# Patriarchs’ Hall

Honored by all eight schools, teaching through Tiantai, practicing exclusively in Pure Land 

## Central Figure: Nāgārjuna Bodhisattva

Nāgārjuna Bodhisattva represents the “root of Mahayana” and “honored by all eight schools.” He is praised as the common patriarch of the eight schools. The eight Mahayana schools—whether Chan, Pure Land, Tiantai, Esoteric Buddhism, Yogācāra, Sanlun, Huayan, or Lotus—all take his theory as a source.
Enshrining Nāgārjuna Bodhisattva teaches us to break through sectarian views and return to the source of the Buddhadharma. Nāgārjuna standing there reminds modern practitioners not to reject one another. The Buddhadharma is one body; the eighty-four thousand Dharma gates all flow from self-nature.


## Left Figure: Master Zhiyi
Master Zhiyi represents “systematic theory” and “teaching through Tiantai.” He was the actual founder of the Tiantai school and was called the “Little Śākyamuni of the Eastern Land.” He created the system of doctrinal classification, making the most scientific summary of the Dharma taught by the Buddha over forty-nine years.
The Buddhadharma is never blind cultivation or reckless practice; it must be supported by rational theory. The symbolic teaching of Master Zhiyi is “deeply entering the sutra treasury and awakening completely.” Most wonderfully, although Master Zhiyi spent his life greatly promoting Tiantai and had profound doctrinal understanding, when he finally manifested rebirth in the Land of Ultimate Bliss, he also exclusively sought Pure Land.


## Right Figure: Master Chin Kung
Master Chin Kung represents “implementation in the present” and “practicing exclusively in Pure Land.” He used modern technology to propagate the Buddha’s education, promoted the Pure Land teaching, and upheld name-recitation of the Buddha over the long term. He was truly a master of Pure Land practice in his generation.
The master lectured on the sutras for more than sixty years. In his later years, tirelessly and without fatigue, he urged everyone to let go of complex doctrines and focus exclusively on the single phrase “Amitabha Buddha.” Modern people have thin blessings, coarse minds, and little time. In this Dharma-ending age, if one still tries to follow the long road of cutting off delusion and realizing truth across many lifetimes through the various major schools, there simply will not be enough time, and this life will certainly pass in vain.