Da Huayen Monastery
4th floor, Chung Cheng Road
Chungho Taipei 23586 Taiwan
Phone: +886 (2) 3234-5945
Fax: +886 (2) 3234-6951
南無大方廣佛華嚴經華嚴海會佛菩薩
Huayen on Indra's Net
Truth with no definition
Abide in truth as it abides in you
Whereas Śūnyatā schools conclude their practices with the realization of Śūnyatā, there are three levels of training in the Hua-yen School. Primary training starts with the moral education of the laity and monastic, and concludes when the student has become a responsible, moral and mentally stable person. Secondary training includes courses such as sutra studies in general and Huayen Buddhism, as well as practical methods in vināya (Buddhist moral codes), meditative (including ānāpānasati, samatha, vipassanā, and Dhyana methods), Pure Land, and esoteric Buddhism. Like most Mahayana schools, such secondary training concludes with the realization of Śūnyatā.
Then comes the third and final stage which is unique in the Hua-yen School. The Hua-yen School postulates a phenomenal and transcendental universe of holistic synthesis in which all phenomena, beings and things are primordially the Essence of Reality (Bhūtatathatā)1. In contrast with vitatha Unreality falsehood, baselessness or abhūta, non-existence, bhūtatathatā is the Absolute Fundamental Reality, the Ultimate, the Absolute, or the equal and same dharmakāya of all Buddhas, the omnipresent body of the eternal Adi-Buddha Vairocana, all of which is the Essence of the Universal Interconnected, All-inclusive, Inter-causal and Inter-penetrative Reality. This primordial Essence of Reality is neither Alpha nor Omega, neither Śūnyatā (Emptiness) nor Aśūnyatā (Non-emptiness), neither name nor form, neither inside nor outside, but a unity of all opposites. It is inconceivable by this standpoint or that standpoint. It is Truth with no Definition, Unity of Opposites, Coincidentia Oppositorum and Mircea Eliade’s “mythical pattern.”
1. Bhūtatathatā: (Skr.) "So-ness", the highest state conceivable by the Vijñāna-vāda (s.v.) Theory of Consciousness in which there is a complete coincidentia oppositorum of beings and elements of knowledge; directly identified with the Adi-Buddha, or eternal Buddha, in Vajrayāna Buddhism--Kurt F. Leidecker
Hence the final stage of Huayen practice is training in the essential, natural, and substantial doctrine of the bhūtatathatā. This involves a intensive and life long process of repeatedly entering and exiting bhūtatathatā samadhi. This final stage of training in Huayen Buddhism concludes when a practitioner perfects his Essence of Reality bhūtatathatā. In contrast with the other schools, the Hua-yen School is thus known as the School of Nature or School of Essence as opposed to Schools of Śūnyatā in Buddhism.
There are ten levels of primary practices before entering the 41 levels of true practices. The primary practices are the Ten Faiths. An Arhat who has eliminated all kleśas of perception and conception attains level 7 in primary Faiths. He still has his vāsanā (defilement, poison, sublimal inclinations) to eradicate. If he does not stay in incomplete nirvana but motivates the Bodhicitta mind of enlightenment to save all sentient beings, he will proceed to the next level. According to the Avatamsaka Sutra, the 41 levels of true practices are
- Ten Abodes
- Ten Practices
- Ten Dedications
- Ten Stages
- Samyak-sambodhi, omniscience, absolute enlightenment equal to that of a Buddha.
