Korea Journal of Buddhist Studies ISSN:1598-0642(Print) 불교학연구

Enlightenment refers to ultimate acquisition of the reality in Sanlun School. While enlightenment is considered an ultimate state, they developed the multiple stages of teaching and let people guided by the stages in practice. This study mainly focuses on the approaches taken to reach enlightenment at Chuzhang and Zhongjia, and the each stage of Threefold Two Truths so that we can explore correlation between the gradual teachings and ultimate enlightenment. Chuzhang is the entry level stage that teaches general ideas ahead of Zhongjia. After being exposed to Chuzhang, people start having doubts. What these doubts do to people’s obsessions is mere shake which will do no more than scatter obsessions into a state where they can easily be removed. At the stage of Zhongjia, however, people are given teachings that suit the specific situations they are facing that will enable people to root out their obsessions and let them achieve ultimate enlightenment. Threefold Two Truths, one of the most renown teaching of Zhongjia, is not only the gradual teaching to a subject but also the teaching that change a number of different fundamental abilities at once. All of these gradual stages show the ultimate truth, but the multiple stages exist due to the lured subjects who failed to be enlightened. Every level ofThreefold Two Truths is the Skillful Means targeting each individual and lead him to enlightenment. It should be noted that this classification is only made in accordance with the fundamental abilities of people and among the stages is no hierarchy. All stages in Threefold Two Truths are the same in a way that lead people to ultimate enlightenment. In Sanlun School, each stage of the gradual teachings in itself is not the incomplete manifestation of enlightenment, but the embodiment of the wisdom of the enlightened, guaranteeing ultimate enlightenment.