sudden teaching [頓教] ( ton-gyō or ton-kyō): The category of teachings that Shakyamuni Buddha expounded directly from the standpoint of his enlightenment, without giving his disciples preparatory knowledge. In T’ien-t’ai’s system of classification, the sudden teaching is one of the four teachings of method and applied to the Flower Garland Sutra. Various schools adopted the term sudden teaching, and applied it in accord with their own doctrines to different sutras.