Hua-Yen Buddhism: The Jewel Net of Indra

by Francis Harold Cook

Hua-yen is regarded as the highest form of Buddhism by most modern Japanese and Chinese scholars. This book is a description and analysis of the Chinese form of Buddhism called Hua-yen (or Hwa-yea), Flower Ornament, based largely on one of the more systematic treatises of its third patriarch. Hua-yen Buddhism strongly resembles Whitehead's process philosophy, and has strong implications for modern philosophy and religion. Hua-yen Buddhism explores the philosophical system of Hua-yen in greater detail than does Garma C.C. Chang's The Buddhist Teaching of Totality (Penn State, 1971). An additional value is the development of the questions of ethics and history. Thus, Professor Cook presents a valuable sequel to Professor Chang's pioneering work. The Flower Ornament School was developed in China in the late 7th and early 8th centuries as an innovative interpretation of Indian Buddhist doctrines in the light of indigenous Chinese presuppositions, chiefly Taoist. Hua-yen is a cosmic ecology, which views all existence as an organic unity, so it has an obvious appeal to the modern individual, both students and layman.

Genres: Buddhism, Philosophy, Religion

164 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1977

Reviews

[Mary-Jean Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a comprehensive book about the philosophy of Hua-yen Buddhism. I really enjoyed it, and even though the philosophy can be confusing, it was explained clearly and in many different ways. The author also goes into the history of Hua-yen Buddhism and how it relates to Indian Buddhism, and also the ethical aspects of how a Bodhisattva should act in accordance with this view, as well as other people. It was very well written, and enjoyable to read. The concept of emptiness is also gone into in detail, and it makes so much more sense now in the context of Indra's net and the relationships between everything in the universe. I won't go into the details of the philosophy here, because I have a long entry on my blog going into the details: check out my author page for the link.
I would definitely recommend this book for learning about Indra's net and the view of the universe that it entails, as well as how we can live in accordance with it.

[Ellison · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you have read Jay Garfield, Jan Westerhoff or Mark Siderits you will probably find this book enjoyable. It’s from an earlier era (late seventies) and focusing on Buddhism from a slightly different angle - China, Hua-yen and Fa Tsang. New territory, but the central concepts are the same -

Nothing stays the same.
There is no still point in the turning world - no center.
Everything is dependent on everything else -
no thing is a thing-in-itself.

The Indra’s Net of the sub-title seems to me the perfect metaphor for these ideas.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the Huayen vision, and this book is a lovely introduction to it.
Francis Cook, now an advanced Zen practitioner in his right, has presented a detailed and careful study which will serve anyone reading 'The Flower Ornament Sutra' or 'Buddhist Teachings of Totality'

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zen Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism seem to be the most popular forms when it comes to selling books, so people may wonder, what is Hua-Yen? To paraphrase a line from this book, Zen is the practice, Hua-Yen is the philosophy. This book is written by an academic and published by an academic publisher, but by the final chapter I was thinking that it deserves to be up there with Robin Wall Kimmerer's Braiding Sweetgrass as far as books about interbeing, our interconnectedness and intercausality with the universe. Just listen to this, from the final paragraph:
"Someone once made the observation that one's skin is not necessarily a boundary marking off the self from the not-self but rather that which brings one into contact with the other. Like Faraday's electric charge which must be conceived as being everywhere, I am in some sense boundless, my being encompassing the farthest limits of the universe, touching and moving every atom in existence. The same is true of everything else."
Cook covers a general overview of the Hua-Yen school, its background in Indian Buddhism and how that philosophy was combined with Chinese thought, especially views on nature, to form Hua-Yen, Fa-tsang's writings, and chapters on Vairocana and how one actually lives this religion. His explanations of emptiness are very clear and demonstrate how emptiness is in truth "a state of optimum fullness, overbrimming with potential for creativity" and "ceaseless becoming." Emptiness is seen as a relationship--if entities weren't empty, if they had eternal, immutable selves, they couldn't ever change. Everything is interfused in their emptiness.
It's a fairly short book (138 pages in my edition) but packed full of meaning. I plan to buy it to re-read. It's certainly a huge help in reading the Avatamsaka Sutra. I recommend this book to anyone studying Zen and to anyone interested in the concepts of interbeing or thinkers like Thich Nhat Hanh, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Joanna Macy, or even Robert Macfarlane who write about humanity's connection with the natural world. Hua-yen goes beyond just connection to the idea that all dharmas possess an identical essence. It's a truly beautiful way of experiencing the world, and Cook seems to be convinced by it (he's a student of Maezumi Roshi, so he is writing from that view as well). He doesn't write as if he's a monk or priest, but he does write with a sense of wonder that makes this work stand out from other academic texts on Buddhism.

