The Sūtra of Perfect Enlightenment 円覚経 is widely known as a very important work for Guifeng Zongmi 圭峰宗密, who wrote and ten times revised his commentaries on this text. It occupied an extremely important and central position in the Buddhist teachings of Zongmi.
The reception of the Tiantai zhiguan byZongmi is principally revealed in his Great Commentary on the Sūtra of Perfect Enlightenment 円覚経大疏 (hereafter the Great Commentary) and his Compendium on the Great Commentary on the Sūtra of Perfect Enlightenment 円覚経釈義鈔 (hereafter the Compendium). Study of the Great Commentary and the Compendium reveals that Zongmi’s practice is based on the Tiantai zhiguan 天台止観, especially founded upon the Liumiaomen 六妙門 (Six Wonderful Dharmas) of Zhiyi 智顗. It could be said that Zongmi followed Tiantai Zhiyi’s ideology of practical teaching on indeterminate meditation in the Six Wonderful Dharmas, and this teaching has become the theoretical basis of his practice.
Shindai Sekiguchi 関口真大 was the first to see the relationship between Zongmi and Tiantai zhiguan. In Part One chapter 3 of Tendai shōshikan no kenkyū 天台小止観の研究 (Different Schools’ Commentaries on the Tiantai xiao zhiguan), he observed that both the Yuanjue jing daochang xiuzheng yi 円覚経道場修証儀 (Manual of Procedures for the Cultivation of Realization of Ritual Practice According to the Sūtra of Perfect Enlightenment; hereafter the Manual) and the Compendium extracted from the Tiantai xiao zhiguan. The Manual incorporated almost the entire Tiantai xiao zhiguan, while half of the Tiantai xiao zhiguan was copied into the Compendium.
Toshio Andō 安藤俊雄 observed in his Keihō Shūmitsu no Tendaigaku 圭峯宗密の天台学 that Zongmi started to study Tiantai doctrine very early, and was particularly keen on the Tiantai xiao zhiguan and the Six Wonderful Dharmas. However, no earlier scholar identified the relationship between Zongmi and the Six Wonderful Dharmas.
By going through the Great Commentary and observing how Zongmi quoted and extracted from the Six Wonderful Dharmas, this study locates the position this work of Tiantai Zhiyi occupied, and how it influenced the thought of Zongmi.
