ISBN: 978-1-935413-01-1 / E-book ISBN: 978-1-935413-24-0

Library of Congress Control Number: 2009920869

Publishers Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Zhiyi (Chih-i), 538597.

[Liu miao fa men. English translation.]

The Six Dharma Gates to the Sublime. A Classic Meditation Manual on Traditional Indian Buddhist Meditation.

Translated by Bhikshu Dharmamitra. 1st ed. Seattle, WA: Kalavinka Press, 2009.

p. ; cm.

ISBN: 978-1-935413-01-1

Includes: text outline; facing-page Chinese source text in both traditional and simplified scripts; notes.

1. Tiantai Buddhism Doctrines Early works to 1800. 2. Meditation Tiantai Buddhism Early works to 1800. 3. amatha (Buddhism) Early works to 1800. 4. Vipayan (Buddhism) Early works to 1800. I. Title.

2009920869

0902

Cover and interior designed and composed by Bhikshu Dharmamitra.

The accuracy and readability of of these first ten books of translations have been significantly improved with the aid of extensive corrections, preview comments, and editorial suggestions generously contributed by Bhikkhu Bodhi, Jon Babcock, Timothy J. Lenz, Upasaka Feng Ling, Upsaka Guo Ke, Upsik Min Li, and Richard Robinson. Additional valuable editorial suggestions and corrections were offered by Bhikshu Huifeng and Bruce Munson.

The initial publication and short-run printing of the initial set of ten translation volumes have been assisted by substantial donations to the Kalavinka Dharma Association by Bill and Peggy Brevoort, Freda Chen, David Fox, Upsaka Guo Ke, Chenping and Luther Liu, Sunny Lou, Jimi Neal, and Leo L. (Camellia sinensis folium). Additional donations were offered by Doug Adams, Diane Hodgman, Bhikshu Huifeng, Joel and Amy Lupro, Richard Robinson, Ching Smith, and Sally and Ian Timm.

Were it not for the ongoing material support provided by my late gurus Dharma Realm Buddhist Association and the serene translation studio provided by Seattles Bodhi Dhamma Center, creation of this translation would have been immensely more difficult.

Most importantly, it would have been impossible for me to produce this translation without the Dharma teachings provided by my late guru, the Weiyang Chan Patriarch, Dharma teacher, and exegete, the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua.

Kalavinka Press Taisho citation style adds text numbers after volume numbers and before page numbers to assist rapid CBETA digital searches.

Romanization, where used, is Pinyin with the exception of names and terms already well-recognized in Wade-Giles.

The Nature of the Text and the Rationale for Translating It

The Six Dharma Gates to the Sublime is a 1500-year-old Buddhist meditation manual devoted to explaining the practice of calming-and-insight meditation according to a classic Indian Buddhist formula known as the six gates. Although the actual content of this meditation practice formula is not confined to either Southern or Northern traditions, it is presented herein from a distinctly mahynistic standpoint assuming and encouraging bodhisattva path practice and the resolve to realize buddhahood.

Although I had long been aware of the existence of this text, I had never taken the time to study it closely and reflect upon its contents until I happened to be driving up the Oregon coast in the summer of 2001. I recall pulling over at an ocean overlook north of Newport, slowly reading it, and then deciding then and there to translate it. Consequently, I did just that, stopping at a rest stop and translating day-and-night for a few days, taking occasional brief breaks to stare out at the ocean or walk on the beach. Having finished the first draft, I then drove on back to Seattle with what I considered to be the perfect companion volume to my early-nineties translation of Master Zhiyis Essentials for Practicing Calming-and-Insight and Dhyna Meditation. Indeed, these two short calming-and-insight meditation works by Master Zhiyi are closely related in content, so much so that the original-language editions are often bound together into a single volume to facilitate simultaneous study and reference.

I recall feeling at the time that this work could serve the Western Dharma community as an important resource for better understanding what is contained within the purview of calming-and-insight (amatha-vipayan) meditation practice. It seems particularly useful to release both of these meditation translations at this time when English-language meditation instruction is still generally not so very broad in its scope, and not so very deep in its profundity. In fact, as of this writing, it seems more the norm than the exception that Western Buddhists do not necessarily even understand or believe in the fact of reincarnation, and beyond that, are often more predisposed to use meditation practice as a means to pleasurably adapt to karma-bound worldly existence than to use it as a means to transcend domination by mundane priorities. My hope in publishing these meditation manual translations is that at least some small sector of serious Western Dharma practitioners will have yet more textual bases for realizing the greater aims of Buddhist meditation which indeed do go beyond the mere allaying of the angsts of day-to-day afflictions in the present lifetime.