[Seth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A clearly and beautifully written introduction to Huayan Buddhism. There are--unfortunately-- very few English language books accessible to the general reader devoted to Huayan philosophy, and even this book is hard to obtain. Pennsylvania State University Press no longer has it in print, and I was only able to get it in a hardcover edition through Sri Satgugu Publications in Delhi, India. The 1977 publication date means that the author was writing at a time when Western converts to Buddhism were still quite rare and Buddhism would have been considered a bit of exotica by many readers. Francis Cook's writing reflects this to some extent, which lends a somewhat dated quality to the discussion, especially early on. Cook does a good job, however, of explaining Fazang's Treatise on the Avatamsaka Sutra and the notions of the unobstructed interpenetration of all dharmas, the dharmakaya as the body of Vairocana, and the Huayan conception of the Bodhisattva path. Despite some limitations, highly recommended!

[Peter Kalnin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning. I can hear Professor Cook's voice in the words on the page, clearly explaining the world vision of ancient Chinese Buddhists in a way that makes that ethos accessible to people living in the modern world.

Thank you Professor. I am humbled to be able to revisit your thoughts fifty years after our classes which a handful of university students were lucky enough to be a part of.

[Dc · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good slim read. Like all Buddhist emptiness books - quite technical, so will require repeated readings on my part in order to fully understand and absorb.

That being said, it's not overly confusing and their are some quite simple analogies which are easy to grasp.

[E O N · Rating 5 out of 5]

Supreme, lucid, introductory - keep spiraling downwards

[Lisa Stevens · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contains wonderful and complete explanations for concepts that were very difficult for my western brain to grasp.

[Serdar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book-length explanatory discussion of a key Buddhist text, one that merits a lot of close reading and re-reading from me.

[Jan van Leent · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an introduction to the world view of a Chinese form of Buddhism – named Hua-yen (Flower Ornament) – with a fascinating philosophy describing our existence as infinite realms upon realms that mutually contain one another (The Jewel Net of Indra).
Within these realms, there exist infinitely intertwined universes wherein many, many Bodhisattvas and Buddhas - in the past, now and in the future - are involved.

Francis Cook’s book is an excellent introduction in the English language to the Hua-yen school of Buddhism, that is one of the seven branches of Zen Buddhism within Chinese Buddhism.

Highly recommended.

Francis Cook’s book is also highly recommended as an introduction to and explanation of “The Flower Ornament Scripture: A Translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra”, by Thomas Cleary.

[xenia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Form is emptiness because it has no self-essence, emerging from the conditions that surround it. Yet such conditions are themselves empty as well, as they emerge from their surrounding conditions. Like Indra's jewel net, forms dangle empty, reflecting all other forms and their reflections, multiplying to infinity. This is the absolute. Not a transcendent being, but a quality of all forms resolved to emptiness. Seeing the die and its face, absolute and particular, as interdependently arising, neither existing without the other, neither comprehensible without the other.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not for a novice--well, not for an intermediate for that matter. My rating might be unfair because I couldn't make heads or tails of most of the Buddhist theory in this book--there was always a feeling that it could be very profound indeed, but I could never quite figure it out...

[Enso · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is probably the best and most straightforward English language introduction to Hua-yen thought.

[T. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This stretched my brain and opened my heart - what more could I ask for?