三照

The three shinings; the sun first shining on the hill-tops, then the valleys and plains. So, according to Tiantai teaching of the Huayan sūtra, the Buddha's doctrine had three periods of such shining: (a) first, he taught the Huayan sūtra, transforming his chief disciples into bodhisattvas; (b) second, the Hīnayāna sūtras in general to śrāvakas and pratyeka-buddhas in the Lumbinī garden; (c) third, the 方等 sūtras down to the 涅槃經 for all the living. See the 六十華嚴經 35, where the order is five, i.e. bodhisattvas, pratyekabuddhas, śrāvakas, lay disciples, and all creatures.