"Stopping" and "seeing" are sometimes referred to as the yin and yang of Buddhist meditation—complementary twin halves of a unified whole. In essence, "stopping and seeing" refers to stopping delusion and seeing truth, processes back to basic Buddhist practice. One of the most comprehensive manuals written on these two essential points of Buddhist meditation is "The Great Stopping and Seeing," a monumental work written by sixth-century Buddhist master Chih-i. Stopping and Seeing, the first translation of this essential text, covers the principles and methods of a wide variety of Buddhist meditation techniques and provides an in-depth presentation of the dynamics of these practices.
The T'ien-t'ai patriarch Chih-i lived from 538 to 597 of the common era. He developed an interest in Buddhism early in life, and went on to become a Buddhist monk and teacher. His manual "The Great Stopping and Seeing" is one of the most important works of T'ien-t'ai Buddhism, and was frequently relied upon by followers of Zen and Pure Land Buddhism.
Thomas Cleary holds a PhD in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University and a JD from the University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law. He is the translator of over fifty volumes of Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian, and Islamic texts from Sanskrit, Chinese, Japanese, Pali, and Arabic.
"Stopping" and "seeing" are sometimes referred to as the yin and yang of Buddhist meditation—complementary twin halves of a unified whole. In essence, "stopping and seeing" refers to stopping delusion and seeing truth, processes back to basic Buddhist practice. One of the most comprehensive manuals written on these two essential points of Buddhist meditation is "The Great Stopping and Seeing," a monumental work written by sixth-century Buddhist master Chih-i. Stopping and Seeing, the first translation of this essential text, covers the principles and methods of a wide variety of Buddhist meditation techniques and provides an in-depth presentation of the dynamics of these practices.
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The T'ien-t'ai patriarch Chih-i lived from 538 to 597 of the common era. He developed an interest in Buddhism early in life, and went on to become a Buddhist monk and teacher. His manual "The Great Stopping and Seeing" is one of the most important works of T'ien-t'ai Buddhism, and was frequently relied upon by followers of Zen and Pure Land Buddhism.
Thomas Cleary holds a PhD in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University and a JD from the University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law. He is the translator of over fifty volumes of Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian, and Islamic texts from Sanskrit, Chinese, Japanese, Pali, and Arabic.
