Huayan
HUAYAN. A major tradition of Buddhist doctrine and practice that emerged in seventh-century China, Huayan (Jpn., Kegon; Kor., Hwaŏm) was soon transmitted to Korea and Japan, and has continued even into modern times to exert great influence on many aspects of religion, thought, and culture throughout East Asia. A product initially of the fruitful encounter between Mahāyāna Buddhism and elements of the native Chinese religious worldview, Huayan is especially noted for its liberating vision of the radical interrelatedness or interpenetration of all events and experiences, a unity amidst diversity wherein each and every particular phenomenon is seen both to incorporate and be absorbed by all other phenomena, without ever losing its own unique identity. It has often been characterized as a syncretism and, although more original than that description might suggest, it does in fact combine classical Mahāyāna themes like "emptiness" (śūnyatā), "representation only" (vijñaptimātratā), and the embryonic Buddhahood of all beings (tathāga-tagarbha) with such native Chinese motifs as cosmic harmony, the essential rightness of the natural world, and the intrinsic goodness of human nature.
Although not at all lacking in practical relevance to such forms of actual religious life as meditation and morality, Huayan has traditionally been regarded, along with Tiantai, as one of the more theoretical or philosophical of Buddhist traditions, and as such has commonly been contrasted to supposedly more practical traditions like Chan (Zen) or Pure Land.
This is a free page. This page contains 201 words. This
article contains 3,645 words (approx. 12 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Article with our Huayan Access Pass.
