Pofa bian (Deconstructing Dharmas Universally) is the title of a crucial chapter in Zhiyi's major work on contemplation, called Mohe zhiguan (Great Calming and Contemplation). This paper expounds the first stage of Zhiyi's complex teaching of contemplation and purifying mental awareness from falseness, called ”entering emptiness from falseness.” The essential term in this section is ”non-arising,” and Zhiyi teaches that our full understanding of its sense entails the effect of purifying our mental awareness. This paper analyzes the deconstructive function of this mode of contemplation, unfolding Zhiyi's interpretation of ”non-arising.”
