Questions and Answers on the Object of Devotion Chapter3-2
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Answer: The view I have put forward is not my own invention, but is based on the sutra passages quoted above and the commentary of the Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai.
When T’ien-t’ai says that the object of devotion for the four forms of meditation is the Buddha Amida, he means that Amida Buddha is the object of devotion for three of the four forms of meditation, constant sitting meditation, constant active meditation, and meditation in an unspecified posture for an unspecified period, which are based on the Questions of Manjushrī Sutra, the Sutra of the Meditation to Behold the Buddhas, and the Invocation of Perceiver of the World’s Sounds Sutra. These are classified among the sutras preached prior to the Lotus Sutra, in which “the Buddha has not yet revealed the truth.”1
In the case of the fourth form of meditation, half-active and half-sitting meditation, there are two types. The first type has the seven Buddhas and eight bodhisattvas of the Correct and Equal Sutra2 as its object of devotion and is based on that sutra. The second type pays honor to the Buddhas Shakyamuni and Many Treasures of the Lotus Sutra. But if we go by what is stated in Method of Repentance, the object of devotion should be the Lotus Sutra itself.
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Notes
1. Immeasurable Meanings Sutra.
2. The Correct and Equal Sutra is an abbreviated form of the Great Correct and Equal Dhāranī Sutra. The seven Buddhas refer to the seven Buddhas of the past (see Glossary). The eight bodhisattvas are Manjushrī, Space Treasury, Perceiver of the World’s Sounds, Deliverance, Worthy Protection, Great Power, Gainer of Great Authority, and Solid Valor.