Huayanjing jinshizizhang: A Philosophical Translation in Thai and New Approach to Understanding Avataṃsaka (2)

Abstract

This second part of the research firstly aims to expound Huayan theory in Huayanjing jinshizizhang by translating and annotating the relevant Mahayana scriptures for all-inclusive understanding. Secondly, the aim is to illustrate diagrammatically the evolution of “pratītya-samutpāda” theorized by Fazang (法藏 643-712), the third patriarch of the Avataṃsaka School, as follows: (a) “pratītya-samutpāda” (緣起) (b) “karma pratītya-samutpāda” (業感緣起) (c) “ālaya pratītya-samutpāda” (阿賴耶緣起) (d) “tathatā” (真如) or “tathāgata-garbha pratītya-samutpāda” (如來藏緣起) and (e) “dharma-dhātu pratītya-samutpāda” (法界緣起). The development of “pratītya-samutpāda” is also relevant to the “Five Teachings” (五教) systemized successively by Fazang, namely, (a) the “Ignorant-in-dharma Doctrine of the Voice-Hearers” (愚法聲聞教) (b) the “Elementary Doctrine of the Great Vehicle” (大乘始教) (c) the “Final Doctrine of the Great Vehicle” (大乘終教) (d) the “Sudden Enlightenment Doctrine of the Great Vehicle” (大乘頓教) and (e) the “Perfect Doctrine of the One Vehicle” (一乘圓教) as the highest point of Buddhism represented by Avataṃsaka School.

In “dharma-dhātu pratītya-samutpāda” the characteristics of the lion are “unreal” (空) and “real” (幻) in the same time and space. If the “characteristics” (of the lion) are non-existent (不有), the “gold essence” is not non-existent (不無) or “always remains” (常住) as the “emptiness of form” (色空). Even so, the “unreal” has no “self-nature” (自相) for it depends on the “real” to manifest. Thus, there is no “svabhāva-śūnyatā” (體性空) as Hīnayāna claims. When the “unreal” in Avataṃsaka’s term “unobstructs” (不礙) the “real” (幻有), the “emptiness of form” paves a path to “tri-svabhāva” (三性), synthesized from Yogācāra, as follows: (a) “parikalpita-svabhāva” (遍計所執性) (b) “paratantra-svabhāva” (依他起性) (c) “pariniṣpanna-svabhāva” (圓成實性), and enhanced to the “Three Natures One Realm” (三性一際).