Chi'i is the Fifth Patriarch of the Tien-tai school of Chinese Buddhism. Founder of 35 monasteries, he ordained around 1,000 monks and is one of those whose work on interpreting Buddhism for Chinese cultures underlies the great flowering of Buddhism in the Tang dynasty and the development of later Chinese and Japanese schools including Soto Zen and Nichiren. He is the author of two major works on the Lotus Sutra, and also Great Concentration and Insight, which, summarised as Dhyana for Beginners, continues in widespread use today.

This talk was given in August 2011 at the Glasgow Buddhist Centre.