Mohe Zhiguan

The Móhē zhǐguān (摩訶止観, Mo-ho chih-kuan, Jap.: Makashikan, Great śamatha-vipaśyanā) is a major Buddhist meditation text based on lectures given by the Chinese Tiantai patriarch Zhiyi (538–597 CE) in 594. These lectures were compiled and edited by Zhiyi´s disciple Guanding (561-632). The voluminous Mohe Zhiguan was the first originally Chinese comprehensive Buddhist meditation text and was very influential in the development of Buddhist meditation in China.

The text consists of seven chapters in ten fascicles. The focus of the Mohe Zhiguan is the practice of samatha (止 zhǐ, calming or stabilizing meditation) and vipassana (觀 guān, clear seeing or insight). Zhiyi teaches two types of zhiguan - in sitting meditation and 'responding to objects in accordance with conditions' or practicing mindfully in daily life.Zhiyi uses quotes from all the Buddhist sutras available in China at the time, and tries to include all doctrines into his meditation system. Zhiyi divides his meditation system into three major sets, the 'Twenty-five skillful devices', the 'Four samādhis' (sizhǒng sānmèi 四種三昧) and the 'Ten modes of contemplation'. The twenty five skillful devices are preparatory practices which include keeping the five precepts, being in a quiet place, adjusting food intake and posture as well as restraining desire in the five senses and restraining the five hindrances. The four samadhis are designed for beginners who wish to practice meditation intensively. They are:

After the meditator has practiced the four samadhis, he then moves on to contemplating the 'ten objects':

The core of the exposition is taken up by the skandhas, ayatanas and dhatus, which are to be contemplated in ten "modes":

The concept of the three truths is a key element in Zhiyi's exposition of the practice of contemplation. Zhiyi's "perfectly integrated threefold truth" is an extension of Nagarjuna's Two truths doctrine. This "round and inter-inclusive" truth is made up of emptiness, conventional existence, and the middle way between the first two, a simultaneous and integral affirmation of both. Contemplating a mental moment with regard to this truth or "threefold contemplation within one moment of mental activity" (yixin sanguan) is seen as the highest form of contemplation and as the ultimate form of realization. It leads to universal salvation (du zhongsheng) because through the transformation of oneself, one can therefore transform others.

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