THE FLOWER ORNAMENT SCRIPTURE, called Avatamsaka
in Sanskrit and Huayan in Chinese, is one of the major texts of Buddhism. Also
referred to as the major Scripture of Inconceivable Liberation, it is perhaps
the richest and most grandiose of all Buddhist scriptures, held in high esteem
by all schools of Buddhism that are concerned with universal liberation.
Its
incredible wealth of sensual imagery staggers the imagination and exercises an
almost mesmeric effect on the mind as it conveys a wide range of teachings
through its complex structure, its colorful symbolism, and its mnemonic
concentration formulae.
It is not known when or by whom this scripture was
composed. It is thought to have issued from different hands in the Indian
cultural sphere during the first and second centuries AD, but it is written so
as to embrace a broad spectrum of materials and resists rigid systematization.
While standard figures and images from Indian mythology are certainly in
evidence here, as in other Buddhist scriptures, it might be more appropriate to
speak of its provenance in terms of Buddhist culture rather than Indian culture
per se.
The Flower Ornament Scripture presents a compendium of Buddhist
teachings; it could variously be said with a measure of truth in each case that
these teachings are set forth in a system, in a plurality of systems, and
without a system.
The integrity of Buddhism as a whole, the specificity of
application of its particular elements, and the interpenetration of those
elements are fundamental points of orientation of the unfolding of the
scripture.
Historicity as such is certainly of little account in The Flower
Ornament Scripture. This is generally true of the Mahayana Buddhist scriptures,
although they usually present their teachings as having been revealed or
occasioned by the meditations of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni.
In the case
of The Flower Ornament Scripture, most of the discourse is done by
transhistorical, symbolic beings who represent aspects of universal
enlightenment. The Buddha shifts from an individual to a cosmic principle and
manifestations of that cosmic principle; the "Buddha" in one line
might be "the Buddhas" in the next, representing enlightenment
itself, the scope of enlightenment, or those who have realized enlighten- ment.
Certainly one of the most colorful and dramatic rehearsals of Buddhist
teachings, The Flower Ornament Scripture became one of the pillars of East Asian Buddhism.
It was a source of some of
the very first Buddhist literature to be introduced to China, where there
eventually developed a major school of philosophy based on its teachings. This
school spread to other parts of Asia, interacted with other major Buddhist
schools, and continues to the present.
The appreciation of The Flower Ornament
Scripture was not, however, by any means confined to the special Flower
Ornament school, and its influence is particularly noticeable in the literature
of the powerful Chan (Zen) schools. The work of translating from The Flower
Ornament Scripture into Chinese apparently began in the second century AD, and
continued for the better part of a thousand years.
During this time more than
thirty translations and retranslations of various books and selections from the
scripture were produced. Numerous related scriptures were also trans- lated.
Many of these texts still exist in Chinese.
Comprehensive renditions of the
scripture were finally made in the early fifth and late seventh centuries. The
original texts for both of these monumental translations were brought to China
from Khotan in Central Asia, which was located on the Silk Route and was a
major center for the early spread of Buddhism into China. Khotan, where an
Indo-Iranian language was spoken, is now a part of the Xinjiang (Sinkiang)
Uighur autonomous region in China, near Kashmir, another traditional center of
Buddhist activity.
The first comprehensive translation of The Flower Ornament
Scripture was done under the direction of an Indian monk named Bud- dhabhadra
(359-429); the second, under the direction of a Khotanese monk named
Shikshananda (652-710). The latter version, from which the present English
translation is made, was based on a more complete text imported from Khotan at
the request of the empress of China; it is somewhat more than ten percent
longer than Buddhabhadra's transla- tion. The Flower Ornament Scripture, in
Shikshananda's version, contains thirty-nine books. By way of introduction to
this long and complex text, we will focus on a comparison of The Flower
Ornament Scripture with other major scriptures; as well as a brief glance at
the main thrust of each book.
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