emptiness, which is to be readable as precisely every
other possible determinacy.
It is from the “mean” that the Zhiyi deduces the
claim that all things are everywhere at once. For if to
be definitively Xand not definitively Xare merely al-
ternate ways of stating the same fact about X,the con-
trast between the absence and presence of X is
annulled, and Xis no more present here and now than
it is present there and then. It is “simply located” at
neither locus, but “virtually located” at both. It per-
vades all possible times and places to exactly the ex-
tent that it is present here at all. It can be read into
any experience, and is here and now only because it
has been so read into the here and now. X,in other
words, is eternal and omnipresent, but only as “can-
celed,” divested of the putative opacity of its simple
location.
As an exfoliation of these claims, Zhiyi develops his
theory of “the three thousand quiddities in each mo-
ment of experience,” which implies the interinclusion
of the ten realms of sentient experience: purgatories,
hungry ghosts, asuras, animals, humans, devas,
s ́ravakas, PRATYEKABUDDHAS, bodhisattvas, and bud-
dhas. Each realm is a process of causes and effects that
inherently entails all the other realms. Each of these
realms can at each moment be characterized by the ten
“suchnesses” from the Lotus Sutra.All of these may be
understood either in terms of the sentient beings ex-
periencing these realms, the environment condition-
ing these beings, or these beings considered in terms
of their components. Ten realms, each including all the
others, makes one hundred; multiplied by the ten such-
nesses, one gets one thousand, and multiplied by the
three aspects, three thousand. Zhiyi asserts that all of
these qualities, which indicate not merely all things as
considered from a single perspective, but all processes
as simultaneously understood from the perspectives of
all the cognitive misperceptions of all sentient beings,
are inherently entailed in each moment of experience
undergone by any sentient being at any time.
The three tracks and buddha-nature
The three truths are a name for the ultimate reality of
all dharmas, or the ultimate reality as all dharmas, since
to be is to be determinate as just these particular things,
in their ambiguity and conditioning relationships.
From various perspectives, the three truths can be re-
named as a number of other triads, all of which main-
tain the same relation of interpervasive identity as
difference. Zhiyi calls these parallel triads the “three
tracks,” which he characterizes as:
- the track of contemplation and awareness (cor-
responding to emptiness) - the track of conditions for actualization or prac-
tice (provisional positing) - the track of the real nature or the absolute as such
(the mean)
The triads belonging to these tracks include the three
buddha-natures:- buddha-nature as manifesting cause (the aware-
ness that allows the omnipresent buddha-nature
to be made manifest) - buddha-nature as conditioning cause (practical
and physical conditions that make this awareness
possible) - buddha-nature as proper cause (the omnipresent
absolute reality to be realized)
but also the three virtues of NIRVANA:- prajña(wisdom)
- liberation
- dharmakaya
and the three paths:1.kles ́a(delusion)- karma (activity as cause of suffering)
3.duhkha(suffering)
Since all these triads are merely alternate names for the
three truths and bear the same internally interinclu-
sive relationship derived from the relation of upayato
ultimate truth, one arrives at the identity between delu-
sion and wisdom, karma and liberation, dharmakaya
and suffering. Each of these is eternal and omnipresent,
always present in every possible quiddity. In addition,
there is the identity between each of these as actual-
ized realities and as potentials, between the virtues of
nirvana and the buddha-nature as potential, between
buddha-nature and delusion-karma-suffering, and so
on. These paradoxical identities between oppositely
valued realities come to be the distinctive mark of the
Tiantai school, culminating in its unique doctrine of
“the evil inherent in the buddha-nature,” the perfect
interpervasion of delusion and enlightenment.TIANTAISCHOOL