Ci-yun Zun-shi’s thought of Tien-tai teaching and meditation can be examined more comprehensively through the essentials of the theory of teaching and meditation expounded by him and the wisdom contemplation embedded in the religious practice methods. Zun-shi’s model of integrating Tien-tai meditation theories and religious practices is characterized by grasping the essentials of Perfect Teaching to guide the practices of repentance ritual for the realization of Middle Way reality. In Zun-shi’s introductory works for the Lotus Sutra and the Great Concentration and Comtemplation, be integrated into one, the important ideas such as the interfusion of three truths, the three thousand dharmas in one thought, the Buddha nature of three causes, and the three merits of nirvāṇa to found the basis for wisdom contemplation; so as to contemplate the mind of one moment embracing three thousand dharmas, which at the same time is the Middle Way reality syncretizing the true meaning of the interfusion of three truths, the Buddha nature of three causes, and the three merits of nirvāṇa. As for the perspective of religious practice, the “Middle Way right view” and the “contemplation through things” are included. The “Middle Way right view” is to contemplate the ultimate truth according to the Middle Way theory of Perfect Teaching, and the emptiness meditation of signless repentance. The “contemplation through things” is to observe the various things seen in the religious house according to Buddhist doctrines in order to view the true meaning all the time. The integrated method of teaching and meditation promoted by Zun-shi is to master the essential meaning of the Perfect Teaching, and then practice repentance rituals earnestly to purify karma obstacles and develop wisdom potential, for the purpose of entering into the actualization of Middle Way truth.
