| The various sutras, including the Lotus Sutra,were
viewed to have been compiled three or four hundred years after the
passing of Buddha into Nirvana. The Five Period classifications of
sutras by Great Master Tendai, therefore, were not considered to be
based on philological examination and researches. Great Master Tendai,
a gifted man with superior scholarly talent and an eye for religion,
scrutinized the various sutras and discovered the true intentions
of the hidden words within the Lotus Sutra. He classified the various
sutras in Five Periods in order to restore Buddha's 50 years of expositions
of the Dharma. |
