HUA-YEN SCHOOL (Jap. Kegon school; Skt., Avatamsaka school), lit. “Flower Garland school”; important school of Chinese Buddhism which derived its name from the title of the Chinese translation of the Buddhāvatamsaka-sūtra. It was founded by Fa-tsang (643-712), but its earliest beginnings go back to the monks Tu-shun (557-640) and Chih-yen (602-68), who are considered the first two patriarchs of the Hua-yen school. Further important representatives were Ch’eng-kuan (737-820), under whom the school gained great influence, and who was regarded by his successors as an incarnation of Mañjushrī. The fifth patriarch of the school was Tsung-mi (780-841), who is considered the outstanding master of the school. The Hua-yen school was brought to Japan in the year 740 by Shen-hsiang (Jap., Shinshō). There it was propagated under the name Kegon.
This school teaches the equality of all things and the dependence of all things on one another. Its teaching is known as the “teaching of totality,” since according to the Hua-yen view all things participate in a unity and this unity divides itself into the many, so that the manifold is unified in this one. The fundamental teaching of Hua-yen is the notion of the “universal causality of the dharmadhātu,” i.e., that everything in the universe arises simultaneously out of itself. All dharmas possess the six characteristics: universality, specificity, similarity, distinctness, integration, and differentiation. They are in either a state of “suchness” (tathatā), the static aspect of which is emptiness (shūnyatā), or the realm of “principle” (Ii), the dynamic aspect of which is the realm of phenomena (shih). These two realms are so interwoven and dependent on each other that the entire universe arises as an interdependent conditioning.
The teachings of Hua-yen have as their point of departure the theory of causation by the universal principle, or dharmadhātu. According to this, all dharmas of the universe are dependent on one another and condition each other, and none can subsist on its own.
All dharmas are empty: both aspects of this emptiness, the static (li, absolute) and the active (shih, phenomena) interpenetrate each other unobstructedly; every phenomenon is identical to every other.
This view is illustrated by Fa-tsang in his celebrated simile of the golden lion. The lion symbolizes the phenomenal world of shih, the gold the “principle,” or Ii, which possesses no form of its own but rather can take on any form according to circumstances. Every organ of the lion participates in the whole result —that it is made of gold. In every part the whole is present and conversely. Thus all phenomena are manifestations of one principle and each phenomena encompasses all others. Gold and lion exist simultaneously and include each other mutually, which according to Fa-tsang means that each thing in the phenomenal world represents the principle, li.
This view is explained in the division of the universe into four realms and in the thesis of the sixfold nature of things. The four realms of the universe are as follows: (1) the realm of reality, of phenomena; (2) the realm of the principle, the absolute; (3) the realm in which phenomena and principle mutually interpenetrate; (4) the realm in which all phenomena exist in perfect harmony and do not obstruct each other; this is the “ideal” world.
The sixfold nature of things is explained by Fa-tsang in his simile in the following manner: (1) the characteristic of universality corresponds to the lion as a whole; (2) that of specificity he explains with the organs of the lion, which all fulfill a specific function and are distinct from the lion as a whole; (3) similarity consists in the fact that they are all parts of the lion; (4) distinctness is expressed in the distinct functions that the organs fulfill; (5) the characteristic of integration he explains through the fact that all organs together make up the lion; (6) the nature of differentiation is explained by the fact that every organ takes its own particular place.
Like the T’ien-t’ai school, the Hua-yen undertakes a division of the Buddha’s teaching into different categories. It makes a fivefold division: (1) the teaching of the Hīnayāna as it appears in the Āgamas; (2) elementary teachings of the Mahāyāna as advocated by the Fa-hsiang and San-lun schools, which see all dharmas as empty because they arise in a conditioned fashion —these schools of the Mahāyāna are considered elementary because they deny that all beings possess buddha-nature; (3) the definitive teaching of the Mahāyāna, as presented by the T’ien-t’ai school— on this level all things are considered empty, but also their seeming existence is admitted; (4) the “sudden” teaching, according to which enlightenment is attained suddenly (and not gradually) —this is the stage of Zen; (5) the “rounded out” teaching of the Mahāyān, the teaching of the Hua-yen school.
The Hua-yen school distinguishes itself from the other Mahāyāna schools in an important point. It concentrates on the relationship between phenomena and phenomena and not on that between phenomena and the absolute. All things are in complete harmony with one another, since they are all manifestations of one principle. They are like individual waves of the same sea. From this point of view everything in the world, whether animate or inanimate, is an expression of the highest principle and is thus one with buddhamind.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion: Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Zen. Shambhala Publications, Inc.
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External Links: Huayan / Buddhāvataṃsaka Sūtra