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六妙法門

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Text ID
KR6d0145
Date
575–597
Dynasty
隋

Liù miào fǎmén 六妙法門

The Six Wonderful Dharma-Gates by 智顗 (Zhìyǐ / Tiāntái dàshī, 說)

About the work

A short single-juan Tiāntái meditation manual by 智顗 Zhìyǐ, the third of the four Tiāntái meditation texts (per the typology in KR6d0143). The work expounds the liù miào fǎmén 六妙法門 (“six wonderful dharma-gates”) — the standard early-Buddhist sequence of ānbān shǒuyì (mindfulness of breathing) practice — as a meditative apparatus suitable for the bùdìng 不定 (“indeterminate”) approach to meditation, where the practitioner does not commit to a single fixed sequence but moves between practices according to circumstance.

Prefaces

The text in the Taishō recension carries the editorial note: Tiāntái dàshī yú dūxià Wǎguānsì lüè chū cǐ fǎmén 天台大師於都下瓦官寺略出此法門 (“The Tiāntái Great Master at the Wǎguānsì in the capital briefly produced this dharma-gate”). According to the four-text typology preserved in KR6d0143, the work was produced at the request of the Chén dynasty Shàngshūlìng 毛喜 Máo Xǐ.

Abstract

The Liù miào fǎmén is one of the most accessible of Zhìyǐ’s meditation manuals and one of the most widely studied Tiāntái meditation texts in modern Buddhist scholarship. The “six wonderful dharma-gates” — shǔ 數 (counting), suí 隨 (following), zhǐ 止 (cessation), guān 觀 (contemplation), huán 還 (returning), jìng 淨 (purity) — are presented as a systematic six-stage progression through breath-mindfulness practice, with each stage opening the way to deeper meditative attainment.

The work draws on the standard early-Buddhist Ānbān shǒuyì jīng 安般守意經 (Ānāpāna-smṛti-sūtra) tradition while integrating it with the Tiāntái doctrinal-meditative apparatus. Its compactness and clarity made it a standard introductory meditation manual through the medieval and early-modern periods.

The composition is bracketed within Zhìyǐ’s pre-Tiāntái-shān productive period at Wǎguānsì in Jiànkāng (c. 575–579), as documented in the four-text typology.

Translations and research

  • Sekiguchi Shindai 関口真大. Tendai shōshikan no kenkyū. Tokyo: Sankibō Busshorin, 1954.
  • Donner, Neal, and Stevenson, Daniel B. The Great Calming and Contemplation. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1993.
  • Luk, Charles 陸寬昱, trans. The Secrets of Chinese Meditation. London: Rider & Co., 1964. (Includes English translation of the Liù miào fǎmén.)
  • Saso, Michael. Six Wonderful Methods for Meditation. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1995. (Standalone English translation.)

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