The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: Tien-tai Philosophy of Buddhism (In 2 Volumes)

This book makes an initial investigation into T’ien-t’ai Chih-i’s masterpiece The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra (Hsuan-i) in an endeavor to unravel his systematic approach to elaborating Buddhism and his Buddhist philosophy in religious salvation. This book is divided into two volumes. Volume one concentrates on the uniqueness of the Hsuan-i and Chih-i’s achievements in the Hsuan-i. As the embodiment of Chin-i’s own philosophy, the coherent and integrated nature of his text fully displays his perfect and harmonizing philosophy. Closely related to the first volume is the second volume of this book. In order to make the assessment of Chih-i’s system, thoughts and achievements comprehensible in the context of the Hsuan-i, volume two launches an unprecedented exploration of this gigantic text Hsuan-i, giving a delineation of the whole work by outlining, explaining and analyzing its complicated structure, its rich content, and its sophisticated theories. The textual study of this book brings into light a new perspective of understanding the depth of Chih-i’s philosophy, and contributes to the field of study of T’ien-t’ai Buddhism.