Buddhism in China: Hua-yen Berger Intro to Asian Religions

The Establishment of Chinese Buddhism  The legendary dream of emperor Ming (58-75) in 64 CE  Three Kingdoms period ( ) leads to Buddhist popularity in both the “foreign” north and “native” south  Confucian objection to Buddhism’s anti-family social order and other-worldly tendencies answered by Muo Tzu (4 th century)  Translation teams bring Buddhist scriptures to China, making liberal use of Daoist religious vocabulary  Imperial patronage under Tang Dynasty ( )

The Rise of Hua Yen ( 華厳 )  Translation of Avatamsaka sutra in 420  Institutionalization of school by Ta Shun ( )  Philosophical system made by Fa tsang ( )  Defeated doctrines of other schools in the imperial court of Empress Wu Tze Tian ( )  Empress Wu patronizes Hua-yen to legitimate rule  School practically obliterated in persecutions of Emperor Wu Tsung ( ).  Hua Yen school taken to Japan in 736 and established as major Buddhist institution, Kegon

Teachings of Fa-tsang’s Hua-Yen Treatise I  The six characteristics (p. 503)  “Universality” –a whole entity  “Particularity” –unique qualities of an entity  “Identity” –the union of qualities in making an entity  “Difference” –the uniqueness of each quality  “Integration” –the capacity of unique qualities to give rise, co-dependently, to entities  “Disintegration” –-preservation of the unique differences of each quality within an entity

Teachings of Fa-tsang’s Hua-Yen Treatise II  Universals in rafter-building illustration (504-05)  A rafter is the building since it creates a building  Each rafter is a total condition of building’s existence, since, were any rafter to be removed, the universal which is that building would cease to exist  The building is not an independent entity, it is only the dependently co-arisen union of its parts

Teachings of Fa-tsang’s Hua-Yen Treatise III  Particulars and the identity of part and whole (505)  Parts of a whole, as rafters of a building, are only parts depending on their contribution to construction of a whole.  Part is identical with whole, for the part creates that whole and not something else. Were there no rafters, there would be no building, and with no building, there would be no rafters

Teachings of Fa-tsang’s Hua-Yen Treatise IV  Conditions of the existence of a whole, its parts, are identical with one another, as are rafters and tiles, insofar as they function identically to create building (506)  Parts remain physically themselves and thus different from one another, as the rafter and tiles, else they could not construct the building (506)

Teachings of Fa-tsang’s Hua-Yen Treatise V  The One-Many relation as key to wisdom (507)  The unity of one in many and many in one is a realization of “wonderful integration”  Picture of dependent co-arising is positive insight into creativity and necessity of each individual to the whole universe  Insight into one-many relationship is how the world appears to an enlightened mind

Reading for Next Class  Sourcebook,