Contemplation: Tendai Daishi's Endonsho

After reviewing the guidelines for this practice, take the following as your contemplation:

The perfect and sudden calming and contemplation from the very beginning takes ultimate reality as its object. No matter what the object of contemplation might be, it is seen to be identical to the middle. There is nothing that is not true reality. When one fixes the mind on the dharmadhatu as object and unifies one’s mindfulness with the dharmadhatu as it is, then there is not a single sight nor smell that is not the middle way. The same goes for the realm of self, the realm of Buddha, and the realm of living beings. Since all aggregates and sense-accesses of body and mind are thusness, there is no suffering to be cast away. Since nescience and the afflictions are themselves identical with enlightenment, there is no origin of suffering to be eradicated. Since the two extreme views are the middle way and false views are the right way, there is no path to be cultivated. Since samsara is identical with nirvana, there is no cessation to be achieved. Because of the intrinsic inexistence of suffering and its origin, the mundane does not exist; because of the inexistence of the path and its cessation, the supramundane does not exist. A single, unalloyed reality is all there is – no entities whatever exists outside of it. That all entities are by nature quiescent is called “calming”; that this nature, though quiescent, is ever luminous, is called “contemplation”. Though a verbal distinction is made between earlier and later stages of practice, there is no ultimate duality, no distinction between them. This is what is called “the perfect and sudden calming and contemplation.

Donner, N. and Stevenson, D (1993) The Great Calming and Contemplation: A study and annotated translation of Chih-i’s mo-ho chih-kuan. Honolulu; A Kuroda Institute Book: 112-114.

Contemplation: The ocean of impediment

After reviewing the guidelines for practice, take the following as your object of contemplation:

The ocean of impediment of all karmas
Is produced from one's false imagination.
Should one wish to repent it
Let him sit upright and meditate on the true aspect [of reality].
All sins are just as frost and dew,
So wisdom's sun can disperse them.
Therefore with entire devotion
Let him repent of his six sense organs.

The Sutra of Meditation on the Bodhisattva Universal Virtue (translated by Kojiro Miyasaka with revisions by Pier P. Del Campana), The Threefold Lotus Sutra, pp 365-6.

Contemplation: The Great Vow of Universal Salvation

After reviewing the guidelines for practice, take the following as your object of contemplation:

This is to take a vow that one will liberate all sentient beings, down to the last one, no matter how long it may take to cause them to attain the perfect nirvana, for one will be conforming oneself to the essential nature of Reality, which is characterized by the absence of discontinuity. The essential nature of Reality is all-embracing and pervades all sentient beings; it is everywhere the same and one without duality; it does not distinguish this from that, because it is, in the final analysis, in the state of quiescence.

The Awakening of Faith (trans. Hakeda), reprint edition p.82.

Contemplation: Dwelling in the world

After reviewing the guidelines for practice, take the following as your object of contemplation:

Dwelling in the world like that of space,
There is no attachment, like the lotus flower floating in the pond.
Mind purification beyond is beyond attachment.
Solemnly pray toward the unsurpassed Worthy One, 
touching your head to the ground.

"Gobai: Later Song" as recited at Tendai Buddhist Institute

Contemplation: Not a single sight or smell

After reviewing the guidelines for practice, take the following as your contemplation:

There is nothing that is not true reality. When one fixes the mind on the dharmadhatu as object and unifies one’s mindfulness with the dharmadhatu as it is, then there is not a single sight nor smell that is not the middle way.

From Zhiyi's Endonsho

Contemplation: Rare to Meet

After reviewing the guidelines for practice, take the following as your contemplation:

Such an unsurpassed, marvelous teaching is rare to meet,
Even if we count the many lifetimes we have waited.
Now I have a chance to discern and listen to the Dharma.
I wish to understand the real intention of the Tathagata.

Kaikyoge, as recited at Tendai Buddhist Institute

Contemplation: The Pure Land

After reviewing the guidelines for this practice, take the following as your contemplation:

The Pure Land is Now or Never

--famous calligraphy of Thich Nhat Hanh

Contemplation: Threefold Refuge

After reviewing the guidelines for practice, take the following as your contemplation:

Respecting all, I take refuge in the Buddha.

Now I wish, together with all sentient beings, to master the great path and arouse the unsurpassed will.  I take refuge in the Dharma.

Now I wish, together with all sentient beings, to enter into the profound teachings, containing wisdom as deep as the ocean.  I take refuge in the Sangha.

Now I wish, together with all sentient beings, to guide the multitude, to attain the non-attachment of all.

Sanrai, as recited at Tendai Buddhist Institute

Contemplation: Nonsectarian Sectarianism

After reviewing the guidelines for practice, take the following as your contemplation:

Many people think and say that everyone is supposed to be open, but though the doors of their mouths are open, the gates of their minds are tightly closed with their rusty, iron ego's latch.  This pseudo-nonsectarian attitude actually feeds ego.  Often these people only want to use Dharma ideas for building self-aggrandizing positions rather than for enlightenment.  Yet a sign of nonsectarianism is not holding any position of this or that.  Even though these people call themselves nonsectarian, they try to support their own position by intellectualizing their misunderstanding, institutionalizing their desires and beliefs, reducing sublime qualities to ordinary, marketable art, and using Dharma as capital.

