Huayan Buddhism

Chinese Huayan Buddhism is considered by many Buddhist scholars to be one of the high-points of Mahayana thought, or even of world philosophy. The Huayan worldview - which emphasizes interconnectedness and employs provocative holographic metaphors such as Indra's Net - is a fascinating, illuminating resource that can be very useful to contemporary Buddhist practitioners, even though very few know much about it. It was hardly predominant in ancient times either. The major Huayan commentators were active in China for a relatively brief period - from the sixth to ninth century - and their profound, dense, and challenging writings were never widely read. Furthermore, the school they established in China never achieved any lengthy institutional prominence, and Huayan barely survives formally today in Japan as the Kegon school. Nevertheless, Huayan - with its intricate dialectical philosophy - provides the philosophical underpinning for Zen and much of the rest of popular East Asian Buddhism, and of its offshoots in the West. As a result, Huayan perspectives, and the practical instructions that grow out of them, have an enduring influence and applicability to modern Buddhist practice.

In Huayan practice, tranquility meditation is used to enable a person to find emptiness as the quiescent nature of all things. This leads to detachment and inner calm in the midst of the world. Then through insight meditation one sees this emptiness functioning as the forms of the world. This functioning is experienced as an interpenetrating, fascinating, and wonderful matrix of dependent arising. This insight, in turn, leads to a rejection of world renunciation and a compassion for all living beings who fail to see this hidden harmony and are caught in afflictive mental formations. Thereby, one dwells spiritually neither in samsara nor Nirvana but courses freely as a bodhisattva in the matrix of the cosmos seeking the benefit of others. Huayan’s vision of this matrix of mutual identification and penetration, where all things are interwoven in perfect balance and harmony, was very appealing to the Chinese world, which had always appreciated both harmony and nature.

The starting point for Huayan Buddhism is the extravagant and lengthy Flower Ornament Sutra, or Avatamsaka Sutra in Sanskrit, considered the most elevated scripture by the Huayan school. (Avatamsaka is translated as Huayan in Chinese, which is read as Kegon in Japanese.) The Chinese Huayan school features intricate, didactic philosophical speculations illustrated with fascinating metaphors, inspired by this sutra. Yet the Flower Ornament Sutra itself is a very different type of literature. It consists of highly sumptuous visions that offer a systematic presentation of the stages of development and unfolding of the practice activities of bodhisattvas, enlightening beings functioning in the world to promote awakening and ease suffering. This sutra is sometimes described as the very first awareness of Shakyamuni Buddha upon his great enlightenment, too lofty for anyone else at that time to hear. Over 1600 pages in Thomas Cleary's translation, the Flower Ornament Sutra is designed to inspire luminous visions and exalted experiences of mind and reality through its use of lush psychedelic, evocative imagery.

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Because of the book's length, but also because of its unique quality as a text, most practitioners need some guidance as to how to read the Flower Ornament Sutra, which may seem impenetrable at first glance. This is not a book to read to gain intellectual comprehension. Rather, the cumulative impact of the profusion of its imagery inspires heightened states of samadhi, or concentrated, meditative awareness. This effect can best be appreciated by bathing in the imagery, as if listening to a symphony, rather than trying to decipher a textbook. Reciting it aloud, by oneself or together with a small circle of practice friends, is a traditional approach.

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The strong influence of Huayan on Chan (Zen) was initiated in the person of Zongmi (780-841), the fifth Huayan patriarch, who was also a Chan master descended from the famous Chinese Chan Sixth patriarch, Huineng. A prolific scholar, Zongmi commented extensively on aspects of the Flower Ornament Sutra and Huayan teaching, but also wrote insightfully on many Chan issues. Much of what we know about the historical realities of early ninth century Chan is from Zongmi's writings. In his teachings, Zongmi synthesized not only Chan and Huayan, but also integrated native Chinese Confucian and Daoist traditions in an understanding that strongly influenced all subsequent Chinese Buddhism.