Within the Tendai tradition, meditation unfolds as a comprehensive path that weaves together calm, insight, devotion, and esoteric symbolism into a single tapestry of practice. At the heart of this training stands *shikan* (止観), the integrated discipline of calming and insight, rooted in Zhiyi’s systematic program. Here, the mind is first steadied through practices that still discursive thought, and then guided toward insight into emptiness, conventional existence, and the Middle that reconciles both. This contemplative vision is often expressed through reflections such as “three thousand realms in a single moment of thought,” which invites practitioners to sense the profound interpenetration of all phenomena. In this way, doctrinal understanding and meditative experience are not separate tracks but mutually illuminating dimensions of a single path.

Around this core, Tendai monasteries cultivate the “four kinds of samādhi,” which structure practice through different bodily postures and rhythms of life. Constantly sitting samādhi (*jōza-zanmai*) emphasizes extended seated meditation, while constantly walking samādhi (*jōgyō-zanmai*) employs continuous walking—often accompanied by the recitation of Amitābha Buddha’s name—as a vehicle of concentration and devotion. The half-walking, half-sitting samādhi alternates these modes, sometimes in conjunction with repentance practices, balancing stillness and movement. The neither-walking-nor-sitting samādhi extends contemplative awareness into a flexible range of activities, including visualization, recitation, and mindful engagement with daily tasks, suggesting that meditative presence can pervade the whole of monastic life.

Tendai’s synthetic spirit is also evident in its embrace of esoteric and devotional forms of meditation. Esoteric practices (*mikkyo*) include mantra recitation, mudrā (symbolic hand gestures), and visualizations of deities and mandalas, sometimes focusing on archetypal symbols such as the letter “A” as a representation of ultimate reality. These methods aim to align body, speech, and mind with the enlightened activity of buddhas and bodhisattvas. Alongside this, nembutsu practice—reciting “Namu Amida Butsu” or the name of Amitābha Buddha—functions both as meditation and as heartfelt devotion, and is frequently integrated with walking samādhi. In many Tendai settings, contemplation of the Lotus Sūtra and visualization of its imagery further deepen this matrix of practices, so that philosophical reflection, ritual form, and meditative absorption continually inform and support one another.