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The Avataãsaka Sâtra the Avatatsaka Setra Is Much Longer Than the Bible, and a Single Title Is Apt to Give a Misleading Impression of Unity

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The Avataãsaka Sâtra the Avatatsaka Setra Is Much Longer Than the Bible, and a Single Title Is Apt to Give a Misleading Impression of Unity 132 MahÖyÖna Buddhism Buddhism in China was spread during its first thousand years through the influence of translator-missionaries from India and Sino-Indian Central Asia such as Lokakwema (active 147–86), the great Kumarajcva, and Paramartha, as well as by Chinese such as Faxian (c. 337–c. 418), Xuanzang, and Yijing (635–713) who undertook the hazardous journey to India by land or sea in order to obtain scriptures for China. Sometimes these journeys were taken with imperial patronage, and further land grants and patronage of temple building meant that as time passed so Chinese Buddhist monasteries tended to gain in power and temporal prestige. In spite of this (or partly, perhaps, because of it) the monasteries and monks were closely supervised by the government, always suspicious of foreign customs which remained for ever strange. Chinese monks for their part, after initial protest, under- took such un-Indian practices as prostrating to the emperor. Always in the background was the rivalry and opposition of Confucians and the growing Daoist church. Major persecu- tions occurred in 446, 574, and, in particular, 842–5. During this last persecution 260,500 fully-ordained monks and nuns were forcibly returned to lay life. The Period of Disunity ended with the triumph of the Sui (581–618) and then the Tang dynasties. Once more Chinese imperial control spread into Central Asia, where it eventu- ally met the forces of Islam. At the Battle of the Talas River (751), in what is now Russian Turkestan, the Tang army was decisively defeated by the Arabs. Although scholars still debate the exact importance of the battle itself, the days of Buddhism in western Central Asia were numbered. Within China itself under the Tang we see extensive state patronage, large monasteries, and a vast Buddhist literature of translated and indigenous works. The tenets of Buddhism had been more or less disentangled from indigenous concepts associated with Daoism. Tang Buddhist doctrine shows a move from introduction to absorption and creative internalization. Among the predominantly practice-oriented Buddhist traditions which become progressively more important as time passes, particularly after the 842–5 persecution, we find Chan (Zen) on the one hand, with its stress on med- itation verging sometimes on an antinomian anti-intellectualism, and deep devotion to a Buddha, particularly Amitabha, on the other. In the great Tang philosophical synthesis of Huayan we find, in the words of Wing-tsit Chan, ‘the highest development of Chinese Buddhist thought . [which] with the philosophy of T’ien-t’ai [Tiantai], forms the metaphysical basis of Chinese Buddhism in the last millennium’ (Chan 1963: 406). The Avataãsaka Sâtra The AvataTsaka SEtra is much longer than the Bible, and a single title is apt to give a misleading impression of unity. In fact the setra as it stands is a heterogeneous work, a collection of texts some of which certainly circulated separately. Other parts were prob- ably composed at the time of compilation in order to fill obvious gaps in the composite text. Only two sections survive in their entirety in Sanskrit, both of which were without doubt originally separate texts – the DaZabhEmika SEtra on the 10 stages of the Bodhisattva’s path to enlightenment, and what is now the climax of the AvataTsaka, the GaURavyEha SEtra. The Flower Garland tradition 133 The DaZabhEmika SEtra itself was first translated into Chinese during the third century CE. A comprehensive translation of the AvataTsaka into Chinese was made by Bodhibhadra in 418–21, and a further complete translation was made by the Khotanese monk ]ikwananda during the closing years of the seventh century.9 The ]ikwananda translation is some 10 per cent longer than that by Bodhibhadra, which serves to remind us that the Mahayana setras in classical times were not fixed but underwent revision, expansion, and sometimes contraction. Consequently we should be wary of referring to a setra recension as the setra. The original texts translated as the AvataTsaka SEtra were brought to China from Khotan, in Central Asia.10 The texts refer to China and Kashgar, so it is likely that com- pilation and even authorship of at least some portions of the comprehensive work took place within the Indic cultural sphere of Central Asia, perhaps in Khotan itself. The AvataTsaka SEtra sets out to portray the cosmos as it is seen by a Buddha or very advanced Bodhisattvas. As such it is not a systematically philosophical setra, although there are sec- tions which are philosophically stimulating. Luis Gómez has referred to the teaching of its climax, the GaURavyEha SEtra, as one of ‘speculative mysticism’ (Gómez 1967: lxxviii). Whereas