Buddhist-Meditation-Systematic-and-Practical

material for which was gathered from the Tripitakas of
the Hinayana and Mahayana, but it seems for most
people to be too learned and too large to be practical.
Because of this, the Venerable Zhi Yi wrote the more
concise Gradual Meditations (or Dhyana Paramita).
Another work of his is Uncertain (or Irregular)
Meditations. Lastly and most helpfully, Small
Meditations was written. This has been translated into
English and may be found entitled "Dhyana for
Beginners" in Dwight Goddard's A Buddhist Bible.
Describing the meditations practiced in Tian Tai, I want
first to say something about the school itself and its
founder. Unfortunately, Zhi Yi lived around 560 C.E.,
before the Samdhinirmocana Sutra was translated in 713
C.E. Thus he was unable to quote this valuable sutra,
which deals largely with the order of practice in
meditation, so the sequences that he gives in his own
works are not as perfect as might be desired.
Why then should we introduce his works and school to
the West? He has carefully gathered all the information
he had upon the subjects of samatha and samapatti and
classified it systematically; indeed, the credit must go to
him for being the first great master in China to do this.
He used all the translations available up to his time and
his work is an example of very thorough compilation. In
it, he has dealt with all aspects of the practice of
meditation: how to meditate, how to rid oneself of
obstacles, how to know demons, and so on. Above all,
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