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. He is the translator of over fifty volumes of Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian, and Islamic texts from Sanskrit, Chinese, Japanese, Pali, and Arabic.