Due to cultural changes in the over 2,000 years since its birth in the fifth century B.C. and its transmission around the world, Buddhism could not avoid an accumulation of relative truths added to it as later developments. These so-called developments are perhaps helpful in revealing the absolute truth of the Dharma, but they also may conceal the true nature of the dharma. So, while understanding the Dharma with a twenty-first century, globalized worldview, we should also study Buddhism’s original concerns in the footsteps of the past saints, with the classic scriptures as the foundation for the life of those seeking self-cultivation. This paper researches the explanation of one chapter of the Lotus Sutra by Tiantai Second Chinese Patriarch, Master Hui-Si, in his work, The Meaning of Steadiness,Happiness and Activity in Lotus Sutra. Through the ages, the main interpretation of the Lotus Sutra has been that the prominent feature of its thought is the chapter of “expedient means.” However, Hui-Si instead selected “the course of ease and bliss " as the representative for integral Dharma gate lotus practice devoid of distinguishing features, and used this to construct the basis for the overall blueprint of cultivation in the lives of people working towards becoming attaining Buddhahood –The Meaning of Steadiness,Happiness and Activity in Lotus Sutra. This work is formed by the profound interaction between Hui-Si’s own life experience and the Lotus Sutra classic teachings. This paper will analyze the three major elements of this interpretation – Buddha nature, concentration and forbearance. These three major elements are used as the paper’s structure, separated into chapters, by discussing in turn the thoughts and arguments revealed by Hui-Si in this work and the intention of the overall structure of the work. There are three directions of research: 1. Searching for the source of the scriptural and ideological basis of the three major elements in the thought of Hui-Si’s Meaning of Steadiness,Happiness and Activity in Lotus Sutra, and interpreting this scriptural basis as the foundation for further addressing places where individual, unique interpretation can be found. 2. Analyzing principles of the interrelationships between the three major elements in Hui-Si’s Meaning of Steadiness,Happiness and Activity in Lotus Sutra. 3. Discussing interaction between the three major principles and Hui-Si’s life experiences. With The Meaning of Steadiness,Happiness and Activity in Lotus Sutra, Hui-Si constructed the basis for a blueprint for practice. What makes it most accessible is that this classic may be called the Buddha’s teaching for the masses in the last days. Hui-Si interpreted this sutra as though Buddha was teaching the Dharma personally. To this day, The Meaning of Steadiness,Happiness and Activity in Lotus Sutra is still an accessible way to explain the Lotus Sutra to contemporary masses, giving today’s scholars matters for self-reflection.