the Buddhist philosophical schools portray a certain rivalry between Madhyamika and Yogacara the GaURavyEha speaks both of all things lacking intrinsic existence and a pure untainted awareness or consciousness (amalacitta) as the ground of all phenomena: Endless action arises from the mind; from action (arises) the multifarious world. Having understood that the world’s true nature is mind, you display bodies of your own in harmony with the world. Having realized that this world is like a dream, and that all Buddhas are like mere reflections, that all principles [dharma] are like an echo, you move unimpeded in the world. (Gómez 1967: lxxxi) Because all things lack intrinsic existence so the Bodhisattva’s mind can, through medita- tion, ‘pervade’ or ‘enter into’ all things and he or she can move ‘unimpededly’. The GaURavyEha views the world not from the point of view of ontology but from inside the Buddha’s – or an advanced Bodhisattva’s – experience. As such, the world of the GaURavyEha is one of magic and the visionary (Beyer 1977). It is a world where things hap- pen at a distance through working on one’s own mind simply because things lack intrinsic existence and therefore (it is urged) lack concrete difference. Or, put another way (a way which may be philosophically different, but is not different for the setra), things happen at a distance according to the Bodhisattva’s will, or he can pass through walls, because there is no real distance, no mural hardness, since all is a continuum of consciousness. This is experienced through meditation. The world of the AvataTsaka SEtra, the world of the Buddha, is a world of vision, of magic, of miracle. George J. Tanabe, Jr has said of the AvataTsaka (1992: 11): [It is] known mostly for a great deal of abstruse dogmatics; but it must also be remem- bered . that it is primarily an account of fabulous visions backed by an ancient legacy 134 MahÖyÖna Buddhism of visions going back to ]akyamuni himself. The [AvataTsaka SEtra], however, is not a report of undigested visions, but a sophisticated work that blends fantastic visions with interpretive discussions about them. This complex weaving of doctrine and fantasy, a characteristic of sutras, results in a visionary statement that comes with the beginnings of its own code for interpretation. As a result of meditative absorption the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas have the power, a magical power, to manifest things or to create. The motive for their acts of magical creation is great compassion. Through visualization the mind generates an image. If all is lacking in intrinsic existence, all is held to be dream-like or akin to an illusion. Moreover if (as Buddhists have always believed) all follows the mind – as the mind is so is the world – one might infer that the images created in meditation by the Buddhas will have as much reality as anything else (Gómez 1967: lxxix; cf. lxxxv). If all lacks intrinsic existence, or all is Mind, then not only are these images, these magical interventions, as real as anything else, but also, as mind, or lacking in intrinsic existence, they reveal the true nature of things as much as anything else. Since the Buddha uses his magical interventions, his transforma- tions, solely for the benefit of sentient beings, their use will reveal the true nature of things more openly, more revealingly, than other things. In the world as seen by the Buddhas ‘fictions’ become ‘reality’ and ‘reality’ becomes ‘fiction’.11 What is the world of the Buddha? Who, for that matter, is the Buddha? The Buddha of the AvataTsaka SEtra is not primarily ]akyamuni, at least when he is understood as the so-called historical Buddha who lived and died in India. That Buddha was indeed in reality nothing more than a transformation, a magical intervention, by the actual Buddha. In general we find that the AvataTsaka SEtra’s Buddha, the actual Buddha, is Vairocana, or Mahavairocana, the Great Illumination Buddha.12 He does not teach in the setra, but approves of teachings given by his vast retinue of advanced Bodhisattvas. Vairocana is just unutterably amazing: The realm of the Buddhas is inconceivable; No sentient being can fathom it. The Buddha constantly emits great beams of light; In each light beam are innumerable Buddhas. The Buddha-body is pure and always tranquil; The radiance of its light extends throughout the world; . The Buddha’s freedom cannot be measured – It fills the cosmos and all space. The Buddha body responds to all – none do not see it. With various techniques it teaches the living, Sound like thunder, showering the rain of truth. All virtuous activities in the world Come from the Buddha’s light. (Cleary 1984–7: I, Bk 1) The Flower Garland tradition 135 His deeds, his magical interventions, are equally vast and astonishing: In all atoms of all lands Buddha enters, each and every one, Producing miracle displays for sentient beings: Such is the way of Vairocana. The techniques of the Buddhas are inconceivable, All appearing in accord with beings’ minds.
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