Greetings! This may have been addressed before - if so, I apologize. I'm fascinated by Huayen - but there is still so little in English. Is Garma Chang's Buddhist Teachings of Totality generally reliable? He was a trailblazer - but the book is older, and I know there has been new research.
Thoughts?
Thanks!
Zheng Shen
Thoughts on Chang's Buddhist Teachings of Totality
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Re: Thoughts on Chang's Buddhist Teachings of Totality
No. The reliable exposition of Hua Yen in English doesn't really begin until the 1977 publication of Francis Cook's Jewel Net of Indra. All works preceding this – and especially the effusions of D.T. Suzuki, Garma Chang and Thich Nhat Hanh – ought to be treated with caution. In Chang's case, only the translations at the end of the book merit reading.Is Garma Chang's Buddhist Teachings of Totality generally reliable?
I attach four reviews of Buddhist Teaching of Totality – those of Thaddeus Gurdak, Francis Cook, Alex Wayman and Hisao Inagaki.
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- Thaddeus Gurdak 1974.pdf
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- Francis Cook 1973.pdf
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- Alex Wayman 1972.pdf
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- Dhammanando
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Re: Thoughts on Chang's Buddhist Teachings of Totality
I was only allowed to attach three files earlier, so now I'm adding Inagaki's. I didn't want to omit it for it's the most technical of the four reviews.
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Re: Thoughts on Chang's Buddhist Teachings of Totality
Some of those reviews aren’t very good half of it is just complaining it’s not a academic work and Chang is a practitioner so… It seems Chang is coming from a much more traditional angle than them like Francis who says Huayan’s system is pantheism and not influenced by Xuanzang’s Yogacara which is just plain false. Faxing heavily employed the system of the 8 consciousness from Xuanzang and elaborated on their practices like the 10 fold contemplation of the Vijnaptimatra. And the Japanese review also has problems many old studies on Huayan do insofar as it considers things like Sunyata or Mind Only as not being crucial aspects of Huayan. More modern academic works like Wu KeWei’s Huayan Zhexue basically how it’s impossible for Huayan to stand without a basis in Madhyamaka and Yogacara.
Re: Thoughts on Chang's Buddhist Teachings of Totality
Actually, what is available in English these days is a lot compared to before. For starters I would recommend REflecting Mirrors, edited by Imre Hamar, which contains papers examining Huayan from various perspectives, and the sources cited therein will give you lots more to look for.