Thinley Norbu, White Sail, p. 45-46 (highly recommended reading)

Contemplation: No hindrance in the mind

After reviewing the guidelines for the practice, take the following as your contemplation.

With no hindrance in the mind, no hindrance, therefore no fear;
Far beyond deluded thoughts, this is nirvana.

from the Heart Sutra, as recited at Tendai Buddhist Institute

Contemplation: Right Here

 After reviewing the guidelines for practice, take the following as your contemplation:

Everything we want is right here in the present moment.

Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace is Every Step, p. 42

Contemplation: Immovable Wisdom

After reviewing the guidelines for practice, take the following as your contemplation:

Immovable means unmoving.

Wisdom means the wisdom of intelligence.

Although wisdom is called immovable, this does not signify any insentient thing, like wood or stone.  It moves as the mind is wont to move; forward or back, to the left, to the right, in the ten directions and to the eight points; and the mind that does not stop at all is called immovable wisdom.

The Unfettered Mind:  Writings of the Zen Master to the Sword Master, Takuan Soho, p. 20

Contemplation: The Bodhisattva Vows

After reviewing the guidelines for practice, take the following as your contemplation:

Sentient beings are numberless.  I vow to save them.
Desires are inexhaustible.  I vow to put an end to them.
The Dharmas are boundless.  I vow to master them.
The Buddha-way is unsurpassable.  I vow to attain it.

The Four Bodhisattva Vows, as recited at Tendai Buddhist Institute.

Contemplation: A Natural Instinct

After reviewing the guidelines for practice, take the following as your contemplation:

All of us have a natural instinct to desire happiness and avoid suffering.

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Dzogchen, p. 99

Contemplation: A Formless Field of Benefaction

After reviewing the guidelines for practice, take the following as your contemplation:

Vast is the robe of liberation,
A formless field of benefaction.
I wear the Tathagatha's teachings,
Saving all sentient beings.

The Verse of the Kesa, as recited at Tendai Buddhist Institute

Contemplation: An End to Hatred

After reviewing the guidelines for the practice, take the following as your contemplation:


"He abused me, he struck me, he overpowered me, he robbed me." Those who do not harbor such thoughts still their hatred.

Hatred is never appeased by hatred in this world. By non-hatred alone is hatred appeased. This is a law eternal.

Dhammapada, trans. Bikkhu Bodhi

Contemplation: Not Even the Names

After reviewing the guidelines for practice, take the following as your contemplation:

At this very moment, for the peoples and nations of the Earth,

May not even the names disease, famine, war and suffering be heard.

But rather may pure conduct, merit, wealth and prosperity increase,

And may supreme good fortune and well-being always arise!

 Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche's Aspiration Prayer

Contemplation: All this fleeting world

After reviewing the guidelines for practice, take the following as your contemplation:

Thus shall ye think of all this fleeting world:
A star at dawn, a bubble in a stream;
A flash of lightning in a summer cloud,
A flickering lamp, a phantom, and a dream.

(from the Diamond Sutra, chap. 32, trans. A.F. Price and Wong Mou-Lan)

Contemplation: A Pure, Lucid Mind

After reviewing the guidelines for practice, take the following as your contemplation:

Subhuti, all bodhisattvas, lesser and great, should develop a pure, lucid mind, not depending on sound, flavor, odor, touch, or any quality.  A bodhisattva should develop a mind that alights upon nothing whatsoever.

from the Diamond Sutra, chap. 10, trans. A.F. Price and Wong Mou-Lan

Contemplation: Tendai Daishi's Endonsho

After reviewing the guidelines for this practice, take the following as your contemplation:

The perfect and sudden calming and contemplation from the very beginning takes ultimate reality as its object. No matter what the object of contemplation might be, it is seen to be identical to the middle. There is nothing that is not true reality. When one fixes the mind on the dharmadhatu as object and unifies one’s mindfulness with the dharmadhatu as it is, then there is not a single sight nor smell that is not the middle way. The same goes for the realm of self, the realm of Buddha, and the realm of living beings. Since all aggregates and sense-accesses of body and mind are thusness, there is no suffering to be cast away. Since nescience and the afflictions are themselves identical with enlightenment, there is no origin of suffering to be eradicated. Since the two extreme views are the middle way and false views are the right way, there is no path to be cultivated. Since samsara is identical with nirvana, there is no cessation to be achieved. Because of the intrinsic inexistence of suffering and its origin, the mundane does not exist; because of the inexistence of the path and its cessation, the supramundane does not exist. A single, unalloyed reality is all there is – no entities whatever exists outside of it. That all entities are by nature quiescent is called “calming”; that this nature, though quiescent, is ever luminous, is called “contemplation”. Though a verbal distinction is made between earlier and later stages of practice, there is no ultimate duality, no distinction between them. This is what is called “the perfect and sudden calming and contemplation.

Donner, N. and Stevenson, D (1993) The Great Calming and Contemplation: A study and annotated translation of Chih-i’s mo-ho chih-kuan. Honolulu; A Kuroda Institute Book: 112-114.